SAS Backplane extension cables (Do they work?)

[Temereen64]

Greetings Everyone,

I want to build a custom case where my hard drives would connect to my SAS backplane through an extension cable. The cables I intend to purchase would allow me to mount my hard drives in the front of the case and install the backplane along the sides of the case. Do these types of things work or should I avoid them? I will be using Sata hard drives instead of SAS drives. What do all of you think?

SAS Extension cables

SAS Backplane SFF-8482 to SFF-8482 SAS Drive 'Extension' Cable - CS Electronics

SAS Backplane SFF-8482 to SFF-8482 SAS Drive 'Extension' Cable

cs-electronics.com

 

[jgreco]

Why would you ever do that?

If it's because the backplane has an expander, it might be better to see if you could just find a standalone expander. They exist, and would be a much better way to go.

Otherwise it seems like it'd be a huge amount of screwing around for unclear benefit, which is usually a good ways down the "path to oops" (and smoke and fire).

And if you're doing SATA drives, the *only* way that'd be likely to work out is with an expander, because SATA cable length is limited to 1M. So the more I think about this, the more terrible it looks.