Mini-SAS to SATA cable confusion

[giannidoe]

I'm considering purchasing a Highpoint RocketRaid 2680 controller which has 2 internal mini-SAS connectors and I'd like to attach this to 8 internal SATA HDDs; the controller doesn't come with mini-SAS to 4xSATA cables so I need to purchase these separately.
I've seen these cables advertised as either 'crossover' or 'straight-through' and I'm not sure which type I need.

My hard disks are installed in a Lian-Li Ex-H33 hot swap drive bay.. not sure if this makes a difference.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

[uh_no]

can you show a link to where you see cables advertised as such? all the ones i see are not qualified as either type

 

[wuzy]

Crossover vs. Straight-Through just means from the initiator (Host) to target (Device) or vice-verse.

For your usage which is the typical SFF-8087 (initiator) to 4xSATA fanout you'll need straight-through. They can be found for below $10.

FYI, the crossover and straight-through naming for SAS cables isn't as commonly used nowadays. It's simpler and clearer to say from what connector as the initiator to what connector as the target.

 

[giannidoe]

Thanks that's cleared things up.

Here's the site I was looking at, the cables are at the end of the second page of the search results:
http://tinyurl.com/yefkpxf

One is listed as Host (SFF-8087) to Backplane (4xSATA) and the other as Host (SFF-8087) to HDD (4xSATA), but from your explanation I don't see how they can be different.

 

[wuzy]

Controller to backplane will mostly be using a crossover cable because under such circumstance both the backplane and the controller will be the initiator to the drives. Or was it backplane being the initiator and controller being the target. Even I get confused and prefer not to use the crossover/straight-through cable naming.

To keep it simple for remembering, crossover is almost always used between backplane (usually an expander) and the controller.
And controller to individual drives will always use a straight-through (or a simple drive cage that has a backplane of sort for hotswapping, but isn't an initiator).

[EDITED]The SFF-8087 to 4xSATA crossover cable you referred to will be used when you have a SATA controller and want to connect 4xSATA to a backplane that uses SFF-8087, which is not the one you want.