I like Gigabyte boards, I used them for my last 3 systems. Silly me used an ECS board in my WHS box though, and there are performance issues when DEMigrator runs, even though I have more CPU and RAM than the stock HP 485 boxes. I'll be goign Gigabyte on my next one. AMD sort of leaves a bad taste in my mouth, but since you already have it, you might as well use it. It used to be AMD had it all over Intel when it came to low power, but the new Intel CPUs with the capability to shut off unused cores now have the edge. Might want to look into 2TB drives off the bat, search for deals and you cna probably get them for little more than the 1.5. Personally I am a Western Digital fan, I've used nothing but for 8-9 years now, and over severl dozen drives in my own systems plus those I've built for others, I had exactly 1 fail. My WHS box has the Green drives, they seem to stay cool even in the midst of massive copying. Although there recently was a deal on Samsung 2TB drives and I was thinkign of trying a couple out. And yes, you should be able to plug Sata II drives into the Sata III ports. For my new system I was looking for a mobo with only a few SATA ports as long as it had at least a PCIe x4 and x8 slot - one to run one of those Supermicro 8 port SAS controllers for my storage disks and one to plug in an Intel NIC which tend to have better throughput than the onboard stuff.
--Randy

I see a lot of people talking bout supermicro gear - never really come across it myself - are they more Server based tech?? or have i just lived a sheltered life???

Yes, they mainly make server stuff - cases, motherboards, accessories. Some OEM appliances are build with Supermicro parts. If you check some of the really big server builds in this section, a bunch of them used the Supermicro SAS boards. With the appropriate cable, in thise case a 'forward breakout cable' you hook up to 4 SATA drives to one fo the SAS ports. I'm considering such a thing because the board should be faster then the onboard SATA ports, and I'm a bit paranoid about performance after my existing box. I'm not sure where the bottleneck is, other than manybe the motherboard as the components all check out. I've been told there's no issue using a 5400 RPM Green drive as the system disk, it had a Gb NIC which is linkign to my switch at 1Gb, it has 2GB RAM, and isn't runnign anything other than the base WHS (I'm not even using the photo sharing or anything - just the disk sotrage), and it's a 4050e dual-core CPU. So, even though I plan to use a compeltely different MB and CPU, I'm still thinking about using the Supermicro board for the disk controller.

--Randy

viewtopic.php?f=22&t=7793

I used this MB for my server and used the Chenbro case 34068 which holds 4 hotswap data drives and a slot inside for a 2.5 HD which I used for the OS. You can not add a SATA card to this MB. The PCI slot of for video only. So with 4 2TB you han have 8 TB with the ITX MB.

hey Rhino - I used the same Mobo in my HTPC (i3 based) - its a sweet little board. For this build tho i think im gonna shell out for a new AMD AM3 Mobo cos i've got a 'spare' cpu i can use. I cant seem to find a UK seller for the chembro cases which is a shame cos they look pretty handy.

Just gotta get the ££££ ($$$$$) together now.....might have to buy it all in stages

Something to bare in mind when dealing with server hardware.
It usually will not be the most power efficient thing.
They have very different cultures when dealing with power.
Usually they are 100% spun up all the time, and don't behave nicely when you choke off their ac.

But they wuill run forever and be fairly quick.

_________________
Current DIY server DL380 G6 2xquad core 2.8ghz 32GB rdimm ram 512mb 2xHP 410 raid with 2x sas expanders (2 X norco RPC-4220) 48 slots stacked with room to grow.
30TB (Movie/File/Music)Win 2012 essentials 64bit Storage spaces
Ex490 E6400 4gb ram