in which computer case is this card fitting? what is your case?
Probably corsair carbide 300r. Ideally I do not want to bring SFF-8088 cables from inside the chassis out to the HBA, but would prefer to make the expander's SFF-8088 interfaces external.
How it fits I don't know yet but I see three options at the moment:
1) fit into the motherboard tray at the ATX IO Shield and ultimately cut holes in a blank shield to bring the SFF-8088 out.
2) fit above the card brackets, probably inverted for cable clearance and bring the SFF-8088 out there.
3) install in motherboard tray, this will require either SFF-8088 to SFF-8087 to a SFF-8088 card bracket or using SFF-8087 cables to a card bracket (giving up 4-8 drives per expander) and I worry about the link speeds with multiple gender/connector changes (effective cable length).
All of these options will require drill/tap standoff mounting of some kind. I was looking at using pcie x16 mining adapter(s) (again drill/tap required) for power and installing HPE expander (s).