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Are chained SATA connectors safe?

S

sebazvideo

Member
My home built PC has a Corsair CMPSU-850TX PS. It has an excessive amount of cables, which I can't imagine in what configuration they would all be used, but only two of those cables are for SATA, with about four connectors each. Because of that, I have to use one of the cables for the optical drives, and the other one for the hard drives (all in a chain), but I was replacing one of them yesterday and it seemed to me that three hard drives getting power from the same cable is a little too much. Two months ago a Western Digital Caviar Black drive that wasn't even two years old died a sudden death making me lose lots of family videos that I hadn't had time to edit yet, so I'm wondering if this had anything to do with it.

Does this make technical sense, does it matter that 3 drives are fed in a chain from the same cable, or is it the same as using 3 different cables? I mean, does the first drive in the chain suck most of the power, leaving less power to the second one, and the same for the second one to the third one?

If I have to use three different cables, are those adapters from regular connectors (sorry, I don't know the exact name) to SATA connectors safe for hard drives? If not, what PSUs in the market come with several cables with SATA connectors?

One last question. Even though this was a highly rated PSU when I bought it over two years ago, I'm thinking of upgrading my PC with a new motherboard, CPU and memory, not the hard drives because they are brand new. But I'm wondering, are high quality PSUs supposed to last several years and it would be safe to leave this one in, or should I buy a new one?

Thanks,

Sebastian
 
Your power supply is most likely fine, and had nothing to do with the hard drive failing. Hard drives just do that.

You can see my file server build log (link in sig) - I'm running 6 hard drives off a single cable. Uptime of over a year now running pretty much 24/7 on a 450W PSU.
 
3 drives shouldn't be a problem on a single sata power cable. Did you try running your problem drive from a power cable on its own?
Psu reviews will usually tell you how many cables of each type it has and sometimes the length as well.
 
I don't see any problems with chaining three HDDs either.

2-3 years old isn't old for good quality PSU like your's. I would continue to use it. I've been using my current PSU for 5 years and counting.
 
You have nothing to worry about. The only problems could be too much current (too many drives) on one cable (3 is more than ok, as are 4 and 5 drives per cable), which is not the case, or too much current on a single rail (not going to happen on any quality PSU), which again, is not the case.
 
Yeah, nonissue. It's about total amperage drawn, not number of connectors, and HDDs are probably the least problematic component of most peoples' system in that regard.
 
I would say quality PSU and don't worry about it. Also sometimes when you shut down turn off PSU switch.

Your PSU can and mobo can tackle this issue easy. gl
 
Because he refuses to run quality power supplies? No idea, never done that myself in 15+ years of computer ownership.
 
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