Onda B365 D32-D4 Magic Edition motherboard with 32 SATA ports launched for prospective Chia miners

Some time ago, we talked about Chia, a new cryptocurrency that would employ a unique 'proof of space and time' concept favouring vast quantities of high-speed storage. Although Chia isn't tradable yet, miners in China are already buying up vast amounts of enterprise-grade hardware to get ahead of the pack. The launch comes shortly after Bitman launched its Antminer E9 ASIC for Ethereum mining. One motherboard manufacturer seems to be quite optimistic about Chia's success, too.

Onda (via @I_Leak_VN) has launched a new B365-based motherboard called the D32-D4 Magic Edition. As its name somewhat suggests, it has a whopping 32 SATA ports for hard drives. It is essentially a garden variety B365 board with extra SATA ports. The Onda B365 D32-D4 Magic Edition also comes with two Gigabit Ethernet ports, one NVMe SSD slot, two DDR4 RAM slots, one HDMI port, one VGA port, two USB 2.0, four USB 3.0 ports, and two PCI-E slots. It will set you back by CNY 3,299 (US$508), which seems like a fair asking price for a specialized piece of hardware. Miners have already scooped up the first batch of motherboards, as it is currently sold out.

The absurd number of SATA ports on the Onda B365 D32-D4 Magic Edition draws power from six 6-pin power connectors. However, it is unlikely that you'll need to plug all six in unless you plan on using all of the ports simultaneously. Finding a case to put one of these motherboards in should be a daunting task, too, but we're confident that several Chinese OEMs are drawing up a design for one as this is being written. It will probably be modelled on the lines of a server rack that can host 32 hard drives.