Question SATA power cables and crowded spaces...

[Veyska]

Finally got around to going all SSDs in my desktop, but I'm not happy with the angle strain on the SATA power cables to the two SSDs in the dual-mount tray I picked up the other day - fat as the cables are (not ribbons) I couldn't find a single configuration that didn't have the cables wedged up against each other, even using the final connector for one of the two SSDs. (PSU's a Corsair Gold 850W of some flavor, bought back in 2012, if that's of any interest/relevance.) Was considering replacing my PSU at some point here anyhow, while I have no complaints about it operationally and at seven years old it's not ancient it's still not brand new and I would rather like modularity and eco mode.

Looking at the SATA power cables for EVGA G3 and Seasonic Focus Plus/Prime Ultra, the two lines I'm most seriously considering, the Seasonic cables have their power connectors at right-angles to the cable but EVGA has the cable "pinched" out the back of the connector (coming to a point, in effect). My somewhat odd question is thus - would the EVGA cables be better suited to tighter quarters without the cables crowding each other or would the (presumably) better flexibility of the all-ribbon Seasonic cables balance things out or possibly even be superior?

 

[Darkbreeze]

You can get custom cables for any of those power supplies, for just the SATA, or just the PCI/PEG, or just the 24 pin, or in a full set, in black, or colors, etc., that are in any orientation or design you want. Flat, ribbon, sleeved, individually sleeved AND flat, round, whatever, and also straight ended, angle ended left, angle ended right, etc.

Obviously, those are an additional expense but they have the added benefit of also looking pretty nice if you care about aesthetics at all plus you can be sure to get what fits your layout with the least amount of angle strain.

I have a G2 with several SSDs that are stacked, and with the stock cables I have no troubles at all with the way the SATA power cables lay out or any issues with angle strain at all.

 

[Veyska]

Aesthetics are nice but not $$ nice, I'm mostly just wondering which of the two cable styles will play nicely with its connectors being crammed close together vertically and feeling somewhat paranoid because of the old fat cables I'm currently stuck with.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Honestly, probably either of them will work fine. The flat individually sleeved or ribbon cables, with 90° terminations in the middle of the cable and straight terminations on the end, when oriented in the correct direction, work best for stacked drives.

 

[Kvlt Doom]

I have a Seasonic Focus + Platinum 550 in my new build, and the flat ribbon cables have no issues plugging into the two stacked HDDs whose connectors are maybe 1.5" to 2" apart. I haven't measured, but for reference the case is a Phanteks Eclipse P600S & the drives are in the 3.5" Hard Drive "bays" & installed under the PSU shroud.

Note that the Seasonic page will automatically select the 850 Watt version. Hit the yellow drop-down (top right-ish area) to switch it to the 550 Watt version for the cable info... Wait you have an 850 Watt PSU, my mistake. There aren't pictures of the cables alone, but the chart is an accurate representation. The SATA connection will terminate in a straight SATA end, with the remaining connections being right-angle SATA connectors. The 850 Watt version includes 2 of the 4x SATA cables & 1 of the 2x SATA cables.

Hope that helps.

 

[Veyska]

PCPartPicker estimates my build at around 400W (and looking at the details that seems to be max estimate) and running through EVGA's wattage calculator last night (was fishing to see if I could get another coupon like I remember having gotten by accident a year or so ago when I was bored on their site while trying to get a new GPU) they were recommending I think a 550W, which seems kinda' cramped. I think the 850W was a tiny price increase upsell when I got most of the (original) parts for my desktop at MicroCenter seven years ago (possibly a rebate or combo deal involved), pretty sure I was originally planning on 750W and given I'm not wanting to keep the door open for dual GPUs like I was last time around 750W still seems like a nice balance between price and power. Can't OC my CPU (not a K) and don't feel any pressing need to OC my GPU (Founders Edition so would be annoying anyhow) so other than eventually adding in a NVMe SSD when I replace my laptop and upgrade my desktop to Win10 (lazy and want to keep same OS on both machines) I don't expect any appreciable hardware changes outside of failures for probably a couple years. Still, may well end up getting 850W depending on pricing, just not fixated on a 1:1 replacement.

Not that that affects cables though. Found where my smaller measuring tape had wandered off to and popped my case open, looks like the distance between the top of the upper SSD to the bottom of the lower SSD is a hair over 2cm (or a slightly larger hair under 1", was hard to get a clear measurement and didn't feel like un-cabling everything). The gap twixt them is obviously even smaller, hence this thread. Tried taking a picture last night but even with spot lightning everything came out washed out or too dark, but got one that's at least vaguely functional now that it's daylight, including it here (link, wouldn't let me insert) for visual/scale reference. Power cable connector "order" is a bit screwy but this cable's also obnoxiously stiff and set in its ways from seven years of cabling much more forgiving HDs and a lone boot drive SSD that was on a single-disk tray mount, this was basically the only arrangement I could find that didn't have the cables fighting to spring back to shape emphatically enough I couldn't get the second power connector plugged in at all but the two cable arcs are still pressing against each other. While I wouldn't be too upset if the lower SSD gets damaged (older 250GB drive I dusted off for internal backup storage) the upper one's brand new even it is a budget QVO drive and honestly it's the principle of the thing, bad form and all that...

(Quick edit addition - I also tried mounting the top SSD upside down, but the screw holes were just barely out of alignment with the slots on the tray. Also debated/debating just flipping the drive anyhow in the interim, the tray's side braces have a decent gripping force on their own and it would probably be decently stable even without screws. I'd maybe just leave it at that long-term but whenever I do get a new PSU and thus need to re-cable basically everything I'm probably pulling out at least the upper half of the drive cage in my system which reduces me to I think 2 traditional HD trays. I do have a 2.5" drive cage, at least I'm pretty certain I do, but not sure I can remove both 3.5" drive cages so I might as well use them to space things out more.)

 

[Veyska]

So Newegg popped up with a rebate/sale combo on the 750/850W versions of Corsair's HX line-up and I decided for that price and platinum I'd deal with a possibly slightly more annoying cable set-up (far as I could tell from poking around online it had the same right-angle SATA power cable style as Seasonic). Turns out it had both right-angle adapters and the more Y-angle sort, two ribbon-style cables each.

While the right-angle cable would have worked well enough, the Y-angle one was much better suited to the cramped quarters of a dual-mount SSD tray. Figured it was worth updating this thread now that I managed to answer my own question thanks to the cable selection provided by Corsair in case anyone stumbles onto this thread in the future with the same sort of question I had. (EVGA's chunkier cables might make it a bit trickier, even with their Y-adapters but probably still less torque-y than right-angle ribbons.)