Giada Shows Off Mini-ITX Board For NAS Systems

By Niels Broekhuijsen
published

Giada is releasing a mini-ITX motherboard targeted at NAS builders.

Giada is introducing a new motherboard specifically targeted at home users and medium-sized enterprises to be used as an NAS server. The N70E-DR motherboard is aimed at being a low-cost solution for big data storage.

It is a mini-ITX motherboard with an integrated CPU, the Celeron C1007U. The CPU's TDP is rated at only 17 W, so that should result in a low-power server as well. It features a single SODIMM memory slot, two SATA3 ports and four SATA2 ports. These support all the popular RAID arrangements that could be desired, including RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10. Additionally, buyers have the option of installing a TPM chip so that even the boot drives can be encrypted without the need for a USB key or smartcard.

External connectivity is achieved by a pair of PS/2 ports, four USB 2.0 ports on the rear I/O, the USB 3.0 ports through a header, a COM port, VGA, and two Gbit Ethernet ports powered by Intel's 82583V chip. It appears that the board has no sound interface, but most buyers are not likely to be interested in such things anyway.

At the time of writing there is no word on availability or pricing.

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Niels Broekhuijsen
Niels Broekhuijsen

Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.

9 Comments Comment from the forums
  • jtd871
    It would be more exciting if it were thin mini-itx form factor and had eSATA ports instead of the COM port (what possible need for THAT legacy port could there be?) and large tower of USB. That way, you could run the thing in a very small enclosure and keep all the actual storage external. Also, how many USB ports do you want/need on a NAS anyway?
    Reply
  • Onus
    When I saw the title, I was expecting a board with at least six or eight SATA 6Gb/s connectors on it.

    FAIL.
    Reply
  • lpedraja2002
    Really? VGA ports?
    Reply
  • -Jackson
    10651996 said:
    It would be more exciting if it were thin mini-itx form factor and had eSATA ports instead of the COM port (what possible need for THAT legacy port could there be?) and large tower of USB. That way, you could run the thing in a very small enclosure and keep all the actual storage external. Also, how many USB ports do you want/need on a NAS anyway?
    Configuring an old Cisco switch? :D
    Reply
  • dark_knight33
    10650839 said:
    Giada is releasing a mini-ITX motherboard targeted at NAS builders.

    Giada Shows Off Mini-ITX Board For NAS Systems : Read more

    10651996 said:
    It would be more exciting if it were thin mini-itx form factor and had eSATA ports instead of the COM port (what possible need for THAT legacy port could there be?) and large tower of USB. That way, you could run the thing in a very small enclosure and keep all the actual storage external. Also, how many USB ports do you want/need on a NAS anyway?

    Having all of your storage external isn't more efficient, it's less. You should only do that when you can't fit any more HDDs in your case. As to esata, it's a lot easier to convert a sata port to esata using brackets, than it is to convert esata to sata, or even find room for all those esata ports.
    Reply
  • razor512
    10651996 said:
    It would be more exciting if it were thin mini-itx form factor and had eSATA ports instead of the COM port (what possible need for THAT legacy port could there be?) and large tower of USB. That way, you could run the thing in a very small enclosure and keep all the actual storage external. Also, how many USB ports do you want/need on a NAS anyway?

    The serial port can be used for flashing firmware and unbricking some routers, I am sure that most users will be using their NAS for that purpose on a daily basis and thus much more important than esata for a NAS :)

    ;)

    @Onus
    If you need more sata6 ports than go with a AMD mini ITX board instead, you get 6-8 SATA6 ports depending on the board.

    eg if you have your oil company and cartel working overtime on the side, you can afford your self this $99 (really expensive for a mini ITX board) mini ITX board with 7 SATA6 (and 1 additional esata port for a total of 8) ports http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157357
    Reply
  • Onus
    Exactly; that would make an excellent NAS board.
    Reply
  • Fulgurant
    10652011 said:
    When I saw the title, I was expecting a board with at least six or eight SATA 6Gb/s connectors on it.

    FAIL.

    When I saw the title, I was expecting Giada Delaurentis.

    DOUBLE FAIL. ;)
    Reply
  • millerwjr
    Just wanted to clarify that there are indeed six SATA connections, however only two of them are 6Gb/s (as Onus mentions); the other four SATA ports are 3Gb/s. I'm excited to see the reviews for this after release... For what it's worth, I don't think this is the worst choice for a low-cost, low-power (entry-level) home file server build.
    Reference: http://www.giadatech.com/index.php?act=pShow&id=19

    A few key points:
    Integrated CPU - Normally I'd dislike this feature. However, this potentially offers a little-or-no-fuss install with a reasonable processor and decent power consumption. This also takes the need out of researching processors for compatibility - which is not necessarily a "pro" for veteran builders, but could be great for beginners. For me, I don't intend on tweaking the hardware too much for my next custom microserver build and I like that this reduces build time.

    Power - This board maintains a very acceptable power advertisement; reviews after release will indicate accuracy.

    RAID - The built in on-board RAID (0/1/5/10) is probably what will make-or-break this board in the eyes of server builders. As we've seen on several recent products, this may not be "true" hardware RAID and could very well be emulated... This would explain the reasonable price, as quality RAID controllers can run for double the cost of this board. Again, while this wouldn't be bad for entry-level builders, this could easily be a deal breaker for many.

    Cost - Of course we'd love to see this board under $99, but then again who wouldn't? I think $169 is a reasonable price considering the CPU is integrated and that this is a vendor who's gearing their (according to their website) one-and-only motherboard toward establishing a foothold in a relatively niche market. Pricing could have easily gone the wrong direction...
    Reference: http://www.legitreviews.com/news/15394/

    As for the legacy componentry, from an economic standpoint I hope we start seeing more m-ITX form factor boards. In my opinion, the m-ITX market is still underpopulated for what it should be, considering the (arguably) recent rise in interest of micro/home server builds. I hope once we see a bit more competition in this arena, we'll reach a tipping point of better products (with better component organization) at better prices.

    EDIT: Interesting, that there's no native sound output... Not a big deal for my purposes, but still worth noting since this could very readily be overlooked.
    Reply