sexy idea (10-bay htpc hdd chassis) but need help

[dir]

I'm looking at this sexy looking hdd enclosure (Wesena eHDD):
http://www.wesena.com/pic/20111018211648158.png

which holds 10 hdd's and has it's own psu. But it uses 2x eSata connectors on the back and multiplexs them to 5 drives each. Performance will suck. I'd rather have a SAS controller in my htpc box with dual sff-8088's going from it to this hdd enclosure. All I'd need is one of these I think, or something similar, to replace the eSata connectors built into the eHDD box (Sierra ADP-887P-1X SAS): http://www.sierra-cables.com/Adapter...DP-887P-1X.jpg.

Trouble is, the hole in the back of the eHDD box looks like it's >exactly< big enough to fit an eSATA cable into it. There's two of them spaced quite far apart: https://www.wesena.co.uk/shopimages/...hddsilver4.jpg

You can see the two red eSATA multiplexer cards behind the back wall and the two slim slots where the eSATA cable goes in.

So I'm thinking I could take out those two red cards and replace them with the Sierra SAS-to-SATA cards. The only problem I can see is that the slots would be too small I think, and I'd have to figure out how to bolt down the Sierra cards (not that hard probably).

I could probably just drill the fuck out of those slots so that I could slip the ends of the SFF-8088 cables inside the box and connect them to the SAS-SATA cards. And just glue/tape down the cards.

So I think that would work and I'd have a slick, sexy, htpc-looking external HDD enclosure that could sit under my htpc. And it would have good performance (assuming the SAS controller I buy for the htpc is good).

I know I would lose 2 drive bays because each SAS cable only handles 4 SATA drives, but I can live with that.

I know I could buy a 5- or 8-bay mini-tower and hide it with my server. I know. But I like this idea as it makes my htpc self-sufficient.

So my questions:
1) Stupid idea? Know of a similar looking case that isn't a mini-tower that accepts SAS? If this works, wouldn't be incredibly cheap 8-drive SAS case? (RRP for the case+PSU is <$300 I think; and the SAS-SATA cards are $30 or so)
2) Assuming I buy a SAS RAID controller (not cheap), I could run both sets of 4 drives as one 8-drive RAID set, yes? I'd run RAID-5 with one hot spare and configure the drives to stay spun down most of the time, so long as the 240W PSU can handle the load.

3) Would a SFF-8088 cable head fit through that existing slot? I dunno. I haven't looked up dimensions but if you know, say so.

4) What am I overlooking? Cooling? Loudness? sanity?

Additional info and links:
This site appears to be selling a new model (the eHDD-2) in October. Perhaps has an improved PSU and/or fans. Also it says that the eSATA stuff is optional, which would be good.