Well I'm in the middle of doing my plex server project. I currently have 5 HDD's.
So kinda need all the possible SATA ports as possible.

Found an B350 board with 2 additional SATA ports over stock B350 chipset.
But it's kinda weird how it's split.
If i use an regular m.2 SATA SSD I ofc lose 1 SATA connection.
So I thought i would go with an cheaper NVME SSD like the intel 600p. But if it runs x4 speed it will actually take up 2 sata connections.

But if I somehow got it to use only 2x lanes I would not lose any SATA connections. This would automatically happen if I used 7th Generation AMD A-Series and Athlon.

Question is can I some how force the NVME SSD only to use x2 instead of x4? the 1.9GB/s bandwidth from 2 lanes is more than enough for intel 600p

Motherboard in question.
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/6T7CmG/gigabyte-ga-ab350m-gaming-3-micro-atx-am4-motherboard-ga-ab350m-gaming-3

Buy a raid card.

does the board support cutting down main x16 to x8 in bios?

nvm looks to be only slot using those lanes

This post was edited by yupitsmeh on Aug 9 2017 12:40pm

Yeah the rest of the lanes are "2.0"



Software raid will be fine for me at least for now. Gonna use mdadm in Linux, and i do not really need the fast speeds, since the gigabit connection will be the bottleneck.
But I probably at some point end up buying an SATA adaptor with additional 4 SATA ports. The case can hold a total of 10 drives.

Here's the chart on the motherboard SATA connections


This post was edited by ZwiX on Aug 9 2017 12:49pm

why do you need this nvme ssd?

also why not go atx? is space saving really needed? but can pay off for more hdds later on

also what did you buy and whats left to purchase?

This post was edited by yupitsmeh on Aug 9 2017 01:00pm

The only reason for the NVME SSD is to save a SATA connection if possible.
I honestly just fell in love with the Node 804!

Currently only have 5x 3TB WD RED.
Had something like this in mind: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Zwqjr7
Wan't to buy a random used AIO cooler 120, 140 or 240mm. OC the 1700 to around 3.9GHz

This post was edited by ZwiX on Aug 9 2017 01:13pm

personally
i'd go atx for more add in card options like raid and even tv tuner which plex does support i think now https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/225877427-Supported-DVR-Tuners-and-Antennas
i'd prolly just use onboard graphics too, are you really going to even need a 730gt, arent you going to mostly remote connect anyways?

Doing raid 6 / 10 in software raid....
I can't even.

I think I might just pool them. I can live with losing movies/tvseries if a HDD goes down.



I will consider the ATX, but meeeh. The PCI-E slots will be sufficent, and if I can use all the 6 SATA on this board, would be perfect.
Well Ryzen doesn't have onboard GPU. Yes I will only be remote control SSH. Probably going with linux with an GUI, so my girlfriend can use it for torrents and plex control.

This post was edited by ZwiX on Aug 9 2017 01:31pm

This board has 8 SATA ports...

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/qMdFf7/asus-prime-x370-pro-atx-am4-motherboard-prime-x370-pro