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Peripheral Sata Connector Pins


frogman

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Can any computer knowledgeable person help with a question I have regarding the number of gold pins that are on my Sata connector that is part of my PSU.

As we know there are meant to be 15 pins, but on the Sumvision PSU there are only 12 with 3 slots vacant.

It's isn't a fault with the PSU as I checked out another PSU of the same brand and it too has three vacant with a total of 12 pins

If you look at numerous images on-line of a sata connector if you are lucky enough you will see 15 pins, in fact another brand of PSU today revealed 15 pins.

So is it that Sumvision have built their PSU in a way that it doesn't require those particular 3 pins in that particular section of the Sata connector?

I wont be actually using the Sata connector but I am just curious about this that's all.

Edited by frogman
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That's pretty normal in my experience. My lower wattage power supplies, around 400 W and below are missing those three pins, probably because they are older and/or cheaper.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA#Power_connectors

That first section of the power connector holds the 3.3v conductors and is not needed on most SATA harddrives, but I would expect them to be used in the future, perhaps for SSD or other RAM based drives ( or even hybrid drives ) where lower voltages are needed.

It's a good question that you ask though, because if you happen to have a SATA drive that does use those connectors you would drive yourself mad trying to figure out what the problem is! My guess is the drive gets returned to the seller, thinking you have a dead brick.

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Thank you Charlotte for that, and I agree what you say about the dead brick, lol

On a similar subject, on this new PSU the motherboard 24 pin connector, well actually when I remove the little block of set of four which reduces it to 20 pin, I noticed that there is a pin missing, in other words there are only 19, like I say this is after the block is removed to take it down to the supposed 20 pin being that is what my MB supports, will the reason be similar to the sata connector would you think?

I hope I am able to take out the old MB connector and be able to fit in the new one, I say this as someone kindly fitted my older PSU years ago, and he said he had problems connecting it and that he had to strip something down in order to get in, somehow I think I shouldn't have this problem and I shall give it a go once I have purchased a power splitter as the PSU doesn't have enough molex.

Edited by frogman
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@frogman

Maybe you are looking at it from the "wrong" side. :w00t:

I mean, leave alone the pins in the SATA power connector (i.e. what supposedly comes out from it), look at the wires actually clamped to it (i.e. what comes from the PSU and goes into the connector).

If there are two blacks, one red and one yellow (and not an orange), it is perfectly OK that those three pins are missing, as seen in the Wikipedia article CharlotteTheHarlot posted.

Each wire connects to three pins, if you have 4 cables 12 pins are OK.

If you had 15 pins, 3 would be connected to "nothing".

Most PSU's I have ever seen use SATA connector with 4 wires (i.e. without also the Orange/3.3v wire/line) as the 3.3V line is *never* used, I would say that it is the "opposite" of what Charlotte stated, in th esense that "old" PSU's, made when the SATA standard was newish do have the 5 wires and 15 pin whilst more recent ones - as soon as the PSU manufacturers understood that no hard disk diver manufacturer would use the 3.3V from the PSU - have 4 wires (and either a connector with all the 15 pins or with just 12 of them).

The only device that I know of that are actually 3.3V powered are 1.8" SSD's, which have a microSATA connector and that are unlikely to be mounted in a desktop, and that would require an adapter *like*:

http://www.microsatacables.com/1-8-inch-micro-sata-ssd-hdd-to-sata-adapter-with-bracket/

or:

http://www.microsatacables.com/1-8-micro-sata-ssd-hdd-to-sata-adapter/

BTW you can anyway, instead of using this:

http://www.ics-iq.com/product-p/pcar-6023-100a.htm

use - for a mere 50 bucks more :w00t::ph34r: - use this instead:

http://www.ics-iq.com/product-p/f.gr-0033-000a.htm

jaclaz

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@frogman

Maybe you are looking at it from the "wrong" side. :w00t:

I mean, leave alone the pins in the SATA power connector (i.e. what supposedly comes out from it), look at the wires actually clamped to it (i.e. what comes from the PSU and goes into the connector).

If there are two blacks, one red and one yellow (and not an orange), it is perfectly OK that those three pins are missing, as seen in the Wikipedia article CharlotteTheHarlot posted.

Each wire connects to three pins, if you have 4 cables 12 pins are OK.

If you had 15 pins, 3 would be connected to "nothing".

Most PSU's I have ever seen use SATA connector with 4 wires (i.e. without also the Orange/3.3v wire/line) as the 3.3V line is *never* used, I would say that it is the "opposite" of what Charlotte stated, in th esense that "old" PSU's, made when the SATA standard was newish do have the 5 wires and 15 pin whilst more recent ones - as soon as the PSU manufacturers understood that no hard disk diver manufacturer would use the 3.3V from the PSU - have 4 wires (and either a connector with all the 15 pins or with just 12 of them).

Jaclaz, although I didn't specify it in my comment, my older power supplies are not only missing the 3.3v contacts in the connector, but also the wires naturally! Like the traditional "molex" they have black,red,black,yellow. It's a simple implementation of them ( Power Supply manufacturers ) sticking a SATA power connector onto the same wires that can just as easily have a large or small "molex" connector. And it works just fine presently. Like yourself, I too have no SATA fitted drives that require the 3.3v that I'm aware of.

At some point it will be useful though and drives will utilize that end of the connector. Either that or they will simply ( continue to ) use voltage regulators and power resistors onboard to obtain 3.3v or other variations.

RAM based drives are obvious choices for that 3.3v, as are any smart devices with a CPU or other IC's. It would be financially cheaper for these specific manufacturers to build their SATA attached device if they have a native low voltage feed available. But nothing is stopping them from doing what was done before the 3.3v ( and -5v and standby, etc ) arrived, and that means ensuring maximum compatibility by building to the widest base of potential customers - just assume +5v and +12v, handle regulation onboard and be done with it. Who is to say that it already isn't being done with SATA attached devices.

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The 3.3v line is used for a hotswap function as well, mSATA is used on many desktop intel motherboards today and can be placed in some PCI-E sloths in laptops (make sure that the UEFI or BIOS sees it and can boot from it), just as a sidenote.

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