im looking to build a system thats purely for file storage, im thinking about geting a SATA controler card, Gigabit Lan, and the smallest motherboard to accomodate this (pref Intel), can anyone recommend me brands and better yet models of motherboards that have a small form factor, bonus points if it has two SATA headers on it aswell as only two (possibly three) pci slots?

I am looking at building a small enclosure for hard drives, http://www.mini-itx.com/reviews/nehemiah/ <- something like that would compleatly rock my socks, but need more PCI and want to avoid PATA due to the type of drive bay i want to get ( http://www.auspcmarket.com.au/images/info/IMG_CA-SN3141SATA_11253_0_lrg.jpg )

I'm not sure about a specific motherboard, but the via epias are pretty damn small, footprint the same size of a regular cd-rom drive.

They are always bringing out newer boards, pretty much everything intergrated.

P4P800-VM is an awesome little board supports 800FSB and dual channel RAM, also has onboard video, 10/100 lan, 2 sata headers (raid 0+1), AGP port and three PCI slots, onboard 6 channel sound, etc etc (ONLY downer is not gigabit) http://www.asus.com/prog/spec.asp?m=P4P800-VM&langs=01

Stokesy : yeah some of them looked good, just not quite what I am after, need atleast two pci for a four port promise Sata controler card and a gigabit card if its not onboard.

Power: not too bad, but not quite there yet.

will you ever use this or will u have have it hidden awaky jsut for file storage?

danjor : I assume by use you mean as a desktop computer, no, I’m looking at buying something purely for storage capacity, and to keep the size small so it still remains portable. it wont need things like cdroms or high end video/sound cards. I’m wanting to build an enclosure for it, most likely out of a reasonable thickness wood and put a few fans in it, find a small PSU to go with it, I might even toss linux on it instead of windows and setup FTP/WWW/SMB services for file access.

basicaly what I am after is this...

http://www.viavpsd.com/product/epia_cl_spec.jsp?motherboardId=181

... but with 2/4 sata headers and if gigabit onboard is impossible a extra PCI slot., but I don't expect I'll find that, but something of a reasonable comparison, With all these new mini barebone cases im sure more of these kinds of motherboards will be made, i just dont want one with a mini case that no one will buy.

just get a msi box and be happy with it.. jeez.. or a shuttle mini pc.. JUST DOO EEEEEEET :p

the msi mega is pretty damn cool, then again so is the asus pundit or asus digimatrix

but they really don't at all do what you want to do

asus pundit

got two of those at work, not bad little boxes, the fan for the CPU is flush with the side of the case, drawing air to the CPU directly from the side of the case, dust rape ensured.

some realy small stuff here, http://www.lex.com.tw/Product-list.htm

you seen the digimatrix, it's pretty cool?

I notices the P4P800-VM was posted above. What about the P4R800-VM?

dirty dirty P4R800-VM with it's dirty little ati chipset!

Well a mate of my in the wholesale brought over this awesome little box the other night to show off.

It was smaller than a Xbox, I think it's called a I-Box, cost you around $500, comes with the case, mobo, chip. you can fix like 2x 250 GB drives and you are able to place a APG video card with 2x PCI slots on the back. I am actual thinking of getting to put under my TV with a wireless nic and hook it to be my DivX box.

But yeah I must say it's pretty awesome.

Edit, I found somthing simlare, if your intrested. http://www.computersales.com.au/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=25_40&products_id=152

yeah you could also look at one of the cubic cases.

yeah you could also look at one of the cubic cases.

one option will be buying one of those and just taking the mobo out, but I would like to avoid not having to buy the case aswell, money that could be spent on other parts of the system.