Buying additional internal SATA cables

metaleggman · January 19, 2021

So I just purchased a Seasonic Focus GM-650 for use in the server I just built. While it's fine at the moment, it came with two sata cables with only 8 connectors total. It only has two "accessory" ports and two pci-e ports. What's the best way to get cables with more sata ports, and is there a general limit to how many is okay per cable/psu connection? I'm running an E5-2680 in it with 5 fans (3x120, 2x92 for cooler) and no graphics cards. Drives right now are 2 10tb Exos X10s and an Intel DC S3700, but once my data is transferred over, I'll be adding 4 4tb seagate barracudas. I'll likely add an additional 4 rust drives for 10 total, partially using an hba flashed to it mode. So in total, I'd need about 11 sata connectors over two cables, unless I can somehow use the PCI-e connectors (they're physically different, and I'm assuming at a different voltage or something). Do any reputable companies sell 6 connector sata power cables directly (corsair?)? Seasonic doesn't appear to sell cables at all, just complete units, and I'm unsure if support would send me a different cable (though I suppose it's worth asking). Also would this be advisable given the unit in question? Any help is appreciated.

WhitetailAni · January 19, 2021

PCIe power cables only supply 12v and ground, so an adapter would need to also come with a DC-to-DC converter with both 12v to 5v and 12v to 3.3v, very similar to the ATX12VO standard.

You might be able to get SATA power splitters for quite cheap though.

metaleggman · January 21, 2021

On 1/18/2021 at 5:57 PM, ragnarok0273 said:

PCIe power cables only supply 12v and ground, so an adapter would need to also come with a DC-to-DC converter with both 12v to 5v and 12v to 3.3v, very similar to the ATX12VO standard.

You might be able to get SATA power splitters for quite cheap though.

Eh I'm worried about power splitters melting. Seasonic support pointed me to a site that sells extra cables for their PSUs though, so I'll just go there. (They pointed me here: https://www.btosinte.com/)

For anyone that sees this, it looks like the max any Seasonic cable comes with is 4 x SATA connectors. Since there don't seem to be a ton of high quality SATA splitters out there (all the ones I've seen have the wires molded to the connector, which is the ones that melt, short, and catch fire), so ironically, the safest bet, other than upgrading the power supply, would be to use the 4 x Molex cables for Seasonic power supplies, and use high quality molex connectors. These ones are apparently OEM Seasonic connectors from what I was told by btosinte support, and they do not look to be the molded variety. Instead, they appear to be crimped, which is what you want.