they use Realtek chip for on-board GB Lan. at least one PCIe x 16 and one PCIe x 4 Sort by price and pick the one you like the most - just make sure it has: Go to form factor and select 'ATX' as these are the boards that may have two or more PCIe x 16 connectors - choice is now down to 41 MBsĤ. Select SATA 3GB/s with 6 ports as these will have the lowest cost - search - you will get 71 MBsģ. Go to Newegg and use the parametric search:Ģ. The question is do you have extra memory to reuse or you plan to buy a new one anyway. If you reuse your old CPU you probably will get the lowest cost as the AMD motherboards are generally less expensive than the Intel ones. If you guys have any suggestions that will help me cut some costs and are loosely based around the 20 drive beast writeup - i'd love to hear them. I currently have an AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ that I can use from an old PC which is why I keep trying to figure out which of these AMD boards will work - but am willing to part with it if either I need more power for a 20 drive rig or if I can get a great motherboard/cpu deal somewhere. I have a few questions before I break out the wallet:ġ) When you guys build a 20 drive rig, is it really only 18 of storage as 2 of the slots are for the cache and parity drive? Is there a certain case or build that lets you do the full 19+parity?Ģ) What would the difference be if I decided not to buy the recommended motherboard (SUPERMICRO MBD-X7SBE), but decided to instead by something like the following link which has (2) PCIe 2.0 slots for (2) Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8?Īny input for helping me create this bad boy at the best price possible will be appreciated. Although it will be more expensive, I just think it looks a lot nicer than the Norco 4220.

Thirteen drive bays, space for graphics cards as large as 17. Antec’s Twelve Hundred V3 gaming case combines maximum performance, cooling and compatibility in a full-tower package. I am planning on using the Antec 1200 to create a 20 drive rig. Congratulations on your purchase of the Antec Twelve Hundred V3.

Antec 1200 case