11 hours ago, rcollins said:

I have x5 6tb SAS drives that plug into a backplane that has SATA ports out for each drive

Can you clarify this? You cannot use SAS drives with a SATA backplane; you can use SATA drives with a SAS backplane.

9 hours ago, JorgeB said:

Can you clarify this? You cannot use SAS drives with a SATA backplane; you can use SATA drives with a SAS backplane.

Apologies for my ignorance, this is the nas I got https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BQJ6BCB7?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

Here is a photo of the backplane it uses.

That's fine; a SAS backplane can also handle SATA disks.

As for a controller, I would go with a JMB585 (5 ports) or Asmedia1166 (6 ports); both exist in PCI or M.2 form factors.

And to clarify, those controllers will work with the SAS drives I have in my backplane?

21 minutes ago, rcollins said:

And to clarify, those controllers will work with the SAS drives I have in my backplane?

Nope, sorry, I completely forgot the devices are SAS, you need an HBA, like an LSI 9300-8i or similar.

Yeah, that is the problem I have been running into. I believe the ones mentioned above are all PCIe x8, and I only have an x4 and an m.2. Otherwise, I think I thinki will use a 9300-8i in m.2 to x16 adapter.

Edited April 21Apr 21 by rcollins

Yep, HBAs are typically x8.