Why my Antec HCG 520W has two different types of SATA cables?

[herohk0425]

https://imgur.com/a/9d6tF8f

https://youtu.be/BTpE0SRsCc4 I have 4 out of 6 cables like this which is normal and can plug into ssd/hdd/cd-rom

https://youtu.be/lPCoVwZ1tYQ However, another are like this, they are shorter and cannot plug into ssd/hdd/cd-rom

https://youtu.be/X6ikedovWj0 Showcase of two different types cables. Even if I try harder to plug the short psu sata cable into a ssd, the system and bios cannot detect it. It means these two sata cables do not supply the power at all...

The antec hcg 520w is said to have 6 sata cables for ssd/hdd/cd-rom. Yet when I want to upgrade, I found this issue. Does anyone know about this? thank you very much

 

[Aeacus]

SATA power connectors are keyed and you can plug them in only one way. So, give it another go for the "shorter" SATA connector and make sure that you line up the notch position between device and power cable connector.

There are only very few connectors that doesn't care which way you plug them in, e.g USB Type-C.

 

[herohk0425]

SATA power connectors are keyed and you can plug them in only one way. So, give it another go for the "shorter" SATA connector and make sure that you line up the notch position between device and power cable connector.

There are only very few connectors that doesn't care which way you plug them in, e.g USB Type-C.

I have tried it. When I try harder to plug the short psu sata cable into a ssd, the system and bios cannot detect it. It means these two sata cables do not supply the power at all. Did you watch the video and images?

 

[Aeacus]

Yes, i looked them all. Though, you failed to show the connector at it's front side, with visible connector hole. For example, when i was looking your 1st image, at first glance i looked that you have molex connector on the left and SATA on the right.

Make a side-by-side pic of both connectors with connector hole facing the camera, e.g like so,
link: https://i.imgur.com/4Eamvs4.jpg
(above image is one of my CableMod leftover 4-way SATA power cables used in my Skylake build)

 

[herohk0425]

Yes, i looked them all. Though, you failed to show the connector at it's front side, with visible connector hole. For example, when i was looking your 1st image, at first glance i looked that you have molex connector on the left and SATA on the right.

Make a side-by-side pic of both connectors with connector hole facing the camera, e.g like so,
link: https://i.imgur.com/4Eamvs4.jpg
(above image is one of my CableMod leftover 4-way SATA power cables used in my Skylake build)

https://imgur.com/a/WxDi4h3 Here it is. Can you see the difference between long one and short one?

 

[Aeacus]

Both are standard SATA power connectors, where the shorter one is pass-though connector while the longer one is at the end of the cable. Also, if you compare your power cable to my pic, you can see that what you have is standard SATA power connectors, both of them.

Though, how come the connector hole in the longer one is bent outwards?

In any event, if there's no power in the pass-through SATA connector (which can happen, especially due to the age of your PSU), you can always buy molex to SATA adapter and get your needed SATA power connectors from there,
amazon, link 01: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YJMB5Y
amazon, link 02: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IBA3YTY

 

[herohk0425]

Both are standard SATA power connectors, where the shorter one is pass-though connector while the longer one is at the end of the cable. Also, if you compare your power cable to my pic, you can see that what you have is standard SATA power connectors, both of them.

Though, how come the connector hole in the longer one is bent outwards?

In any event, if there's no power in the pass-through SATA connector (which can happen, especially due to the age of your PSU), you can always buy molex to SATA adapter and get your needed SATA power connectors from there,
amazon, link 01: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YJMB5Y
amazon, link 02: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IBA3YTY

What do you mean by the short one is pass through connector? Does that mean I have to get something to connect the short psu sata cable AND the hdd/ssd?

If my psu is actually like what you said, then it is really weird. Because when I plug the sata cable and PSU sata cable into the ssd/cd-rom for test, the bios cannot recognize them at all. Also, after I try very hard to plug in the sata PSU cable into the ssd, It will pop out gradually by itself. So, I think it did not plug-in at all....

 

[herohk0425]

https://imgur.com/a/PNsFxOD

I always afraid of these X to Y connectors. There are news about these connectors caused the burn of the computer. And this is my pc set-up. I think it is already very power-consuming? Though I added a bit extra parts into the calculation.

 

[Aeacus]

Plugging SATA connector in doesn't require any force, unless you plug it in other way around. Like i said, SATA connectors are keyed and you need to make sure that you align the notch on the drive with the notch on the connector.

Pass-through connector means that it provides power and also passes power though for the next connector in the cable. For example, my 4-way SATA power cable; first 3x connectors it has are pass-though while the last one isn't (since cable doesn't continue onward). It doesn't matter to which SATA connector i would connect my SSD since all SATA connectors have power. Unless there's wire connection issue within power cable itself.

 

[herohk0425]

Plugging SATA connector in doesn't require any force, unless you plug it in other way around. Like i said, SATA connectors are keyed and you need to make sure that you align the notch on the drive with the notch on the connector.

Pass-through connector means that it provides power and also passes power though for the next connector in the cable. For example, my 4-way SATA power cable; first 3x connectors it has are pass-though while the last one isn't (since cable doesn't continue onward). It doesn't matter to which SATA connector i would connect my SSD since all SATA connectors have power. Unless there's wire connection issue within power cable itself.

Yes I have tried both sides of the psu sata cable if you re-watch my videos. There are two sides. Only one side seems can be plug-in. Yet, like I said, it will pop out gradually and bios cannot recognize it at all. I am going to try again and film the exact situation for show case.

 

[herohk0425]

Plugging SATA connector in doesn't require any force, unless you plug it in other way around. Like i said, SATA connectors are keyed and you need to make sure that you align the notch on the drive with the notch on the connector.

Pass-through connector means that it provides power and also passes power though for the next connector in the cable. For example, my 4-way SATA power cable; first 3x connectors it has are pass-though while the last one isn't (since cable doesn't continue onward). It doesn't matter to which SATA connector i would connect my SSD since all SATA connectors have power. Unless there's wire connection issue within power cable itself.

https://youtu.be/4lVujiFEftI

The situation is like the video's showcase. Even if I try to hold the cable in order to not let it pop away, bios still cannot detect it.

 

[Aeacus]

To be honest, your situation with SATA power cables is the 1st one of that kind that i've seen in past 20+ years i've dealt with PC hardware. And here, i can't say why some of your SATA connectors doesn't fit nor carry any power through. Could be that you have defective SATA power connectors. And of course, BIOS won't recognize the drive since when it's unpowered, there's nothing to recognize.

While Antec High Current Gamer 520 is good build quality PSU, it's using group-regulated design and Antec HCG 520 itself is at least 8 years old (launched in 2010). Since you're running GTX 1070, i'd go with new, DC-DC design, PSU completely, rather than molex to SATA adapters i linked above. Also, with new PSU, you can get better efficiency and fully-modular cables, which ease the cable management considerably.

That being said, i suggest that you go with Seasonic unit in 500W range, e.g Focus+ 550 80+ Gold/Platinum or PRIME Ultra 550 80+ Gold/Platinum,
pcpp: https://pcpartpicker.com/products/compare/bkp323,sYyxFT,9nmxFT,XndxFT/

You'll get 10 years of OEM warranty with Focus+ series PSUs and 12 years of OEM warranty with PRIME series PSUs.
All my 3 PCs: Skylake, Haswell and AMD are also powered by Seasonic. Full specs with pics in my sig.


As far as Outervision power calculator goes, it doesn't give you exact results. Instead, it exaggerates the total wattage amount quite a bit.
For example, here is my Skylake build results in Outervision,
link: https://outervision.com/b/QIjtwc

According to that, max load on my PSU should be 479W. Since i also have a wattmeter, i set all my fans at 100% and ran Unigine Superposition to max out my PC usage. Max power consumption for my PC, without monitor, was 202W. While when i'm web browsing, my PC and monitor combined use 109W (according to my UPS).

 

[herohk0425]

To be honest, your situation with SATA power cables is the 1st one of that kind that i've seen in past 20+ years i've dealt with PC hardware. And here, i can't say why some of your SATA connectors doesn't fit nor carry any power through. Could be that you have defective SATA power connectors. And of course, BIOS won't recognize the drive since when it's unpowered, there's nothing to recognize.

While Antec High Current Gamer 520 is good build quality PSU, it's using group-regulated design and Antec HCG 520 itself is at least 8 years old (launched in 2010). Since you're running GTX 1070, i'd go with new, DC-DC design, PSU completely, rather than molex to SATA adapters i linked above. Also, with new PSU, you can get better efficiency and fully-modular cables, which ease the cable management considerably.

That being said, i suggest that you go with Seasonic unit in 500W range, e.g Focus+ 550 80+ Gold/Platinum or PRIME Ultra 550 80+ Gold/Platinum,
pcpp: https://pcpartpicker.com/products/compare/bkp323,sYyxFT,9nmxFT,XndxFT/

You'll get 10 years of OEM warranty with Focus+ series PSUs and 12 years of OEM warranty with PRIME series PSUs.
All my 3 PCs: Skylake, Haswell and AMD are also powered by Seasonic. Full specs with pics in my sig.


As far as Outervision power calculator goes, it doesn't give you exact results. Instead, it exaggerates the total wattage amount quite a bit.
For example, here is my Skylake build results in Outervision,
link: https://outervision.com/b/QIjtwc

According to that, max load on my PSU should be 479W. Since i also have a wattmeter, i set all my fans at 100% and ran Unigine Superposition to max out my PC usage. Max power consumption for my PC, without monitor, was 202W. While when i'm web browsing, my PC and monitor combined use 109W (according to my UPS).

Thank you for your help. Guess there is not solution but to admit maybe it's defective or so. And the psu is really old like you said. So I can't do anything about the warranty either. I will consider your suggestion at next time that I build a new pc/upgrade. The problem is not urgent. It's just really annoying since I have asked many people included a pc shop owner. Neither of them can answer me. You are the only one that tries to help me

 

[herohk0425]

Also, could I ask you something about ssd? Since you have many experience dealing with hardware. My new ssd bx300 240g which was purchased a week ago seems to have Windows 7 freeze problem. I was using a crucial m4 64gb many years, 16gb ram. This newly installed windows 7 will freeze and does not have any response sometimes when I load into windows, open start menu and using browser. The c drive only has windows 7 x64 ultimate installed, nothing else. I never seen this situation with my old crucial m4 64g. And this is my second time reinstalling windows 7 in this bx300 already. Yet, the crystal info shows the stats are normal. Do you have any idea about this? I am considering reinstall windows again..

 

[Aeacus]

You're welcome.

As far as OS issues go, those fall into PC software category and not PC hardware category. Since i'm a hardware expert and not a software expert, i don't do that well with software issues. Though, is your Win 7 legit with genuine license key or is your OS pirated?

From hardware standpoint, do note that your Crucial BX300 240GB SSD is value oriented SSD from Crucial. Meaning that it's low-end SSD and most likely worst offered by Crucial. Here, i'd return BX300 240GB and buy MX500 250GB SSD instead. Crucial MX500 series SSDs are enthusiast oriented SSDs and they also have the best price to performance ratio there is,
BX300 240GB vs MX500 250GB comparison: http://ssd.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Crucial-BX300-240GB-vs-Crucial-MX500-250GB/3946vs3951
pcpp: https://pcpartpicker.com/products/compare/XQtWGX,4mkj4D/

With MX500 250GB SSD, you'll get extra 10GB of space, 17% better performance over BX300 while the SSD itself costs $17 less. That's a pretty good deal in my opinion. Oh, i too have Crucial MX500 SSD in use with my Skylake build but my SSD is 1TB in size.