Not enough cables for components

DiNZi

DiNZi

DiNZi

Associate
Joined
26 Feb 2013
Posts
579
Hi all,

Simple question, I'm sure it's got a fairly straight forward answer.

You know the cables that come out of the power supply and go to various components, motherboard/hdd/disk drives - well, say I want to add 3-4 HDD's to my desktop, there aren't enough of those power supply cables to feed to my extra components.

Does this mean I need to purchase a newer power supply with more cables to feed to components or what can I do?

Thanks!
 
Just buy something like the Phobya SATA power Y-cable(do a google search).

What Psu do you have? As most units have at least 2 cables with 4 power connectors per cable.
 
Idleman said:
Just buy something like the Phobya SATA power Y-cable(do a google search).

What Psu do you have? As most units have at least 2 cables with 4 power connectors per cable.
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It came with my Dell Inspiron 530, I had a look at it yday, but forgot to check this but I'm very sure I need more connectors.

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yup a Dell OEM 360W PSU. nasty!

You could buy splitters but if its not in a Dell case any more I would buy a new PSU. Dell PSU's a legendary for failing.
 
Ploppy2k3 said:
yup a Dell OEM 360W PSU. nasty!

You could buy splitters but if its not in a Dell case any more I would buy a new PSU. Dell PSU's a legendary for failing.
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Yes, which is why Dell desktops seem to live forever, and why the OP's PC is working fine, and why the hundreds of Dell's of various ages at my place of work hardly ever have PSU failure, and why my own fairly old Precision workstation has a very solid and stable Dell OEM PSU running it currently. :rolleyes:

They fail *sometimes* just like any other PSU's.
 
Acme said:
Yes, which is why Dell desktops seem to live forever, and why the OP's PC is working fine, and why the hundreds of Dell's of various ages at my place of work hardly ever have PSU failure, and why my own fairly old Precision workstation has a very solid and stable Dell OEM PSU running it currently. :rolleyes:

They fail *sometimes* just like any other PSU's.
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Hear,hear. Well said that man. :D
 
well the PSU failure rate on Dell PSU's is why we moved away from them and several other IT managers I know have moved from Dell.

We swapped out over 100 PSU's in 2 years which is a joke. Sure this could have happened with any other PSU make as well but didn't it was Dell. They just done survive power drops, cuts and spikes very well. And what really annoys me with Dell PSU's is if you can prove a faulty batch say 20 fail out of a 25 unit order over a 6 month period, they will not under any circumstances swap out he other 5 even though they will blow before the warranty expires.

So I'm sorry in my experience and other I know, Dell PSU's just don't have the build quality that you would expect from a major OEM.
 
Might be why we haven't had too many fail then as we don't get power drops/cuts/surges/spikes because the power is conditioned and there is a huge UPS. :D

Apologies, I shouldn't have been so sarcastic. :)

100 in 2 years sounds insane. From how many machines?
 
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power conditioning / line filtering is one of those things that's top of my agenda but bottom of the Boards. They all have stupidly expensive laptops so THEY never suffer.

as for sarcasm..... I have thicker skin than that. No harm, No foul.
 
Depending on how important the data is on your hard drive, I would think it is wise to get a newer more reliable psu. In the past, I have had an experience where the psu blew up and both my 1tbs just died. You can get a half decent psu for £30 to £40 and its worth it in the long run.
 
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mightymouse said:
Depending on how important the data is on your hard drive, I would think it is wise to get a newer more reliable psu. In the past, I have had an experience where the psu blew up and both my 1tbs just died. You can get a half decent psu for £30 to £40 and its worth it in the long run.
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I don't think I'll be able to manage to fit a new PSU lol! I'm just going to add that small adapter that the first post recommended, meaning just splitting one giving me enough power for an extra hdd and extra disk drive.
 
We have Dell as family PC and I was just thinking yesterday how it's still going after years ;) Only thing I've done is upgrade RAM from 1GB to 3GB. God was the inside dusty though :p
 
we threw out a few old Compaq's that were in the loading bay only last month. they had been faithfully working without issue for nearly 10 years but needed new software so out they went.

the entire space inside the machine was packed solid with dust, no hair or anything else, just solid dust (well and diesel deposits.) how these things worked for so long was a miracle. I bet the new HP's dont last half that long.
 
I'd say mine is a solid machine, Core2Quad Processor and 3GB RAM is what it came with. But, now I'm using dual screens and stuff this week just going to change the video card and add an extra HDD and disk drive.

I've had this Dell Inspiron 530 for 5 years now, I clean the inside every 9 months - completely disconnect everything, use the air duster in the garden, then place a fan in front of it for 30 minutes to blow out the dust where the duster can't get to. It runs silently afterwards.
 
Ploppy2k3 said:
we threw out a few old Compaq's that were in the loading bay only last month. they had been faithfully working without issue for nearly 10 years but needed new software so out they went.

the entire space inside the machine was packed solid with dust, no hair or anything else, just solid dust (well and diesel deposits.) how these things worked for so long was a miracle. I bet the new HP's dont last half that long.
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I once worked on an old PIII PC (it was only a couple of years ago :p) which was used in a tyre repair/fitting place, on the work floor. It got packed full of dense dust, which then caught fire a little. :p

I think that was a Dell, but I may be wrong.
 
DiNZi said:
I'd say mine is a solid machine, Core2Quad Processor and 3GB RAM is what it came with. But, now I'm using dual screens and stuff this week just going to change the video card and add an extra HDD and disk drive..
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depending on what GFX you go for you may then need a new PSU after all.
 
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