Power connection's question

Hi I hope this ok to post here, I'm not 100% sure this the the correct board or if it should go in Hardware, but I decided to go General as it's more.....general, please feel free to move if need be :)

Ok so I have a molex connector powering the case fan on the side of my PC and I'm thinking of adding a second optical drive to my PC in the near future I bought a molex Y splitter that goes into 2 SATA power cables, one for the new optical drive and the other I wanted to get hold of a sata to Molex cable so I can still plug my case fan into that, however I have not been able to find one that go's from SATA to Molex, plenty from Molex to SATA but not the other way. Do such cables exist or is there a power problem when going in that direction as clearly I don't want to risk overloading anything or under powering anything.
If this is possible and of course safe to do so, maybe someone could point me in the right direction to find one, which would be a great help.
I'm guessing from memory as I'm away from home for a little while at mo, but please I do stress I am guessing, that I need a female SATA port and a Male Molex port at the ends, however I hope there will be alternatives F/M M/F if need be.

Thanks in advance,

Best regards Jay

If your set on a sata to molex you could go for something like this
Best 15 Pin SATA Male to Molex 4 Pin IDE HDD Female M F Power Adapter Cord Cable | eBay

But you could just get a molex to 2Xmolex and run the dvd drive and fan off of the extension.
4 Pin Molex Male to 2X 4 Pin Molex IDE Female Power Y Splitter Adapter Cable | eBay
and then use a
4 Pin Molex to 2X SATA Power Supply Connector Adapter | eBay
There pretty cheap and easy to get ahold of

There should be no issue using a sata male to molex female to power the fan as far as i am aware.
and you SHOULD be able to get most adaptors from any good computer store or online from places like Ebay

Hi,

Thanks for the links and for the alternative way of doing things, I will certainly look into both before I decide which way to go :)

Johnthefast said:

But you could just get a molex to 2Xmolex and run the dvd drive and fan off of the extension.
4 Pin Molex Male to 2X 4 Pin Molex IDE Female Power Y Splitter Adapter Cable | eBay

Just a couple of quickies about the above if I may, how far can you safely go with this? Lets say I get the Molex to 2xMolex cable, plug the fan into one and then plugged a Molex to 2xSATA into the other, one to my new optical drive and then the other into something else, add another HDD lets say... Would that be pushing it to far on power or does it all work itself out? Would it be really bad to over load the power supply, assuming something like this could overload it anyway.

Thanks for replying,

Best Regards Jay

Hi again jay. I have run 2 optical drives and a hdd off of one extension before and not had an issue. Try to stick to 2-3 devices max off of 1 extension i would think. Unless its fans.. i have heard of people connecting more then 4 case fans off of 1 extension and having no issues.

Yes if your using a very weak power supply you could overload it. However, assuming you have a good quality one you shouldnt have an issue, as hdds and optical drives pull very little power.

A dvd drive uses roughly 30w max a pop and a hard drive uses about 10w a pop depending on type Typical Power Consumption of PC Components - Power Draw in Watts < rough estimates

The only time i have overload issues is with high powered graphics cards. and thats usually the power supply being too weak to begin with.

Great information thankyou.

Hmm well i know my power supply is 500w maybe worth considering upgrading to 750 or so to be on the safe side.
I currently have at least 1 SATA cable thats only powering 1 hdd, so maybe it would be better to split that to power another hdd at some point and then use the Molex i was talking about before for the fan and new optical drive.

ATM i have 1 ssd, 1 hdd, a Radeon HD 6670 2GB, case fans x2 and a DVD Burner running from 500w as well as the LEDs ect, so hopefully it will cope.

Best Regards Jay

It also depends on the actual quality as opposed to the wattage. some power supplies say they are 750w or 850w but they cant handle the amps and when the computer goes to use the power. it overloads and the pc shuts off.

Since you sound like you have a pretty decent computer i would upgrade to a 750w if your going to add in more and more components. but go for whats called an 80 plus rating . Bronze/gold. Its a pretty good standard to go on.