The Jonsbo N4 6/8-Bay NAS Enclosure has been Revealed
The Jonsbo N4 NAS Enclosure marks an addition to the brand’s lineup, featuring cube-shaped Micro-ATX cases designed specifically for DIY NAS server builds. These enclosures are available in two colours: black and white, each incorporating a distinctive design that includes a classy wood embellishment on the front side of the upper compartment.
UPDATE – The Jonsbo N4 NAS Case is Now Available to Buy on AliExpress HERE
UPDATE 2 – The Jonsbo N4 NAS Case REVIEW is NOW LIVE – HERE on YouTube, or HERE as a written article on NASCompares
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| Model: N4 (Black / White)
Dimensions: 286mm (W) x 300mm (D) x 228mm (H) / Material: 0.7mm Steel + Wood, Weight: 3.75kg Storage: 6x 3.5″ HDD slots + 2x 2.5″ SSD slots Motherboard: ITX / Micro-ATX Ports: 1x Type-C USB, 1x USB 3.0 Type-A PSU: SFX (up to 125mm in length) / Maximum CPU Cooler Height: ≤70mm PCI Expansion: x4 , Maximum Graphics Card Length: ≤230mm Cooling: 1x 120mm fan (built-in) |
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Jonsbo N4 NAS Case Design
The case supports a Micro-ATX motherboard tray, low-profile expansion cards, and offers compatibility for CPU coolers up to 70 mm in height. The inclusion of eight drive caddies, with six designated for 3.5-inch drives and two for 2.5-inch drives, all equipped with SATA 6 Gbps backplanes for hot-plugging, underlines its focus on storage flexibility.
One of the key features of the N4 series is its storage capacity, which includes eight drive bays in total. This comprises six 3.5-inch bays and two 2.5-inch bays, all equipped with SATA 6 Gbps backplanes for hot-plugging capabilities. This configuration allows for a versatile setup of storage drives, meeting the demands for high storage capacity in NAS applications. The design ensures that these drive bays are easily accessible and maintained, promoting a user-friendly experience for installing and upgrading storage devices.
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Cooling is managed within the enclosure by a single, built-in 120mm fan located at the rear, aimed at providing sufficient airflow to maintain optimal operating temperatures for the drives and other internal components. The enclosure’s cooling system is further supported by its design, which includes a perforated front panel for the lower compartment housing the drive bays and additional perforations along the sides and top of the upper compartment. This design choice aids in effective cooling, crucial for the reliability and longevity of the NAS server built within.
Jonsbo N4 NAS Case Connections
For connectivity and external interfaces, the N4 NAS Enclosure is equipped with a type-A USB 3.2 port and a USB 3.2 type-C port, conveniently located on the classy wood embellishment at the front side of the upper compartment. This choice of materials and placement not only adds to the aesthetic appeal of the case but also ensures easy access to the ports for quick connections. The inclusion of these modern USB standards caters to the need for high-speed data transfer, a significant aspect for NAS systems that handle large volumes of data.
In terms of compatibility, the N4 series supports MicroATX and Mini-ITX motherboard form factors, with accommodation for up to four low-profile expansion slots. It allows for the installation of graphics cards up to 230 mm in length and CPU coolers up to 70 mm in height, as well as SFX power supplies with a maximum depth of 125 mm. While these specifications may limit some options for high-end components, they are adequate for building a compact and efficient NAS system.
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The Jonsbo N4 NAS Enclosure provides a balanced solution for users looking to assemble a NAS server with a focus on storage capacity, cooling efficiency, and a compact footprint.
When Will the Jonsbo N4 NAS Case Be Released and the Price?
Regarding price and availability, the cost of the Jonsbo N4 NAS Enclosure is yet to be confirmed (TBC), but potential buyers can anticipate a price point similar to the previously released Jonsbo N3 model. The initial release is expected to be available through popular online platforms such as Aliexpress and Amazon, which are often the first to stock new products from Jonsbo. This approach allows for wider availability and accessibility to a global audience eagerly awaiting new NAS solutions. The full release and widespread availability of the Jonsbo N4 NAS Enclosure are projected for Spring 2024, aligning with the company’s strategy to introduce innovative products in a timely manner. As anticipation builds, NASCompares plans to conduct a thorough review of the enclosure, offering insights and evaluations to potential users. This forthcoming review will provide valuable information on the N4’s performance, build quality, and overall value, assisting in informed decision-making for those considering this enclosure for their NAS server builds.
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| (White) Check AliExpress $75.36
Check Amazon HERE |
(Black) Check AliExpress $79.99
Check Amazon HERE |
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Looking at all you said, I think this case is a pos.
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There’s a lot of people complaining a lot about this case, forgetting that not everyone *needs* 8 hot swappable drives and full height/length PCI-E cards. I just did a build in one of these, and it’s perfect for my needs. I’ve gone with a mid-range CPU (Ryzen 5 5600G), 4 drives, and a couple of 2.5Gbe NICs. It’s been happily running my Proxmox VMs and TrueNAS for weeks. If they made something as big as the N3, it wouldn’t fit in the space where I have the N4.
Jonsbo probably can and should update the N3 in the same style for those who do need the extra power and storage. I think the N2 and N3 look a little cheap personally, but there’s room for them to make options for everyone here. I am really impressed with the quality overall. I do kind of agree with your comments on drive mounting, but swapping drives is a very rare occurrence for me, so I’m okay with it.
I will add that I have two very minor complaints about the N4:
– The stock 120mm fan is a little louder than I’d like – not uncomfortably loud, but I probably will replace it in the future.
– The PSU placement is pretty bad. This is my first build with a SFX PSU, and I was caught out by the short 24-pin ATX connector. I had to buy an extension for it to reach. Something to be aware of for anyone doing a build with the N4.
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This guy beats topics to death.
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Question, JONSBO case usually focus on NAS cases, is it possible i use this case as gaming case? Yeah i might utilise hdd slot
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too long to say what others say in 2 minuts.
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This layout actually sucks. The backplane is going to make it very difficult to install an Icy Dock if you want to run SSD only. Otherwise you could install 12 SSD’s into those 3.5″ slots.
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I would like them, but as for the price I would expect at least a better way to mount HDDs; with cooling in mind I could as well get a regular small tower
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This should have 8 drive supports full 3.5 and full 170 mm cpu cooler support. Then it could also fit full size gpus and order pci-e cards. Pci-e is the future of storage cards and other types of cards. Jonsbo really did a swing and miss here. Maybe a n6 will come that will fix it all?
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So close to a perfect Nas case and even a desktop case for cyberops works like I do were I need a lot of storage for testing stuff
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Where is that Jonsbo N4 build that you have promised?
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Will this support sfx-l or just sfx psu’s? I’ve bought the case in the ali holiday celebration at 98 quid with delivery (which I feel is worth it for my needs) and looking for a PSU to pair with it. I see a really nice deal on an sfx-l but worry about fitting length in.
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I thing showing off a plain old linux (ubuntu, fedora or anything, of course server flavour) with Cockpit would be nice. (there’s addon for smb/nfs, zfs and podman)
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A beautiful case ruined by the lack of backplane on the right side. Not sure what they were thinking with this one
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Definitely UnRaid.
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well done sir for finding an M-ATX borad with an AGP slot! ????????
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Have you seen this Friendly ELEC CM3588 NAS?
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lol what a crap case. Why only 6 bays?
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A Chinese netizen named “曝躁老鸽” launched a computer case named “Treasure寶藏盒” a long time ago.
However, this “Jonsbo N4” product clearly plagiarizes his work.
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Hello there, Im looking to get into the homlab community and build my own server.
After a bit of research I came across a very interesting case that barely anybody in the YT homelab / NAS realm seems to be aware of.
Im talking about the Aerocool Cipher mid tower case. There are only 2 videos about it on whole YT, despite it having space for 12 sata hdd’s and costs only around 80€.
Maybe you find the time to take a look at it.
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there are some noctua slim coolers than you can fit in there. the single cooling fan is for the Hdds
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I think that Jonsbo N4 is more of a “very small video editing rig’ than “small home nas” type of case
i mean imagine – getting an Xeon based X99 from Ali or something from ERying there – or even mainstream LGA 1700 mobo with “T” series CPU – mix it with low profile A380 (if you want just video editing) or RTX 4060 LP (if you also want to game)
and now you can use all that drive space for RAID storage
and poof – amazing, small profile video editing rig
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I wish I could get the N3 in white like you can the N2. It’s probably been.. Jeeze…. 20 years since i’ve painted a case, lol. The N4 looks nice.
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Id be interested in seeing how higher quality fans would make a difference in the cooling capability, like replacing that stock 120mm fan with a Phanteks T30, and adding an 60 or 80mm Noctua as an intake in the top right 2 3.5in drive bays (since there’s no SATA/SAS backplane there anyway) that would give cool air to both the PSU and bottom of the motherboard.
You could mod fans into the top cover as well but then you’d have to deal with the cables every time you open it, unless you add some thin pieces of metal to mount the fans to
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I’m getting Fractal Design Terra vibes. Maybe they’re hoping to pair the two things together? Although why Fractal and others don’t do their own, I’ll never know. And in an ideal world, why not do the Terra in a mid sized version as well, and do things like case with built in or modular area for a NAS so we can stop having unnecessary additional boxes everywhere.
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agree, hate the rubber too on my N2.
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It feels like Audheid and Jonsbo had a competition to see who could build the worst 8-bay m-atx nas case.
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Jonsbo N4 Mini feels more like a case that tries to be cheaper and more available “System 76” cases – but more into a “SFF PC with some media” instead of “Home Nas”
Tho… honestly making a slim Video editing case… with ERYING Mobile CPU mobos.. or Intel Core “T” chip + low profile A380… could be a interesting thing to try
and since it has already places for storage.. instead of making it a NAS, use SSD for OS and the SAS area for RAID storage which this video editing machine would be based on
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Bring true nas scale pls
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Вот отличная видеокарта для этого корпуса GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4060 OC Low Profile [GV-N4060OC-8GL], а остальные отсеки без Горячей замены из-за блока питания. Т.ч. это компромиссы. Лично для меня этот корпус то что мне нужно.
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It looks like a downdraft cpu cooler and a custom shroud to pull air from the top venting would be best here.
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10:12 – you dont need a base/side level vent because you should install the PSU upside down, so that it also helps the two HDDs and SSDs with cooling by sucking the air from the front of the case, passing through the HDDs/SSDs and exhausting it via the back, just like the 120 fan is doing it for the other half of the case
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N4 is a stopgap solution for Jonsbo, Because most of these manufacturers have at least one product line support: MATX + SFX PSU + 6 to 8 bay.
Even its design is nothing new, that wooden panel and half height PCIE design was there 3 years ago, looks cool and the cooling is actually bad
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IMO this was a downgrade in comparison to the N3 simply because the N3 is a smaller case for Minit-ITX mobos, but it can fit 8 3.5″ drives into a backplane. And it’s not like they couldn’t simply maintain the 8 drive structure from the N3 and add the extra two spaces for 2.5″ drives. You can comfortably fit 10 drives in there if they go vertical like they are in the N2 and N3.
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0:38: ???? Review of the latest Jonsbo N4 NAS case highlighting its aesthetic design and potential software options.
2:39: ⚙️ Analysis of storage bays and interfaces in Jonsbo N4 NAS Case.
4:44: ⚙️ Limitations of GPU and storage card compatibility in Jonsbo N4 NAS Case.
7:42: ⚙️ Limitations in cooling capabilities of the M ATX case may hinder performance potential.
9:43: ⚠️ Challenges with PSU placement and airflow in the Jonsbo N4 NAS Case.
Timestamps by Tammy AI
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While you’re points are valid, for most use cases it won’t matter. NAS only can be run by a dual core and a low height cooler. mATX typically has 2 nvme. You can add a dual or quad low height nvme card(s). If you are going to run it as more of a server then a NAS, all of that above still applies as most Homelab server builds are typically running the CPU at 50% or less most of the time. If you have an Intel chip, you can use the iGPU for transcoding. So, while this case could be improved, I wouldn’t let any of this stop you if you need mATX. Cooling for the drives may be an issue depending on your environment but you can put a fan or two above the PSU.
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Some really sus design choices for an otherwise good case. Ideas for the eventual N5 case: Clone the left side of the hard drive compartment to the right, but make the second backplane an optional upsell if you’re that concerned about cost Jonsbo. Keep the Micro-Atx mobo compatibility but allow for full height/length add-on cards and use the required increase in compartment space to include a pair 120mm fan mounts on one side. Ditch the rubber bands for actual drive sleds (even stamped sheet metal would be an improvement). Because at $142.31 (shipping included and a 25% off base price discount) you’re approaching Silverstone territory (CS380 ($239.99)/CS382($249.99)) price-wise. As it stands with the N4 the juice (money saved vs SST) is not worth the squeeze.
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Your review is definetly better than the case……
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This just might be the worst designed case they’ve made yet. So much potential, but the effed it up.
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It’s for me. I need that
Asrock n100m needs a house
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Why not just have two sets of 4 bays?!
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I still love my N1. With 139 Euros it wasnt cheap. But its reasonable when looking at the overall budget(incl. Storage Drives) for a NAS/HomeServer.
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What about some backplane on the market for DIY hot swap solution for 3,5″ HDD on the right side?
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PASS
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I hope the 8 bay Ugreen works out. If they lock it down super hard between now and May so I’d be forced to use their shitty software, I think I can cancel the pledge.
All Jonsbo needs to do is release a bigger Jonsbo N3 with 120/140mm rear fan(s), drive trays that don’t suck, 8 bays, etc.
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I think that this would be a good opportunity to do a TALL version of this case with a full height chamber on the top.
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You’re just set on it being some top of the line power system and the whole review is about how it’s not something else, including the rubbers that are great for a design ‘not too huge living room piece’ 🙂
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This actually is great for my use case, but I just can’t justify spending about $200 for what amounts to just a case swap. I know most of that is just shipping to the states but still, it’s mostly just a (very nice) cosmetic upgrade to what I’m using now.
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I ordered one due to the mATX support. I have an intel 12100 system with Noctua L9i cooler, ordered 4 drives for NAS which will be ideal for the 4 bays.
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The N4 looks pretty but its performance is worse then N3 my favourite still is the N2 after modding you can install a thicker fun on the back and SSD cage on the side after removing the hex key.
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This box design is quite schtewpid, innit ?
I don’t see why would anyone choose this case over a N3. MATX support is useless if you can’t fit large cards, just stick with ITX.
I think a Define R6 (or XL if you need more drives) is cheaper and you can slightly mod it to fit a SAS backplane with the proper SFF connectors.
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What a waste of money ????
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N4 is garage, dumb design
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Could you share the link for the 8xM.2 PCIe card? It would be a nice video showing different cards and how they perform.
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Another great presentation on a NAS case, well done and thank you for all your videos. Personally, I would like to see an Unraid installation on this Jonsbo N4 case. I have watched many of your presentations and was seriously considering the Jonsbo N3 case for my NAS solution. However, delivery delays and the PSU being a 1U limitation meant that the SFX PSU I already had available could not be used. In the end I plumbed for a Silverstone CS380, with my Corsair 850 FSX PSU, ASUS micro ATX motherboard, 16 Gbyte DDR4, AMD Ryzen 5 5600G with on board graphics and a low profile Noctua cooling fan I had as a spare. Twin 2.5 G ethernet ports and a 8 port SATA card in the PCIe slots. I used Unraid as it was the only one to support different disc sizes in the storage pool and has ZFS, so storage wise 18 Tb parity disc, 18 Tb, 16 TB and two 6 TB HDD, two 2Tb NVMe drives, One 2TB SSD Cache pool, one 2TB SSD RAID 1 cache pool. So, I would love to see how this N4 setup compares with my CS380 NAS using using Unraid, different HDD sized discs in the storage pool with ZFS and maybe multiple cache pools with the NVMe slots. I will be intereseted to know what the cabling is like to get maximum use out of the available slots.
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I just built mine with a Audheid K7 8 bay, cheap but I like the drive bays, and aesthetics. Sharp edges, light weight, cooling options could be improved, but over all, I liked the 1u flex power supply, as I purchased a eco bronze efficiency PS.
As my other server is an older dual Xeon 600watt dual power sully, that can double as a space heater, even at idle.
This one can run 24-7, at 75watts idle before the 8 drives spin down to standby.
I was looking for an ATX option before deciding on the eco option.
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I own this case. Some issues are: My 24-pin atx cable from my Corsair SF750 is slightly too short to make the run on the w680ace mobo. The aforementioned 4-bay hotswap instead of 6 is not the end of the world. Half-height cards aren’t the end of the world either. The good thing about this case is it looks amazing. 12600k CPU temps with the Noctua L12S (Low profile mode) are great, I have only seen it go to 44 degrees under load. 4 8 TB drives only stay around 41-44 degrees with Noctua fans at 840rpm. I’d say it’s a good chassis if you don’t mind the small footprint and only 4 hot swaps.
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I’m almost positive I saw a a full NAS advertised that used that same case! I bet they made it for somebody and decided that since they had all the tooling set up they might as well release it under there own name.
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They just copied another Chinese NAS case called the “Treasure Box”, which has eight 3.5inch bays and MATX motherboard.
The Jonsbo NAS cases are really not that great, and not priced competitively. There is another case called the “Sagittarius”, also eight hotswap 3.5inch bays and MATX and retails for CN￥349 which is about US$48.
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$130 just for the shipping. Hard pass.
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Ripped to shreds but being honest. Gotta like that.
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I love how you respectfully roast these manufacturers. They probably sit in a conference room cringing their oversights while watching your videos.
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My intention is to somehow fix a 180mm silverstone fan to the top of the cpu/case.
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Can they just make it slightly bigger so we can slap a proper pcie card on ????
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i watch other video and it has backplane on each 4 bays. you can search this video ” Finalizing my NAS build based on the 9-bay Chinese motherboard and case ”
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i got so excited for a moment thinking that the n4 had space for more 3.5″ drives than the n3. I’ve been waiting for a bigger n3 for a while now and i’m so close to pulling the gun on a node 804 instead
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Oh god, if I try to buy this case I’ll get it end of May…. And it’s 170 Dollars with the delivery to boot. It’s a beautiful case, but I’ll pass. Do try to make a OMV machine with it, should be fun.
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I’m just waiting for a “N”‘ case that support ATX motherboards.
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disappointing tbh…
They still use the shitty rubber bands and they even nerfed the amount of 3.5″ drives all while making the case bigger
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Keep in mind that only
the four left disks have hotswap
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I’d like to hear how loud is the N3 case. The bottom fans (2 of them) are 100mm, compared with the N2 which has a single 120mm fan. The top fans look to be 80mm (or smaller). Won’t these get loud? Also, can you use a fanless PSU (e.g. SeaSonic SS-400FL2)?
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Perhaps an option in the future for an N4-Tall version so you can fit larger cards and coolers in the top bit, could even give you the option of a couple more SATA bays if you went with shorter cards? It would only be a few minor adjustments to this case.
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Hello, thank you very much for the video, the truth is that I am very good at the topic of NAS, I usually pay for Google Drive but I am already spending 350 dollars a year, and I have seen or am considering the option of a NAS but I wanted to ask you something very specifically, I hope you can help me: Let’s see if the NAS is useful for what I want: we have photographers throughout the country of Colombia but each photographer is in a different city, I want to assign them a user and an amount of space and that they can only enter their space and with your user and they cannot see what others do, is that possible? Ty so much for your time
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Thanks fot the review.
Can you fit gpu card like Quadro p2200 inside this case?
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I have to admit that the contents of your videos are very good, although sometimes long. thank you very much
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No fans in the top is not ideal. Why? M.2 and other peripherals heat. No m.2 will dissipate heat by itself. I had to add a 140mm fan zip tied to the top lid of my N2. Works well but it’s jenky. They should allow fans to be screwed to the top lid.
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I wish they made one for 2.5″ drives only. Some of us have a plethora of 2.5″ ssd’s left over from upgrading over the years and could make a nice tiny, quiet nas.
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I found the ‘Space Auriga’ while looking for an alternative to the N4. A brief spec sheet is available here (https://caseend.com/data/space/space-auriga) and there are a couple of reviews about it on Reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/1ayzs2i/i_found_the_perfect_compact_nas_chassis_for_my/).
This Auriga case fixes the biggest issue (IMO) in the N4 which is that it has a backplane for all 6 of its 3.5″ drive bays.
It would be *great* to see a review on this Space Auriga case possibly comparing it to the N4.
Thank you. Will might review it.
You’re wrong about the hot-swapping capabilities of this thing, by the way.
Only the 4x left-most 3.5″ slots are hot-swapable via the 4x port backplane they include.
The other 2x 3.5″ and 2x 2.5″ slots on the right are not hot-swapable. There is no backplane included with the right-side drives.
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$220.07 shipped to US, I’ll pass.
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Jonsbo N5 ~== mATX, full height cards, 10x 3.5” + 2x 2.5” => #simples
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I can see them making an N5 which will be a bigger version with gpu support and more drive bays.
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i feel like they’ve backwards of stuff, so i’ll be ordering a n3 for my own as i am going to be using 8 3.5 inch drives and a ssd as a cache drive while using the lsi sas 9260-8i
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are the jonsbo cases only available on aliexpress? can’t find the N3 on german online stores
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Personally I kind of like the N4. I had looked at the N2 and the N3 in the past and thought the N2 was too for what I needed and the N3 didn’t have the dual slot on the back but nothing will ever suit everyones needs. I think most of the people who don’t like this are the people who love big NAS and PC cases, like over kill and have the space but a lot of people are trying to down size. To each their own but I would buy this especially with the options of computer parts today to build a nice NAS.
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Where can I get in in Europe ? Thanks !!
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Good News, the Jonsbo N4 is Now Available to Buy – https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_Ddbew5x
It’s $75, which does not include the Tax or Shipping, which means that depending on where you live, you are gonna be happy, ok, or tremendously annoyed. Just for a little perspective, the Jonsbo N2 is $77 and the Jonsbo N3 is $88. In short, I have NO idea about how they have worked out this pricing *rubs eyes*. Anyway, we have ordered one for the channel now and the review and build video should be live in the next few weeks (aliexpress!). The link above is affiliated, so me and Eddie (i.e just us at NASCompares) will get a small commission $ if you buy anything. Thank you.
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Your audio sync when you when picture in picture is way off.
They boinked this. I need an 8bay version of this for 3.5″ drives (*with some ssd space hiden elsewhere.) There should be two varients of this. Otherwise you might as well get the smaller case. I agree with you though, basically they could have fixed the half hight problem AND the drive bay issue im complaining about in one fix. Make the top higher, like the full hight cases they make. Then you could have a normal side PCIe card(s), more CPU cooling and some of that space could maybe be used for 2.5″ ssd/HDD space, while still having 8 full 3.5 bays at the bottom. Things like sound are not needed by everyone, but for some its a deal breaker. This case wasn’t thought thru IMO. Front panel USB C would be good for people who need to plug in external SSDs and such to offload lots of data. It’d be possible to plug directly in and copy via phone interface if it had it. But without you need a powered on PC/MAC and that PC/Mac needs a high speed networking to be fast. USB C/ 3.2 type A would have been so much faster.
Other issues are the way the drives are configured. There is only one 4 port backplane and what about the other side (I think)? This is half baked.
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FYI, the ariticle on your site has a bit error, only the 4 3.5 drive bay on the left side has backplane, the rest 4 bays on the right side does not due to PSU clearance.
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It’s not passive ventilation when the inevitably close CPU cooler will suck the outside air right inside and spread it around in a smaller space.
Also why the need for never-ending bay growth? 8 or 6+2 is plenty for a certain segment when the drives are getting bigger, especially with such a ‘design piece’. And it clearly goes for some middle ground intentionally as a feature, not just following the bigger/more=better.
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probably going with N2 with the CWWK i3 board to start as a jellyfin, nextcloud and storage server running trunas. 2 nvmes, 1 ssd for OS, and 5 drives (have to pick the correct zfs raid)
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I really wish it could fit a 140mm-150mm PSU
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good video, any update for the CWWK amd board testing?
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I was hoping they were going to make it a 10 or 12 bay, oh well. I really don’t like the look of the cases anyway, staying with a turnkey option so far
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I’ll take the superior Fractal Design 804 and save $100!
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I would take a wild guess that Jonsbo looked into their existing customers and opted what those customers actually are using.
And “tuned” their design for the N4 to what they expect their future customers wanted.
Where they dropped audio, LED’s etc because “nobody” (pun intended) used it?
All of course a wild guess.
Let’s hope that the N5 will bring back reality….
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Why they so unstable 🙁 5,6,8,6 drives… This case with 8 drives can be my choice 🙁
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0:34: ⚙️ Comparison of Jonsbo N4 NAS Case with N2 and N3 in terms of strengths, weaknesses, and suitability.
3:02: ⚙️ Comparison of card slots in Jonsbo N2, N3, and N4 cases reveals limitations in N4 design.
5:41: ???? Comparison of Jonsbo N4 NAS case with previous models in terms of CPU coolers, processors, and storage capacity.
8:38: ⚖️ Comparison of ventilation systems in Jonsbo N2, N3, and N4 cases.
11:14: ⚠️ Missing features in Jonsbo N4 compared to previous models: audio in and out socket, LED lights on individual drives.
Timestamps by Tammy AI
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I think Jonsbo missed the mark with this one.
– If it’s for NAS use, then why does it only have one 4-port backplane? The right-hand bay with 2×3.5″ + 2×2.5″ doesn’t appear to use a backplane. I realize that PSU cables behind that bay would interfere with a backplane but that could’ve been solved by mounting the PSU sideways (like a typical SFF or the N3).
– If it’s for something like an all-in-one mini homelab, or a transcoding media server, or a game server, then the half-height PCIe is very limiting. The mATX compatibility would be great for a multi-purpose server if the case had better the PCIe card compatibility.
This case seems to try to hit multiple marks, but doesn’t land squarely on any.
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How about a community designed case? We could pool our ideas together and come up with something that would appeal to a larger audience.
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To be fair for my use this would be perfect. HBA and high speed NIC would be the 2 PCIE slot’s I’d want for a NAS and this would fit that without having to worry about overheating. If I hadn’t grabbed a 22u rack to rebuild all my homelab systems into I probably would have grabbed one of these but HL15 it is!
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I actually can’t wait to buy it, it solves all my problems with planning new system.
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This… thing has so many design flaws…
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The N4 is intended for a living room environment, unlike the N2/N3 which have a more SOHO look about them. The wooden panel and the drive allocation, and lack of cooling fans screams out ‘Living room / Lounge install’ to me. For that reason, I think that’s why the drive LEDs have not been included. If I had this underneath or near my TV, the last thing I would want distracting me constantly, are 8 HDD LEDs.
On an unrelated note, you mentioned ‘SATA’ several times in the video when I think you meant to say ‘SSD’ and the PIP video was out of synch with the audio for me by 0.5sec.
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I want a Jonsbo N3 with mATX support, 120mm / 140mm rear fan(s), and better drive drays, not a Jonsbo N2 with mATX support >_>
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ohhh let’s seee!
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If it weren’t for the cut down height in mobo compartment it would be almost perfect. That said, I’d make two additional tweaks on top of increasing the height clearance in that compartment from 70mm to 140mm… increase the 120mm fan on the back to 140mm and allow for full ATX PSUs.
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You are right, this IS a JB 2.5 . This is a NAS case, intended to be kept on your desk ( hence, the wood insert). As to who in their right mind would allocate precious desk space for a NAS … well, maybe some hipster influencer photographer perhaps. I can’t think of another reason. The JB 3 looks like a solid option compared to … this.
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they should have used a frame to either use 2,5 or 3,5 …
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My jonsbo N3 has 2 X SSD drives next to 6 normal 3.5 inch drives. Just used an adapter. The N4 takes away from the freedom of having 8 drives of my choosing. , but then it looks like the PSU is in the way from fitting a 3.5 inch drive. Actually it looks like they are creating products that are not necessarily better than thier predecessors.
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You shouldn’t need a cartoonishly big cooler in a Nas. Amd and Intel both have solid integrated graphics now. Half height cards can be for storage controller cards.
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single pci-e lane… no that is 16 LANES… 1 SLOT… huge difference 😉
wish they would make it SMALLER and just have room for 10-12 2.5″ drives instead of those huge noisy slow 3.5″ drives
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It looks like the drive cages are detachable. Perhaps (if enough people ask?) Jonsbo will sell the 4x 3.5″ drive cages separately if you’d prefer 8x 3.5″.
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Great review but it’s a disappointing design.
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Of course jonsbo make m-atx, after I bought silverstone cs382, few weeks back 🙂
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I don’t think the half-height restriction is a problem for me as I would only want a better NIC and a small cooler should be fine if i was sticking with a 65W CPU. Having two of the drives be 2.5″ and the wooden accent are putting me off though
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Kind of disappointing only room for 6×3.5” HDD. With mATX size one might want to use an HBA. Oh well! I like the aesthetic of this case compared to N3. Choices…
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I guess I have to wait until the Jonsbo N5 arrives to finally have a good alternative to my fractal 804 case^^
Edit: I really dislike having to use half-height PCIE cards…
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If you’re building a NAS, CPU cooler and half height don’t really matter. If you are building this as a server, then I would still say they don’t matter much for most people. IGP or an older half height GPU or if you need newer, you can get a 3060 half height. mATX is very nice to have, especially here in the US where Supermicro and Asrock Rack boards are readily available. 6 HDD is perfectly fine as well for most people.
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Of course there is a N4 on the way, just as my N3 arrived! ????
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waiting for this video for 2 days
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this is really interesting. chinese has a lot of nas cases from diy with 3d print and ready to build often use m-itx board and full atx psu
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It looks like the N5 with full height slots(and hopefully 5 in total) will be desirable case for me(whenever that comes out), i also wish Jonsbo sold swappable backplanes, a U2 or U.3 backplane would be very cool(or even 5.25″ bays ), especially with one of those amd EPYC M-ATX motherboards, it would be a powerful little box
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My problem with Jonsbo is the availability. I can’t find a store in Europe that sells the Jonsbo N3 case at the moment, and I assume the N4 won’t be any easier to get either.
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They could have made the case a little bit taller add an extra four drives for 12 Bay and make this a different model.
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I didn’t know this existed. Thank you as always. I’ve been itching to do a new build
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Nice video. The only problem for me is I can’t find the cases in Turkey.
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Anyone using jonsbo n3, the height clerance is 298mm, does this include the bottom rubber stand. Would like to know the rubber can be unscrew out to make it lower than 298mm.
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The feet are likely better to decouple the device from the surface it’s on, thus I would prefer them
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The vibration absorption with the four padded feet is superior to the silicone pad. Also allows air to circulate under the unit for additional passive cooling.
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I’ve got a fractal Node 304 running a socket 2011-3 xeon, 64gb ram, and all 6 internal 3.5″ slots populated. I wish I’d have known that the Jonsbo N3 was either a thing or going to be a thing before I put this thing together. I had to get very creative with the SATA power and data connectors in the 304 to keep from running them into my Noctua fan on the cpu cooler. And even with a fully modular PSU the cramped space makes me hate it. There’s decent airflow between the drives and towards the CPU fan but.. that gives time for the drives to heat the air on the way to the CPU. Not sure if that’s a big deal or not but the thing is running well enough.
I’m half tempted to tear the whole thing down and stuff it into an N3. Especially with the addition of the drive status LED’s and two more SATA bays.
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Finding an ITX motherboard with 8 sata ports is tough. Anyone got any recommendations?
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0:09: ???? This video compares the Johnb N2 and Johnb N3 systems, highlighting seven important differences.
3:33: ???? The video discusses the features of two ITX motherboards that support M2 mvme slots and have multiple bays for storage.
5:58: ???? The video discusses the differences in vibration dissipation and ventilation between the N2 and N3 systems.
9:14: ???? The N3 system has better active and passive cooling capabilities compared to the other system.
12:12: ???? The video discusses the placement and functionality of an internal PSU in a computer case.
15:31: ???? The video discusses the importance of CPU heat sinks and fans in dissipating heat and the limited space for expansion cards in ITX motherboards.
18:42: ???? The Jbow N3 case offers more space and better compatibility for larger and more powerful PCI upgrades compared to the Jbow N2 case.
Recapped using TammyAI
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Arrrgh ITX!
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Hello, first thanks for the amazing help. You have me helped to decide building my own NAS. But I have a question. I have bought a Jonsbo N3 case. But there are no cooling fans behind the case. Can you tell me which fan coolers I can use for the Jonsbo N3 case on AliExpress ? Because it was not clear in the video !!!
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Where is Jonsbo N3 build that you promised?
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Fantastic comparison for those two very nice cases!
Thanks a lot!!!
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looking forward to seeing the build video. I would like to know what a ‘good’ build would be, but not outrageous one.
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I’m doing a hypothetical nas build that I’m gonna build once I have the finances, and the jonsbo cases were super interesting to me. I wanna use an intel 13th gen, the 13500 specifically, and this video convinced me to get the N3, as well as having more drive bays, the possibility for more storage later is alluring, especially given that it’s relatively not much more expensive, I think it’s a much better pick than the N2
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You could also consider the Fractal Design Node 304 for a 4 bay unit which has sufficient room for a small GPU card and standard ATX power supply.
Space is tight if you select a fairly powerful CPU and large air-cooling device. Temperatures are brilliant with 4 noctua fans.
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Thanks!
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Came across the Orico MetaBox Pro 5 today. Maybe worth reviewing that one, if possible? ????
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Apparently the official jonsbo line on the molex and sata power connectors on the backplane is that all 3 need to be used when all 8 bays are populated.
In terms of fans noctua nfa9 92mm will replace the jonsbo 100mm ones at the bottom, and nfa8 80mm will fit at the top.
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Hi. I wanna. Hold a NAS for holding my media. No need to transcode and I’m using a Zidoo player in each of my rooms. Would the budget n2 build be ok for that. 4k rips etc
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What was that combo m2 and 10gb card?
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After my sick build I had to tear it all down I had to add the Noctua NH-U9S black as it just fits and is a tower design which works better with the Noctua fan Swap I did.
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Am I the only one, who is not completely in line the with the choice of SFX psu for those kinds of machines? These home nas machines mostly run at idle/ with a pretty low powered cpu. 1. The PSUs are quite big and use up space that could otherwise be used for additional HDD. 2. They are often 300-400W in power. Which is quite overkill for for example a i3-12100 and 5 HDDs. I think the use of a pico PSU + good quality power brick would be a more sensible choice. What do you think?
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I really like the N3 case but Mini-itx motherboards seem so limiting. I want something to last 5 years or more. I’d like to start out with something with 2.5G/1G built in networking with the ability to add a GPU on a PCIe slot later. I can only find Mini-itx boards with a single PCIe x 16 slot. However, I want the ability to upgrade to 10gb networking later. I heard that m.2 slots can be turned into 10Gbe networking but not sure if that is something I should consider. Do mini-itx with 2.5Gb builtin and 2 pcie slots exist?
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The nic on the Z690M-ITX/ax is from Realtek and I heard this brand of nic has some issues especially for Truenas and some other Unix varients due to missing or buggy drivers. Is that still true? @nascompares
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Excellent video, I bought Jonsbo N2 and installed mini ITX motherboard ASUS H971-PLUS, 5 HDD in raid 5, Core i5 4th gen, 16GB RAM DDR3 and TrueNAS Core, works awesome!
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So I bought motherboard from Ali: N6005 and … both Jonsbo: N2 and N3. So far I have only 4x 3.5″ disks but… thinking upgrade N3 is the only option – the mobo I bought has 6 SATA ports and using M2 one can ad up to 5 more. But in N2 there is only place for 5 SATA 3.5″ disk. So if someone does not think more than 5 disks, N2 is more than enough. My complete system reports <50W on AC side - my SFX PSU is 450W - no idea why I bought such big one ;-) Of course why would you need GPU for real NAS - this mobo is not capable for anything else - just NAS. But the NAS one can build either on TrueNAS or... Debian -both will work great - btw on Debian one will have much more possibility to configure - I realised TrueNAS is superb but it is not really for anything but NAS. Much easier to go for Debian if one wants containers or so. Just my 3 cents.
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If I used sas drives how would I connect my hba card to the backplane? On the back of of the backplane are only sata connectors.
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Those dual 100mm fans on the N3 are so dumb. 100mm fans basically don’t exist, I don’t think Noctua makes one etc. There was plenty of room for 120mm fans on a case that size.
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Have you tried easynas or Rockstor nas software?
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I use a fractal design r5, and replaced the external drive bays on the front with a 3 harddrive tray. I have 12 drives in it plus the ssd with the OS. Great case
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