What's the cheapest way I can get a SATA drive connected

banana pi

sata to USB, if your router have USB for storage.

>>56532239
Convert old desktop pc into a nas, using linux/freeNAS

>>56532239
USB to SATA with a pi and an NFS mount if you don't care about security/authentication.

>>56532594

This would be my choice. Fucking craigslist bro, I worked a job where I had to support Buffalo and Netgear consumer NAS's and they were the fucking work, when a $50 computer from a grandma will be better safer and smarter.

>>56532632
>>56532260

What's the point of using SATA then if you're gonna lose all that speed?

>>56532239

If your router has USB ports, you can throw a SATA HDD into an external case and connect it that way.

Granted, it's slow-ish (if you're like me and your router is obsolete & using USB 2 ports). However, if you have gigabit network, you're not going to be getting any blazing speed anyway. Even a USB 3 port would max out at ~20% specification.

If speed is important, 1) make sure your network supports the speeds you're interested in and 2) you may not be getting off so cheap, since you may be looking at other upgrades beyond your connection device.

>>56532660
Because practically all HDDs use SATA?

>>56532660
>What's the point of using SATA then if you're gonna lose all that speed?

see >>56532682

Evaluate your network speeds; they're probably a fraction of any HDD speed you're looking at, let alone an SSD.

>>56532730

I still want to saturate that 1 Gbit cable. A rpi with ethernet and hdd both on usb isn't gonna cut it.