I learned last week, after over 30 years of assembling my own computers, that there are (at least) two types of modular power cables for SATA drives. The way I learned this was to grab a cable that fit between my power supply, two hard drives, and a DVD burner, and turned my computer on. In the past, in my experience, if the cable had the right connectors, it would work. Apparently, there is no standardization for the power side pin-out, and some manufacturers (Corsair, at least) wired that end differently for some cables, and using the wrong cable will blow up any drive attached.
Or something like that, I dunno, I was too mad to look into it any further. Fortunately, I didn’t lose anything irreplaceable, so all it cost me is money and embarrassment.
afaik there is no ‘standard’ for modular power supply cables. you have to make sure the ones you’re using are for the specific psu you’re using, and that can even vary between models from the same manufacturer.
I learned last week, after over 30 years of assembling my own computers, that there are (at least) two types of modular power cables for SATA drives. The way I learned this was to grab a cable that fit between my power supply, two hard drives, and a DVD burner, and turned my computer on. In the past, in my experience, if the cable had the right connectors, it would work. Apparently, there is no standardization for the power side pin-out, and some manufacturers (Corsair, at least) wired that end differently for some cables, and using the wrong cable will blow up any drive attached.
Or something like that, I dunno, I was too mad to look into it any further. Fortunately, I didn’t lose anything irreplaceable, so all it cost me is money and embarrassment.
afaik there is no ‘standard’ for modular power supply cables. you have to make sure the ones you’re using are for the specific psu you’re using, and that can even vary between models from the same manufacturer.
Corsair specifically has type 4, type 5, etc so yea even the same brand’s cables aren’t safe to use across PSUs
I read about that a couple of years ago, I am speechless that such a thing is even allowed to exist.
As bad as proliferation of standards is, the only thing worse is no standard at all. That’s how we got that. Everybody just did whatever they wanted.