Could I use a Microbus to split a molex connector to multiple drives?

[RaiderJ]

I've seen a few microbuses for sale, and I was wondering if it would be possible to use one to split a molex to multiple drives?

What I'd like to be able to do is mount a few of them near my 5.25" drive bays, and then connect my drives to the bus, which in turn would be connected to the power supply. The ones I've seen only handle around 20W, which I don't think would be able to handle even two optical drives.

My goal for this would be to reduce cabling in my case, since 5 devices require quite a few cables. Also, if I had some buses mounted, I could just swap out the connection from the bus to the device if I needed to, such as if I wanted to switch from a standard molex connector to a floppy style connector. This way I wouldn't have to redo the cabling from the power supply, just the short connector from the bus.

Is there a more elegant solution to this, or are microbuses only good for connecting multiple fans?

 

[fell8]

Microbuses are usually designed to run fans, and generally can't handle alot of power (naturally there will be exceptions--check the specs). A better solution might be to use splitters. Good luck!

 

[beatle]

An optical drive when writing can draw between 1-2A on the +12v line and .5-1A on the +5v line This is much more than I'd want to put on a microbus, which only has outputs for 12v+ and ground.

 

[RaiderJ]

Originally posted by: beatle
An optical drive when writing can draw between 1-2A on the +12v line and .5-1A on the +5v line This is much more than I'd want to put on a microbus, which only has outputs for 12v+ and ground.

I was afraid they would only supply 12V+ power.

Can you run multiple devices off of a single molex connector (using splitters) without worry about power? Assuming of course your power supply can handle the load to begin with?

 

[beatle]

Originally posted by: RaiderJ

Originally posted by: beatle
An optical drive when writing can draw between 1-2A on the +12v line and .5-1A on the +5v line This is much more than I'd want to put on a microbus, which only has outputs for 12v+ and ground.

I was afraid they would only supply 12V+ power.

Can you run multiple devices off of a single molex connector (using splitters) without worry about power? Assuming of course your power supply can handle the load to begin with?

Yup, that's what they're there for.