The JMCD-12S4 case supports 12 SATA disks via a backplane. Any experience how to set this up well?

My mobo (X299-A) supports 8 SATA disks. So, I will for sure require an HBA disk. Question is whether I buy one 8i-card, two 8i card, or on 16i card. Depending how I connect from mobo/hba to the backplane and what's most performant. Also curious what cables I'd need.

Any thoughts appreciated!!!

buy a simple and cheap 4 port sata card (PCIe 1x) and put it into the slot.

Then you also need 3* "Mini SAS SFF-8087 > 4 x SATA 7 Pin Reverse" Cables (they look like the more common 1*SAS->4*Sata Cables, but do the opposite!). Connect 4 ports of each cables to motherboard + PCIe Sata Controller and the 3 ends of the cable to your backplane.

There are not many "flying cables" around then.

But beware: the small pics from the case look like as if there is a different connect-type then the widespread SFF-8087 beeing used! Its hard to tell, so make sure you read the manual that comes with the case CAREFULLY!. But in any case, you need REVERSE cables!!!

Example of Cable:

https://www.delock.de/produkt/83319/merkmale.html?setLanguage=en

Edited September 14, 2025Sep 14 by MAM59

Thanks for your quick response. Super helpful. Seems quite easy to get done.

A few follow-ups:

1) Is there no cable that allows me to connect directly from the HBA with one-connect to one-connect (rather than going 4 to 1)? Not sure whether this is clear what's in my mind. If I looked at standard HBA cards like the 9300-8i (for 8 disks), they have 2 connections. So ideally I can do from these 2 connects to two connections on the backpane. Rather than having one cable from the HBA with 1-to-4 and yet another with 4-to-1 to go to the backplane.

2) The cable you showed above would allow me to connect the back plane to the mobo. I'd neeed another cable though if I were to connect to the back plane?

3) I am not 100% clear whether my X299-A really supports 8 SATA disks or whether I "lost" some by having connected NVME disks and whatever else to it? So maybe to be safe, it may be easier to connect 4 disks to the mobo and 8 disks to a HBA card. Assume HBA cards and direct mobo connection is equally performant?

4) Does it make a difference whether I connect the HBA-8i card to a 16x, 8x or 4x PCI port? Assuming I will connect 8 SATA disks to it?

Thanks a lot in advance for your help! I am getting ready for the new built!