Control Which HDD Is Active in a PC with This Power Switch

Most desktop PCs only have one HDD/SSD or two, but there are some configurations with three, four, even five. Needless to say, so many storage units use a lot of power, which is not good considering that most of them don't even get access most of the time.

True, storage units can fall into a sleep mode, or idle. They still use up energy needlessly though.

Thus, Orico has created an accessory that, after being installed in a 5.25-inch case bay, lets owners manually turn on or off power to each HDD individually.

The device gets power from a pair of 4-pin Molex connectors and delivers it to storage units via six SATA sleeved power cables.

In order for everything to work properly, the HD-PW6102, as the accessory is called, needs to be set in AHCI mode with hot-plugging enabled. This way, the OS won't choke when an HDD suddenly disappears. HDDs will work like any plug-and-play gadget (PnP).

Orico's aluminum-wrought product is selling in China, for now, at a price of 373 RMB (US $60 / 46 Euro).