Ok, I was just browsing hw and this Asus P11C-I board caught my eye, since it has a "mini sas HD" in stead of the usual 6 sata ports. A bit of searching and apparently mini sas hd is also known as sff 8643, which is the newer and electrically identical to sff 8087?
I have an old 2U HP storage server with a 12 disk backplane, it's not in use, but I noticed the backplane is only connected through 1 sff 8087, via a HP raid controller and power from molex connector(s). To my knowledge backplanes are generally just cables on a pcb? SFF 8643 to SFF 8087 cables are cheap. Would the Asus board connected to the backplane be a good solution? (i.e. will it support 12 disks and hotswap?)
I'm thinking: 32 GB ecc ram, a xeon 2100 series cpu would make it a potent little setup? Or even 16 GB + a cheaper compatible cpu to save some (but who am i kidding... I like HW).
I have an old 2U HP storage server with a 12 disk backplane, it's not in use, but I noticed the backplane is only connected through 1 sff 8087, via a HP raid controller and power from molex connector(s). To my knowledge backplanes are generally just cables on a pcb? SFF 8643 to SFF 8087 cables are cheap. Would the Asus board connected to the backplane be a good solution? (i.e. will it support 12 disks and hotswap?)
I'm thinking: 32 GB ecc ram, a xeon 2100 series cpu would make it a potent little setup? Or even 16 GB + a cheaper compatible cpu to save some (but who am i kidding... I like HW).