Question Short molex connector or 90 degree molex connector cable?

[ruthan]

Hello,
i need some very short mole connector cable or 90 degree connector cable, for my retro multiboot X58 machine (i can still boot DOS with working sound, WIn98/2000 and XP, along side modern OSes), there is heatsink very close to first 1x PCI-E slot, where i have USB controller,
which needs molex power..

If such cable exist some eBay or UK based link where to buy it would be very nice.

MB is this:
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-EX58-UD5-rev-10#ov

I have cable with suitable connector size, but its its molex to floppy, i need molex to molex, or sata to mole with this size.


Here you can see how much place i have for connector:

 

[C1]

There's an outstanding chance that Fry's Electronics has what you need, but Newegg does for sure:

Oy ya, if I remember right, Fry's should actually have the different parts to make up molex connectors (look in the components section) so you should be able to just buy the plastic connctor and replace your existing stright connector. No soldering or anything required as the connector pins are removable using a very small (ie, thin) screw driver to press on the connector pin tabs.

 

[ruthan]

Thanks, but i thing that this one is still too long.

Im in Europe, so eBay or some UK store would be better..

 

[C1]

I wouldnt think that you are using ALL three PCI-E X16/8 slots. Is the Orange PCI-E x8 slot open? You can move and run your 1x PCI-E controller card in it (or even any of other available PCI-E slot).

"You can use a PCIe x1 card, or a PCIe x4 card in a PCIe x16 slot. They work fine. So if you think you are short of PCI-e slots, you may not be. A shorter PCIe card works fine in a longer slot.Sep 7, 2015"

https://www.tenforums.com/pc-custom-builds-overclocking/21559-using-pcie-x1-card-pcie-x16-slot.html

 

[ruthan]

There is not such easy solution, im using videocard and other cards per OS so all slots are used, i would use more, if i would have more than 7.

 

[C1]

Well that's pretty tight.

What Im gonna say may be a bit off the wall, but here goes.

Mainly, customize a connector to fit.

Take a regular molex connector (presumably female). Remove the pins from the plastic body, then using a fine blade hacksaw, slice the back end of the body of the plastic molex connector to a length that will fit.

In this case lets say that the remaining piece turns out to be a plastic block with four connector holes thats 3/8 ".

re-Mount the wires with metal terminals (presumably female) into the cut-down 3/8" plastic block, right angle the the wires at the back (ensuring terminal ends are flush to the molex insert end), then epoxy the back end of the cut down connector using JB Weld so that metal terminals in the modified block are epoxy fused in it.

Apply the epoxy suitably to ensure that the terminals cannot move (eg, laterally or fore & aft) so that they will neither short by touching together nor pop out when the molex is removed/inserted.

The epoxy also should be the insulator for the back of the connector.


Good Luck

 

[ruthan]

I hoped that i can buy some smaller molex somewhere if not, yes made it is could be only solution, except, remove the board and cut the heatsink, what would be probably over more pain..

 

[VirtualLarry]

I'm going to suggest something different - a different USB3.0 card, perhaps one with a connector along the top edge (when inserted), or using a floppy-style power connector, rather than molex.
Or maybe SATA, they make enough 90-degree SATA power adapters too.
Edit: IMHO, life's too short to futz with hacksawing obsolete molex connectors, just because you don't want to spend a little more $$ on another USB3.0 card. They're like $10-20 USD at most.

Edit: Another alternative, is just to "pigtail it". De-solder the connector off of the board, and then cut a molex adapter, and solder the wires directly to the board. Messy, non-reversable, but it should work too.

 

[ruthan]

Yeah its possible, but its more workaround.. than what i wanted, it would be nice to have even for these situations some small molex..