My Centurion 590 has too many drives (12) and fans ( for my power supply's connectors. I've got splitters and SATA adaptors all over the place. Now one or two of the fans spin up at boot, but then stop. I was thinking of using my unused video card PCIe connectors to power some of the fans, s what I need is PCIe to Molex or fan connector adaptor cables. I realise the PCIe is 12V only, so cannot be used for hard drives - I just want them for the fans.

 

Any ideas; Canada or retailers who ship to Canada preferred. Of course, I've done a Google search, so anything you guys can come up with is appreciated. As a last resort, I'll get a new (single rail) PSU or exchange with my desktop machine. Thanks!

Wow, they're that common!

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=21141

Thanks! I seem to have missed that one  . Only $6 shipping for two to Canada.

monoprice has it..it's pretty cheap too

 

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10245&cs_id=1024503&p_id=2883&seq=1&format=2

Sadly, I think that that Monoprice adapter may actually be the opposite, a Molex *to* PCI-Express adapter.

Sadly, I think that that Monoprice adapter may actually be the opposite, a Molex *to* PCI-Express adapter.

It is.

Thanks for clarifying..I could see myself overlooking the difference and ordering the wrong adapter.

I'm surprised that there isn't more of a demand for this, as a lot of unRaiders want a beefy power supply, but much of the power is dedicated to these SLI connectors, which we definitely don't need. I just want to get some of it back for fans. Right now I can see one of my fans not spinning at all, and another at very low rpm.

 

I guess I'll order the one that weebotech found for me. Thanks again.

Rather than pay that sort of money ($15each plus shipping) I'd buy the longest available molex y splitter cables and cut the PCI-E plugs off and splice in the y cables.

 

Soldering iron, solder, heatshrink tubing and your away. If you dont have a soldering iron, use some chocolate block (insulation tape wrapping after wiring to cover the exposed screw holes) or crimp terminals (bullet sockets on yellow, bullet males on black from PSU).

 

Yelow is twelve volt line, black is ground. Remove the red 5v line from the y splitter cable. BIC biro refill (open end!) fits over the male pins to remove them from the molex socket. For the sockets on the molex males use a bit of an old cd audio cables outer insulation.

 

Putting 1 splitter cable per pair would give you six extra molex sockets per PCI-E cable.

 

Any decent independant PC shop, independant repair shop or an electrician will do this for you, if you cant. 

Thanks for the advice Kaygee. I don't have the time to do this, and not really even to find someone who can. In the end, $30 is easier to come by than an hour or more for me to do it myself/find someone who can. Um, unless you're offering... and I'll gladly price match the store for your time and materials - i.e pay you what I'd pay them to have two cables shipped to me.

Canada is a bit far to modify a PSU, although having been a couple of times and really enjoyed it, I'm tempted. ;-)

Canada is a bit far to modify a PSU, although having been a couple of times and really enjoyed it, I'm tempted. ;-)

It's so cool (cold) here that I believe you'd think it was worth it.

Hi all

 

Just thought I'd update you: I bought a couple of units from the link that weebotech posted. The service was astounding, with custom made cables (you choose you combination of cable sleeve and connector colours) being shipped the same day.

 

I installed the adaptor to the PCIe connector and daisy-chained five to eight 120 mm fans to it. (I'm not sure whether the fans from the 4-in-3 cages are being powered by this too, as I installed quickly and didn't look to see how everything was set up previously). Now everything is running smoothly with an Antec 650W "Trio" (Three 12V rails), and 12 drives in a Centurion 590.

 

Before this, I was having trouble balancing the power draw between the twelve drives and the 120 mm fans using just the molex and SATA power connectors. End result was fans not spinning up. I highly recommend this solution if you have numerous fans and no single 12V rail PSU.

I'll be buying a few myself soon!