I currently have a ATX gaming setup with roughly 9x 2.5" SSD drives that I have come to realization that it is simply not practical to squeeze all the drives and high-end GPUs and CPUs into 1 system. Not to mention, even most common ATX boards will start to run into difficulties trying to support that many SATA ports without affecting PCIe bandwidth. After coming to this conclusion, I am leaning towards building a separate ITX or mATX system dedicated to just housing 12+ 2.5" SSDs and having it be on 24/7 and it only being accessed offline via LAN. Since I manually backup my data on external 3.5" drives every week, the storage solution will not need any RAID mirroring.

Since this is my first time looking into a 24/7 server setup, I am unsure if there are certain things I need to consider for system reliability. Some questions I have are:

  1. Between Intel LGA1700 and AMD AM5, which would be a better platform? For example, I just learned not all LGA1700 chips support ECC memory while AM5 chips have higher idle power consumption that low-end LGA1700.
  2. Would a consumer-grade ITX or mATX motherboard be good enough for 24/7 operation? Beside ECC support, are there other factors I should consider?
  3. Also what HBAs should I be considering? I know it is probably crude, but I was considering using a x16 to x8/x8 or x4/x4/x4/x4 m.2 card to hook up with multiple JMB585 5-port SATA cards and use 3-4 of them on a motherboard to get up to 20 SATA devices.

I was leaning towards Intel LGA1700 for the lower idle power consumption despite the limited x8/x8 PCie bifurcation options, but this latest discovery of ECC memory not being supported on 1x100 and 1x400 chips does make me change my mind.

  • No_Eye7024@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    Get a HBA flashed to IT mode and use that.That will expose 8 ssds to the system directly. You can then use a sas expander with the HBA to connect even more ssds. The expander only needs pcie power and a connection to the HBA. No need to upgrade unless you want to upgrade. Ssds don’t need to be mounted so you can easily just shove them anywhere in the case. Some airflow is recommended but not necessary.

    • EchoGecko795@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      11 months ago

      They are very cheap on ebay right now. I got one with 4x SATA break out cables for $70. Just note that they do need airflow and the standard consumer level case does not provide enough so adding a fan on the heat sink is needed.

  • M_R_Ducs@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    Not to mention, even most common ATX boards will start to run into difficulties trying to support that many SATA ports without affecting PCIe bandwidth.

    Never had this problem. I ran a Asus x370 pro with two HBAs, a capture card, and ancient gpu while utilizing all 8 onboard ports with a mix of SSDs and spinning rust. Ran like a champ for years on Windows. Unless you have some extreme networking setup, I wouldn’t worry about bandwith.

    Would a consumer-grade ITX or mATX motherboard be good enough for 24/7 operation?

    Yes.

    Beside ECC support, are there other factors I should consider?

    Number of SATA ports, cooling options, remote management options.

    Also what HBAs should I be considering?

    I suggest looking at a Broadcom 9400-16i, which will handle this work load easily. I would avoid any janky setups, as they will be unsupported and no one will be able to help you if/when things go poorly. There are cheaper HBAs, but I have two of these, one running all SSD, so personally I can vouch for them.