sata ps for ide drives

kkrouse

Distinguished
Jun 17, 2005
7
0
18,510
I am looking at an Antec sp500 for my Dell dimension 4500(it was a repo from irresponsible son # 2) This Dell is actually a standard atx form board. It seems to me that Dell ps are way overpriced particularly when they are not proprietal rewired versions. The sp500 has the fan on the right side and the power plug is located correctly as well. All I will have to do is cut a litle hole for the on/of switch. What I am confused about is the 4 Sata connections this PS has. I need to connect a video card, two optical drives and four IDE hard drives with the older style 4 pin plugins. It has a spare molex connector according to the specs but I am not sure what that is. Will this ps work for me?
 

poly4life

Distinguished
Feb 4, 2004
158
0
18,680
Well the good news is this PSU is modular; so, you can purchase after market molex connectors. I can't say for certain, but perhaps the specs refer to an extra modular molex cable. From what I've read, so far, this psu is a champ. What kind of video card is it?
 

kkrouse

Distinguished
Jun 17, 2005
7
0
18,510
The card is a gforce fx 5900 oc The specs definetly say it has a an extra molex connector. How much is a connector and harness likely to set me back? I don't want to see my not buying "Dell Ready" savings cut into too much. I like the looks of this ps because of specs and its shape. It is heavy too, and from what I have read, someone did a study that exactly correlated the single variable of weight as the biggest single factor for life expectancy of a ps. I am going to start shopping for a harness. If anyone knows a good venue for that send me a link.
 

Crashman

Polypheme
Former Staff
Forget the four SATA power connectors and look at how many standard 4-pin connectors it has.

Also, you can use power splitters for everything except the video card.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>