ITX board with 4+ SATA under $100

[da na]

My home-built NAS with 4 drives currently runs on a Gigabyte D525TUD board, but due to drivers the aging board is limited to running Windows 7 (as long as I want half the SATA ports to work, at least). I would like to find a newer board with a minimum of 4 SATA for under $100, ideally under $50 - do not mind if it is used. I have no room for expansion cards in this system, which is very full of drives, so all the SATA ports have to be integrated onto the board. I would rather have a board with an integrated CPU and heatsink.

CPU speed and RAM capacity is not a problem considering the old Atom met my needs, and I do not require PCI slots (though an NVMe/M.2 for boot might be nice).

If the board has an integrated cooler it cannot be much taller than the IO shield because of power supply clearance.

I have looked at the AsRock J5040-ITX board and it seems to be exactly what I want - 4 SATA, and the board is only 5 years old rather than 15. There are several other quad-SATA AsRock boards, eg J4355-ITX, they all seem to be very similar boards just with different CPUs.

Asus H811 Plus and Q87T also have the needed 4 SATA ports, but I would need to purchase a CPU and cooler for both.

Any other recommendations? The little AsRock board seems like it might be the best option for me but I would be open to other affordable suggestions.

[johnt]

Have you looked at pcpartpicker.com? You filter to your cpu and it will show you the compatible motherboards. Then you can browse the used sites. 

[jaslion]

59 minutes ago, da na said:

My home-built NAS with 4 drives currently runs on a Gigabyte D525TUD board, but due to drivers the aging board is limited to running Windows 7 (as long as I want half the SATA ports to work, at least). I would like to find a newer board with a minimum of 4 SATA for under $100, ideally under $50 - do not mind if it is used. I have no room for expansion cards in this system, which is very full of drives, so all the SATA ports have to be integrated onto the board. I would rather have a board with an integrated CPU and heatsink.

CPU speed and RAM capacity is not a problem considering the old Atom met my needs, and I do not require PCI slots (though an NVMe/M.2 for boot might be nice).

If the board has an integrated cooler it cannot be much taller than the IO shield because of power supply clearance.

I have looked at the AsRock J5040-ITX board and it seems to be exactly what I want - 4 SATA, and the board is only 5 years old rather than 15. There are several other quad-SATA AsRock boards, eg J4355-ITX, they all seem to be very similar boards just with different CPUs.

Asus H811 Plus and Q87T also have the needed 4 SATA ports, but I would need to purchase a CPU and cooler for both.

Any other recommendations? The little AsRock board seems like it might be the best option for me but I would be open to other affordable suggestions.

https://www.amazon.com/Expansion-Indicator-Computer-Accessories-Supporting/dp/B0CCYMJCS6

 

You can just buy an adpater

 

opens up anything with a m.2 slot that way ya can splurge a little and opt for like a n100 itx board or something new and nice to last you another 15 years

[da na]

1 minute ago, jaslion said:

https://www.amazon.com/Expansion-Indicator-Computer-Accessories-Supporting/dp/B0CCYMJCS6

 

You can just buy an adpater

An adapter from a brand called "Estink" rated 1 stars, for a port my motherboard doesn't have? Hmmmm

[da na]

2 minutes ago, johnt said:

Have you looked at pcpartpicker.com? You filter to your cpu and it will show you the compatible motherboards. Then you can browse the used sites. 

I'd typically do so, but when buying a motherboard where SATA is the concern rather than CPU, I can't quite do that.

[johnt]

3 minutes ago, da na said:

I'd typically do so, but when buying a motherboard where SATA is the concern rather than CPU, I can't quite do that.

Your cpu filters the compatible motherboards. Then when you select a motherboard, filter it to the minimum number of SATA ports that you want. It’s on the left side of the site. 

[jaslion]

3 minutes ago, da na said:

An adapter from a brand called "Estink" rated 1 stars, for a port my motherboard doesn't have? Hmmmm

There are plenty options. They are all the same really using controllers you find on typical sata add in cards.

 

As for the adapter I mean you can use this with any new board that has a m.2 slot and thus basically pick anything you like.

 

Been using this generic for 1.5 years now in a small nas. Has been going well same controller on it as my ancient startech card from 2008 or so that they still make

[cmndr]

itx + low price is hard to get. mATX often gets you to about the same size but at half the board price and with way more IO. My AM4 board cost around $80ish and had 6 SATA - ASRock Pro4 b450m. Works reasonably well with something like a 5600g. 

As hinted at, m.2 to SATA adapters exist. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=m.2+to+sata

Also, have you considered going the linux route if it's for a NAS? TrueNAS works pretty well. You might be able to extend your current gear a bit longer. 

[jaslion]

Oh and to add on the my m.2 idea. Keep in mind you can NOT boot from these just like any other dumb sata add in controller so you'll need to use 1 sata or m.2 port from the board for boot.

 

Else I'd alsp have a look at the n100, n105, n200, n300 and such based boards from intel.

 

Theres a lot of router and thin client boards being made and sold on ali, amazon,... that have 4 sata ports or more by some somewhat known brands.

[johnt]

dude I just looked up your motherboard... it has an integrated atom chip. You can't just replace your motherboard. You will need a CPU also. Plus it uses DDR3.

 

You basically need a whole new PC.

[da na]

1 minute ago, johnt said:

dude I just looked up your motherboard... it has an integrated atom chip. You can't just replace your motherboard. You will need a CPU also. Plus it uses DDR3.

 

You basically need a whole new PC.

yeah it does, that's why I am searching for another small board with a soldered CPU as mentioned. 

[johnt]

11 minutes ago, cmndr said:

Also, have you considered going the linux route if it's for a NAS? TrueNAS works pretty well. You might be able to extend your current gear a bit longer.

What's the excitement about TrueNAS? Seems weird to run a NAS OS and then run dockers and containers and VMs or whatever. I go the simple route with volume mirroring in Disk Management. It's simplified RAID1 without the headache when a drive fails.

[da na]

12 minutes ago, cmndr said:

itx + low price is hard to get. mATX often gets you to about the same size but at half the board price and with way more IO. My AM4 board cost around $80ish and had 6 SATA - ASRock Pro4 b450m. Works reasonably well with something like a 5600g. 

As hinted at, m.2 to SATA adapters exist. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=m.2+to+sata

Also, have you considered going the linux route if it's for a NAS? TrueNAS works pretty well. You might be able to extend your current gear a bit longer. 

I am working within constraints of a Silverstone SG13 ITX case so sadly ITX is the only option.

[da na]

3 minutes ago, johnt said:

What's the excitement about TrueNAS? Seems weird to run a NAS OS and then run dockers and containers and VMs or whatever. I go the simple route with volume mirroring in Disk Management. It's simplified RAID1 without the headache when a drive fails.

As for "Just use linux", I am sure that could be an option but in all honesty I know how to use Windows, I know how to make the OS do what it needs to, and I am not willing to re-learn a new OS. I've tried Linux in the past for servers and I have not been happy. I know how to do network shares and backup on Windows and I'd rather not introduce potential flaws with software I am unfamiliar with when dealing with important data.

[cmndr]

17 minutes ago, johnt said:

What's the excitement about TrueNAS? Seems weird to run a NAS OS and then run dockers and containers and VMs or whatever. I go the simple route with volume mirroring in Disk Management. It's simplified RAID1 without the headache when a drive fails.

ZFS can be nice. If you're trying to speed up spinning rust it's GREAT. 

With that said a lot of the enthusiasts on tech related forums like to over engineer things and to overlearn. Running windows is a somewhat valid option, though Win 7 is a fair bit out of date at this point from a security updates perspective.

For what it's worth I took an ubuntu image and configured EVERYTHING from scratch on my NAS as a project... then later just with TRUENAS and it was a lot easier. 

[johnt]

2 minutes ago, cmndr said:

ZFS can be nice. If you're trying to speed up spinning rust it's GREAT. 

With that said a lot of the enthusiasts on tech related forums like to over engineer things and to overlearn. Running windows is a somewhat valid option, though Win 7 is a fair bit out of date at this point from a security updates perspective.

For what it's worth I took an ubuntu image and configured EVERYTHING from scratch on my NAS as a project... then later just with TRUENAS and it was a lot easier. 

I totally get that. I agree Win7 is a bit old for a system that stays on usually 24/7 and you're usually giving it remote access (at least I do with mine for Plex and TeamViewer).

 

I started looking into NAS a while ago, and from what I can tell, TrueNAS or something like Synology make the RAID configuration and recovery a lot easier than Windows. But everything else was foreign to me.

 

The Synology devices scared me to death with their prices.... holy cow. A 4-bay rack mounted system that can actually run 4k on Plex was like $1,200 BEFORE the drives, and that was with a 1 Gbps connection. My $99 Black Friday ASUS motherboard with 2.5 Gbps NIC never looked so good. I got two used 2 TB WD NAS drives from Amazon for $30 a piece. It's been a fun starter system that has really proved useful.