Power supply cable standards.

Are these cables used on modular power supplies the same among all
brands? If I have a cable that delivers 12 volts to my HDDs that came
with one brand can I assume it will be wired the same and can be used on
other brands? I would guess the answer is yes. I have several boxes with
extras I want to use but I'm not 100% sure.

On Sat, 4 Jul 2015 23:17:40 -0400, Al Drake
wrote:

Are these cables used on modular power supplies the same among all
brands? If I have a cable that delivers 12 volts to my HDDs that came
with one brand can I assume it will be wired the same and can be used on
other brands? I would guess the answer is yes. I have several boxes with
extras I want to use but I'm not 100% sure.


So far as within all SSD/SATA, possibly a PATA or two MOLEX connectors
for good measure, yes. If not the usual 5VGND/GND12V, adaptors
are then often available. It's usually brand builds where at times
one might run into odd PS wiring, though often associated with the MB
and not run of the mill peripherals, such as disc drives.

Al Drake wrote:
Are these cables used on modular power supplies the same among all
brands? If I have a cable that delivers 12 volts to my HDDs that came
with one brand can I assume it will be wired the same and can be used on
other brands? I would guess the answer is yes. I have several boxes with
extras I want to use but I'm not 100% sure.

No.

Be damn careful with those cables! Some of the people
making modular ATX were idiots. They managed to create
custom cables without keying, so you could rotate them
180 degrees and blow up your computer.

As long as the modular ATX is relatively modern, they've
kinda figured out the importance of getting the details
right. But I would not expect them to agree on the pinout
or methodology. It would take someone like Intel, putting
a spec on formfactors.org, to achieve industry-wide cable
portability. And that certainly hasn't happened. Modular
cabling would not be on Intel's radar.

Intel may have a lot of faults as a company, but
their production and hosting of pseudo-specs has made
computers a lot better than they would otherwise be.
By releasing specs for stuff, they help ensure that
all those fly-by-night manufacturers out there, have
a standard to design to.

Paul

On 7/5/2015 9:14 AM, Paul wrote:
Al Drake wrote:
Are these cables used on modular power supplies the same among all
brands? If I have a cable that delivers 12 volts to my HDDs that came
with one brand can I assume it will be wired the same and can be used
on other brands? I would guess the answer is yes. I have several boxes
with extras I want to use but I'm not 100% sure.

No.

Be damn careful with those cables! Some of the people
making modular ATX were idiots. They managed to create
custom cables without keying, so you could rotate them
180 degrees and blow up your computer.

As long as the modular ATX is relatively modern, they've
kinda figured out the importance of getting the details
right. But I would not expect them to agree on the pinout
or methodology. It would take someone like Intel, putting
a spec on formfactors.org, to achieve industry-wide cable
portability. And that certainly hasn't happened. Modular
cabling would not be on Intel's radar.

Intel may have a lot of faults as a company, but
their production and hosting of pseudo-specs has made
computers a lot better than they would otherwise be.
By releasing specs for stuff, they help ensure that
all those fly-by-night manufacturers out there, have
a standard to design to.

Paul

I was hoping to be able to sub a cable at the last minute as I needed
to do yesterday. I have several PSU boxes with extras. I'm moving a new
build into a case and needed some power to the DVD. I'm just going to
start making my own I think. I used an adapter from molex to Sata power
but while plugging it into the DVD the result was immediate heat causing
smoke and fused, melted wires. I was horrified as I've always been
careful and this has never happened in all the years I been playing. I
was lucky that nothing was damaged other than possibly one output from
the CORSAIR CX705M PSU. It must have been that one adapter. When I look
at all the ones I have there are just far to many that really suck big
time. Bad fits, loose pins, pins with to much solder, cheap plastic.
Even the ones included in a good product. My first thought was are all
these PSU cables interchangeable? I think I'm also going to make custom
PSU cables so I don't have to use one multi-connector cable if I only
want to use one on the very end. Way to many cases have you cabling from
the PSU at the lower left to the DVD at the top right.

On 7/5/2015 12:25 AM, Flasherly wrote:
On Sat, 4 Jul 2015 23:17:40 -0400, Al Drake
wrote:

Are these cables used on modular power supplies the same among all
brands? If I have a cable that delivers 12 volts to my HDDs that came
with one brand can I assume it will be wired the same and can be used on
other brands? I would guess the answer is yes. I have several boxes with
extras I want to use but I'm not 100% sure.


So far as within all SSD/SATA, possibly a PATA or two MOLEX connectors
for good measure, yes. If not the usual 5VGND/GND12V, adaptors
are then often available. It's usually brand builds where at times
one might run into odd PS wiring, though often associated with the MB
and not run of the mill peripherals, such as disc drives.

I've been lucky so far but I hate to run out of luck at the end of a
bad cheap connector.

Time for a cable making table added to this computer room.

On Sun, 5 Jul 2015 09:45:16 -0400, Al Drake
wrote:

I used an adapter from molex to Sata power
but while plugging it into the DVD the result was immediate heat causing
smoke and fused, melted wires. I was horrified

Weird. I've never had a major problem past functionality -- other
than some looseness or less than ideal designing -- with a connector,
peripheral update or various MB PWR adaptors...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molex_connector

Only screwy deal I've run into was an HP build that needed work. PS
was out or going out and irregular in operation. It was a proprietary
HP PS unit with off-size factoring and added HP connectors for their
spec'd MB. (Recall their was some sort of strange CPU fan cable
plumbing, and the PS might have been L-shaped.)

Under warrantee with an HP arrangement for RatShack to implement, so I
dropped it off, let them handle it ... people who wanted me to do an
initial repair. They were "scared" of buying one of my builds and
looking to get into the "fold" of industry standardization, i.e.
reliability. (Heh - I've found HP MBs, over-production runs or dated
for pennies on the dollar. They're all of course contracted off the
normal Pacific Rim MB suppliers.)

Not saying if I looked hard enough for a mom-&-pop Asian
bathtub-production product, I might manage to blow something up with a
bad connector. (DealExtreme.com is great for mixed-bag and marginal
kinds of stuff like that.)