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Geek Culture / SATA Hard drives

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Agent Dink
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Posted: 19th Feb 2007 01:09 Edited at: 19th Feb 2007 01:13
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I have a quick question about SATA hard drives. I've never bought, used, or installed one of these. I just have a question about their power source. I saw a picture of the connectors on Newegg, but the power plug is different than a normal plug on a PSU. So, I was wondering, do I have to have special power cables on my PSU, or does the power come from the mother board?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowImage.asp?Image=22%2D136%2D036%2D01%2Ejpg%2C22%2D136%2D036%2D02%2Ejpg&CurImage=22%2D136%2D036%2D02%2Ejpg&Description=Western+Digital+Caviar+SE+WD1600JSRTL+160GB+7200+RPM+SATA+3%2E0Gb%2Fs+Hard+Drive+%2D+Retail

That's the pic, errr, sorry the link tags aren't working for some reason.

Thanks.

Sometimes the only way over a wall is to pile up enough bodies to climb over - Dave W.
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Nicholas Thompson
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Posted: 19th Feb 2007 01:24
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Some SATA drives come with the new SATA power connection AND the old 4pin molex you're used to.

If the one you want only has the new SATA connection - look into getting a converter. It'll just be a short cable with a female 4 pin molex on one end and a SATA connector on the other.

Most modern PSU's come with a SATA connector or two.

I think the new connector is mean to more hotswap friendly than a molex... Not sure though.

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Agent Dink
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Posted: 19th Feb 2007 01:42
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Hey thanks, Nick, shortly after posting this I slapped myself on the forehead because I remembered that my PSU had the SATA power connectors. I don't know why I didn't recognize it. Lol. It's like that whole section of knowledge was missing, but once I remembered what the connectors looked like, I remembered that they were SATA connectors. I suppose I just had a terribly nasty brain fart.

Sometimes the only way over a wall is to pile up enough bodies to climb over - Dave W.
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Phaelax
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Posted: 19th Feb 2007 05:01
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I've never seen a sata drive with a molex connector

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bitJericho
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Posted: 19th Feb 2007 05:12 Edited at: 19th Feb 2007 05:12
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I have, they're pretty common, but the new seagate sata drive I bought didn't have one.

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Nicholas Thompson
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Posted: 19th Feb 2007 09:54
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Quote: "I've never seen a sata drive with a molex connector"


I have two early SATA Western Digital 120Gb's with molex and sata connectors - its quite cramped at the back

The 4 new Maxtor 160Gb's dont have molex's though.

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Richard Davey
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Posted: 19th Feb 2007 13:08
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Yeah I bought 4 new drives recently, two of them (Spinpoints) had just SATA power connectors, the other two (Hitachi Deskstars) had SATA and molex power connectors. My PSU has dedicated SATA power leads anyway, so it's not a problem.

If you buy a new SATA2 drive, and if your motherboard can support it, be sure to enable the proper SATA2 functions on it. For my Hitachi drives I downloaded a tool from their web site which created a bootable ISO image, I booted my PC using this and it set the drives up to use the full SATA2 speeds possible. Without doing this they operate slower. I have to admit you hardly notice it in casual use, but hey I paid for a SATA2 device so I may as well use it at SATA2 speeds

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CattleRustler
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Posted: 19th Feb 2007 13:27
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I have 2 WD SATA drives and they have both the molex and SATA power connectors. They are approaching 2 years old so at the time I guess the manufacturers were concerned with compatibility with current psu units. I'd assume going forward that the molex power connector will disappear. I'm just glad those ribbon cables are a thing of the past

Michael Moore needs this film:Aaron Russo's America: Freedom To Fascism
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Phaelax
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Posted: 19th Feb 2007 23:12
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That's weird. I bought a sata before sata2 was ever released and it never had a molex, and I've never come across any in stores or on newegg.

Don't forget about cdroms, cattlerustler. Aside from maybe 2 sata cdroms available, the rest are still ribbon.

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CattleRustler
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Posted: 19th Feb 2007 23:23
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yes, I meant as far as hdd's go, for me, ribbons are a thing of the past

Michael Moore needs this film:Aaron Russo's America: Freedom To Fascism
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Phaelax
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Posted: 20th Feb 2007 04:40
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I hate ribbons too, even though I love scsi320. When they first started making those round ribbon cables I jumped on them immediately. Only reason I haven't gone completely sata yet is that I have quite a collection of ide harddrives.

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