I've been at this for a while and I feel like I'm no closer to an answer, so I'm beginning to think that what I want may not exist (at least, not within my price category).
The closest thing to what I want is something like the ASRock Industrial ITX boards that come with BGA Pentium / Celeron chips. The problem is, these all seemingly come with a PCIE x1 (bad) or x16 slot (good!), running at x1 speeds (bad.) and that's not suitable for slotting in an HBA card.
I'd like something in a traditional-ish form factor, since the idea is to fit it into a regular case that can hold up to 8 3.5" drives. Still, I was looking at the Zimaboard but it has a x4 size PCIe slot and I need at least x8. I don't feel like faffing around with risers or adapters.
Right now, it looks like my best bet will be to source some old mobo/CPU combo from Ebay or Aliexpress, but I was really hoping to at least get a chip from this decade. Most of those are running 3rd or 4th generation Intel Core stuff.
I just thought I'd ask before I changed directions or adjusted the budget, etc. Just to reiterate, what I'd like to find is:
- Traditional form factor (mATX, ITX)
- x8 or x16 PCIe slot (running at least PCIe gen 1 x8)
- Relatively cheap, used is OK, ~<$150 USD
Any leads would be appreciated. Worst case I'll probably just go the Aliexpress route, but I thought I'd see what's out there.
Thanks!