Hey all!
I'm looking to replace my current "NAS" (my old HP EliteBook 8530W, bit too much of a power hog for two HDDs) with a smaller, quieter, and more economical one.
I'd use a bunch of 2.5" disks, with a separate 5V power adapter for all of them (4 to 8 disks, so in total maybe 40W if we're talking about VERY power hungry ones), and am looking for an Intel-based board that has/can support at least 8GB RAM (DDR3 or up). These specs are the important:
- Size (preferably smaller than Mini-ITX, say, pico or nano ITX)
- Intel-based (Atom is perfectly fine, main use cases are mostly SMB, and downloading)
- Support for at least 8GB RAM
I'm not looking for something power-hungry 120W monster. The lower power, the better. Optimally it would eat 40W tops.
I do realize that at this form factor, I won't find any board that has the required amount of ports. Since I'm using HDDs, there's no need for SATA-III support (most hard drives can't reach the top speeds of SATA-II either), so the options are either two mPCIe slots with mPCIe-to-SATA 4-port cards, or a board that makes PCIe 4x-8x available in some way (extra board, etc.).
The MinnowBoard Max models do expose the PCIe interface through the high-speed expansion port, but I'm yet to find a lure (even a design) that makes use of PCIe in a way I could use (the HSE uses mPCIe, so there's little chance of getting a full PCIe x8 or even x4 port going).
I'm looking to replace my current "NAS" (my old HP EliteBook 8530W, bit too much of a power hog for two HDDs) with a smaller, quieter, and more economical one.
I'd use a bunch of 2.5" disks, with a separate 5V power adapter for all of them (4 to 8 disks, so in total maybe 40W if we're talking about VERY power hungry ones), and am looking for an Intel-based board that has/can support at least 8GB RAM (DDR3 or up). These specs are the important:
- Size (preferably smaller than Mini-ITX, say, pico or nano ITX)
- Intel-based (Atom is perfectly fine, main use cases are mostly SMB, and downloading)
- Support for at least 8GB RAM
I'm not looking for something power-hungry 120W monster. The lower power, the better. Optimally it would eat 40W tops.
I do realize that at this form factor, I won't find any board that has the required amount of ports. Since I'm using HDDs, there's no need for SATA-III support (most hard drives can't reach the top speeds of SATA-II either), so the options are either two mPCIe slots with mPCIe-to-SATA 4-port cards, or a board that makes PCIe 4x-8x available in some way (extra board, etc.).
The MinnowBoard Max models do expose the PCIe interface through the high-speed expansion port, but I'm yet to find a lure (even a design) that makes use of PCIe in a way I could use (the HSE uses mPCIe, so there's little chance of getting a full PCIe x8 or even x4 port going).