SATA Hard Drives Run Riot: Maxtor, Hitachi, Western Digital 250 GB

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Hooked Up: Both Connectors Available

One problem with the first generation of Serial ATA drives is the power supply. The SATA specification calls for a 3.3 V, 5 V and 12 V supply, however we know of no suitable power source or connectors on mainboards that let you supply a hard drive.

For that reason, all available Serial ATA hard drives come with both types of connector, one SATA compatible (the wide connector on the right in the photo), one with the usual 5/12 V connectors that can be used with any power supply.

Only Hitachi notes that just one of the two possible connectors should be used. We decided not to try the test on this unit.

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Patrick Schmid
Patrick Schmid
Editor-in-Chief (2005-2006)

Patrick Schmid was the editor-in-chief for Tom's Hardware from 2005 to 2006. He wrote numerous articles on a wide range of hardware topics, including storage, CPUs, and system builds.