G5 Late 2005 LED lighting power problem

[LarsG5]

Hi,
I'd love to mod my PM G5 by adding LED strips inside, but I've ran into a problem I don't know how to solve.
As I have upgraded the GPU, the 6 pin pci-e power socket on the motherboard is already occupied, along with the two of four pci-e expansion lanes. I have both HDD bays occupied as well, and I don't want to unplug the DVD drive.
How can I source power for LED strips then? Can I use a molex splitter to gain a second connector from the DVD one? Or could I install a pci-e expansion card with a couple of additional sata connectors, and then use some sata to molex adapters and source the power I need that way?

I'd be very grateful for any advice

 

[gavinstubbs09]

Yes you can split from the optical drive power cable.

 

[LarsG5]

Thanks for the reply!
But still, it'll allow me to install only one LED strip, right?
Is there anyway I could source the power from a pci-e lane, as I've got two of them unoccupied?

 

[gavinstubbs09]

I would say that you could run 2 safely since LEDs pull very little power.

Unfortunately I'm not aware of any way to pull power from the PCI-e lane so your best (and easiest) bet would be splitting from the ODD.

 

[LarsG5]

Thanks!
Two strips are still not enough for me, but better two than zero...

 

[0248294]

How much LED strips do you want to run? I very much doubt you could run enough to pull too much power from the ODD line, since LEDs are so energy efficient.

 

[LarsG5]

I was thinking about at least 4...
Btw, what about usb as a power source?

 

[thats all folks]

USB supplies 5V. the Molex on the DVD will give both 12 and 5. so, depends on your lights.

 

[0248294]

I'm fairly sure you can pull off 4 on one ODD line. I'd leave the USB alone as they have a limited power rating, which could lead to problems when using a USB device that uses a lot of power.

 

[LarsG5]

I'm fairly sure you can pull off 4 on one ODD line. I'd leave the USB alone as they have a limited power rating, which could lead to problems when using a USB device that uses a lot of power.

When it comes to USB, I was thinking about a separate internal pci-e controller only to power LEDs, so there would be no problem with other devices.

So... You think it's possible to power ODD and 4 LED strips from a single molex. That would be awesome!

 

[1042686]

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