44-pin to 40 + 4 pin adapter for notebook HDDs/optical drives

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xonik

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Jun 20, 2001
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I'm sure that some of you SFF folks have these adapters--you know, the ones that let you connect laptop drives to the standard 40-pin IDE cables and 4-pin Molex-type power connectors. I'm just wondering if anyone knows where to find them at a good price. I couldn't find them at NewEgg--any suggestions?

The best price I've found was $15 shipped, at Logic Supply.
 
Okay, I found the CompGeeks one--only $9. I'll give CompUSA a call tomorrow too. Thanks.
 
purely out of curiosity - why would you want to throw a laptop hd into a desktop computer? unless you burned out a laptop mobo, i can't figure out a reason to have a 4200 rpm hard drive in a desktop. it'd drive me nuts. if anything i'd get an external enclosure if i needed to save data...

*edit*

actually i remember seeing an sff case that would only take laptop optical drives, but i imagine those already have the converters.
 
Woofer00 said:
purely out of curiosity - why would you want to throw a laptop hd into a desktop computer? unless you burned out a laptop mobo, i can't figure out a reason to have a 4200 rpm hard drive in a desktop. it'd drive me nuts. if anything i'd get an external enclosure if i needed to save data...

*edit*

actually i remember seeing an sff case that would only take laptop optical drives, but i imagine those already have the converters.
Click to expand...

I use it all the time when fixing laptops. If someone has data they want to save on their laptop this is one way of getting it off. Also I have a HD based MP3 player with USB 1.1 so this is faster than that. Its a lot easier with a removable HD tray - which is what I use.
 
Woofer00 said:
purely out of curiosity - why would you want to throw a laptop hd into a desktop computer?
Click to expand...
It's for an extremely small form factor computer involving a Mini-ITX motherboard. The laptop drive was selected for its utter quietness and small physical size. It's a 5400 RPM Samsung drive with 8 MB of cache, so it should perform comparably to many desktop 7200 RPM drives anyways.
 
Just a note, laptop CD/DVD roms do not use the same pinout as harddrives. Laptop CD drives have a small 50 pin Centronics for thier connector. Adapters for laptop CD to desktop IDE cost about the same as notebook HD to IDE adapters, and most places that carry one will likely carry the other.
 
Yes, that's true. My thread title was misleading, but I've accounted for this difference in my pursuits.
 
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