Help me pick a CHEAP mb to use as a storage server.....

[Compman55]

Here are my goals.

I would like a MB that can support at least 4 SATA hard drives. And I would like to be able to still use IDE for CD ROM and for my 500GB IDE hard drive.

Secondly, I would like it to be intel. Cheap as possible. It will run 24/7 and have 2x 1TB drives + 500GB OS drive.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I think that you are out of luck, with your IDE requirement. Intel's own chipsets stopped supporting IDE with the ICH7 (available with the G31 and G41 mobos). Which would work, in theory, except for one little problem - even though those boards have 4 SATA ports and one IDE, it only gives you a choice of using the IDE, or two of those SATA ports. You CANNOT USE ALL OF THE PORTS.

So I think that you would be better off getting an AMD chipset, something with a SB710 or SB750, that will support IDE alongside the SATA ports.

 

[remyat]

1155
775

 

[Revolution 11]

If you are willing to tolerate some kludge in your setup, you can get a modern mobo without IDE ports and use a cheap IDE to SATA adapter. This is probably not optimal but it can work in a pinch. I don't have any personal experience with these adapters though.

 

[Gillbot]

Or pick up a SATA or IDE PCI card for a few $ on ebay and use any mobo you want.

 

[stevech]

CD ROM's IDE: to SATA, $15 converter if you can fit it into the space.
Else just get a SATA DVD drive. They're $30 or less.

I'm very pleased with the 30Watt, $120 Gigabyte GA-E350N-USB3 I recently purchased. It's in a mini-ITX enclosure I already had. 4 SATA ports, USB3, and HDMI out to TV. Quiet. Does 1080i.

No CPU chip to buy. 2GB of DDR3 was $18. Second slot unused.

 

[mmaestro]

CD ROM's IDE: to SATA, $15 converter if you can fit it into the space.
Else just get a SATA DVD drive. They're $30 or less.

Shop around. You can find them for $20 if you look. No reason to use an IDE DVD drive in this day and age, and then you're left with the HDD. Honestly I'd probably just junk that, too.

 

[mbahr]

I like the idea of reusing old hardware... but personally, I wouldn't compromise a motherboard purchase just to hang onto a few ide devices.

But if you really really want to use old IDE equipment I suggest doing it with an old IDE motherboard. I am running several circa 2002 supermicro motherboards with IDE just fine. I'll have to eventually replace them, but they are doing a great job running windows server and windows vista right now. Photo of the rig is at the bottom of http://www.easy-home-networking-guide.com/Home-Networking-Server.html

Just my $0.02.

-Mike

 

[Arcanedeath]

The best solution is just got get an add in PCI or PCI-E card so you can pick any motherboard you want.

 

[dealcorn]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128452

is a $100 Atom solution from Gigabyte that works. For cheaper, seek G31 or G41 motherboards which will take you to 775 socket and core 2 for about $65 or less plus the CPU.

 

[BTA]

Find a used Gigabyte EP45 and a c2q

 

[pitz]

I've had good luck with the Asus P8H67-M Evo. The board isn't the cheapest on earth, but the Sandy Bridge CPU and overall platform pretty easily knocks 20-30W off of a comparable AMD platform, which, in 3-5 years, is a decent chunk of coin.

Put a cheap i3-23xx or i5-2400 on and you'll be all set. I run mine with a 5-drive SuperMicro hot-swap backplane, and a number of virtual machines running on the same (Linux) platform.

If you have a 500gb ATA HDD you're hanging onto, with the recent flooding crisis, it makes sense to keep in service longer. The 500gb ATA is actually my Linux boot drive, but its RAID-1'ed with the SATA drives in the hot-swap array. The more spindles the better!

 

[coffeejunkee]

No need for the EVO board, the normal P8H67-M offers all TS needs. Drop in a Celeron G530 and you have a cheap and fast machine.

But for storage server the mentioned Atom board would probably suffice.