SATA HD-- sata power connector or regular power??

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Guest

please tell me everything that would happen if i used i regular power
connector instead of the sata power connector. thanks!!
 
You would release the "magic smoke" contained within the drive. Releasing
magic smoke is generally considered to be "not a good thing".

You can't be thinking of trying what you suggested, are you? You think they
made the connector and power requirements different because they had nothing
better to do?

You can try plugging it in on *YOUR* computer. Personally, I would not let
anyone who thinks along these lines anywhere near *MY* computers.

Bobby
 
If the plug-ins are on the SATA drive use them,the power plug for an IDE
drive will work fine on SATA so long as youre not useing an adapter.Maxtor
SATA drives have both types,either are recommended for use.
 
Standard power connectors work fine on the PC I built.

However, the signal cables are physically different between SATA at plain
ATA (or IDE), so you can not possible plug in the wrong one.

In fact, or all the connectors on a modern PC, the only pairs that look
similar, but are not the same, are SCSI-II and parallel port (i.e., non-USB
printer), and 56K modem/phone and network adapter.
 
Andrew E. said:
If the plug-ins are on the SATA drive use them,the power plug for an IDE
drive will work fine on SATA so long as youre not useing an adapter.Maxtor
SATA drives have both types,either are recommended for use.
Click to expand...

Just don't plug both power connectors into a SATA drive that has both
connector types. You could ruin the drive.

Jim M
 
keisuke said:
please tell me everything that would happen if i used i regular power
connector instead of the sata power connector.
Click to expand...

Assuming the HD has both connections available (as do the WD Raptors), it makes
no difference.
 
yesyes, i understand that i shouldn't plug both at the same time.. sorry i
didn't explain my question well. and yes, there are both slots on my maxtor
SATA..
so what would happen if i instead use the regular connector on my maxtor
SATA that has the regular power connector slot? would my drive be slower or
have any other effects because the SATA power connector might have more power
than the regular one (otherwise, why did they even make a SATA power
connector if the regular one works?), or would it be like andrew E. said,
that either would be recommended? thanks.
 
Hi,

Probably the reason there is both power connectors on your SATA drive is for
those people who has PSU with only the old type connector, not SATA.
Remember not all PSU has SATA power connectors, there are a lot of people
out there with good PSU, but don`t want to spend the money to change it to
just use SATA drives. So your drive is more compatible for users with
either types of PSU.

Jeff
 
New SATA power connector was design to support 3.3V power (no HD available
yet).
Other than that it delivers same power (amps and volts) to you HD.
Some HD brands have both power connectors (old 4 pin Molex and new SATA),
others have just new SATA.
e.g. new Maxtor 300Gb has only new SATA power connector, but their 200Gb
has both.
Slowly all new HD will have SATA connector ONLY.
Now back to your case. If your HD has both connector, you can use ether one.
It makes no DIFFERENCE.
If you have HD with only SATA power connecter and your power supply doesn't
have one then buy Molex to SATA adapter (some retail box HD include it)
Hope it cleared some confusion.
 
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