[SOLVED] Question about Molex to SATA cables

[castedbounds]

I am aware of the old adage "Molex to SATA, lose all your data." but I don't have enough money for a good PSU at the moment, so I have no choice but to use one of these adapters.

I understand that I should buy the punchdown-type cables instead of the molded ones since the latter always ends up catching on fire and killing everything - but then there are other people on the Internet who are saying that even the punchdown-type ones will catch on fire anyways.

I can't find a definitive answer anywhere about whether or not Molex to SATA is actually safe.

I want to connect two things to my PSU:

• Seagate Momentum 2.5" 5400 RPM Hard disk drive
• LG DVD Drive

Unfortunately, my PSU lacks the amount of SATA power cables necessary to do that. I want to buy a Molex to SATA cable but am not sure if the one that I want to buy is safe or not, so here I am.

This is the adapter that I want to buy:
https://www.tokopedia.com/babananastore/kabel-splitter-1x-molex-power-4-pin-to-5x-power-sata-cable

Does this adapter look safe? Should I look for something else?

 

[Math Geek]

i would not try to plug 5 drives into a cable being powered by 1 molex. i would look for and use no more than a single 1 to 1 cable.

the problem with adapters is they DO NOT create more power. they simply change the connection type. this is where problems occur. a molex and a sata connection offer roughly the same power, so 1 to 1 adapter would be ok. but multiple drives would pull too much power from that single connection and cause all kinds of problems.

cheap psu's often have little built in protection so while a quality unit would protect itself and shut down, a cheap unit would just let's itself blow up and possibly start a fire.

so if you want to connect 2 drives, then i'd connect each one to its own molx to sata adapter if the psu can even handle that.

what model psu do you have and what are the system specs? it may not even be able to power the drives you want to add!!

 

[castedbounds]

Hi Math Geek, thank you for the response.

I was not expecting a single Molex to power 4 drives at the same time, I am only connecting 2 drives and it will stay that way.

If it's necessary, then I could buy two adapters and do it 1 to 1 as you said. That would be no problem.

My PSU is a discontinued model so I can't find any information about it online, but it's a 450 W model. It's not the most trustable brand, sure, but my PSU is not exactly a cheap Chinese knock-off either.

My system specs are as follows:

CPU: Ryzen 3 1200
GPU: ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1050 Ti OC Edition
RAM: 2 x 4 GB DDR4 2666 MHz V-GeN Tsunami
MOM: ASUS PRIME A320M-K
SSD: Apacer Panther AS340 TLC NAND (2.5")
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 (3.5")

I'm probably wrong, but surely powering a 5400 RPM laptop hard disk drive and a DVD drive doesn't take that much power?

 

[Math Geek]

yah 450 watts is no problem for those specs.

i would say that if the molex cable has multiple connections. they usually were at least 3 to a single cable. then running 2 from the same adapter would prob be ok.

but if it is one connection to one cable then i'd stick with that and do a 1 to 1 adapter.

hope that makes sense. i don't think it will kill the system as it is rather low powered. and yah a dvd drive does not use a lot of power nor the 5400 rpm hdd.

 

[castedbounds]

Hi Math Geek, thank you once again for the swift response.

In that case, I will be buying the adapter!

 

[Math Geek]

no problem. its why we're here :-D

enjoy the new hdd and dvd drive!!