How reach power to all HDD/SSD in the Define 7XL? (or any big case for that matter)

[isvein]

So I moved my unraid box over to the define7XL but even though I bough an new Seasonic PSU (needed more sata power anyway and it was one of the few PSU I could find specs on how long the cables are) I still have problems reaching the top and still be able to use all ports.

I looked into extensions like CableMod but fast found out they dont make power extensions.

All I could find was like 1 to 1 sata extension cables, that sounds a bit messy.

[whipdancer]

You can find extra long power and sata cables on Amazon. You can also find sata and/or power extenders on Amazon. You can also find 6 pin cables for your PSU that end in 4 pin molex connectors (old school power supply plugs) and you can then use long 4 pin to sata power cables.

The schematics are not that difficult so you could also roll your own.

You can see the case I use (for now) in my sig.

Edited December 3, 2023 by whipdancer

[JonathanM]

On 12/3/2023 at 5:36 PM, isvein said:

I still have problems reaching the top

Given the extremely poor design of SATA power and data connections, you need to make sure there is no stress on the cables when plugged in to the drive. Ideally, if you remove the drive, the cable ends should appear to be floating where the drive was, meaning no tension pulling the cables away from the drive.

 

If you use any sort of extension for power, make sure the PSU end is the 4 pin style, never use a SATA power connection as an input to anything other than a drive.

[isvein]

On 12/4/2023 at 12:28 AM, whipdancer said:

You can find extra long power and sata cables on Amazon. You can also find sata and/or power extenders on Amazon. You can also find 6 pin cables for your PSU that end in 4 pin molex connectors (old school power supply plugs) and you can then use long 4 pin to sata power cables.

The schematics are not that difficult so you could also roll your own.

You can see the case I use (for now) in my sig.

We sadly dont have Amazon here in Norway (or are we lucky?) but i have found some Sata 5pin splitter (1in 4out). So far its going good but if I need I plan to get one or two of them, just not sure how many dives its safe to run on one cable

[whipdancer]

I estimate ~9w per mechanical drive, with room for about 10 drives per plug on my PSU. I use a relatively high quality 700w power supply to power 18 drives currently, including 15 mechanical, 2 SSD and 1 optical.

[mathomas3]

I have this exact same case and I maxed out the number of drives that you could place in it... I ended up going with a 1200 Watt Corsair PSU only difference being that I had a GPU in it... 

 

Mine might have been overkill though, but I am building a new system with it. 2x Epyc CPUs 6900xt GPU and water cooling... 

 

The cables that came with it were long enough

[TheProfosist]

I know this is a bit of a necro but I just dealt with this myself in this EXACT case. Seasonic PSU cables are too short to reach the upper drives when you have 12-15 drives installed.

 

My fix for this was to use a 6-pin PCI-E power extension. I bought a cheap sleeved kit on amazon that included a few. One issue is that the PCI-E 6-pin power connector is not the same as the one on the PSU. My guess is they are purposefully different. What I did was de-pin the PSU cable connector, swap that onto the extension, then put the PCI-E 6-pin connector on the psu Cable. The psu cable can now plug into the extension, and the extension can now plug into the PSU. I moved pin's over between connectors one at a time to not get them confused.

Edited March 11 by TheProfosist