Is 3.3V line really important for SATA?

[Chakshu]

My psu have only 4 sata connectors but 6 molex so i was using my six drives using 3 sata and 3 molex to sata adapters it is a great mess Recently I got my hands on a dead power supply.

So i was thinking to desolder its sata connectors and solder them in my psu.

My psu has a additional 3.3v line in the sata connectors but I was using drives without 3.3v as molex doesn't have it.

So my question what is really use of this 3.3v line?

What benefits it offers and will the drive take performance hit?

What peripherals need it?

[Chakshu]

here is pic of the connector

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[BgG286]

I read somewhere that most drives don't even use the 3.3v line anymore, they have onboard converters down to 3.3v since some people use molex to sata adapters. I don't think it'd be a problem if you rigged sata connectors on the molex line.

EDIT: As long as you're connecting a hard drive.

[Quaker]

Basically, if the drives work with the Molex to SATA adapters, then they obviously don't need the 3.3v. It's possible that you might run into a device at some point, that uses the 3.3v, but in that case you can simply use one of the native SATA connectors for it.

 

So, bottom line, it's not worth the effort (and risk) to solder additional SATA connectors into the power supply, especially since you can get cheap adapters such as:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812189190

[Chakshu]

Basically, if the drives work with the Molex to SATA adapters, then they obviously don't need the 3.3v. It's possible that you might run into a device at some point, that uses the 3.3v, but in that case you can simply use one of the native SATA connectors for it.

 

So, bottom line, it's not worth the effort (and risk) to solder additional SATA connectors into the power supply, especially since you can get cheap adapters such as:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812189190

Thanks for your reply.

But I do not live in canada or us also its not cheap.

It costs In my currency Rs.342 and a good quality molex to sata cost around Rs 20 here.

[MrPete1985]

Most devices do not use the 3.3 volt line, the device should tell you on the sticker how much power it draws from each voltage.  I have never seen a device that uses the 3.3 volt line.