Finding PCIe x1 cards with more than 2 SATA ports is difficult so you
might want to make sure that either your chosen motherboard has lots
of PCIe slots or has some wider slots. If you plan on using on-board
video and re-using the x16 slot for something else, you should verify
that the BIOS will let you do that - I've got several (admittedly old)
systems where the x16 slot must either be empty or have a video card
to work.
While it is is not commonly done, it is possible to put faster PCIe
cards in slower PCIe slots with performance being limited to the lowest
common denominator. E.g. a 16x card in a 1x slot. Doing so with
probably require the use a a Dremel tool or soldering iron to cut or
melt off the back of a PCIe slot. An 8 port SATA PCIe 4x card could be
used in a 1x slot using this technique (performance limited to 1x).
Examples, some with pictures:
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1380104
http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=790660
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/249291-30-card
http://forums.pcbsd.org/showthread.php?t=7636
http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=83&topicid=26706
If you are concerned about reliability, you might like to look at
motherboard and CPU combinations that support ECC RAM. I believe all
Asus AMD boards now support ECC and some Gigabyte boards do (though
identifying them can be tricky).
I suggest looking at the ASUS AMD CSM (corporate stability model)
motherboards. These models support ECC, don't change as often, and are
supported longer, which are good characteristics for a build it yourself
server/workstation.
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