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Worst PC hardware trends that disappeared (www.xda-developers.com)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 3 months ago (5 children)

Molex connectors were almost universally hated for being flimsy and requiring a lot of effort to connect properly. They were fortunately replaced by SATA connectors.

I can understand the "lot of effort", but flimsy? Those things were built like a tank. SATA connectors certainly aren't more-durable (not that that normally matters, inside a case).

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Yes they were flimsy. When pushing them together the crimped ends would get pushed out the back of the plastic connector casing. Or they wouldn't align properly and would require either major force or fiddly realignment.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago

I remember instances where the force required to disconnect the connector caused me to slip and rip a wire out.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

They also came from a time when hard drives could draw several amps while in use and much more on spin-up. There was a good reason why SCSI drive arrays used to spin each disk up one-by-one.

Molex connectors are good for 10 amps or so, SATA connectors couldn't have handled that amount of current.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I have seen so many flimsy molex connectors. SATA was far, far, far more robust. They were enormously flimsy. Are you thinking of the right connector?