Neat. So since I have X10SL7-F, can I use the 8x SAS2 Ports on the mobo with 2 reverse breakout cables? And then I need to figure out which HBA I need to get for the other 2 (or 4) sff-8087 backplane connections. (Motherboard had 1x PCI-E 3.0 x8 (in x16), 1x PCI-E 2.0 x4 (in x8))You don't have to replace the backplane if you have enough HBAs / SATA / SAS ports to connect 24 drives. In theory, that actually is the fastest way to connect your drives - expanders are always limiting bandwidth, even if that may not be really relevant in everyday use.
Another advantage of the BPN-SAS-846A backplane is that it actually supports SAS3 (12Gb/s), even if unofficially.
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