Log Mini-ITX/DTX or very small Micro-ATX build with 4x M.@ NVMe and single slot GPU

[Leo037]

OK so I've been trying my best to find parts to build a small modestly powerful and NVME dense machine. OS/Virtualization up in the air still.


The ideal features and form factor would be a Shuttle SX79R5 (as an example)for the simple fact that it has two full x16 PCIe slots. I would like a good single slot video card (already acquired a Galax Katana GTX 1070 which was almost impossible to find as it was not sold in the US) second slot I would like to have a 4x M.2 card for NVME storage (Highpoint has great cards for this). Purpose of the NVME storage is video ingest for gopro videos. I have a NAS for everything else that can be slow storage. I want to be able to have expandable NVMe storage beyond the typical one or two slots yuou see on consumer boards without having to go server/enterprise. 10GigE would be nice also


The use case is file server/NAS and/or VMWare host. I don't have big power needs so I would be aiming at mid-range CPU (10th gen i5 or AMD equivalent) and modest memory, upgrading later if needed. I run only Plex and Resilio Sync currently. Though in the future I may want to run some game servers for friends/family. I'd have some extra RAM and storage for tinkering with VM's

I've considered Mini-DTX motherboards as well. But the newest ones recentely released after a decade of not being on the market, only use the extra board space of mini-dtx for a second horizontal M.2 slot.

I've considered using a NUC, either Hades Canyon or the new 10th gen ones with a Thunderbolt NVME expansion box. But I feel that the NUC's would be too limited on resources/bandwidth for long term use.


Thoughts?

 

[chx]

The 1080 https://www.techpowerup.com/review/nvidia-geforce-gtx-1080-pci-express-scaling/24.html suffers a <5% hit when used over 3.0 x4 vs x16.

Thus my recommendation would be to just use a quad M.2 carrier and a riser from either those or a motherboard M.2 slot to a PCIe x4 slot. We just discussed a low profile such carrier at https://smallformfactor.net/forum/t...ards-supporting-bifurcation.13995/post-213225 . Search for the ADT R42SF for an adequate riser. Make sure the riser is connected to a CPU connected slot not a chipset connected one.

Quite a few new B550 ITX boards have dual M.2: Asrock B550 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ax, Asus ROG Strix B550-I, Gigabyte B550I Aorus Pro AX.

For more, look at industrial boards with OCuLink or PCIe x8 SlimSAS connectors (SFF-8654). https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=X570D4I-2T has two OCULink ports, you can get a carrier board from micro sata cables or similar places so that you end up with three NVMe from the board and one video card.

Typically the video card drops down a x8 connection when the MB provides multiple connections.

Not enough? You need to wade into embedded industrial boards, likely. Eg.: https://www.asrockrack.com/general/...el=D2143D4I2-2T&Specifications#Specifications this has two M.2 on board -- one of them is 2242 but hey, that's good for the riser and four via OCuLink.

Not enough? Look at https://smallformfactor.net/forum/threads/epyc-itx-is-coming-asrockrack-romed4id-2t.14195/ which has a ridiculous amount of the aforementioned SlimSAS connectors: six , each of which can support two NVMe. Of course, this motherboard will not be cheap nor will be a relevant EPYC CPU.

 

[Leo037]

I'll definitely keep an eye out for that ASRock ROMED4ID board

Not worried about GPU performance really. Only have it for the occasional transcoding

thanks!