_Rick_
Diamond Member
So, I was looking at replacing the 4-in-3 modules in my venerable CM Stacker with some hot-swap bays. I found a nice set of Silverstone bays (sorry Cooler Master 😀), and was thinking about going with a 12-in-3 and two 5-in-3 bays.
Together with that errant optical drive, and a potential path to CFast (yeah, right... but there's a spare bay where I currently have a card reader installed, that could be improved in the future) I'm looking at 24 ports.
My C236 already exposes 8 SATA ports, and I am using an onboard Broadcom 3008 for another 8 ports (Supermicro X11SSH-CTF).
Now, simply for ease of use, I am considering plonking in another 3008 card - avoid driver trouble (Linux box), stick with what works.
But, as those are purely sold as server hardware, everything I can see is low profile - and they don't ship with alternative slot covers either. Now I know, that in theory, they could be swapped - but has anyone done this in practice? Or should I just forget about the 3008 and look at lower end SATA controllers, in the right form factor? Then they would need driver support on Linux - where usually "proper server hardware" comes off much better.
For the moment at least, a proper 19" chassis doesn't look like the solution - I don't have a basement/attic to hide a proper racked setup in.
Together with that errant optical drive, and a potential path to CFast (yeah, right... but there's a spare bay where I currently have a card reader installed, that could be improved in the future) I'm looking at 24 ports.
My C236 already exposes 8 SATA ports, and I am using an onboard Broadcom 3008 for another 8 ports (Supermicro X11SSH-CTF).
Now, simply for ease of use, I am considering plonking in another 3008 card - avoid driver trouble (Linux box), stick with what works.
But, as those are purely sold as server hardware, everything I can see is low profile - and they don't ship with alternative slot covers either. Now I know, that in theory, they could be swapped - but has anyone done this in practice? Or should I just forget about the 3008 and look at lower end SATA controllers, in the right form factor? Then they would need driver support on Linux - where usually "proper server hardware" comes off much better.
For the moment at least, a proper 19" chassis doesn't look like the solution - I don't have a basement/attic to hide a proper racked setup in.
