How to hook up a 3rd HDD to this power supply?

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osubuckeye

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Opened up the computer to view if I have the connectors to do this (essentially power 3 drives).

This is my power supply: AL-8250SFX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

It has 5 cables coming out
1. Motherboard
2. 4-pin connected to MB also
3. It has 2 daisy-chained SATA power connectors that i'm using
4. A stand-alone 4 pin MOLEX female
5. A daisy chained set of connectors, 2 of them MOLEX female the last one is a floppy connector.

I have some 4-pin MOLEX to SATA power cables but I'm not sure if I can draw the right power from any of those 3 available 4-pin female MOLEX

The only difference in cabling I see between those free MOLEX and the SATA power connectors is that the SATA have a 5th cable (orange)

Thanks

The MB is ASRock H67M-ITX
 
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osubuckeye

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I should clarify that I only need these 3 drives to be powered on for a day or so while I clone one of these drives to the other. The permanent set-up is 2 drives only

The 3 drives show:
Small 250GB drive: 12v .155A / 5v .316A
Med 2TB drive 12v .55A / 5v .70A
Large 3TB drive (I don't have this in hand it's in the mail but it's the 3TB WD Black compared to the Med drive that is a 2TB WD Green... so probably a bit more A)
 
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Unolocogringo

Unolocogringo

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Your power supply is one of the worst made. You really should look at replacing it, before it dies and takes out the rest of your components with it.
With that said ,you can use the Molex to SATA adapters. Molex has 12v&5v lines.
Very few consumer drives need the orange 3.3v line. Most of those are SCSI enterprise drives.
 
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rohitbaran

rohitbaran

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If you plan on only coning the drives, I will suggest that you should get a Sata to USB connector. That will let you connect the third HDD as a USB drive and it will work. Make sure that the enclosure you buy (SAT to USB) has a power connector. This one can work:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182155

That said, I will say you should upgrade your PSU if you can. Get this one, if you want a cheap upgrade, but a reliable one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151086
 
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Unolocogringo

Unolocogringo

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That power supply will not fit.
His is a SFX power supply which is smaller than a regular ATX power supply.

 
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osubuckeye

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hmm... the power supply came with the small ITX case. It's an older version of the Antec 600
This is an HTPC with an ITX MB so the fact that it's small is no big deal... but should I be concerned about it being total poo?

The HTPC has been alive and kicking for 5 years now. It has 2 HDDs and a 120mm fan. i3 4gb ram. So the power demands (i'm guessing here) are not very high.

I am a total newbie when it comes to power vs demand. Do you say this is a bad PSU because it is small and seems inadequate for 3 drives or is this a quality control / manufacturer problem?
 
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Unolocogringo

Unolocogringo

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It is a very poor manufacturer.
No protections at all. So when it does die it can kill all of your other components.

You power demands a very low, the reason it has lived as long as it has.
Here is a review of a power supply made by Allied/Apex/Supercase.
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=335

Here is a tiered power supply list with it being in the bottom tier5.
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html
We try to inform people with really bad power supplies so that they are aware of the risks using them.
 
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osubuckeye

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I was able to connect the 3rd HDD with a MOLEX to SATA power converter cable.
I was able to move the files I needed from my HDD #2 to the new HDD #3 and then disconnect the old HDD #2.
I'm back to using 2HDD.

The PSU is getting approximately a 60% load
I read the review posted by Unolocogringo on the Apex PSU. Although most of the technical details are beyond my expertise, the reviewer does bring it down to earth and basically explains the PSU's inability to measure up to any standard.

In my search for an SFX-size PSU listed in tiers 1-4 I was only able to find a tier 3 for $75. Nothing cheaper.
Is there a decent SFX PSU that anyone can recommend for less?
Is m-ITX or mini-ITX PSU the same thing as SFX PSU? in terms of size?

Thanks
 
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