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It took me a while to find a mini-itx am4 mainboard that was not completely overpriced and additionally one which features all the functions I was looking for – in this case I was specifically looking for 2x m.2 slots. In the end I settled for an x470 board, although it does not have the newest am4 chipset on the market, the price greatly outweighed the lack of pci-e 4 over the 5xx series chipsets.
I planned to use the slot on the back for the operating system, installed to a salvaged 120gb sata SSD from an old notebook, mostly because I dont plan to ever change this setup as long as the NAS stays in operation. Sadly I had to learn that the back slot does not support sata SSDs, and also that if I used the slot with the CPU I put aside for this project, the pci-e x16 slot would get deactivated because the CPU does not provide enough PCI-e lanes.
Consequently I had to redesign the internal setup on the fly.
After reassembly I put the optical drive in to test the layout, when I noticed 3 issues: the front USB header cable rose to high (not in the picture), the ram is too tall and the SATA ports are in an inconvenient spot.
Additionally I closed the case and ran a prime95 stress test to check the thermals under full load. Temperatures rose to 93°C, which is not ideal but also not problematic as this kind of sustained load is highly unlikely. Still there is potential for improvement.
For the next step I plan to
- move the m.2 SATA card to the backside of the PCI-e to m.2 card to free up space for the optical drive.
- The above will also require better cable management and additional parts
- go to Akihabara to find a 60×60 case fan to mount in the front to help with thermals; additionally get some low profile ram to clear space for the optical drive
- design a bracket for the optical tray to mount it inside the case. This will necessitate lots of additional work and a 3d printer
- Shorten the backplate for the black PCI-e to M.2 card by a few mm so it can fit into the case.
I ordered the following on Aliexpress:
- 2 short SATA cables with custom connector angles for the optical drive and the internal 2,5″ HDD
- A mini SATA to Sata adapter for the optical drive
- A USB3 header adapter to re-route the cable and free space for the optical drive
- A 10cm 24ATX extender cable to replace the 20cm one currently in use. This too should clear up some space.
Parts list
The following parts were used for this step
- AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 4750G
https://geizhals.at/amd-ryzen-7-pro-4750g-100-100000145mpk-a2336717.html - ASUS ROG Strixx x470-I Gaming
https://geizhals.at/asus-rog-strix-x470-i-gaming-90mb0xe0-m0eay0-a1804449.html - G.Skill SniperX Urban Camouflage DIMM Kit 16GB DDR4-3600
https://geizhals.at/g-skill-sniperx-urban-camouflage-dimm-kit-16gb-f4-3600c19d-16gsxwb-a1815726.html - Noctua NH-L9a-AM4
https://geizhals.at/noctua-nh-l9a-am4-a1698579.html - Transcend MTS420S SSD 120GB, M.2
https://geizhals.at/transcend-mts420s-ssd-120gb-ts120gmts420s-a1745158.html - Western Digital WD Blue Mobile 500GB, SATA 6Gb/s
https://geizhals.at/western-digital-wd-blue-mobile-500gb-wd5000lpcx-a1311436.html - Western Digital WD Red/NAS 4TB, SATA 6Gb/s
https://geizhals.at/western-digital-wd-nas-4tb-wdbmma0040hnc-a1040159.html - PCIE To SATA 6Gpbsx6-Port Expansion Card
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004374186238.html - M2 NVME Adapter 4 Ports M.2 NVMe to PCIe 3.0 X16
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002608302628.html - SATA II Hard Disk Power 15Pin SATA Male To 2 Female
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004662632658.html - Power Supply 24 Pin Extension Cable 20cm
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004616724946.html