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I have a DELL 2950 with a PERC5/i controller and a SAS backplane and my intention is to switch to SATA on the cheap. I don't even have drive trays.

This backplane has SAS ports. I just bought 2 trays. Unfortunately those trays do not include interposer boards (SAS/SATA adapter) and I can't afford to buy these.

I see there is an additional SAS port on the PERC and I've read that there is an 1SAS-to-4SATA cable (http://www.otto.de/DELOCK-KabelAdapter-SAS-32pin-zu-4x-SATA-Metall-SFF-8484-4x-SATA/shop-de_dpip_A91355P-0/#Ueberblick).

Can I use that instead of the interposer method? I probably just have to connect it from the PERC to the hard drives...

Where can I get the power cables for the drives?

ewwhite
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Florence V. Lee
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  • I edited your question to make it a bit more readable and conform to the site's format but it is still not a well-formatted question. Please consider taking a bit more time to describe your problem with proper and relevant details and specific questions. – Stephane Jun 04 '13 at 09:52
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    Dude - as a word of warning. I have a server here with 18 Velociraptors. I just now start removing them all.... replacing them with SAS drives. My need for something STABLE is a lot larger by now than my need for something cheap. Time IS money. Oh, voting to close - not professional capacity. – TomTom Jun 04 '13 at 09:55
  • @TomTom That's a strange (not to say funny) interpretation of "professional capacity". Shall we throw all questions concerning SATA disks in the close queue automatically in the future? – Hauke Laging Jun 04 '13 at 13:56
  • @Hauke no, but I wonder how many professional capacity are JURY RIGGING A SAS BACKPLANE WITHOUT TRAYS. Even used, I would expect the OP to actually get trays and put the SATA discs into the backplane. – TomTom Jun 04 '13 at 14:12

1 Answers1

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You can use SATA drives on a SAS backplane. There's no need for all of the other craziness.

However, I disagree with your approach to doing this "on the cheap". You get what you pay for in this context, and SATA is typically bad news in certain combinations. Nearline-SAS is not much of a price premium, so it may make more sense if you just need capacity.

Also see: How exactly does a SAS SFF-8087 breakout cable work? + RAID/connection questions

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ewwhite
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