I've been researching SBC NAS options; I've spent a lot of time on this forum and have learned a lot - it's a great resource.
I'm looking for an ARM board configuration that will support multiple spinning-rust drives (not RAIDed) and possibly run a light-duty web server or Nextcloud in the background. I'd like to be able to saturate GbE and have decent local HDD-to-HDD transfer speeds.
The Helios 4 looks nice but it's a bit pricey and perhaps still experiencing a few growing pains. The RockPro64 and NanoPi M4 both look pretty good, and I assume will perform similarly given they have the same SOC. The NanoPi gets rave reviews for reliability and support, and the size is nice, but I'm not thrilled with powering it via USB-C. OTOH the RockPro64 supports faster SATA chipsets through its PCIe slot, and is a little cheaper if you compare 4GB versions.
Q1: Any thoughts between these two boards? Other boards I should look at? (There's not too many multi-SATA options that I've seen.)
Q2: Will the NanoPi M4's SATA hat (Marvell 9215-based) bog down on multiple drives?
Q3: If I go with the RockPro64, is a Marvell 9235 like https://www.amazon.com/CREST-D…ell-Chipset/dp/B00AZ9T41M the best choice, or is there another chipset worth looking at?
Thanks!