After seeing a great video on the subject case I decided to buy one and build my ideal Unraid server using what I have learned from my first server and from the good people on this forum.  You can see the video at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E94QRkZfIDM&t=708s

If you can live with 12 spinning drives, 2 nvdme drives and 2 ssd, I think it’s a winner for not a ton of money and will not eat a lot space.

I am going to use 6 of the 8 sata ports on the motherboard and a 6 sata port m.2 solution that I bought for the spinning drives in the array.  Two of the motherboard sata will be used for 2 ssd and 2 of the m.2 slots will be for the 2 m.2 ssds. 

The JMCD-12s4 has a backplane that takes 12 drives (either SAS or sata).  There are 3 minSAS connectors on the back of the backplane.  I have bought 3 – 12TB HGST sata drives with (a 5-year guarantee) that were shucked from a server.  Eventually, I will buy and install a total of 12 spinners for a 132TB array.

My main question concerns hooking up these drives to my ATX motherboard.  I think I need three (MiniSAS SF8643 to 4 sata cables) all with REVERSE breakout for this to work.  The single SF8643 connector on each cable goes to one of the 3 SAS connectors on the backplane and the sata connectors go to the sata ports on the motherboard and m.2 adaptor.   Is that right? 

All the shucked drives I have purchased have the pin 3 power issue which I ran into with my first build; however, I have recently read that it is NOT an issue with these sata drives in this backplane.   In any event, if it is an issue I will seal off the pin 3 with tape.

 

Just for your information, the chassis is a relatively compact cube but still can take a full ATX motherboard.  I think a lot of thought went into its design.  I had to wait for almost 2 months to get it from Alibaba but the shipping was only about $20.  I could have gotten it a lot sooner if I was willing to spend 5x that amount.  It seems to be very well built and the folks in China will sell you a spare backplane if that is a worry.

 

Another question.  It came with NO fans but places for Three-120mm input and five-92mm exhaust fans.  Any advice on good quality, quiet fans?  I am not afraid to splurge here to keep it quiet. 

 

Any other general advice on this build would be most welcome and appreciated.

 

 

 

9 hours ago, demanding-chief3698 said:

I think I need three (MiniSAS SF8643 to 4 sata cables) all with REVERSE breakout for this to work.

That should work.