I just got a D510 board for $86 US inc. Fedex shpg in US. I'm about to set it up with Ubuntu server as a home use router/server. It doesn't have enough SATA ports for full NAS use (only 2). You would have to go with one of the higher end boards like the Gigabyte or MSI Socket P mini-itx boards, or add in a PCI SATA card.
Problem with any of these mini-itx systems is usually you want to build in a small enclosure that limits the ability to use PCI cards. I'm trying out a PCI extender cable with a Intel Dual Port GigE card but I'm not sure this will work reliably. I need the extra LAN ports but not more SATA.
The main attraction to the Intel Atom boards is low cost. The newer versions have miniPCIe slots which are great for adding wifi (and I think there is some SATA miniPCIe around too) but otherwise the limitation is expandability.
@tlsarles,
If you're talking extreme budget then SSD isn't going to fit. Your best bet is using a USB flash on an internal port. I've found recent flash drives that are faster than CF cards and easier to add-on. The new intel boards don't have IDE so the only way to add CF is with a SATA converter. I have a Tuff'n'Tiny Kingston 8GB flash stick that gets 28MB/s read which I'll be testing for this. It only cost $12 whereas an SSD is going to cost more a lot, lot more. Intel has these new internal usb SSD modules (forget the name) but even they cost $50+ for 4GB.
If you really need speed you'd be better off adding RAM because it will be used as disk cache to speed up any slow flash access.
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