home nas building

[Splash]

That board has no PCI-X slots as far as I can see...

[Funkstar]

Ah, my mistake. I got confused between that and the Supermicro controller above it.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Index.aspx?NT=1-0-20-539-0

macforce, I think you are going to struggle to get a small form factor board that will handle a RAID card with 8 ports on it.

[b0redom]

I looked at using Atom based stuff, but once you start to factor all the pieces in, I found it cheaper to get a low end Fujistu-Siemens server, but any Dell/HP etc would do.

Get something with onboard VGA, preferably Intel based (lower heat). In fact this:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/147999

is what I got. Just drop in some drives (I managed to shoe horn 5 in - including the one which came with it)

It ships with a keyboard, mouse, etc.....

[macforce]

ok thank you......do u know of being able to buy the internal motherboard or anything like that from those posted above?

[Funkstar]

Here's a small board that might fit - http://linitx.com/viewproduct.php?prodid=12156

Of course you will also need a processor, memory, cooling, and controller card. Probably adding up the the cost of that VIA board, although it will be more powerful.

Getting something like this to be small isn't easy, I've looked into it numerous times in the past.

edit a mini-ITX board plus a 8-port RAID card is goign to be a lot bigger than the VIA board. What kind of case it is you are trying to put all this in anyway?

[macforce]

do you think something like this would work if there was a way to upgrade to like 8 sata drives?

http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS6461444445.html

[Funkstar]

What do you mean "work"?

What do you want to do with it?

[macforce]

the case is something along the lines of this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/8-BAY-FIREWIRE-D...QQcmdZViewItem

and it does have cd drives in it now but not running or even using.... I am just trying to modify it and i just need some type of board to go inside of it to control those hard drives and to configure them???

[Splash]

I think possibly you still have the wrong end of the stick here...


A NAS is not something you put inside your current PC. A NAS is a seperate device entirely, essentially a box full of disks with it's own motherboard, processor, RAM and PSU.

[macforce]

well first of all i just took a quick peek at this:

http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS6461444445.html

and am not exactly sure if it would "work" and by work i mean control the drives in the nas IF it was 8 sata port equiped

[macforce]

splash, i do understand that i just didnt want to essentially have this:

a entire computer motherboard crammed into the nas box and have some sort of card plugged into that board with all the drives connected that way..............or is there no other way?

[Splash]

I see no reason why not, but there's no feasible way to shoehorn an 8 port controller into that device. I think personally you'd be better off looking at reasonably generic hardware that fits your needs rather than a tiny device with no expandandability.

EDIT - in response to your second post there's no need to have a card connected to the NAS motherboard if the board in question has the functionality (read number of ports/RAID capability) for you. Were this for a business device my advice would be different (ie you'd want hardware RAID, and preferably a huge chunk of a support contract on it with SLAs etc), but for home use software RAID should be fine (though don't forget backups!)

[Funkstar]

Using that 8x 5.25" case, you are going to be wasting a lot of space anyway. to get more space in it, you could use a couple of these: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Jou-J...nto-3x525-Bays

There would probably be lots of space after that for a motherboard and controller card.

As you can see the costs spiral pretty quickly

[macforce]

ok thank you..now one more question... do you have any suggestions for a small board with 8 sata ports that would give me RAID configuration abilities?

[macforce]

ok, to your response , funkstar, i did forget to mention that my case is only 3.5" anywaise but thanks

[Splash]

Any reason that the board has to be small? If it's going into what is essentially either an ATX or mATX case then you can use pretty much any board that suits your requirements.