Set G
(4x) SFF 8643 → 4x 7-Pin SATA [Mini-SAS-HD (Backplane) to 4x 7-Pin SATA]
All those 4xs can be confusing.
The 7-pin SATA connectors on motherboards only support connecting to one drive; one connector, one drive. So, to connect all 15 SATA drives on the HL15 that way one would need 15 separate cables and connectors. Another technology used to physically connect hard drives is called SAS. SAS refers to a number of different layers, but one thing it provides is the ability to carry four lanes of SATA data over one connector/cable. There are three different connectors that do that, and the ones the HL15 backplane has are called SFF-8643. So there are four SFF-8643 connectors on the backplane. Those could be connected to other SFF-8643 connectors and all the data for four SATA drives would travel over that connection to a motherboard or HBA. Or, breakout cables exist, that have one SFF-8643 connector on one end and four 7-pin SATA connectors on the other, so the cable breaks out those four SATA lanes to four individual SATA connectors.
What Set G is is four of those cables, so four cables, with each one having a single SFF-8643 connector on one end and four 7-pin SATA connectors on the other.
As others have said, you can certainly use one of those four cables to connect to your motherboard, but that is only connecting four drives based on your four SATA ports. To access the other 11 drives you will need some sort of PCIe card and compatible cables. That could be a SATA expansion card, or an LSI 92xx or 93xx HBA.
Whether you modify your order to a different cable set really depends on your particular use case.
Hi @Jdhill777, there are some very good details answers above to help you understand how this all works but thought I’d just do a really to the point addition to hopefully help clear this up.
A sata port is only designed to carry a single drives connection.
The backplane in the HL15 isn’t a smart device. It’s simply a circuit board version of you running 15 cables to 15 individual drives. (There is a little more going on, but in the context of this discussion, that’s all you need to keep in mind)
There are different connectors/cables that can carry more than one drives worth of data (hence the options when buying your chassis), but they again aren’t smart devices. They still only carry what the host (motherboard, hba) can provide.
So for example, mini sas hd can carry 4 drives worth of sata (or sas) data over one physical connector, but at the host end, just imagine its 4 individual sata connectors stuck together.
Set G. 4 8643, to 4 sata,
i have 10 sata on my motherboard
10 hardrives.
each cable 8643 can take 4 sata. did work in group?. i explain.é
4 drives in 1 8643 to 4 sata
4 drives in 1 8643 to 4 sata
2 drives in 1 8643 to 2 sata only not for?
can be working or the connector 8643 juste not working.
or i will have 2 of 4 slot working, just need to find where is are?
You will only be able to use 10 of the 15 drive bays on the backplane.
For each 8643 cable you can connect 1, 2, 3, or 4 of the sata cables and the other drives on the cable will work fine. Your example will be fine for 10 drives, but for more than that you need an HBA or sata expansion card.