G5 usb pcie card upgrade..molex power?!

[Davy.Shalom]

How am I supposed to power this 4 port Sonnet USB card if the PowerMac G5 does not supply any molex power connectors?

 

[666sheep]

It has molex connector for optical drive. You can use molex splitter(s).

 

[Davy.Shalom]

It has molex connector for optical drive. You can use molex splitter(s).

That's going to be one long ass splitter...

 

[666sheep]

There's another way: use SATA Y cable + SATA to molex adapter and power the card from SATA power connector (HDD). If you got only one HDD, SATA->molex adapter will be enough.

 

[Davy.Shalom]

There's another way: use SATA Y cable + SATA to molex adapter and power the card from SATA power connector (HDD). If you got only one HDD, SATA->molex adapter will be enough.

=/

I have both hard drive bays full. I guess I'll have to use the Y option. It's a pain that apple does this. They give you four pcie slots, but none of them have molex power so you can put something useful in there. What other options does this leave? I mean, most USB 2.0 or firewire boards that are for mac need molex power. It's really stupid they could have even had the wires waiting there unused like with the hard drive bay.

 

[666sheep]

I mean, most USB 2.0 or firewire boards that are for mac need molex power.

I think that it's not exactly like you wrote. Additional power for card is required (or not) depending on what devices you want to use with card. All devices with their own power supply (scanners, printers etc) will work without molex. If you want to use bus powered devices (a lot of), card might need this molex. It must have something to do with overall PCIe power draw, which is limited to about 300W for all (four in your case) PCIe slots.

 

[Davy.Shalom]

I think that it's not exactly like you wrote. Additional power for card is required (or not) depending on what devices you want to use with card. All devices with their own power supply (scanners, printers etc) will work without molex. If you want to use bus powered devices (a lot of), card might need this molex. It must have something to do with overall PCIe power draw, which is limited to about 300W for all (four in your case) PCIe slots.

I use many bus powered devices. Well, I suppose a USB hub would work for now.

 

[OrangeSVTguy]

I don't think or never heard of them but you could possibly search for some type of Y splitter that can hook up to the 6pin power connector for the graphics card. You can pull your power from there?

I know people that used a splitter to run more than one graphics card but maybe there's also some type of Y cable out there that goes to the 4 pin molex connector?

 

[666sheep]

^I'm not sure, but isn't molex +5V (red) line important? PCIe power socket has +12V and GND only - it lacks of +5V. I've never heard of PCIe->molex adapter, only molex->PCIe. But it's possible to make "home made" one. +5V is possible to get from +12V by soldering proper resistor to this "custom" adapter.