Motherboard with many SATA ports: MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum ?

[Andre Majorel <aym-naibed@teaser.fr>]

Sorry, yet another motherboard question.

Looking for a socket 939 motherboard with a comfortable number of
SATA ports (at least 6, preferably 8). The application is software
RAID.

Here's what I've found so far :

                          NB   PCI SATA ports______  Ethernet______________
Asus a8n-sli deluxe       nf4s  3  4(nf4) + 4(3114)  g(nf)      + g(marvel)
Asus a8n-sli premium      nf4s  3  4(nf4) + 4(3114)  g(nf)      + g(marvel)
Gigabyte ga-k8n ultra-9   nf4u  3  4(nf4) + 4(3114)  g(marvel)  + g(cicada)
Gigabyte ga-k8nxp-9       nf4u  3  4(nf4) + 4(3114)  g(nf)      + g(marvel)
MSI k8n diamond           nf4s  3  4(nf4) + 2(3132)  g(nf4s)    + g(88e8053)
MSI k8n diamond 54g       nf4      4(nf4) + 2(sil)   g(nf4)     + g(marvel)
MSI k8n neo4 platinum     nf4u  4  4(nf4) + 4(3114)  g(88e1111) + g(88e8053)
MSI k8n neo4 platinum sli nf3      4(nf3) + 2(sil)
MSI k8n sli-fi            nf4s     4(nf4) + 2(sil?)  g(marvel)

I'm not too hot for Gigabyte due to past experience with BIOS
updates, or lack thereof. The Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe/Premium and
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum look good. The A8N-SLI Deluxe/Premium
support SLI, which I have no use for, at the expense of a PCI
slot. They're also more expensive than the K8N Neo4 Platinum.

All other things being equal, I'd rather have AGP than PCIe16
but I haven't found an AGP motherboard with enough SATA ports.

So it looks like it's going to be an MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum.
Comments ? Suggestions ?

-- 
André Majorel <URL:http://www.teaser.fr/~amajorel/>
Do not use this account for regular correspondence.
See the URL above for contact information.