Using lots of SATA to USB adapters

Hi everyone,
I was able to get about 30 high-capacity SATA drives for a very low price.
I’d like to farm them on a low-end PC.
My idea is to buy 30 SATA-to-USB adapters (such as https://www.amazon.co.uk/USB-SATA-Adapter-Cable-Drives-en-GB-SATA-USB-3-0-converter/dp/B01N2JIQR7/ )
And to connect them to the PC using three 10-port USB hubs (such as https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sabrent-Charging-Individual-Switches-HB-B7C3/dp/B0797NWDCB/ )
Can you think of any reason why it would be a bad idea?
Thanks

This SATA to USB adapter is not suitable for HDDs. Or do you have an 30x SSD for plots?

The SATA to USB adapter that you linked from Amazon will not work with your high capacity drives.
I am assuming, since you deemed them high capacity, that they are 3.5" mechanical drives.

You will need a similar adapter, but one that has a power adapter.

The USB port has enough power for SATA SSDs, and for 2.5" mechanical SATA drives (but will not be able to power 3.5" mechanical drives).

I own two of these:

They work well.

There are many to choose from. You can probably find lower pricing. But check the reviews to see if the lower cost translates to bad reviews.

At the recommendation of @drhicom I started using these:

Your overall cost will be slightly higher.
However, instead of needing 1 power cord for each drive, you will have 1 power cord for each set of 8 drives.

Also, 8 drives will share a single USB port.

That’s helpful thanks.

The USB port has enough power for SATA SSDs, and for 2.5" mechanical SATA drives (but will not be
able to power 3.5" mechanical drives).

What if the 3.5’’ mechanical drives are plugged into a powered USB hub? Can’t they get enough power that way?

Years ago, I purchased a non-powered SATA to USB adapter, for SATA SSD drives.

I recently tested it with 3.5" mechanical drives, and it would not power the drive, even when I used a powered hub.

My guess is that a powered hub is not designed to push enough juice through the cable (or perhaps a USB cable is not designed for that amount of power)?

Even if you got one to work, I highly doubt that you will get multiple drives to work on a powered hub.
And if you got a drive to work, it might be starving for proper power, and that will send the drive to an early grave.

I do not think that you should attempt to make it do what it is not designed to do.

USB only supplies 5 volt power

A 3.5" drive needs both 12V and 5V

Also I think USB 3.0 spec rates a usb cables at 0.9 Amps max current.
3.5" hdd will use 2A or more during startup.

So, no they really need external 12V power, and then they can get the 5V from the USB

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No, still not enough power for the drive.The USB port doesn’t have the 12VDC thats needed.

So you need to get the 8-bays (they have nice lights in the dark :laughing:

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Two years ago when I started CHIA I used this. I bought USB to SATA adapter with a power plug hole. Soon after I found 12V power adapters took to much space. Then I went on get a 12V 30W power supply and made my own chain plug. I needed to buy some USB hub also.
Average cost per hard drive is about $20 (USB to SATA, external power, USB 3.0 HUB, 3D printed HDD tray). That is $20 housing for one HDD.

So, buy that $200+ 8 bay SYBA is a better choice. $25-$30 housing for one HDD.

Now I use SAS array. It is about $20 housing for one HDD. Easy, neat, and quite.

The cheapest way is doing internal. $100 20 port SATA card. You need a case though.

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I would say not to bother as there are better solutions using recycled SAS controller plus 2 expanders. My first harvester was a spice rack with ALL external USB3 HDDs (>260TB if I recall correctly) which is still running well on a single 12v PSU and ARM SoC harvester but occasionally I do get a drive or two drop and have to disconnect the drive and reconnect manually. That system has 2x 16port hubs and you will quickly find out that most USB controllers have limits on how many devices you can connect (fyi 1 USB hub is considered multiple device as they are typically made up of small 4 port hubs). My second harvester was using a SAS + 2 expanders which use SAS to 4 port SATA cables and that setup seams more rialable to me than the USB harvester.

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