The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/McFlyParadox on 2024-05-26 20:05:15.
I am just starting work on my first DIY NAS. It's going to either run Plex directly, or host files for Plex (still figuring that part out). I selected the Silverstone CS382 for the case, because I liked it size; that it had 8x hot swap drive bays; has a slot for a slim ODD so that I can do some limited BDR rips for cold storage; and that the motherboard tray is inverted, potentially allowing for full-length GPUs if I decide to run Plex directly (I end up transcoding a lot because I need subtitles on). The only thing I don't really care for is that the largest motherboard it can accept is mATX, which has less to do with the size and more to do with current trends that exist on modern mATX boards.
Basically, most modern mATX boards seem to sacrifice SATA port count in favor of dedicating the PCIe lanes to NVMe slots instead. I get it: between their speed and lack of cables, NVMe are pretty neat (*rim shot*), but not really what I need for this build. It seems that most mATX boards top out around 4x SATA ports (LGA 1700 Intel mATX boards seem to top out at 4x; some AM5 AMD mATX boards will go up to 6x, but most are 4x), and instead offer 2-3x NVMe slots instead. So what I am wondering is this:
Has anyone tried using SATA add-on cards in a situation like this? Not a RAID card, just "here is some SATA ports and a chip a tie them into the PCIe lanes".
I've found a couple of items like the Vantec M.2 PCIe Gen3x2 to 5 ports SATA III expansion card that look like they might get me up to 9x SATA ports, which will be enough to get me my 8x hotswap bays operational and the slim ODD drive. But what I am concerned about is that 4x of the SATA ports will be "proper" ones on the motherboard and 5x will be "add-ons", and I am not sure how that might affect a RAID 5 or 6 array.
Side note that may change people's answers: there is a non-zero chance that if I decide to run Plex directly on this box, I may just make it a server running Ubuntu or Windows instead, and figure out either a software RAID 5 or 6, JBOD, or just plain drives and remote backup.