SATA Power Pinout Diagram
This SATA power pinout diagram maps all 15 pins of the standard SATA power connector — tap any pin, or a voltage chip above the diagram, and it highlights the matching pins and shows their voltage, standard ATX wire color, and a plain-English multimeter test tip. It's the only interactive SATA power pinout diagram around — no squinting at a static image or scrolling a forum thread to count pins. Everything runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded and there's no download.
SATA Power Connector Pin Layout (15-Pin Overview)
The SATA power connector is a single row of 15 flat pins, grouped into five 3-pin blocks. Each block carries one function, and the same pattern is identical on every SATA drive and PSU cable built to spec:
| Pins | Function | Wire color |
|---|---|---|
| 1–3 | 3.3V | Orange |
| 4–6 | Ground | Black |
| 7–9 | 5V | Red |
| 10–12 | Ground | Black |
| 13–15 | 12V | Yellow |
Tap any pin in the diagram above and the panel below it opens with that pin's exact function — tap pin 5, for example, and it highlights pins 4–6 as a group and confirms all three are ground. Tap a voltage chip (3.3V, 5V, 12V, or GND) instead to highlight every pin on that rail across the whole connector at once, including both ground blocks together.
SATA Power Wire Colors and Voltage Rails
SATA power cables follow the same ATX color code — sometimes called the SATA power color code — as a desktop PSU's motherboard cable, so the colors read the same way no matter which manufacturer made the cable: orange is 3.3V, red is 5V, yellow is 12V, and black is ground on every rail. If you're staring at a loose cable with no connector in sight, the wire color alone is usually enough to identify which rail you're holding — no multimeter required.
Most spinning hard drives use the 12V rail to spin the platters and the 5V rail for the drive's logic board; 2.5" drives and SSDs mostly run on 5V alone. The 3.3V rail is the least used of the three — see the FAQ below for what that means for cables that skip it.
Cable Side vs. Device Side Pinout
The same 15 pins read in opposite left-to-right order depending on which face of the connector you're looking at. The cable side is the plug on the end of the PSU cable that you push onto the drive; the device side is the receptacle (sometimes called the socket) built into the drive itself. Because you're viewing the same physical row of contacts from opposite faces, pin 1 sits on the opposite side of the connector depending which one you're reading — exactly the kind of thing that leads to a misread pin number mid-probe.
Use the Cable side (plug) / Device side (receptacle) toggle above the diagram to match whichever connector you actually have in your hand — the whole row mirrors and renumbers itself so the pin you're looking at on-screen matches the pin under your probe.
Staggered Pins and Safe Hot-Plugging
Look closely at pins 4, 7, and 13 in the diagram — they're marked with a small dot and drawn slightly shorter than their neighbors, because on a real connector they physically are. Those three pins are cut shorter so they make contact first during insertion, in this order: ground (pin 4), then 5V (pin 7), then 12V (pin 13). That staggered sequence pre-charges the drive's ground and lower-voltage rails before the full connection completes, which is what makes it safe to plug or unplug a SATA power cable while the system is running.
SATA Power Connector Amperage and Current Limits
Each individual pin on a SATA power connector is rated for up to 1.5A continuous. Since every rail — 3.3V, 5V, and 12V — is wired across three parallel pins, the combined maximum works out to roughly 4.5A per rail. That's far more than a single hard drive, SSD, or optical drive ever draws, which is why one SATA power connector safely runs a drive on its own without needing a heavier gauge cable.
Frequently asked questions
What voltage does each SATA power pin carry?
Pins 1–3 carry 3.3V, pins 4–6 and 10–12 are ground, pins 7–9 carry 5V, and pins 13–15 carry 12V. Tap any pin or a voltage chip in the diagram above to see exactly which pins belong to which rail.
What color is the SATA power wire for each voltage?
Following the standard ATX color code, the 3.3V wire is orange, 5V is red, 12V is yellow, and every ground wire is black. These colors are consistent across PSU manufacturers, so they're the fastest way to identify a rail without a multimeter.
How many amps can a SATA power connector handle?
Each individual SATA power pin is rated for up to 1.5A continuous. Since every rail (3.3V, 5V, and 12V) uses three parallel pins, the combined maximum per rail works out to roughly 4.5A — comfortably enough for a single hard drive, SSD, or optical drive.
Do all SATA power cables include the 3.3V pin?
Not always. Most hard drives and SSDs never use the 3.3V rail, so some budget PSU cables and splitters omit pins 1–3 entirely or leave them unconnected. It's rarely a problem — a drive that needs 3.3V is uncommon — but it's worth checking if a specific drive's spec sheet calls for it.
Does a SATA cable provide power on its own?
No. The thin 7-pin SATA data cable only carries the data signal — it has no power pins at all. Power comes from a completely separate 15-pin SATA power connector (the one on this page), plugged into its own port on the drive next to the data connector.
What's the difference between the cable-side and device-side pinout?
They're the same 15 pins, but the left-to-right reading order reverses depending on which face you're looking at — the plug on the cable end reads pin 1 to 15 one way, and the receptacle on the drive reads it mirrored. Use the orientation toggle above the diagram to flip between them so you don't misread a pin while probing.
