Power to SATA

[wenzu1989]

Hi All ,
I have an internal 3.5 inch usb hub foy my desktop. It is connected to a 4 pin Cable , now if i buy a convertor from 4pin to sata , and connect it to the motherboard, will the usb work ??

[XA04]

Welcome to the forums. This is the wrong forum to ask this question btw

Quote from wikipedia though:

Adaptors exist which can convert a 4-pin Molex connector to a SATA power connector. However, because the 4-pin Molex connectors do not provide 3.3 V power, these adapters provide only 5 V and 12 V power and leave the 3.3 V lines unconnected. This precludes the use of such adapters with drives that require 3.3 V power.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_...dard_Connector

I'm guessing as it provides a different voltage it wouldn't be worth the risk. I've never tried though so you might be best waiting for a reply off somebody else.

Alternatively sell that card and get a PCI one? You can get them very cheap nowadays. Probably not much more than the cost of the power adaptor you were thinking of getting!
Edit: 5 port card from hong kong, £2 - bargain! : http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/High-Speed-5-P...3A1|240%3A1318

[bsodmike]

You can either power a SATA drive via 4pin Molex or via a SATA power connector; but this depends on your SATA drive ~ some have legacy support and some of the newer ones do not have the Molex connector on them, which I believe is cause some folks must be plugging in both power sources into them...

Just get a Y-Molex cable and your hub should be sorted as well. Do not worry, you can connect quite a few devices on to the same length of cable; your PSU should have ample juice to power a simple hub

[watercooled]

Check the sticker on the device you want to power - they usually list 5v and 12v so will work with molex, but you may run into problems if it lists 3.3v as a requirement.