[SOLVED] Please help with external SAS/SATA enclosure

[Trozmagon]

Hi Guys, I'm looking for a little help.

 

I'm running an mITX build without an available PCIe slot and I was running external USB drives but I can't handle the constant bottle necks and randomness I've been getting so I managed to get my hands on a SilverStone TS431S with a mini SAS 8088 connection.

 

This is my first venture into SAS but I'm only running 4*SATA drives in it so at first I thought an SFF-8088 to 4*SATA breakout cable straight to the motherboard would work but when I tried it none of the drives would show up. 

 

I then discovered that to run the drives off the motherboards SATA controller I would need a reverse breakout cable, so I went ahead and got one of these MINI SAS 26 Pin SFF-8088 Female to 4*SATA Reverse Cable to connect to the SATA ports on the motherboard and an SFF-8088 to SFF-8088 External Cable but still none of my drives will show up.

 

I was under the impression that the SATA controller would be able to see SATA drives coming from a SAS connection if I was using a reverse cable but I'm just not sure what I'm missing, if I had an available PCIe slot I would just get a SAS controller but unfortunately I can't sacrifice my GPU for one . 

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Edited April 4, 2021 by Trozmagon

[Vr2Io]

Seems nothing wrong on cable. Whole path was 2m + 0.6m . Pls try shorter total length as you are using SATA not SAS.

 

For add a LSI HBA , you can try adapt it to M.2 slot.

Edited April 4, 2021 by Vr2Io

[Trozmagon]

22 hours ago, Vr2Io said:

Seems nothing wrong on cable. Whole path was 2m + 0.6m . Pls try shorter total length as you are using SATA not SAS.

 

For add a LSI HBA , you can try adapt it to M.2 slot.

Ohhh mate you're a life saver, I had another shorter cable and it's working, Thank you so much!

[sonofdbn]

@Trozmagon How long was this shorter cable? I assume you mean the SFF-8088 to SFF-8088 external cable?