SAS internal cable compatability

Solution 1:

Good question. I'd never even seen an SFF-8643/SFF-8644 connector before. It's not even on the Serial-Attached-SCSI Wikipedia page (yet)!!

So, as with all things, throwing parts into a chassis and calling it a server is fraught with peril... But you understand those risks :) Your RAID controller selection should be driven by features, requirements and possibly your backplane (and backplane connectors). You can obtain an SFF-8643->SFF-8087 cable, for instance.

The SAS protocol is backwards compatible, so that won't be an issue. I'd make sure your drives are 6Gbps, though. The key is finding the right cable to match your drive backplane and controller. There's actually a dedicated site outlining SAS SFF-8643 compatibility: http://www.sff8643.com

Solution 2:

Judging by pictures and cable offerings, they are physically different but electrically compatible - vendors sell SFF-8643 to SFF-8087 cables. So you are looking at purchasing new cables with them, like the one half way down this page (no affiliation or recommendation, just the first I came across).