The new mobo I am looking at only has 2 sata connectors and I am using those for the hdds. Is there a way to convert a 3.2 gen 1 header to sata for my optical drive?
Something like a Delock 62652 plugged into an adapter would work.
Onboard to USB Type-A is available from plenty of sources:
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What you wish to do should work.
Not all USB to SATA (or PATA) adapters will work correctly (or at all) with optical drives. It’s always been rather hit and miss which work properly with ATAPI.
I’ve got a few different USB 3 adapters, but can’t remember which bridge chips do/don’t work. My success rate with USB 3 adapters has been significaantly better than in the old days with USB 2.
The adapter could work if I could also find a usb to sata cable that is data only. I think the drive will need more power than the usb can provide.
With the vanishing sata and pcie in mobos you would think there would be adapters for the usb headers. Doesn’t the usb 3.1 provide a lot of power as well? I wonder why there is nothing out there.