power supply connectors

The fan on my desktop power supply is growling intermittently. I replaced the power supply 2 years ago. At that time, I had it done in a computer repair shop. The tech used an "IDE to SATA" adapter to connect the power to the hard drive.

I figured I should be able to replace the power supply unit myself and today I purchased one. I spoke to the tech at the store where I bought the power supply just to make sure I could do this. But I had a question that wasn't answered to my satisfaction. He said I wouldn't need the above adapter because the unit I purchased today had the 15 pin SATA connector. In fact there are 2 15 pin SATA connectors, and here is where my question is raised. One connector has 4 wires going to it--yellow, black, red, black, and orange The other one has exactly double that, so the same configuration of wires but 2 of each. I was told that the SATA connector is to connect to the hard drive, so which one of these would I connect to my hard drive? And why would one connector have 4 wires leading to it from the PSU and the other have 8?

The computer has one hard drive, a CD/DVD writer, and a DVD drive. I looked at the manufacturer's specs of the PSU I purchased, and the specs mention only one SATA connector.

Here's the unit:

http://www.coolmaxusa.com/productDe...etails=spec&subcategory=120mm&category=single

I wanted to do this myself because it should be simple (although I am really anxious not to make a mistake and fry any of my components!) and I live about an hour out of town, and it's a nuisance to haul that big tower all the way to the shop.

The old PSU is an ATX 450, the new one as at the above link.

Thanks for any replies. (I'm not too brave when it comes to hardware!)

 

Without looking at what you are talking about, I would say that one is an extension of the other. Are your other drives sata also? All other plug ins should look the same as long as they are sata. ed

 

OK, I feel silly. You're right, one is an extension of the other.(She says after undoing the tie and unravelling the wires.) :-D:-o I only have one set of what I think is the 15 pin thing (the SATA connectors for the hard drive). The others look different, they have 4 pins, and there are 4 of them altogether. Two are connected the same way as that 15 pin one, with one being an extension of the other. The other 2 are connected with one 4 pin being an extension of another 4 pin, and that second 4 pin has a further extension with a little connector which would be, I think, for a floppy disk drive, which I don't have. I am assuming these 4 pin things would fit the CD/DVD writer drive and the DVD drive. I've been looking at what's currently in the box, but it's pretty crowded in there so it's hard to see. I can tell which connectors are related to the motherboard. It looks like I am going to have some extra connectors kicking around. Not sure, this thing just might be beyond me.

Pictures would make this easier, but it's not handy for me to get at the software I have to resize the pics for posting at the moment.

Thanks for your response, it was helpful.

 

The ones with four wires and largish pins is called a molex connector and can also be used to power SATA hard drives, some of these drives have both connectors so only use the 15 pin or the molex, not both as you'll probably fry your drive.

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

 

Thanks, Augiedoggie. That explains it. The tech at the store seemed to think this was easy and said you pretty much can't plug the wrong thing into the wrong place because it won't fit, but when I got home and took another look, I just wasn't sure about things. What seems easy to someone who does this for a living maybe doesn't look so easy to a novice such as myself. I think he figured the Molex connectors would go to the CD/DVD drives.

Looking at the inside of my PC tower, it's quite a mess of wires (not to mention dust!), and it is very crowded compared to pictures of other pc's I've seen on the internet. My computer is a HP Media Center Edition and it has this bay that is inside the tower for inserting the HP Personal Media Drive, which I did NOT buy for doing backups because it was very expensive compared to other external hard drives that are available. But this thing, plus 2 CD/DVD drives takes up a lot of space in there. I think my hard drive is actually (conveniently located rolleyes) behind that docking bay.

I must say, the PSU that's currently in there never overheats (we'll see what happen when my son installs Starcraft, however!), it's just that on occasion that fan will suddenly start grinding for a bit and then the grinding noise will stop. When it's finished doing that, the fan is still running, though, and my family has been told to check that and shut down immediately if they don't feel any air flow at the back of the tower. I know the grinding sound is a bad sign and that fan is something you need to have running.

 

You'll be OK with that as I didn't see a 6-pin power connector for a video card which means lower power requirements as the big video cards these days take most of the needed power in a system.