Tom's Hardware > Forum > CPU & Components > Power Supplies, PC Cases & Case Mods > SATA power connectors - 3.3v necessary?

SATA power connectors - 3.3v necessary?

Forum CPU & Components : Power Supplies, PC Cases & Case Mods - SATA power connectors - 3.3v necessary?

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BigBambi   02-17-2006 at 02:00:25 PM

I've been looking for a new psu for a while now, and have noticed some that are marked ATX2.2 and 'SATA ready' use adaptors from molex for the SATA power.

I assume this means that they do not have the 3.3V power line - how important is this? Does it mean that some drives will not work, and is this going to happen more in the future?

Thanks very much

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Anonymous   11-24-2008 at 01:31:31 PM
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I have never seen a HDD that wouldn't work with the adaptor that indeed does not provide v3.3.

However I have seen reports online that certain SATA-connected solid state disks use v3.3. Also, it may be that HDD will use v3.3 instead of v5 when it is available and heat less, since most industrial chips will run on anything between v3.3 and v5.

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eddu   06-02-2009 at 05:33:35 PM
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It plays an important part in that for example many notebook 2.5" hdds will not work if not supplied with a 3.3v in their supply. This is probably so in order to use less power which is limited in notebooks. On desktops however the lack of 3.3v in the supply to an hdd should not be critical.

The sata standard does state that there be a 3.3v line in the supply but it is totally up to the manufacturers of the hdd to use it or not. It is thus manufacture andmaybe even model dependent.

Reply to eddu
jsc   06-03-2009 at 05:11:37 AM
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It's also why, when in the early days of SATA when drives had both SATA and molex connectors, the instructions said to use one or the other but not both.

Reply to jsc
ldyt   06-03-2009 at 11:09:53 AM
- 0 +

how about amphenol connectors?

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