Researching SATA Backplanes

For a while I’ve been considering that a SATA backplane would really make server work easier. But for an inexpensive server an inexpensive backplane is needed. I decided to look again tonight and see what I could find. I included 3-in-2 (3 3.5” drives in 2 5.25” bays), 4-in-3 (5 3.5” drives in 3 5.25” bays), and 5-in-3 (5 3.5” drives in 3 5.25” bays) models.

3-in-2 - The advantages of a 3-in-2 backplane is that cases with only 3 5.25” slots can still have a slot left for an optical drive or other device. Most of the servers I build don’t have more than 3 drives (often 2 in a RAID-1 setup and 1 as a scratch/backup disk). The product I’ve been most impressed with so far is the Athena Power BP-SATA2131B which costs under $75 (seems identical to the iStarUSA BPU-230SATA).

4-in-3 - While there are some attractive 4-in-3 units I don’t think the drive density is worth it compared to 3-in-2 and 5-in-3 unless better cooling is required than what a 5-in-3 setup can achieve. The Athena Power BP-SATA3141B looks like it might be nice for $110 (seems identical to the iStarUSA BPU-350SATA).

5-in-3 - The 5-in-3 design maximizes drive density. It would probably be wise to consider cooling before actually putting 5 drives into one of these. The Athena Power BP-SATA3051B for $120 looks good (seem identical to the iStarUSA BPU-350SATA). The SuperMicro M35T-1 is just a bit more expensive at $130 (comes in black and beige).