don't use Y cables???

[XinFamousX101]

when i was reading a Maxium pc magazine about building your own computer, i came to this line:

"Your drives require dedicated power cables-don 't use Y cables. each optical drive requires a D-shaped four-pin plug..."

so does Y cables actually have an effect on things?

my graphic card requires 2 power connectors.. and i am using a Y cable to make it into 1. so does a Y cable actually reduce the power output or something???

any help is appreciated.

[Eguy]

hmm thats weird, I use 30,000 in my pc and haven't noticed a difference??

[Raven]

using one, it splits one molex into 3 and 2 of them goes to a molex->pcie contat to the gfx card and the third one goes to a harddrive and works good.

used to have 2 of them and didnt had any trouble.

they might have forgot to mention that using y-cables on psu can eaisly push aweak psu more than it can handle.

a powerfull psu tends to have more contacts available than weaker ones.

[Jim]

The only possible reason i could think of is that there could be some interference put back onto the power cable, so you wouldnt want to share that with the other hard disk (some PSU's even have dedicated shielded Hard Disk cables).

Apart from that, they are just being a bit anal about it. I use a splitter. Never had a problem yet

[dave87]

I think with the PCI-e adapters (for gfx cards) your are meant to have power from 2 rails on your power suppyl, so thats why you get 2 molex connectors.

But otherwise, I see no problem in using them, though I (atm) only use them for fans

[Raven]

Originally Posted by name='dave87'

I think with the PCI-e adapters (for gfx cards) your are meant to have power from 2 rails on your power suppyl, so thats why you get 2 molex connectors.

abit hard for me with only an antec truepower 380w S

[mr_fishbulb]

2 devices draw more current down one wire than 1. If the PSU can't handle it then you'll either fuse it, set it on fire, or most likely it will reset itself when you are doing something power intensive.

I'm sure it depends on what you want to split the power between. Using a Y-Splitter on a DVD Burner and a regular hard drive isn't going to draw much current, but using it on a top spec graphics card and a 10,000rpm disk drive might.

[Raven]

read along time ago that the wires on my antec is guaranted to manage 8a for each wire without problems.

8a is alot of power, its 96w for a 12v wire and very few devices even come close to that amount of power.

not even most gfx card come close to that.

according to a test xbitlabs have run my 7800gt uses almost 57w at max load or 20w idle.

[XinFamousX101]

ic

so it doesn't matter.. Great!

[NickS]

My card draws about 100w load at stock settings .

Nick