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meerkt
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PSUs with tightly-spaced SATA power connectors

Sat Aug 01, 2020 7:29 am

What do you think of PSU cables with a chain of minimally-spaced SATA power connectors? About 5cm apart:

Image

It's a pain.

When the case or drive layout allows it to be used as intended it's not horrible, but can be a bit annoying. The cable is stiff, even normally power connectors sometimes need struggling to insert or remove, and it makes life more difficult. (Thankfully SATA isn't Molex.)

But worse, when your drive spacing is "wrong", or when the drive connector positions aren't aligned, the whole cable set becomes useless. Which is exactly the case here.
Worse, the FSP PSU I have at hand only has two cables with drive connectors. I had to use the mostly-non-SATA cable, and add two 10cm long Molex-SATA adapters.

BTW, another annoyance with this PSU. Instead of being grouped cleanly, the wires of the two drive-connector cables are intermixed near where they exit the PSU. Anyone encountered something similar?

Image
 
Aranarth
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Re: PSUs with tightly-spaced SATA power connectors

Mon Aug 03, 2020 6:44 am

meerkt wrote:
What do you think of PSU cables with a chain of minimally-spaced SATA power connectors? About 5cm apart:

Image

It's a pain.



BTW, another annoyance with this PSU. Instead of being grouped cleanly, the wires of the two drive-connector cables are intermixed near where they exit the PSU. Anyone encountered something similar?

Image


Yup sure is but that's the way it goes sometimes.
OEM P/S from Dell and HP can be just as problematic in their correct case when you have changed from a HDD to a SSD and the drive deeper in the drive bay than expected.

The mixing of cables is really common it meanens the cables are soldered into a bus.
I've some some modular power supplies setup the same way where it becomes a Y cable at the plug into the P/S but this is less common.
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just brew it!
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Re: PSUs with tightly-spaced SATA power connectors

Mon Aug 03, 2020 7:39 am

PSU connector types and spacing are almost never exactly what you want. I just keep a box of assorted adapters, extenders, and Y-cables around to deal with the inevitable issues.
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Aranarth
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Re: PSUs with tightly-spaced SATA power connectors

Mon Aug 03, 2020 9:28 am

just brew it! wrote:
PSU connector types and spacing are almost never exactly what you want. I just keep a box of assorted adapters, extenders, and Y-cables around to deal with the inevitable issues.


That's why really good and clean cable routing is a thing to behold in self built machines...

Me? I just hide it all behind a solid steel panel.
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