Need help with cards/cabling (DIY external JBOD enclosure)

[johnodon]

Hi guys and gals...first post here! :)

I just finished my HP Z840 build. ESXi 8 is running on baremetal (I may go back to an older version for CPU support) and I am passing through the onboard SAS controller to 7x SATA spinners.

I have a ~12 year old mid-tower case that I would like to repurpose as a DIY JBOD enclosure to accommodate 8x more SATA spinners. I plan on putting a 9207-8e in the z840 and found this little doohicky in my interwebs searches that I would love to use in the enclosure:

Ebay link to card shown below

I plan on using SFF-8087 breakout cables to the 8x drives in the enclosure.

Can you all help me make sure I am using the proper SFF-8088 cables between the 9207-8e and the card pictured above, and, the proper SFF-8087 breakouts from that card to the 8x SATA drives? I seem to remember something about forward and reverse but it has been so long I don't want to buy the wrong thing.

Also, re: that card above...do you think I will run into any issues with it not supporting 8 separate lanes? Is there a better (budget) solution I should be looking at? If there is a more widely accepted 'brand' name of a card similar to the above, can you share?

TIA for the help!

John

 

[johnodon]

Being my first post I can't edit just yet. Here is what it would look like on paper:

9207-8e in the z840 --> SFF-8088 (x2) --> Card linked from Ebay in the JBOD enclosure --> SFF-8087 (x2) --> 8x SATA drives

Would all ends of all cables be male?

I found pretty much the same card on Amazon: Amazon Link