Reddit reviews Molex 4 Pin Power to 15 pin SATA Female Adapter Cable - 6"

Not recent at all, been an issue for atleast 10years

Video explain it a bit.

There are several points of failure of these ranging from in adequate gauge wire and shitty insulation but one odd ball thing is the plastic used in injection molding is an insulator but still slightly conductive, the voltage from the pins over time exchange metal for plastic (similar to electroplating) till they bridge from +V pins to G pins, when this happens the plastic that has a low thermal rating melts allowing even more of a short and then it all just burns up. Crimped connectors use a much better plastic that doesn't suffer from this issue. This is why thin gauge wires have VA rating and use very certain insulator to stop things like this from happening.

Electricity has a way of finding the path of least resistance and will do weird shit to achieve this. I've seen this quite a few Molex to sATA failures and also on HV power supplies (mostly CFL ballasts) arc thru insulators from a microcrack, it's one of the reason its SUPER no-no to run metal (especially sulfate containing w/ copper tubes) LPG/LNG lines near CFL lamps.

TL;DR

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Why not use one of these?

So initially you will need one of these cables (called a SATA cable):
this

These go into the harddrive and the motherboard. There is no way to put them in incorrectly unless you force it so don't worry there.

In order to get power to the puppy you will need a cable which looks like this in the end:
this

Now you may be lucky enough to have that cable already available, if not you will have to look for a molex cable.
If you have this then you will need a cable like this to bridge the gap.

You can get an adapter that plugs into a standard MOLEX connector that will have a SATA power connector on the other end. Like this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Molex-Power-Adapter-Cable-inches/dp/B000YJMB5Y

It’s an old power connection. Your power supply should have one connection for it

If not, you’ll need some type of adapter to power it like this:

Molex 4 Pin Power to 15 pin SATA Female Adapter Cable - 6" https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YJMB5Y/

Here's just an example of what you can do with the full pricetag.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD A10-5700 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor | $122.68 @ Amazon
Motherboard | MSI FM2-A75IA-E53 Mini ITX FM2 Motherboard | $84.99 @ Amazon
Memory | Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory | $34.02 @ NCIX US
Storage | Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk | $89.99 @ Amazon
Storage | Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $84.98 @ Outlet PC
Operating System | Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) | $94.98 @ Outlet PC
Power Supply| PicoPSU| $60.00
Other| Molex to Sata| $1.50
Case| Streacom FC8 Evo| $165.00
| | Total
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available. | $738.14
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-10-10 10:50 EDT-0400 |

I love how Streacom cases look, but they can be finicky to build in if you are inexperienced (I'd just use Google to find some other build logs for some tips on what order to assemble, etc). They are also expensive and can be hard to find, which is why they are rare. I also have no idea where you would be buying stuff from because you are in HK.

Since you are looking to only play videos, just about any new integrated graphics will work for you. The AMD APU's are much better performance wise than the Intel HD4xxx graphics, but even the Intel stuff will play videos plenty fine. I put in an A10-5700; you could go down to an A8, probably even an A6, and never notice. 4gb of RAM is fine for a video/internet machine. The only thing for RAM that you have to watch for is that an APU will run much better with quicker RAM, so I put in 1866. Again, for HD streaming, you probably don't even need it, but it's there if you want it.

The motherboard has built in wifi and Bluetooth.

Storage-wise, you have an SSD and an HDD, pretty standard.

HTPC cases like the Streacom don't fit ATX PSU's; you have to use a mini version. I have linked the PicoPSU because it has a good reputation; works just like a standard PSU, just with less total wattage and, importantly, very small footprint.

The Streacom is a fantastic looking case in my opinion, and it is passively cooled, which means the only moving part in this entire build is the 2tb hard drive. There is no CPU cooling fan, no case fans, no PSU fan...it'll be dead silent. Of course, you have to pay for that kind of performance.

Windows 8 like you asked for. I usually tell people that you can pick up a copy of Windows 7 (sometimes 8) on /r/hardwareswap for about $20; Windows 8 might run you a little higher. Be smart about the trade and you could save $70 really easily.

Now, a more traditional HTPC build for these parts would look more like this. Solid performance, cheaper, larger, and louder (although I doubt you will much notice the sound from >5 feet away). This total price is on the high end of "normal" HTPC's.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD A6-6400K 3.9GHz Dual-Core Processor | $69.29 @ Amazon
Motherboard | MSI FM2-A75IA-E53 Mini ITX FM2 Motherboard | $84.99 @ Amazon
Memory | Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory | $34.02 @ NCIX US
Storage | Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk | $89.99 @ Amazon
Storage | Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $84.98 @ Outlet PC
Case | Fractal Design Node 304 Mini ITX Tower Case | $69.99 @ NCIX US
Power Supply | Corsair CX 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply | $35.99 @ Newegg
Optical Drive | Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer | $14.98 @ Outlet PC
Operating System | Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) | $94.98 @ Outlet PC
| | Total
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available. | $579.21
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-10-10 11:09 EDT-0400 |

Does your PSU have molex cables? I believe you can use a molex to SATA adapter but you should look into it to be sure.

I recently bought a Samsung 850 evo and still need to buy a power cable. I made the mistake of buying a male-Sata to power cable when I needed a female-Sata to power cable. I don't want to buy another cable and have it end up being the wrong one. Would this work with a Corsair 750M? Thanks!

https://www.amazon.com/Molex-Power-SATA-Female-Adapter/dp/B000YJMB5Y

Thanks!

I can’t find a SATA power cable though; is this (https://www.amazon.com/Molex-Power-SATA-Female-Adapter/dp/B000YJMB5Y) something I should be looking for?

the blue one is a 6+2 PCIe power cable, u can use the extra 2 for 8 slots, or only use the 6 slot, depending on what you need.

the big black ones are molex power cables which are older power cables, used for IDE drives mostly. , u can buy an adapter to turn them into a sata power connector https://www.amazon.com/Molex-Power-SATA-Female-Adapter/dp/B000YJMB5Y

The small one looks like one of the cables you'd generally use to connect the case parts(sound or power buttons) to the motherboard, or a fan to a power socket.

So if I cut the SATA end of something like this, where do I solder the LED end to? Do I solder the 4 SATA loose ends together and then that to the LED end?

OK, so the wiring for the 6-pin Molex connector that plugs into your PSU is likely proprietary, in that it doesn't use an industry standard for the order of the pins in the connector. But the SATA connectors and the wires connecting them are standard. You can either get the tools to modify the wiring or you can get an adapter like this: https://www.amazon.com/Molex-Power-SATA-Female-Adapter/dp/B000YJMB5Y.

It's possible to find these adapters at big-box computer stores, but if you have a local rinky-dink computer repair shop, it's highly likely they either have one for sale, can make one for you, or have a supply of salvage parts that contains one. If you were in a pinch you could even use wire nuts to splice cable 1 and cable 2 together, copying the way that the adapter rearranges the wires.

You need this - https://www.amazon.com/Molex-SATA-Power-Adapter-6-Inch/dp/B000YJMB5Y

awesome thanks for the tip! I guess this connector then! https://www.amazon.com/Molex-Power-SATA-Female-Adapter/dp/B000YJMB5Y

Your PSU should have those. If not, I suspect it's VERY old and in dire need of replacement.

If you want to keep gambling on that PSU, this adapter is probably what you need?