FKS said:
I got a new Zalman PSU, which has tons of SATA power connectors but has a
limited # of IDE power connectors. I need more IDE power connectors. I
searched newegg, found several IDE-to-SATA power adapters, but couldn't find
a SATA-to-IDE power adapters. Does it exist? Where can I buy?
Note that the pins on the SATA end of one of these adapters, limits
the current flow. So while you may be tempted to string half a
dozen drives off the end of one of these, that would not be a
wise idea. Neither would this be a good power source for the
Aux power on a video card.
"SATA 15-Pin Power to 4-Pin Molex Adapter from SATA to Molex" $8.99!
http://www.satagear.com/SS-PW2MA3_SATA_Adapter.html
There are three pins per rail on one of those SATA adapters. Right off
hand, I don't have a reference for what the current rating per pin
is, but being generous, it would be 1 amp per pin. That would be
12V @ 3 amps, which is just enough to spin up a single modern
disk drive. (Some Seagate drives draw 2.5 amps for the first
10 seconds.) Once spinup is complete, the current draw drops
considerably. So spinup is the reason I would not be running a
lot of drives off a single SATA adapter of the above type.
This is an example of a Y cable, that can add a Molex to a Molex
you already have. These connectors are rated at more amps,
maybe 6-8 amps or so. In which case you can string a few drives
per source Molex. Note that mixing Video card Aux and disk drives
on the same chain is not recommended, but sometimes you don't have
any choice, due to the limited number of connectors. What happens,
would really depend on how much power the video card is using.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812201006
Paul
