DiLinKer MiniSAS HD (SFF-8643) to 4x SATA Cable with GPIO Signal, Forward Breakout, 100cm

A forward breakout: one SFF-8643 port on your RAID card or motherboard becomes four 7-pin SATA connections, one metre away. This is the version that also brings the connector’s sideband pins out as a separate GPIO lead — four SATA links plus one small flying lead, in the same shell.

What the GPIO lead is for

• Forward means host to drives. The SFF-8643 end goes to the controller, the four 7-pin ends go to the drives. If your 8643 is on a backplane instead, you need the reverse breakout, not this cable — the two are wired opposite ways round and cannot be swapped.
• The GPIO lead carries the sideband pins. A 36-pin SFF-8643 shell has room for more than four lanes: it also carries the sideband pins that controllers use for drive-present and activity signalling. On this assembly those pins are terminated in a short flying lead, so a chassis harness or a controller that expects them has somewhere to land.
• You do not have to connect it. The four SATA links work whether or not the GPIO lead is plugged in. If you are going straight from a card to four bare drives with nothing in between, leave it disconnected — and if that is your build, the standard 100 cm version is a few dollars cheaper.
• One metre, four independent links. Each drive gets its own 7-pin link: no port multiplier, no shared clock, no expander. Four drives appear as four separate devices at the controller, which is what you want for a boot mirror, a small RAID set or four spindles in a tower.

Specifications

Compatibility

Works with

• SFF-8643 host ports on RAID cards, HBAs and motherboards
• Four SATA hard drives or SSDs, any capacity, mixed models are fine
• Controllers or chassis harnesses that expect sideband/GPIO wiring

Does not work with

• SFF-8643 backplane ports — those need the reverse breakout
• SAS drives: a SAS target needs a different connector, not 7-pin SATA
• More than four drives — there is no expander inside this cable
• Port multipliers or SATA splitters — this is four direct links, not a hub

Typical deployments

• Four-bay tower or 4-in-3 cage. One 8643 port feeds all four bays, which is the cheapest way to put four spindles on a single controller port.
• Boot mirror on a RAID card. Two of the four links to the system drives, two spare for a data pair, all from one port.
• Bench and test rigs. When a drive has to sit outside the case while a controller stays in the slot, the extra length is the reason this version exists.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to connect the GPIO lead?

No. The four SATA links carry data on their own. The lead only matters if your controller or chassis harness is wired to use the sideband pins.

Where does the GPIO lead plug in?

That depends entirely on the controller and chassis, which is why we ship it as bare flying leads rather than a fixed connector. Send us the controller model and a photo of the connector you are trying to mate with, and we will tell you whether it is worth connecting.

How is this different from your 75cm breakout?

Two things: length, and this one has the GPIO lead. The 75 cm version is the same forward breakout without sideband wiring.

Will it work off a backplane?

No. A backplane presents an SFF-8643 socket that expects to be fed by the host, so you need the reverse breakout — four SATA ports on the controller fanning into one 8643. We stock that as a separate SKU.

Can I run SAS drives on it?

No. The drive ends are 7-pin SATA. SAS drives need a SAS target connector, and mixing the two will not work no matter which way you plug it in.

Is it really only 6 Gb/s?

Per SATA link, yes — that is the SATA interface, not a limit of the cable. The connector itself is rated well above that, so the cable will not be what holds your array back.

In the box

• 1 × MiniSAS HD (SFF-8643) to 4 × SATA breakout cable, 100 cm, with GPIO lead

Every cable is continuity- and pinout-tested before it ships and carries a 24-month warranty. If a link does not train, send us the controller model and the backplane part number before returning anything — in most cases the cable is the wrong variant for the port, not faulty, and we would rather tell you that up front.

Related

• Same cable without the GPIO lead (100cm, lower price)
• Forward breakout, 75cm — the short version
• Reverse breakout: 4 × SATA to one SFF-8643