Controller Cards

MotherMayI

MotherMayI

MotherMayI

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I'm currently looking in to the possibility of setting up a NAS server, however - I want it to have as much storage as possible, and for it to be easily upgraded.

Is there a limitation to the amount of storage, or controller cards, a motherboard would accept? For example, would it be possible for me to start off with the standard Motherboard SATA connectors and 3 HDD's, then add multiple SATA controller cards (each with multiple independent drivers on them) over time?

Are there any kind of problems, both hardware and software wise, should I be aware of?
 
You're really only limited by physical space and the number of available slots on the motherboard.

Power is an issue but can be overcome with a big enough PSU. Drive letter limitations can be bypassed by either using RAID to reduce the number of physical volumes, mounting drives on paths rather than letters or using Linux or Windows Home Server to avoid drive letters entirely.
 
Great, thanks - Just what I wanted to hear. I will be using Linux, so I assumed there would be no problem there.. However, I thought some motherboards might find it hard to handle a large number of drives.
 
If the drives aren't connected directly to the motherboard it doesn't even know about them let alone care. The controller card BIOS deals with everything that's connected to the card.
 
Power isn't really an issue with HDD's, they use up to 30w at startup then under 10w afterwards and if you set staggered startup you then need very little power.
 
I dont know, which is why I want it to be easily scalable. I want to be able to start with a couple of 1TB drives straight on to the mobo, then upgrade with controller cards + hdd's as needed.
 
You'll run out of physical space before connections with controller cards, that's what i found even with my stacker imitation :p

At best if i remove the CD and fan controller i can get 3 racks in over the 9 bays, this can hold a maximum of 12 drives, which means i've only really got room for 9 drives sensibly. Considering i already have 7, i'm not really sure where i'm going next!
 
Get the board with the fastest slots. So buy an SLI / Crossfire mobo. You will get at least 2 8x PCI-E (One will be a 16x anyway). The more PCI-E 16x slots the better. Especially if you use it headless or a PCI gfx card. Doesnt even have to be a decent spec. You can get the 5into3 bay devices. ICYDock d othem. I use the 3into2 ones.
 
LeperousDust said:
You'll run out of physical space before connections with controller cards, that's what i found even with my stacker imitation :p

At best if i remove the CD and fan controller i can get 3 racks in over the 9 bays, this can hold a maximum of 12 drives, which means i've only really got room for 9 drives sensibly. Considering i already have 7, i'm not really sure where i'm going next!
Click to expand...
Lian-Li PC343B.

If you load it up it'll take 30 3.5" HDDs. I hate to think what the rat's nest inside would be like though, mine's crowded enough with 11.
 
LeperousDust said:
You'll run out of physical space before connections with controller cards, that's what i found even with my stacker imitation :p

At best if i remove the CD and fan controller i can get 3 racks in over the 9 bays, this can hold a maximum of 12 drives, which means i've only really got room for 9 drives sensibly. Considering i already have 7, i'm not really sure where i'm going next!
Click to expand...

leave the loose on top of the case :D

had to do this when i used a sff pc as a fileserver

i love these newer 100mb/s transfer rates
 
rpstewart said:
Lian-Li PC343B.

If you load it up it'll take 30 3.5" HDDs. I hate to think what the rat's nest inside would be like though, mine's crowded enough with 11.
Click to expand...

Considering i can buy about 5 of my cases for the price of that, i probably won't be making that financial mistake anytime soon :p

Apart from it being fugging huge as well...


bledd. said:
leave the loose on top of the case :D

had to do this when i used a sff pc as a fileserver

i love these newer 100mb/s transfer rates
Click to expand...

Its out in the hall, which is explosed enough to our house parties as it stands, i won't be stacking bare drives outside a case anytime soon :p
 
Will probably be worth looking at SAS controllers then as you can daisy chain an aweful lot of Sata drive through them and save on the motherboard limitations.
 
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