Any atom motherboards with many sata ports?

[Mech0z]

I am thinking of building a low power data server, but I can't find any atom mb's with more than 2 sata ports and 1 pci port which limits me to 6 sata ports as any card with more than 4 sata ports gets very expensive.

So any idears?

Or should just get a E5200 cpu and a low power motherboard, but how big is the power consumption difference?

 

[masteryoda34]

I believe that Intel limits the number of SATA ports on Atom motherboards. They don't want to end up cannibalizing their low end C2D sales with Atom systems.

 

[Mech0z]

Hmm okay, I would like to see how a E5200 + a low power MB would do against an atom in power consumption, the system would never be full loaded anyway so idle is almost the most important part.

 

[Zap]

If you go for a newer chipset like the G45, you can negate some of the higher power usage of the CPU. The reason is that while the desktop single-core Atom draws 4W (dual core 8W), the chipset on all the boards (945GC) draws more than newer chipsets that the E5200 would run on.

Just make sure to leave EIST enabled so that the CPU can go into low power states. Also, make sure that the power supply you buy is efficient at low outputs. An 80+ certified 650W power supply will be pretty inefficient at 65W output. You would want to find the smallest output efficient PSU that can still power your system, which will probably be a Seasonic 300W.

 

[Mech0z]

I was thinking the Corsair CX400w as its pretty cheap. No point in saving 10$ a year by buying something for 70$ dollars more. (Wont have the same hardware for that long)

But maybe I should just buy a better HTPC case with space for more harddrives then and just use that as my NAS.
This is is the hardware plan for my HTPC atm http://www.2and2.net/files/496b0c3ec30d2.png

 

[ronaldbe]

http://www.logicsupply.com/products/ms_9832

 

[AsusGuy]

Go with a cheap AMD chipset AM2+ board and a X2 BE that will be a lot cheaper than an intel 5xxx chip for a file server. If an Atom processor would have been fast enough just go with a low power Sempron and you will be happy. No need to spend more than $150 on those parts.