The system in my sig has 2 SSDs, 2 HDDs, and 1 optical drive. I'm quickly running out of room on the HDD that stores my Plex library, so I'll need to expand. The problem is that I only have 6 sata ports on my board, meaning i could only ever fit one more drive in using the sata ports on the board. It is possible that i could need even more drives in the future, including possibly a second optical drive.
What would be the best way of adding additional sata ports? I've seen a number of different pcie cards that add 1, 2, 4+ more ports, but is that the best solution for adding more HDD and/or SSD storage drives?
I'm also considering switching my OS over to an M.2 nvme on the board, in which case I'd want to run both existing SSDs in Raid 1 (probably software Raid). This wouldn't gain me any additional sata ports though, correct? There's no way to share a sata data cable with Raid 1? I've got two M.2 slots on my board, but if i use the second, i lose 2 sata ports. If i use either as M.2 sata instead of nvme, I lose even more.
I suppose i could look into a raid card that can mount the SSDs, but I'm not even sure if I'll have the room to fit the card. Not to mention, it might just be cheaper to spend the money on a larger replacement HDD anyway.
Are there other options for increasing the amount of sata ports? Tried to find an m.2 adapter, but i came up empty. It would probably be expensive and hideous anyway. Is there any ways to utilize other open slots on the board, like USB or COM?
What would be the best way of adding additional sata ports? I've seen a number of different pcie cards that add 1, 2, 4+ more ports, but is that the best solution for adding more HDD and/or SSD storage drives?
I'm also considering switching my OS over to an M.2 nvme on the board, in which case I'd want to run both existing SSDs in Raid 1 (probably software Raid). This wouldn't gain me any additional sata ports though, correct? There's no way to share a sata data cable with Raid 1? I've got two M.2 slots on my board, but if i use the second, i lose 2 sata ports. If i use either as M.2 sata instead of nvme, I lose even more.
I suppose i could look into a raid card that can mount the SSDs, but I'm not even sure if I'll have the room to fit the card. Not to mention, it might just be cheaper to spend the money on a larger replacement HDD anyway.
Are there other options for increasing the amount of sata ports? Tried to find an m.2 adapter, but i came up empty. It would probably be expensive and hideous anyway. Is there any ways to utilize other open slots on the board, like USB or COM?