HDD Question

[Zephik]

I just noticed on my hard drive where all the connections are there was a little cover and when I removed it there was a molex connection? What is that for? Is it just to power your HDD when you dont have any more HDD power connectors?

-SF

Also... what would happen if I plugged in a molex connection and a HDD power cord at the same time?

Also No2... What are the lil pins next to the SATA connection for?

[Airbozo]

The molex connector is there in case you do not have a sata power connector, DO NOT USE both at the same time!

Looks like the pins on my WD2500yd are for "spread spectrum clocking" and to force the drive into 150mb only mode.

Spread spectrum clocking from another site:

Spread Spectrum Clocking is when the actual clock speed of an electronic device is purposely varied to prevent large amounts of EMI ElectroMagnetic Interference on a particular frequency.

Real terms - So a guy sits outside you house and revs his car to 3000rpm and holds it there. Pretty soon that continuous tone will drive you mad. If he were to 'Spectrum Spread' his car, he would slowly increase and decrease the revs, say from 2000 to 4000rpm. In my explaination at least, this would be less annoying.

PC Terms - Electronic devices these days must not produce excessive amounts on EMI on a particular frequency. Spectrum Spread technology is used to minimize the interference, by making it change all the time. Whether this is useful to the actual PC builder/user remains to be seen IMHO.

[Zephik]

Oh... that... is so far from what I was thinking it was for! lol

How do you use it? Do you need to buy a special cable or something?

-SF

[public_eyesore]

I am so out of date. I didn't know there was any other power conectors besides molex's lol. Me and my damn ide's

[klingelton]

this was something we noticed when we put together my mates new pc. we had no idea what the hell they were for either!!

[Airbozo]

Great thing about the sata connectors is that it makes the drive hot swappable (assuming the internal hardware and software support it). Just slap some rails on it and push it in to the proper backplane;
http://www.lotechdesigns.com/host/images/6137sm5035g-tb-satasmall.JPG

[xdxforever]

the pins next to the extra power connecter(molex) on Sata drives are usually for master/slave/other weird options select and on sataII drives, to also allow for hard limiting to 150 speed (sataI) instead of 300.

[fragged]

What is the point of the new SATA power connectors, I mean they are just switching the wires then using multiple pins in a new, less durable connection, then again i could be wrong, but thats why i'm asking xD

Also, Airbozo what is that picture of, I mean I understand what it does, and think its very sexy and would make any PC look neater, or is it part of a certain case?

[Airbozo]

xdx...: There is no need for a master/slave option on a sata drive since only one drive per cable.

fragged: As I understand it from the conferences I have been to, the new sata connectors were developed in part to provide an easy way to plug in drives into computers. With the old pata connectors you either had to mount the drive on a special sled or manually plug in the cables. With sata and the proper case, all you need to do is just slide the drive into a slot and it connects. (of course you still either need a rail set or to screw the drive down). There were also other incentives such as lower power requirements, smaller cables, etc...

The picture is of a hot swappable sata backplane mounted on a drive cage. depending on your case you could purchase just the cage and backplane to mount in your system or it comes with certain workstation and server cases. The backplane in that picture can be replaced with a scsi model.

[Zephik]

What are they exactly called? Where would you buy one? Know of any trusted online retailers?

-SF

[Airbozo]

What are they exactly called? Where would you buy one? Know of any trusted online retailers?

-SF

Let me check with the sales guys. I usually only put them together, so I have to ask for sources...

Here is a link to an external bay;
http://www.circotech.com/snt-sata3051b-hot-swapable-back-plane-for-5-hard-drives.html

This is an internal one(I think);
http://www.circotech.com/icydock-mb455-sata-ii-aluminum-hard-drive-cage-for-5-hard-drives.html

[Silenced_Coyote]

Technically, there is one exception which lets you use a SATA and a molex at the same time. This is ONLY the case if you have a Western Digital Drive that supports SecureConnect and you have the special SATA cable with SecureConnect. More info here. (http://www.wdc.com/en/products/accessories.asp?ProdID=74)

http://www.wdc.com/global/images/products/accessories/WDSC50RCW.jpg

[Airbozo]

...ahh, but look closely. The sata power connector is used only for stability. That is why you must use the molex.