so i'm scratching my head over the last minutes of the black friday madness over a new server i wanna build for my ever growing collection :)
anyways would a node 804 be overkill for a itx freenas build if i'm planning to initially use 4 drives or should i step down to the smaller 304? *Currently $59 vs 69 on newegg*
more than likely i'll be salvaging an old intel dg45fc core 2 board since i invested so much towards the drives already....grabbed 4x of the 5tb seagate drives during yesterdays rush,,,,plus it supports ecc ram but i'll likely have to replace the cpu
i've considered using the board suggested on previous videos but i'm going for a salvaged part build at the moment as i'll be reusing my corsair 500 watt psu and a adaptec 4 port raid card
otherwise i do have an extra maximus 5 gene which should go perfect with the 804....
The Node 304 would seem ideal to me with plenty of storage space in a handy size, but sure if you already have m-atx parts the 804 on sale would make sense. Even if its size is initially wasteful. :-)
Personally, I would go with the 804. You have the extra space to add drives later and I like keeping the drives in their own area with a fan blowing across them.
The extra space for cable management and personal sanity is nice too. I love tiny cases but sometimes trying to plug drives in etc gets a little fiddly.
Overkill might have been the word I was looking for. :-) 304 has excellent cooling for the up to 6 3,5" + 2 2,5" drives that one can fit, but if you might go over that then 804 is naturally superior.
decisions decisions lol....sometimes overkill is good at least :)
hopefully i have the time to check out the 804 in person today as i'm hoping its not as massive as the corsair 540.....don't think frys has them only central computers does :(
Have to ask yourself : What am i going to with this later. I purchased the 804 because of the flexiblity of turning into a server, media player, or gaming machine. I can watercool it. Use Aio's. Whatever? If your building a single purpose machine you might be better served with the 304. I personally hate small cases with no options to configure the cooling as needed.
I just bought a silverstone ds380 but I kind of wish I had gone with the node 804 instead. If you only need 6 drives then the 304 is nice, but if you want something that you can expand later then I'd go with the 804.