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How many drives per power cable?

NinjaNife

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I am wondering how many hard drives a single power cable can handle. Here is a theoretical example to try and explain what I mean. Let's say I have 5 hard drives in my computer. I need them to be able to all be plugged in, but only have 1 power cable available from my PSU. The power cable has 2 plugs on it, and I have 3 Y-Splitters (if I plug 1 splitter into each plug on the power cable and another splitter into one of the two, then I would have 5 available plugs total, all on the 1 cable). Will this one power cable be able to support the needs of 5 hard drives running at the same time, or must I get more cables from the PSU? I just need to know how many drives per cable are workable. Not sure if this made sense, but hopefully someone will understand and know the answer. Thanks.
 
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I would say you will be able to run 5 drives , but just wondering what PSU and wattage is it?
 
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I am wondering how many hard drives a single power cable can handle. Here is a theoretical example to try and explain what I mean. Let's say I have 5 hard drives in my computer. I need them to be able to all be plugged in, but only have 1 power cable available from my PSU. The power cable has 2 plugs on it, and I have 3 Y-Splitters (if I plug 1 splitter into each plug on the power cable and another splitter into one of the two, then I would have 5 available plugs total, all on the 1 cable). Will this one power cable be able to support the needs of 5 hard drives running at the same time, or must I get more cables from the PSU? I just need to know how many drives per cable are workable. Not sure if this made sense, but hopefully someone will understand and know the answer. Thanks.

If the PSU has 2 plugs on one power cable then there is a reason its like that. do not overload.

you might be lucky if the drives survives with the y-splitter.

For Case fans its ok to split it, so if you have any plugs going into case fans split it with the y-cable, use one for hdd and other for the case fan. hope it makes sense.

:toast:
 

NinjaNife

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NinjaNife

New Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2009
Messages
172 (0.03/day)
Location
Kentucky, USA
System Name Custom
Processor Intel i7-875K 2.9GHz (OC'd to 4.0GHz)
Motherboard MSI P55-GD80
Cooling Sidewinder Custom MCP655 / Watercool HEATKILLER® CPU Rev3.0 1156 LT / Swiftech MCR320-QP / XSPC Dual
Memory G.SKILL PiS 2000MHz 8GB 6-9-6-24
Video Card(s) EVGA GTX 470 1280MB Superclocked+ 750/1500/1750
Storage Western Digital Black x2 1TB RAID-0, Seagate Barracuda 1TB, Western Digital 500GB
Display(s) ASUS VH242H 24" 1080p
Case Cooler Master HAF 932
Audio Device(s) Creative X-FI Titnium Fatal1ty Champion Series
Power Supply Corsair Professional Series AX1200 1200W
Software Windows 7 Ultimate nVidia Edition 64bit
If the PSU has 2 plugs on one power cable then there is a reason its like that. do not overload.

you might be lucky if the drives survives with the y-splitter.

For Case fans its ok to split it, so if you have any plugs going into case fans split it with the y-cable, use one for hdd and other for the case fan. hope it makes sense.

:toast:

I could probably get another cable (so 2 coming from the PSU), but even then I would have 1 cable with 3 drives (which would require a splitter). Also, the reason I posted was because I wasn't sure if the cable only had 2 plugs due to power, or just the fact that the cables get VERY long after 2+ plugs on it.
 
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