February 10, 201610 yr I'm looking at this motherboard and I'm not sure I understand what they mean by 6 x SATA 6Gb/s ports* (2 ports reserved for SATA Express port) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130888&cm_re=MSI_B150_PC_Mate_ATX_LGA1151-_-13-130-888-_-Product I don't know what SATA Express ports are. As far as I can see in the picture they are just ports that are turned sideways. Can I still plug in 6x HDDs into this motherboard? Also, can someone tell me if all Skylake processors require DDR4 RAM? Finally, random question, does a SSD count again the storage device limit of the UnRAID license? Thanks.
February 10, 201610 yr I'd do some more research because its a bit ambiguous, does it mean all six SATA ports are available if you don't use the SATA Express port?
February 10, 201610 yr Author OK this is my build on PC Part Picker, please help me feel good about it or tell me where I'm wrong: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/VzxFcf Intel Core i3-6300 3.8GHz Dual-Core Processor (Skylake) Cooler Master Hyper TX3 54.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler MSI B150 PC Mate ATX LGA1151 Motherboard G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory I already own the case and power supply from my previous build. I own 2 of the WD HDDs already and the rest I am NOT buying right now, but I wanted to make sure this system had enough SATA ports and power to drive the 6 HDDs. I liked this motherboard because it is a good price, has 6 SATA slots, 4 RAM slots, accepts several tiers of RAM speeds, and a VGA output. My current monitor for this setup is a cheap thing I have lying around and it only accepts VGA. I don't have a strong opinion about the CPU cooler. My rig will sit in the basement and runs cool all the time, although I wonder if I actually had 6 HDDs if that would change. So if you have a suggestion that could shave a few bucks off here I'd be interested. I plan to run Plex and I want to be able to transcode 2 simultaneous HD streams. I'll also run a CrashPlan docker. I want to be able to dabble in VMs but I realize I may need to upgrade to 16GB of RAM to do that. If you have any suggestions where I could get a great increase in performance for just a little more money I'd be interested, but I'm right about where I want to be price-wise. Finally, I may need to buy a new power supply. The reason I'm doing this build is because my current setup is failing and I'm not sure what part is failing exactly, so it could be the power supply. Any suggestions for a power supply are welcome too (just in case I need one). Thanks!
February 10, 201610 yr Author I'd do some more research because its a bit ambiguous, does it mean all six SATA ports are available if you don't use the SATA Express port? Ok I will, and the stupid Newegg chat is not online? Who told them they could go home to their families? I'll try to chat with them tomorrow if I can't find the answer online...
February 10, 201610 yr Author I'd do some more research because its a bit ambiguous, does it mean all six SATA ports are available if you don't use the SATA Express port? I think I might only be able to get 5 storage devices with this motherboard, but I'm not sure. From wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SATA_Express SATA Express is a computer bus interface that supports both Serial ATA (SATA) and PCI Express (PCIe) storage devices... The SATA Express connector used on the host side is backward compatible with the standard 3.5-inch SATA data connector, while it also provides two PCI Express lanes as a pure PCI Express connection to the storage device. Instead of continuing with the SATA interface's usual approach of doubling its native speed with each major version, SATA 3.2 specification included the PCI Express bus for achieving data transfer speeds greater than the SATA 3.0 speed limit of 6 Gbit/s. It is "backwards compatible" with the standard connector, so I'm pretty sure I can hook up at least one normal HDD to the SATA Express. The question is, since there are two SATA ports there can I hook up a second? On the other hand, this could actually be a cool feature, because Wikipedia also says: Designers of the SATA interface concluded that doubling the native SATA speed would take too much time to catch up with the advancements in solid-state drive (SSD) technology,[4] would require too many changes to the SATA standard, and would result in a much greater power consumption compared with the existing PCI Express bus.[5][6] As a widely adopted computer bus, PCI Express provides sufficient bandwidth while allowing easy scaling up by using faster or additional lanes.[7] So it sounds like if I added a SATA Express compatible SSD one day I would get even faster performance than normal. I don't actually know that I will ever fill up all 6 SATA slots anyway, so having 4 HDDs and 1 extra fast SSD could be a good compromise. What do you think?
February 10, 201610 yr Author Ok this is interesting: http://www.legitreviews.com/what-is-sata-express-and-why-it-matters_140093 One of the really neat things about the SATA Express data connector is that it backward compatible. So, if you aren’t using the standard 3.5-inch SATA data connector you can use the two standard SATA data ports to connect legacy devices to the system. It should be noted that the SATA Express cable delivers power, so there is an end that needs to be plugged into a power supply through a 15-pin SATA or 4-pin molex connector as SATAe devices will require power. This seems to say that both ports can be used, but the trick is that power still needs to be supplied. I'm slightly confused, does this mean power has to be supplied to the motherboard at that port? Why can't I just plug power into the two HDDs like I normally would? Can anyone tell me if my power supply (currently CORSAIR CMPSU-400CX 400W ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS Certified) has the right connectors to supply this type of power for the SATA Express port?
February 10, 201610 yr I'd skip an aftermarket cooler. Save your pennies and get another data drive instead. The CPU will be idle most of the time, and Intel chips are very efficient so heat won't be a problem at all.
February 10, 201610 yr Author I'd skip an aftermarket cooler. Save your pennies and get another data drive instead. The CPU will be idle most of the time, and Intel chips are very efficient so heat won't be a problem at all. Wait, does this CPU already include a fan? It's not listed on the Newegg page... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117622 If it does then I would be fine with the stock fan, but I don't think it's included.
February 10, 201610 yr Author An interesting article came out today: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/02/the-ins-and-outs-of-planning-and-building-your-own-home-nas/ The author talks about how his motherboard has SATA Express and he even shows how he connected two SATA drives to one of the SATA Express ports. It looks like power is handled just as it is with any normal SATA port (power plugged directly into the HDD). So I think this motherboard will support the 6 HDDs as I originally wanted and has the bonus of SATA Express in case I decide to go that route instead some day. So the only remaining question in my mind is: does anyone have any better suggestions in this price range?
February 11, 201610 yr I'd skip an aftermarket cooler. Save your pennies and get another data drive instead. The CPU will be idle most of the time, and Intel chips are very efficient so heat won't be a problem at all. Wait, does this CPU already include a fan? It's not listed on the Newegg page... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117622 If it does then I would be fine with the stock fan, but I don't think it's included. They've all included a heat sink and fan when I've bought them.
February 11, 201610 yr I'd skip an aftermarket cooler. Save your pennies and get another data drive instead. The CPU will be idle most of the time, and Intel chips are very efficient so heat won't be a problem at all. Wait, does this CPU already include a fan? It's not listed on the Newegg page... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117622 If it does then I would be fine with the stock fan, but I don't think it's included. Afaik all box skylane cpus include cooler, except i5 and i7 K variants, these come without it.
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