Help powering HDD mini-ITX system (Intel D945GCLF + KC3000)

DeBilbao · Post by **DeBilbao** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 1:59 am

I'm trying to setup a system with the following elements:

Intel D945GCLF motherboard with Atom 230 @ 1.60GHz processor
1 GB RAM PC5300 DDR2 667 MHz
160 GB 2.5" SATA hard drive (Western Digital Scorpio series)
Pioneer DVR-KD08 Slim optical unit
Mapower KC3000 case with external PSU.

This is the external aspect of the â€œthingâ€

axsnetworks · Post by **axsnetworks** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 2:32 am

Hey Que pasa tio....
ok so lets stop the spanish....
I hyave the same exact case.... and if you trace the volys on the power supply you will find out that the ones left out are the ground and the 5v...
so you'll have to butchered the cable in half... and then solder the four left cables to a sata and a ide adapter
ill try to post some pictures of it
un saludo

axsnetworks · Post by **axsnetworks** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 2:52 am

Ok I think I explained myself too quickly so here it goes.....

lets take this image for all the details...
as you can see I have highlighted the volts how they are supposed to be...
so now you have seen that the cable has the same connectors at both ends right?
so what you need to do is cut that cable in half....I know it hurts, you just bought the case and the cable looks so pretty....but there is no other way as they don't sell that cable anywhere, I've looked

and now you have to cable that end the same....
what you wold need now is to solder the cut of cable to a SATA adapter, those that sell in any pc store (asus ships them with their motherboards) and also find a floppy connector, as you will need to buy a adapter for that dvd drive as it won't fit anymore....
all this wont cost more than 20â‚¬, but its better that buying a new drive... besides your motherboard does not have more than one ide connector....
if you have any doubt don't hesitate to contact me thru private and I could explain it to you in Spanish

DeBilbao · Post by **DeBilbao** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 7:07 am

Thanks to axsnetworks for the help

I'll update the post with the latest news:

There is also a P4 connector right there in the middle of the board that needs to be powered with 12V. Iâ€™ve tried to turn on the system without it plugged and it doesnâ€™t work. Iâ€™ve tested it with an external PSU with a P4 connector and it works, so I need to provide 12V to this connector.

Iâ€™ve cutted the P4 connector cable from an old Pentium PSU and hope I can get the 12V from the power board of the case.

The real problem is that the connectors of this case are NOT standard. It has 4 male connectors with a pinout of 12V / GND / GND / 5V and a female connector like the one shown in this photo with the twisted red and black cable. These are propietary cables from Mapower and there is only one included in the case, used to power de IDE connector. The only solution as show by axsnetworks is to cut this cable and resolder both ends to a SATA power connector and the power section of a DVD slim to IDE conversor.

And in this case Iâ€™m still missing the connector for the P4 cable ...

I donâ€™t know if Iâ€™ll be able to solve this. Iâ€™m beginning to think that I should change the case to a Noah CRS3988B-80 but I don't know where to buy in Spain.

lowpowercomputing · Post by **lowpowercomputing** » Sun Jul 06, 2008 6:12 am

Hello, looks like a nice set-up apart from the case quirks. As for running fanless, you should be careful. I wrote about that in my thread about the D945GCLF's first impressions and set up. With no case and relatively low ambient temps (around 20*C I guess) the system heated up very quickly when the chipset fan was disconnected. A few minutes of load brought the temps up significantly and I stopped testing. To conclude it, the desktop 945GC chipset is not meant to be run passively I'm afraid. So if you try to run the board completely passively, be sure to keep an eye on the temperatures and check if this board is still entirely stable. You can connect the chipset fan to the other (controlled) connector and set the fan control to Automatic in BIOS, I've done that too and now the fan often stays at ~4000 rpm according to SpeedFan insntead of constantly running at ~4800 or whatever it was before doing that mod. It is much quieter now and still running stable. It ramps up when under load though.