MOLEX, How Much Juice can 1 conector take

[Croak3]

Hello,

I'm doing a kind of unique mod which will result in having overy thing hidden except for a box on my desk with a cd DVD drive and a 4 channel fan controler, ... posibly the on off switch.

My fans are 10,6 watts each (& I may try to double a couple up a single channel) . The Controler is rated at 20 watts per per channel ( x 4), Don't know the wattage of the DVD requires. Would like to run abou 5' of a molex cable to a single molex connector on my PSU (550 watt)

Questions, can a single molex lead off the PSU provide the...um.. juice to travel 5 ' to the 80w. (4x20w) fan controler and run the cd drive?

THanks Croak

 

[Vertigo Acid]

The gauge of the wire from your power supply, not the molex connector itself, is going to be your limiting factor

 

[TMan1876]

13A give or take...

http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/st...ny5fS7XZkGce/21SdARO+luswUXgShYysSYNMZy/4aFFo

 

[Croak3]

The gauge of the wire from your power supply, not the molex connector itself, is going to be your limiting factor

Ya, I gues thats what im trying to figure. The 5' length I can make whatever guage I want (any recomendations).

I'm going to guess its only as good as the weakest link, the lead right off the PSU (no?), If so what should I look for here (guage wise (there about 1.5 ft) ? If it's to small, can jon 2 seets of molex cables ino on, or would that give me 24v (12 x2 )?

Thanks for yout reply.

Croak

 

[TMan1876]

Those fans are going to be drawing less than 1A (assuming they are running at 12V), and I don't believe that an optical drive will draw all that much. You could probably run 8-10 fans off of one molex without too much trouble.

 

[[Spectre]]

I have put 20A across one molex before during load testing. If you are going to do the mod go with 18AWG or better.

 

[Rix2357]

I remember using a....150ish watt peltier before using only one molex connector on an antec power supply. The connector did burn up. After I made a home brew y cable, I didn't have any problems afterwards.

 

[Croak3]

I remember using a....150ish watt peltier before using only one molex connector on an antec power supply. The connector did burn up. After I made a home brew y cable, I didn't have any problems afterwards.

By a home brew cable, do you mean 2 molexes into 1?

Thanks Croak

 

[Croak3]

I have put 20A across one molex before during load testing. If you are going to do the mod go with 18AWG or better.

In that case, what about the pigtale into the PSU? do I need to "break & enter" the psu an run my 18AWG to it's source.

Also, what about those weenie fan leads (also need to run 5' from controler to fans in case)? there Im pretty much stuck with watever ive got pn the leads, but after that, any merit to having the log run a thicker guage?

Thanks in advance

Croak

 

[[Spectre]]

In that case, what about the pigtale into the PSU? do I need to "break & enter" the psu an run my 18AWG to it's source.

Good power supplies will be 18AWG on their leads that carry power.

Also, what about those weenie fan leads (also need to run 5' from controler to fans in case)?

The first one I grabbed was 18AWG also. I'll check some more here.

there Im pretty much stuck with watever ive got pn the leads, but after that, any merit to having the log run a thicker guage?

Thanks in advance

Croak

In a real practical sense after modifying it probably not.

 

[Croak3]

Those fans are going to be drawing less than 1A (assuming they are running at 12V), and I don't believe that an optical drive will draw all that much. You could probably run 8-10 fans off of one molex without too much trouble.

Sensible addvice, would you worry at all about using the same guage of (hard) wire(d) coming off the fan controler leads for my home brew 5' extention cords.

Thanx, Croak

 

[Rix2357]

By a home brew cable, do you mean 2 molexes into 1?

Thanks Croak

Meaning that I used two of the connectors even though they were plugged into the same wire. The problem is that the molex connector itself is made of pretty thin metal and suffered from bad contact. The peltier current draw was enough to heat it that I had a charred connector after a few months of use, but using two connectors fixed everything up.