I was originally going to go Intel and build a basic Raid Box because since the ICH9R they have had the ability to have an ESATA port capable of port multiplying but there was one catch, it was Command Based Switched which means only one drive gets access at a time. So this through out my plan of an external box configured for Raid 5. Now I could spend 100 some bucks on a PCI card but I am also looking for a low power unit. Now the MyMovies is coming for WHS and Netflix for the 360 I am looking to go with a low poaer WHS and because the WHS OS handles the drives and doesn’t use raid I don’t care about the type of port multiplier, I just want it on board. So the AMD 790FX boards have a JMicron ESATA controller and offers 2 ESATA ports. So potentially I can have 10 external sata drives in the pool plus the internal headers. But these boards run 100 plus bucks and have a lot of bells and whistles I don’t need. I want a MATX board and a low power proc. So had anyone seen anything like this or maybe I should wait a little longer. I don’t think the HP WHS boxes have ESATA so expansion comes through a few internal bays and maybe USB.
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