Motherboard for 10 3.5 Drives Assistance

[DigitalDivide]

Well, my current motherboard died as it's pretty ancient.  So now it's time to upgrade. Problem is I've been out of building a server for quite some time. I'm looking at getting a Fractal Design Define 7 for the enclosure but really not sure what to get for the motherboard and hoping to get a recommendation. 

 

I need support for 10 x 3.5 drives.  I really only use my server to store my photos, music and movies which I stream to my Nvidia Shield TV and Home Theater. I mostly only use a few dockers such as Sonarr, Radarr, Deluge VPN, Emby Server.  So not really taxing the server.

 

Would anyone be able to recommend a motherboard? Don't want to really spend more than $200 if possible.

 

Thanks

[Russ Uno]

Consider a MB with 6 SATA ports, much more common, and picking up a Adaptec 1430SA 4 port controller on eBay.

They can be had for as low as $25. I have 2, 1 in each of my builds. I've attached the user guide for it below.

 

ADAPTEC 1430SA_installation_and_users_guide_09_06.pdf

[Lolight]

12 hours ago, DigitalDivide said:

I need support for 10 x 3.5 drives.

Would anyone be able to recommend a motherboard? Don't want to really spend more than $200 if possible.

If any any of those HDDs are old and of small(ish) capacity then it would be just easier (and cheaper) in the long run to get some of them replaced with new drives in the biggest capacity you can afford, starting with the parity.

By reducing the number of drives, you will improve overall reliability, reduce power consumption while still expanding your overall storage capacity.

Would also alleviate a need for getting any SATA expansion cards.

Instead get an ATX motherboard with 8 onboard SATA ports.

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/

[DigitalDivide]

I've been looking at that and decided to go with an ATX with 8 onboard SATA ports.

 

Not sure if you know the answer to this but I also am looking at getting this LSI Broadcom SAS 9300-8i 8-Port 12Gb/s SATA+SAS PCI-Express 3.0 Low Profile Host Bus Adapter.

I'm just not sure what cables I need to attach that to my drives.  I'm assuming it's this one but want to make sure, https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B01M1D8ICT/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A3DWYIK6Y9EEQB&th=1

[ConnerVT]

20 hours ago, Lolight said:

If any any of those HDDs are old and of small(ish) capacity then it would be just easier (and cheaper) in the long run to get some of them replaced with new drives in the biggest capacity you can afford, starting with the parity.

By reducing the number of drives, you will improve overall reliability, reduce power consumption while still expanding your overall storage capacity.

Would also alleviate a need for getting any SATA expansion cards.

 

Agree 100%, and will add another good reason - Newer higher capacity drives will generally be faster than smaller capacity drives.  I've seen this as I have moved from 6TB to 8, then 16 and now 18TB drives (all from HGST).  As capacity increases, the density of the data on each platter also tends to increase, reducing access times.

[DigitalDivide]

The problem right now is I'm spending my money on replacing my whole server so upgrading the drives at this point willl have to wait.  The motherboard died. It's pretty ancient and so decided to rebuild it.  My build that died has 1 parity drive, 5 data drives, 1 cache drive and two unassigned devices I want to keep separate. So 9 drives in total. My parity is 6TB and the rest 4.  Once I get it up and running I can work on replacing the drives.  I don't see a way of rebuilding my server and swapping out the drives at the same time.

Edited November 30, 2023 by DigitalDivide

[Lolight]

1 hour ago, DigitalDivide said:

My build that died has 1 parity drive, 5 data drives, 1 cache drive and two unassigned devices I want to keep separate. So 9 drives in total. My parity is 6TB and the rest 4.

You can easily eliminate the cache HDD from your system by replacing it with a NVMe SSD in the new setup.

Then you won't need to deal with (buy) any HBAs or SATA cards just to get one extra SATA port.

Edited November 30, 2023 by Lolight

[DigitalDivide]

Oddly enough I was just looking at that now but I'm not sure how to replace it.  Is there anything installed on the cache drives? Now that my system is dead, I can't tell what's on there. Where are the dockers installed? Can I determine that by looking at the usb boot drive?

 

This is my current build of drives, https://photos.app.goo.gl/5VQoyDtVSawDCG2b8

 

I guess I can leave both unassigned devices out, just leave in the data drives and cache drive, boot up. Then replace cache drive with a NVMe SSD.  Then power down, pop in the unassigned drives and boot back up. Would that work? 

 

Can I backup the cache drive, install the new one, then restore the cache drive contents?

 

I haven't played around with building a server in so long...I feel a little lost to be honest.

 

Thanks for the help!

[Zonediver]

On 11/29/2023 at 4:38 AM, DigitalDivide said:

Would anyone be able to recommend a motherboard?

 

Well... most boards have 6 SATA's

Then use a HBA and you get 8 SATA's more - total of 14 SATA's (see my signature) 👍

Edited December 1, 2023 by Zonediver

[Lolight]

2 hours ago, Zonediver said:

 

Well... most boards have 6 SATA's

There is quite a selection of modern boards with 8 SATA ports:

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/motherboard/#K=8,9&sort=price&page=1

[Lolight]

8 hours ago, DigitalDivide said:

Can I backup the cache drive, install the new one, then restore the cache drive contents?

 

[DigitalDivide]

Thanks for the info!  Much appreciated!

 

Ordered all my new equip.

[DigitalDivide]

I'm hoping I can get some feedback on a question somewhat regarding the above video for the cache drive.

 

In my current server I have 9 drives, 1 is the cache and 2 are unassigned. My new MB has 8 SATA connections. I will be swapping out my hard drive used for the cache for an NVMe M.2 SSD. 

 

As my MB has only 8 SATA just looking for best steps to replacing the cache and then putting in the unassigned drive I don't have room for until I replace the cache drive.

 

 

1. install all my existing drives except one unassigned drive

2. Boot up and set the drives in the same order they were in my old drive - do I need to do anything else like a new Config or something?

3. Back up cache drive as per video above

4. Power down, take out old cache drive and put in new NVMe one 

   a. Should I now put in my other unassigned drive or should I still leave it out and first get the cache drive working?

5. Boot up server, assign new drive to cache and restore contents

6. Power down and now put in the unassigned drive or should I do it in step 4 above.

7. Boot up and assign drive as unassigned drive

 

 

 

Edited December 3, 2023 by DigitalDivide