Info SATA 15pin to 6pin PCI Express Card Power Cable for GPU in Dell OptiPlex 9020

[JWMiddleton]

UPDATE: In a few posts below will be my experience with the SATA to 6-PIN option to power a GPU that requires more that the power provided by the PCIex16 port on a Dell OptiPlex 9020 or 7020.

--------------------------------------Original Question------------------------------------

I would like to put a 120 watt TDP GPU into a Dell OptiPlex 9020 with stock 290 Watt PSU. Since it doesn't have the needed 6-pin PCIe power, I was looking at a SATA 15pin to 6pin PCI Express Card Power Cable. SATA power provides 54 watts (4.5A x 12W.) So, 54w from cable plus 75w from PCIe slot gives me 129 watts. This doesn't allow much margin. The card is not overclockable.

My question has to do which cable to get as there are 2 options: 2 SATA to 6-PIN vs 1 SATA to 6-PIN, see photo. Has anyone had any experience with either cable? Suggestions, besides another PSU.

 

[tcsenter]

If you don't have two free SATA power taps then that settles things no? Is your 9020 the mid tower? So check for that. The dual SATA connector cable really doesn't make much sense unless each SATA power connector is on a completely separate cable from the PSU, as opposed to one of those cables that have two SATA power connectors, one crimped on mid-way and one at the end (sharing the same cable), and each is powered from a different +12V output rail? It may not matter, though, for just ~50W.

They're cheap enough, get one of each.

 

[VirtualLarry]

EPS12V pass-through with a 6pin pci-e spinoff?

 

[JWMiddleton]

CONCLUSION:

I ended up buying the version with that took power from 2 SATA connectors. I connected it to two separate lines. One was powering the SSD the other a CD/DVD player. The cable was not long enough to keep the CD/DVD player connected. So, I had a cable in my junk cable bin to extend the cable to allow CDs or DVDs to be played. I was a little concerned that pulling power from the line powering the SSD might cause issues.

I powered up the system and the Quadro M4000 worked great. I ran both Heaven and Valley for hours and the total draw on the 120-watt rated card never exceeded 101 watts. I used the Sensors function on GPU-Z for the measurements. I wondered why it wasn't using more that 80% of the rated TDP? Was it because it wasn't able to get enough power? I then ran the test on UserBenchmark and it crashed/failed while testing the SSD. So, my fear that I was pulling power from the SSD resurfaced.

With my concern about the SSD and not liking the way the cables looked, I looked for another solution. A better PSU was my only other option. If I bought an ATX PSU, I would need a 24-PIN to 8-PIN power adapter, which also had documented issues. So, I opted for a Dell 365-Watt 80+Gold PSU that included a 6-PIN connector for the GPU. I found one on Ebay for $31 to include shipping.

While I was waiting for it arrive, I took everything out of the case and cleaned it thoroughly. The PSU came in a few days and it fit right in. I powered up the system and ran Heaven and Valley again noting the same power usage as it never exceed 101 watt usage. Then I headed over to UserBenchmark and ran the test suite. AAaarrgghh! It failed while testing the SSD again. It is a 512 GB Samsung 850 Pro SATA SSD with 32TB total writes. The Samsung Magician app doesn't find anything wrong with it. DUNNO?? It works, it is fast! Not going to worry about it.

So, the adapter cable would have worked, but for peace of mind and appearances, I'm glad I got the proper PSU.

John

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Thanks for the testing John.

My advice is forget userbenchmark exists. That place is the worst of the worst. Copy pasta into your favorite search engine - userbenchmark sucks. Or - userbenchmark banned from r/Intel.