Connectors on internal drive bay

I'm looking to install a third party raid card in my Mac Pro (2006) and have heard the iPass cable (mini sas) is too short to reach the smaller-than-apple highpoint PCI card. One option is to purchase a mini-sas extension cable but this is around $70. I am wondering what kind of connection is on the back of the drive bays as I might be able to just replace the standard Mac Pro iPass cable with something longer and cheaper than the mini-sas extender.

Thanks!