N100 board suggestions

[bigfellasdad]

Hi, Im looking for an N100 ITX board for a small standalone proxmox server. There are lots out there but I need something specific.

1. Quad 2.5gb nics
2. Ability to boot in Legacy/BIOS mode (non UEFI)
3. A pcie slot for a (gen1!) PCI Express x8 card (HP SAS)

I think no2 is the main concern I have as i cant find information down to that detail. As the N100's have been out for a while and probably lots have them, im hoping some of you have experience with booting non UEFI.

Ive got a few SAS nvme's id like to use for 'nas' duties, but id like to keep my 12g card to control them. CPU is not really an issue as only running home assistant, opnsense and a few other lightweight VMs on the box.


Any suggestions please?

Andy

 

[DougQuaid]

N100 has only 9 PCIe lanes, so having 4 NICs and full PCIe slot is practically impossible
regarding no2, I have a miniPC with N100 and the bios contains CSM for legacy boot, so it is possible and probably depends on the manufacturer whether it will be available or not

 

[SnJ9MX]

I did a bit of research comparing N100 to Pentium gold 8505 before I found a good deal on a N100 2 bay NAS thing. Pentium 8505 gold has much better speed/scores, takes a little more power, but allows up to 20 PCIe lanes. In some cases, it is also cheaper than N100.