powering an ide hd with only sata power supply

Hey guys i've run into a problem. I have a Dell XPS Gen 5 and my power supply has one set of LP4 power connectors and the rest are SATA power connectors. I have an older IDE hd that i wanna power up using the SATA power, but i cant find anywhere that i can find the proper power convertor for that. Currently im running the IDE hd on a controller card in one of my pci slots and for power i ran a Y split off the DVD drives. My PS is rated at 460 watts. I was told that I should have no prob the way my hd is installed but i would be at more ease knowing its connected on its on power rather than grabbing power along with 2 other drives off the same cables. I would really appreciate the help especailly since I've tried all computer stores in the area and I still have had no luck.

figures dell would do something that stupid. there should be more than one standard molex line, but who knows. what are you running besides the hard drive and a dvd burner? that should not need a splitter.

When it comes to running drives with a split connector, it should'nt be any problems. At least as long as the PSU is as powerful as yours.
Running videocards that way, is a whole different matter.
I agree with Redwench. Dell is very good at finding strange technical soloutions. lol
I tried to find such a connector. But got the same result as you.

But if you still dont like to run this setup you got?
And if you just are running the IDE drive as a HD to store important stuff on?
Then maybe getting a external IDE USB enclosure for it, would be a good idea.

Electrically your situation is not a problem, you would have to do something many more splits before maximum sustainable current dropped below what you need. Voltage is equal along both branches (its a parallel split).

I'd just use a splitter unless that one molex connector dies or whatever. In case that happens, you can do the following. You can blow a circuit in your house if you do this wrong, but it isn't difficult, just connecting the right colored wires. This will also void any warranty on your computer...

If you can find an old power supply and cut one of the set of connectors with the largest number of molex connectors. Cut all of the wires, 1 red, 1 yellow, and 2 black. Now, cut off one of the SATA connectors... it should have 5 wires, the same as the IDE + an orange.... Cap the orange and forget that it ever existed, but then connect, solder, and shrink wrap the old connector and the one coming out of the PSU, matching the right colors.... and you'll have some new molex connectors....

Where I work with accept donated computers which are sent to Africa after being repaired, but at one point a small business donated about a dozen computers and none of their floppy drives would power on... We pryed open the cases and foudn that someone had cut all the wires between the floppy drives and the power supply.... my guess was to prevent people from using removable storage.... but of stupid ideas, this is up there.