January 11, 20251 yr Hi everyone, I’m currently building a new Unraid server and could use some advice. Right now, I’m still in the process of migrating my data from 14x 8TB drives to new 20TB ones, so I have a bit of time to figure things out. For the new build, I’m using the CWWK N305 purple version (https://cwwk.net/products/cwwk-12th-gen-i3-n305-n100-2-intel-i226-v-2-5g-nas-motherboard-6-sata3-0-6-bay-soft-rout-1-ddr5-4800mhz-firewall-itx-mainboard), and the motherboard works great overall. However, I’ve run into an issue with the PCIe slot. Here’s my current setup: The board is fully loaded: 2x 2TB NVMe drives and all 6 SATA ports are in use (1x parity, 5x datastore). I also want to use the PCIe x4 slot for a GTX 1660 Super to handle transcoding with Tdarr or Fileflow. I’m aware the GPU will only run on 4 lanes, but that’s sufficient for my needs. The problem? The GPU doesn’t fit in the PCIe slot because the SATA ports are in the way. The SATA ports are so tightly packed together that even the long x16 PCIe slot edge of the GPU can’t fit between the SATA ports. There’s just not enough clearance to make it work, even with 90-degree connectors. My original plan was to build everything into a Fractal Node 304, but it looks like I’ll need a PCIe x4 riser cable to give the GPU enough clearance from the SATA ports. This creates another issue: The Node 304 only has two PCIe slot covers on the back. The first slot aligns with the motherboard’s (inaccessible) PCIe port, so if I use a riser, I’ll need a third slot cover, which the case doesn’t have. Here’s the kicker: I’d prefer to stick with a compact case. We’re moving from our house to a smaller apartment in the city soon, and I won’t have a dedicated tech room anymore. The server will need to fit somewhere in our living space and be wife-compatible. Does anyone have ideas for how I can solve this? Maybe a different compact case that allows for a riser and GPU? Or an alternative setup I haven’t considered? Thanks in advance for your help! Edited January 11, 20251 yr by slemens
February 6, 20251 yr Sorry to necro your Thread. Did you manage to fix your issues in a usefull way? How about power consumtion? The early versions off those board hat JBM Sata Controllers who fucked up the C States if i remember correctly?
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