Power to Internal Peripherals

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  • čas přidán 25. 07. 2024
  • In this video from ITFreeTraining, I will have a look at the internal power connectors that are used inside the computer. These power connectors provide electricity to peripherals inside your computer and sometimes to the devices outside your computer.
    Download the PDF handout: itfreetraining.com/handouts/ap...
    Internal Power
    0:13 There are many devices in your computer that require power. The typical ones are your hard disk drive, solid state drive, optical drive and fans. The three main power connectors for these are the Molex, mini Molex and SATA.
    These are the three standard power connectors that are used inside a computer to power devices. There are other cables that are used to power expansion cards and the motherboard; however, I will look at these in a different video.
    Molex Power
    0:41 The first connector that I will look at is the Molex connector. Molex connectors were designed back in the early 1960s. There were many different types of Molex connectors and they became quite popular in electrical equipment.
    In computers, the large Molex connector is the primary one that is used. This male connector has cylindrical metal sockets. The female connector has cylindrical sprung-metal pins. The idea being that, when put into the plug, the metal sockets expand to lock the connector into place.
    Although this Molex connector in the old days was quite popular, nowadays this connector is only used on older devices and some internal fans.
    Due to the way the connector is designed, this does mean that some force needs to be used to plug and unplug these connectors. To prevent the connector being put in the wrong way, there are chamfers on one side of the connector.
    A chamfer is essentially an angular notching on the connector. You can see that these make the connector angular at the top. When inserting these connectors, make sure that the chamfers line up. It is possible (using a lot of force) to get the connector in, incorrectly, but this will most likely damage the device.
    If you do get the Molex connector in the wrong way, the power going to the device will be swapped. As you can see, the red wire is five volts and the yellow wire is 12 volts. When the connector is reversed, the voltages will be reversed and potentially the device connected to it will be damaged.
    Nowadays this connector is mainly used for older hard disk drives and case fans. On older motherboards, you may find that there is one of these connectors to provide extra power to the motherboard. On modern motherboards, due to the increase in the number of wires used to power the motherboard, you generally don’t find the Molex connector is used anymore, since the motherboard already has enough power from these wires.
    You may also find that some old video cards have a Molex connector, but like the motherboards, modern power supplies have additional power cables that can be used to supply a video card’s extra power requirement, rather than using the Molex connector.
    The Molex connector is good for big devices, but for small devices it is a little too big.
    Mini Molex or Berg Connector
    2:58 To make the power connector smaller, the mini Molex or Berg connector was added. This connector was the same electrically as the larger Molex connector but only smaller. It was primarily used for floppy disk drives. For this reason, you may see it referred to in documentation as the floppy disk power connector. Primarily it is used for floppy disk drives; however, you may find it used in other devices, but not many.
    Nowadays, the floppy disk drive is obsolete technology. Very rarely I will use a floppy disk drive to update an old motherboard’s BIOS, but having said that, most old motherboards support USB flash RAM. I have not had the need to use the mini Molex connector - I would say - for the last ten years. For this reason, you will find that some power supplies will no longer include the mini Molex connector.
    Description to long for CZcams. Please see the following link for the rest of the description. itfreetraining.com/ap/1c50
    References
    “The Official CompTIA A+ Core Study Guide (Exam 220-1001)” Chapter 3 Position 11267-11385
    “CompTIA A+ Certification exam guide. Tenth edition” Pages 263 - 265
    “Molex connector” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molex_c...
    “Berg connector” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berg_co...
    “Serial ATA” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA
    Credits
    Trainer: Austin Mason ITFreeTraining.com
    Voice Talent: HP Lewis hplewis.com
    Quality Assurance: Brett Batson www.pbb-proofreading.uk

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