[Discuss] SAS drives

[mark at buttery.org (Shirley Márquez Dúlcey)]

On 8/3/2011 6:56 AM, Daniel Feenberg wrote:
>
> 1) The connector on the drive is a single connector for power and data
> and incompatible with the connectors used by 2.5" SATA drives. The
> controller came with cables that connect power to a Molex connector
> and data to the controller. Perhaps this is why power supplies continue
> to have so many molex connectors? The controller end of the cable is the
> same as a SATA connector, as the controller can handle SATA drives also.

Mostly I think that power supplies still come with lots of Molex 
connectors because some of them are used to repair older computers that 
have PATA drives and/or AGP video cards that need extra power. They're 
handy when your supply doesn't come with quite enough of whichever newer 
connector you DO need, because expansion cards and disk drives often 
come with adapters from Molex to something else. Finally, sometimes you 
need them for the fans in your computer case.

I like modular supplies because you can leave out the cables that your 
system doesn't need - these days you're pretty much guaranteed that some 
of the power supply outputs will be unnecessary - and reduce the clutter 
in the box.