I don’t have kapton tape or want to cut wires as I don’t have a spare sata power cable. However I do have a molex power cable and a molex to sata 3.3 adapter that came with my Seasonic Focus GX-750 PSU. It only has 4 wires and does not contain a wire for 3.3v power. The sata connector is crimped and not moulded. My shucked WD180EDGZ-11BLDS0 seems to require the 3.3v pin fix.
Personally I will forever be a 3.3v cutter. Have yet to see a sata device that required it, if anyone wants to correct me with a modern sata drive of the last 10 years that needs it, I’d love to be corrected.
It is not even part of the spec anymore because almost nothing used it. The idea makes a bit of sense when you consider that micro HDDs were a thing for some time and newer M.2 connector is 3.3v only.
Even a soldered (“molded”) connector is fine as long as it is well made. However, it can be tricky to know if it is or not. Crimped connectors seem to be of better quality on average
If it was included with your Seasonic PSU I would totally trust it.
Good to know, thank you.
crimped or molded, doesn’t really matter. it’s only a problem when the conductors in the molded plastic get hot enough to drift till they make contact. if you’re mindful of your currents, it’s fine. molded simply provides a little channel for heat to escape.
you’re not gonna get 3.3v from a molex connection for this. that’s only available on the mobo connector and sata cables directly from the psu.
the 3.3v fix involves taping off those pins on the hard drive so this fix isn’t really necessary. I’ve yet to find a sata drive that requires 3.3v.
so yes, it’s safe. just don’t go crazy with daisy chains and trying to draw too much power off one molex or sata power connection.
So I should be fine with the current configuration ofPSU 6-pin to Molex, and then Molex to Sata 3.3 adapter that connected only to this one drive?
What is this 6 pin you speak of? Are we talking modular psu or OEM? The only molex I’m concerned about is the one that carries 12v, 5v, and a couple grounds. The only 6pin I’m aware of is normally for a GPU and that only has 3 12v wires and grounds.
Maybe some pictures will help.
Modular PSU, the 6-pin (but only 4 are used) goes to the PSU. Here is a image of the cables. https://imgur.com/a/C95FjRi
Ok. All that is fine. There’s no 3.3v wire to worry about. The drive won’t miss it.
Cool, thank you for your help!
I removed the pin from the plug on on the psu side of the cable. There are people who think all converters are potentially dangerous.
The molex cable doesn’t have the 3.3v pin on the psu side. So I should be ok?