DIY NAS Mobo+CPU Combo Black Friday Deals
Black Friday 2025 has turned into an unexpectedly strong year for NAS-oriented CPU and motherboard combos, with some of the most capable low-power and mid-range processors finally dropping into impulse-buy pricing. Boards built around the Intel N150, N305, and even the Ryzen 7 8845HS are now appearing with deep discounts, and many of them pair surprisingly high-performance compute with dense SATA layouts, multiple NVMe slots, and 10GbE networking. These platforms slot neatly into the current wave of home lab operating systems, giving users a flexible foundation for TrueNAS, UnRAID, Proxmox, or ZimaOS, whether the goal is a compact all-flash array, a low-watt Plex server, or a fully virtualized workload host. This guide breaks down the best offers available today and highlights the combos that deliver the strongest performance per dollar.
Important – If you are considering purchasing from AliExpress via the links below, here is a list of promo codes thare are valid during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Additionally, there are ‘red banner’ discounts on many of the pages that are located in red under the product price (I have highlighted the box in red):
ALSO – Need UnRAID? UnRAID 25% Price Drop + $15 Voucher Included with ALL Orders – HERE |
10G N150 NAS Motherboard / DDR5 6* SATA / Intel I226 / 2.5G Mini ITX / 2* M.2 – $219.50 HERE
This Mini-ITX NAS-oriented board features an onboard Intel N150 processor paired with DDR5 memory support and a strong storage layout including six SATA 3.0 ports and two PCIe-based M.2 slots. It includes triple-NIC networking with dual Intel I226-V 2.5GbE ports and a 10GbE AQC113 controller, making it suitable for DIY NAS builds that require high-bandwidth local access. With PCIe 3.0 expansion, ATX 24+4-pin power, and full support for Windows and Linux, it offers excellent value at its discounted Black Friday price of $219.50.
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| CPU | Intel N150 onboard (Twin Lake SoC) |
| Motherboard Type | Mini-ITX 170 x 170 mm |
| RAM Type / Maximum | DDR5 SO-DIMM, 1 slot, up to 16GB |
| SATA Drive Support | 6 x SATA 3.0 |
| M.2 SSD Support | 2 x M.2 M-Key (PCIe) |
| Network Connections | 2 x Intel I226-V 2.5GbE, 1 x AQC113 10GbE |
| PSU Type | 24-pin ATX + 4-pin CPU power |
| PCIe Slot Support | 1 x PCIe 3.0 x4 slot |
N150 NAS 2.5GbE x4 Motherboard / 6* SATA / Mini ITX / 2x M.2 / 1x PCIE – $202.59 HERE
This Mini ITX NAS board uses an onboard Intel N150 or N100 processor and offers a flexible storage layout with 6 SATA ports and 2 M.2 NVMe slots, making it suitable for DIY NAS, Proxmox, and router builds. It provides strong networking options with either 4 Intel I226 2.5 GbE ports or a variant that includes a 10 GbE option, giving it more bandwidth than typical low power boards. With DDR5 memory support, PCIe expansion, ATX power input, and wide operating temperature tolerance, it delivers a balanced platform for homelab users at a competitive Black Friday price.
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| CPU | Intel N150 or Intel N100 onboard |
| Motherboard Type | Mini ITX size one hundred seventy mm by one hundred seventy mm |
| RAM Type and Maximum | DDR5 SO DIMM up to sixteen GB |
| SATA Drive Support | Six SATA three ports |
| M2 SSD Support | One M2 NVMe or NGFF and one M2 NVMe |
| Network Connections | Four Intel I226 two point five gig ports or two two point five gig plus one ten gig (variant) |
| PSU Type | Twenty four pin ATX plus four pin CPU |
| PCIe Slot Support | One PCIe three point zero x one slot |
i5-12450H / 6xNVMe / 6xSATA / PCI-E X4 / 4x Intel i226-V 2.5G / 2xDDR5 NAS Board – $328.20 HERE
This Mini ITX NAS board features an onboard Intel Core i5-12450H processor and is built for high performance storage, virtualization, and workstation-grade workloads. It supports up to 64 GB of DDR5 across 2 slots, offers 6 NVMe capability through SFF-8643 expansion, includes 2 onboard M.2 NVMe slots, and provides flexible PCIe 4.0 expansion for NICs or GPUs. With 4 Intel I226-V 2.5 GbE ports, HDMI plus DP display support, RAID capability, and a PCIe 4.0 x4 slot, it delivers one of the most capable NAS motherboard platforms in the compact 170 x 170 mm form factor at its Black Friday price of $328.20.
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core i5 12450H onboard |
| Motherboard Type | Mini ITX size one hundred seventy mm by one hundred seventy mm |
| RAM Type and Maximum | DDR5 dual channel up to sixty four GB, two slots |
| SATA Drive Support | Two direct SATA ports plus five SATA via SFF eight six four three JMB585 controller |
| M2 SSD Support | Two M two slots, one PCIe four point zero x four and one PCIe three point zero x one, plus four NVMe via SFF adaptor |
| Network Connections | Four Intel I226 V two point five gig ports |
| PSU Type | Twenty four pin ATX plus eight pin CPU power (standard ITX layout) |
| PCIe Slot Support | One PCIe four point zero x four slot (compatible with x eight or x sixteen cards) |
1x 10G / N100/N150/N305/N355 / 2x i266V 2.5G / 2x SFF-8643 for 8 SATA / HDMI 2.0 / DP 1.4 NAS Mobo – $303.95 HERE
This Mini ITX NAS motherboard uses Intel N100, N150, N305, or N355 processors and provides an unusually large storage layout with 8 SATA ports and 2 M.2 NVMe slots, making it well suited for heavy TrueNAS and UnRAID storage configurations. It includes a Marvell AQC113C 10GbE port alongside 2 Intel i226-V 2.5GbE ports, giving it strong multi-uplink support for advanced homelab networking or multi-subnet routing. With DDR5 up to 48GB, HDMI plus DP dual display, PCIe expansion, and extensive USB connectivity, it delivers a feature set normally found in higher priced platforms while sitting at a significant Black Friday discount.
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| CPU | Intel N100 or Intel N150 or Intel N305 or Intel N355 onboard |
| Motherboard Type | Mini ITX size 170 x 170 mm |
| RAM Type and Maximum | DDR5 SO DIMM up to 48 GB, 1 slot |
| SATA Drive Support | 8 SATA three ports via two SFF 8643 connectors |
| M2 SSD Support | 2 x M2 NVMe PCIe three point zero x1 slots, 2280 size |
| Network Connections | 1 x ten gig AQC113C, 2 x Intel i226 V two point five gig |
| PSU Type | 24 pin ATX plus 4 pin CPU |
| PCIe Slot Support | 1 PCIe three point zero x1 breakout slot (compatible with x1 x4 x8 cards) |
I5 14500HX NAS / 14th Gen & 14 CORE CPU / DDR5 RAM / 10G+2.5G Network / ATX MoBo – $599.06 HERE
This Micro ATX NAS motherboard features the Intel i5-14500HX processor and delivers strong multi-core performance for TrueNAS, UnRAID, Proxmox, and virtualised storage workloads. It includes dual 2.5GbE plus a 10GbE port, giving it significantly more throughput than most consumer ATX boards at this price point. With four DDR5 slots up to 128GB, four M.2 NVMe connectors, and PCIe 4.0 expansion, it provides a high-performance foundation for demanding NAS or homelab builds.
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| CPU | Intel i5-14500HX (onboard) |
| Motherboard Type | Micro ATX (244 x 244 mm) |
| RAM Type / Maximum | DDR5, up to 128GB, 4 slots |
| SATA Drive Support | SATA ports supported (quantity not listed beyond “SATA” support) |
| M.2 SSD Support | 4 x M.2 NVMe (1 x PCIe 3.0 x4, 3 x PCIe 4.0 x4) |
| Network Connections | 2 x 2.5GbE, 1 x 10GbE |
| PSU Type | ATX power supply |
| PCIe Slot Support | 1 x PCIe 4.0 x16, 1 x PCIe 4.0 x4 |
UnRAID 25% Price Drop + $15 Voucher Included with ALL Orders – HERE
The Unraid Cyber Weekend Sale started on Wednesday November 26th, and will run through Cyber Monday, December 1st, 2025. They are discounting Starter and Unleashed licenses, plus all Unleashed upgrades (so, if you have a monthly or annual license, and want to upgrade to lifetime, you will get a discount of the partial upgrade cost too). Also, every license purchased will come with a $15 voucher good for the Unraid Merch Store included. Click below (or HERE) to get your UnRAID license at 25% off.
SUPER BUDGET N5105 NAS Mobo Combo / 4 Cores 4 Threads Low Power Use / 4×2.5G i225 / 2x M.2 Slot 6xSATA – $196.94 HERE
This budget Mini ITX NAS board uses the Intel N5105 processor and offers enough performance for Plex, Jellyfin, Docker containers, and lightweight TrueNAS or UnRAID builds. It includes 4 x 2.5GbE ports for multi-NIC routing or link-aggregation and pairs 6 SATA ports with 2 M.2 NVMe slots, making it suitable for large media libraries or mixed SSD cache setups. With DDR4 support up to 64GB, dual display outputs, low power consumption, and fan headers for stable 24/7 operation, it delivers strong value at its reduced Black Friday price.
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| CPU | Intel N5105 (4 cores, 4 threads, onboard) |
| Motherboard Type | Mini ITX (Industrial style) |
| RAM Type / Maximum | DDR4, up to 64GB, 2 slots |
| SATA Drive Support | 6 x SATA 3.0 |
| M.2 SSD Support | 2 x M.2 NVMe (2280) |
| Network Connections | 4 x 2.5GbE (Intel i225 or i226-V depending on board revision) |
| PSU Type | 24-pin ATX |
| PCIe Slot Support | None |
Mini ITX 6 Bay NAS / J4125 NAS MoBo / 4x Intel i226-V 2.5G / 2x M.2 NVMe / 6x SATA + ASM1064 Chip / 2X DDR4 HDMI+ DP – $106.63 HERE
This ultra-compact 17 cm Mini ITX NAS board uses the Intel J4125 processor and is aimed at users who want a silent, fanless, sub-10W micro-NAS or a smart pfSense or OpenWrt router with storage. It delivers an impressive storage layout for its size with 6 SATA ports and 2 M.2 NVMe slots, backed by 4 x Intel i226-V 2.5GbE ports for multi-WAN routing, VLAN networks, or isolated NAS traffic. With passive cooling, DDR4 up to 32GB, dual display output, and a very low price point, it is ideal for compact Proxmox, TrueNAS SCALE (light usage), OpenMediaVault, or edge-router deployments.
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| CPU | Intel J4125 (onboard, Gemini Lake Refresh) |
| Motherboard Type | Mini ITX, 17 x 17 cm |
| RAM Type / Maximum | DDR4, up to 32GB, 2 slots |
| SATA Drive Support | 6 x SATA (2 native + 4 via ASM1064) |
| M.2 SSD Support | 2 x M.2 NVMe (one shares lane with LAN4) |
| Network Connections | 4 x 2.5GbE (Intel i226-V) |
| PSU Type | ATX 24-pin + 4-pin |
| PCIe Slot Support | None |
Mini ITX 17cm AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS NAS MoBo / 9 Bay SATA / 4X 2.5G / 2x M.2 / PCIE 16X / Dual DDR5 Channel Type-C HDMI DP 4K@60Hz – $635.66 HERE
This Mini ITX NAS platform uses the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS processor and is aimed at high-performance NAS, Proxmox, and AI-assisted homelab builds, offering far more compute power than typical low-wattage NAS boards. It provides an extensive storage layout with 9 SATA ports and 2 M.2 NVMe connectors, combined with 4 x Intel i226-V 2.5GbE ports for multi-network routing and all-in-one server deployments. With PCIe 4.0 x16 expansion, DDR5 up to 64GB, triple-display output, and USB4 on the rear I/O, it delivers one of the most capable NAS+motherboard combos available at a steep Black Friday discount.
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS (onboard, Zen 4) |
| Motherboard Type | Mini ITX, 17 x 17 cm |
| RAM Type / Maximum | DDR5, up to 64GB, 2 slots, ECC laptop RAM supported |
| SATA Drive Support | 9 x SATA (via 2 x SFF-8643 breakout + native ports) |
| M.2 SSD Support | 2 x M.2 NVMe (PCIe 4.0 x2, 2280) |
| Network Connections | 4 x 2.5GbE (Intel i226-V) |
| PSU Type | ATX 24-pin + 4-pin |
| PCIe Slot Support | 1 x PCIe 4.0 x16 (wired x8) |
Topton 2x 10GbE AMD 8845HS NAS Mobo Combo / USB4 / 8 SATA / 2x M.2 NVMe / PCIe x16 / 2x DDR5 SODIMM – $635.66 HERE
This high-end Mini ITX NAS motherboard combines the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS processor with dual 10GbE ports, making it one of the most capable compact NAS and homelab platforms available in 2025. It supports 8 SATA drives through dual SFF-8643 connectors, 2 M.2 PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe slots, DDR5 up to 96GB, USB4 at 40Gbps, and a PCIe 4.0 x16 slot for GPU or high-speed NIC expansion. With powerful integrated Radeon 780M graphics, triple-display output, and extensive onboard connectivity, it delivers workstation-class performance for TrueNAS, UnRAID, Proxmox, and high-throughput storage or media server workloads.
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS (8 cores, 16 threads, Zen 4, up to 5.1GHz) |
| Motherboard Type | Mini ITX, 17 x 17 cm |
| RAM Type / Maximum | DDR5 SO-DIMM, up to 96GB (2 slots, 48GB per slot) |
| SATA Drive Support | 8 x SATA (via 2 x SFF-8643 breakout through ASM1164) |
| M.2 SSD Support | 2 x M.2 NVMe (PCIe 4.0 x4, 2280) |
| Network Connections | 2 x 10GbE (AQC113-B1-C) |
| PSU Type | ATX 24-pin + 4/8-pin CPU power |
| PCIe Slot Support | 1 x PCIe 4.0 x16 (wired x8) |
Intel N100 / 1x 10GbE / 2x i266V 2.5G / 8 SATA / HDMI 2.0 / DP 1.4 NAS Mobo – $168 (Down from $199) HERE
This Mini ITX NAS motherboard supports Intel N100, N150, N305, and N355 processors and offers an unusually large storage layout with 8 SATA ports fed from dual SFF-8643 connectors plus 2 M.2 NVMe slots, making it ideal for TrueNAS and UnRAID arrays that need high drive counts in a compact system. It features 1x 10GbE Marvell AQC113C port and 2x 2.5GbE Intel i226-V ports, which provides strong multi-uplink headroom for VLAN setups, multi-subnet routing, or bandwidth-heavy homelab services. With support for DDR5 up to 48GB, dual-display output over HDMI and DP, PCIe expansion, USB3, USB-C, and a full ATX power input, it delivers a premium feature set at a much lower Black Friday price than comparable NAS-class ITX boards.
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| CPU | Intel N100 or Intel N150 or Intel N305 or Intel N355 onboard |
| Motherboard Type | Mini ITX size 170 x 170 mm |
| RAM Type and Maximum | DDR5 SO DIMM up to 48 GB, 1 slot |
| SATA Drive Support | 8 SATA three ports via two SFF 8643 connectors |
| M2 SSD Support | 2 x M2 NVMe PCIe three point zero x1 slots, 2280 size |
| Network Connections | 1 x ten gig AQC113C, 2 x Intel i226 V two point five gig |
| PSU Type | 24 pin ATX plus 4 pin CPU |
| PCIe Slot Support | 1 PCIe three point zero x1 breakout slot (compatible with x1 x4 x8 cards) |
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Scan co uk are being sneaky – I had a page open on 1825+, yesterday price was £965, today £1100.
Just in time for Synology’s ‘up to 20% off deals’
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cwwk permanently have items on sale – I didn’t see any additional savings on any of the items
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Imagine buying Plex Pass in 2025 lol
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some on sale prices are more expensive than their usual price. Aliexpress sellers just boost the price +50% and offer a 25% discount on that
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Got a Jonsbo N6 off aliexpress a few days ago. It’s on sale now for black friday, it’s a massive 50% off now, meaning it’s only $10 more expensive than it was a few days ago. Got to love sales…
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Unraid offer page still “404 Error – Woops! The page you requested does not exist.”
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Would love to see a video like this approached from the newbie perspective and larger boards. As a new builder (at least in the NAS space) it makes sense for a lot of newbies to simply repurpose an old PC case to for their first build, plus you have things like the Jonsbo N5 now, and even mATX options like the Node or others.
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Reached out to CWWK for recommendations on ECC memory for the CWWK 8-Bay / 9-Bay Board AMD-7735HS/7840HS/8845HS/7940HS, and this is their response: “Hello, sorry. This motherboard can support ECC memory, but it cannot utilize the ECC function. We suggest that you simply use regular memory.” ☹
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My home server fills the roles of back-up, bulk storage, and network-wide file sharing. No VMs, no media play. Just basic file services. It has an ATX B460 motherboard and a Core i3 10100. Currently its system drive is a 500GB SATA SSD, with 16GB of DDR4 RAM. It houses six WD Red Plus 3TB 5400rpm CMR drives and three LG DVD writers. Yes, I still use them, mostly for making good old audio CDs for my church. It’s built in a 4U server case and powered by a 550W EVGA power supply. It has a single gigabit LAN port, and since I’m the only client (several machines, but just one human user), it’s enough. I could add in a faster Ethernet card if need be. I get why ITX builds are popular in this arena, but ATX is so much easier to do.
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wir fahren fahren fahren auf der autobahn… ????
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I bought a Ugreen NAS a few weeks ago and I’ve been trying to set it up for syncing, media server and a game server. But even these simple tasks are causing problem after problem. If one more thing goes wrong I will return it for a full refund.
Can I expect the same problems on a home built device running a more tried and tested OS?
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Thanks!
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Great video. Wondering if you have done a video on ATX MBs? I’m using an old computer to build a NAS / Plex server. My existing MB is not win 11 complient and my CPU does not support integrated graphics. Thus I have to run a GPU board. The thing Idles at 90W with peak load power use of over 150W. Any recommendations?
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2:55 ????
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Is there an ùpdate for 2025 or is it still the same?
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nah just get a used supermicro x9 or x10 based superserver.. much cheaper than most of the combos shown, and way better quality. also you get way more fun enterprise features. not going supermicro is stupid.
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First one needed to go SAS rather than SATA because the SATA ports were taking up too much room and not enabling a x16 slot, even if it only had 4x electrically being able to stick a 10Gb NIC in there were be a game changer, and yes you could use the 4x 2.5Gb with link aggregation to get 10Gb, but most 10Gb NICs come with 2 ports allowing you to do 20GbE then you link that up to a 10Gb switch that pretty useful. So no on that one.
Also N100 so no ECC, big no no.
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Hear me out, but I actually think a great option is to get a used Intel Xeon e5 server bundle off of eBay. Right now, you can get a dual-CPU motherboard with two Intel Xeon e5 v4 2697 CPUs and 128 GB (4 × 32 GB) of RAM for $250. Between the two CPUs, you get 36 cores/72 threads (18c/36t per CPU) at a 2.3 Ghz base clock and 3.6 Ghz Max Turbo Frequency. The dual-LGA2011-3 motherboard has 8 DDR4 RAM dimms (4 single dimm channels of DDR4 RAM per CPU, maxing out at 32 GB per dimm/channel), 10 SATA 3.0 ports, 2 M.2 NVMe ports supporting 2230, 2260, or 2280 NVMe SSDs, 3 PCIe × 16 lane slots and 2 PCIe × 1 slots (I believe they’re probably PCIe 3.0, but it doesn’t specify) meaning you can add up to 6 more Gen 4 × 4 lane NVMe SSDs using the 3 PCIe 3.0 × 16 lane slot (PCIe 3.0 × 16 = PCIe 4.0 ×8, so 2 Gen 4 × 4 lane NVMe SSDs per ×16 slot) or you can use these PCIe slots for hardware accelerators, 5 USB 3.0 headers, 6 USB 2.0 headers, 2 Intel 2.5Gbps network interfaces, and 1 network slot is 5Gbps ethernet isn’t fast enough for you.
Even bought separately, the X99 dual LGA2011-3 mobo is ~$100 and the CPUs are ~$50 each. The RAM is likelt no more than $50-$100 for 4 × 32GB DDR4 modules. You would just need a 2U server chassis, a PSU, and whatever drives you’d like. For a NAS, you’d get great performance out of 4-10 enterprise/NAS HDDs running in RAID 10 and a couple of low storage but fast transfer rate M.2 NVMs SSDs to use for storage cache. All together, you’d be looking at $500-$700 for a super fast, data secure NAS with ~50TB of storage, and better yet, with 72 threads clocked at 3.6 Ghz, you could have this NAS double as a transcoding server, getting high bitrate, small size files pretty fast, without the need for hardware acceleration (Intel CPUs are also great at transcoding and even host their own form of hardware acceleration if you really wanted it, or you could throw a couple of Intel GPUs in here for cheap and get crazy good hardware accelerated transcoding capability (two Intel A380s would tear through some AV1 codec, and for maybe $300 for both GPUs).
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I’m looking for high efficiency. My daily use case….I’m on the computer for long stretches….until I need something from storage. I am on my computer for long stretches…and my computer backs up my content.
Not trans 20 petabyte files, no. Not modeling every quark in the universe, no. Not trying to calculate opening a wormhole to another dimension, no.
2nd priority…I may need something that would render Blender frames if that’s possible. Also, I don’t need it super fast….if I were making money from Blender; then, I’ll buy real ITX boards with real cpu, ram, ssd.
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I just built my NAS using a Dell OptiPlex SFF with Core i5 7500, 16gb of ram. 8TB storage. 256gb NVME. Use’s 20 watts at idle. Running TreNAS. It destroyed my Synology NAS in performance to price… wish I built my own sooner than buying off the shelf.
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wait is this all itx? welp was hoping for atx matx too
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I have an AM4 motherboard that I’d like to reuse. I’m planning to use Unraid and wondering which CPU you would recommend. I was considering the 5600GT. I plan to connect six 14TB SATA HDDs. I care about power consumption, as the NAS will be idle 95% of the time. Any advice?
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People marking down the PCIe on the NVMe slots being “only” PCIe 4.0 x 2 is dumb. Like dude your going to be limited to 10Gb speeds in most cases which PCIe 4.0 x2 is 4GB/s before overhead 10Gb is 1.25GB/s your fine even 40Gb is only 5GB/s which still makes a 40Gb NIC worth it if you need that much bandwidth, realistically your gonna top out at 3.6 – 3.8GB/s assuming no other limitations on NVMe over PCIe, but Ethernet has it’s own overhead, which is actually somewhat larger.
But when 1 of your 2 NVMe slots can get pretty close to maxing out a 40Gb connection, your doing fine. Would it be nice to have PCIe 4.0 x4 or PCIe 5.0 x2 sure, but it’s 4.0 x 2 is really enough to be getting along with especially considering the onboard networking, it’s way more than enough.
Personally though, 1Gb is ethernet is good enough for me and 2.5Gb is plenty so a couple of 2.5Gb ports is plenty, and PCIe 3.0 x2 or PCIe 4.0 x1 is enough to be getting along with.
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Ehhhh, 4x 2.5Gb… I really would prefer just 1x 10Gb, maybe 1x 10Gb and 1x Gb or if your feeling fancy a 2.5Gb port considering 2.5Gb really isn’t any much expensive to implement. and switches exist, I would much prefer to have 1x 10Gb and buy a switch with a few of 10Gb ports and a bunch of 2.5Gb ports.
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Mo Data Mo Problems hahaha a Puff Daddy pun in this day and age???? yuck!!! I’m about to “Freak Out” jk
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Hello! I know this might be overkill but i built another computer and these are the parts from it and figured id build a NAS since its just setting. Just need a decent case to fit a E-ATX MOBO!
What im concern about is once its all built what OS, or and software so i can login drom anywhere and have the same features as a Synology NAS Software. Please let me know your thoughts!
MY Parts List:
1. MOBO: MSI Prestige Creation X570
2. CPU: Ryzen 9 3950x
3. RAM: Corsair DDR4 2400-3600 Mhz
4. RAM: Samsung Pro (2X4G = 8G Total)
5. PSU GameMax 850W Gold
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Multimedia needs a graphic card, trans-coding no slot.
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N305 version is nowhere to be found now. Its not available or its at least double the price of N100
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I have a basic NAS for home use and I am wanting to experiment with Freenas, Proxnox etc, I just bought a Chinese motherboard (C612) with a 14-core (xeon 2680V3) 32Gb of ram and 5 ports the 2.5Gb.
I want to learn how to install and configure virtual servers with it
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bro you are not MrBeast, if you want to do multi-language audio just hire some fucking voice actor, and not IA shit robot, it’s UNWATCHABLE
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If you are getting the N17 please be the canary and put some udimm ecc in and let us know if it works. N17 looks great but if going to drop £300 (2x32gb) on ram want to know its going to work. Thanks for reviews awesome work ????
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I bought a Topton computer on Aliexpress and I was so angry with myself, it was a poor quality product, without technical support, it was money thrown away. If you want some advice from a friend, look for another brand.
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Any of them have AV1 encoding?
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Do you have any non-Chinese recommendations? I’m worried about having to waste time trying to deal with returns, documentation, and debugging. Willing to pay a couple hundred extra as a premium.
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I like Dell and HP ready made PCs as you have good quality components and things like tool-less access. I would be interested to see someone take out an old Xeon board and put something more modern and power efficient in place. You would almost certainly have to dump the original power supply. Or perhaps not?
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Does youtube still delete comments if you mention that you shouldn’t trust your backups to some Chines no name OEM crap ?
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Is this just an coincidence that he got the same background as Alex on Autos? ????
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For me it’s CW-NAS-ADLN-K N100 purple mobo. I bought it for 148 USD (without VAT) including JONSBO CPU cooller. It has 2xI226-V, 2xminiPCIe 3.0 (x1) 1xPCIe 3.0 (x4), 6xSATA (ASM1160). Suggestion is to add 0.5 mm thermal pad between CPU die and heat spreader. The only question is what PSU to use with this low powered mobo for six 3.5″ HDD. I’m thinking about Chinese pico PSU, but they have bad amperage on 5V rail. Six 3.5″ HDD can require up to 8A on 5V rail during spin-up.
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I don’t think you look ill, but I also don’t think Bananaman has aged well. Does the mask still fit?
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Question, how do i know what mobos, cpus and hba cards support c states?
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Crazy town, banana pants is my new go to saying for anything awesome from now on! Let’s get that to go covid viral everyone!
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The trouble with mATX motherboards and such is they don’t fit into many (if any) NAS enclosures you can buy. I ended up buying an 8bay NAS enclosure with the motherboard thats pictured on your right (off aliexpress). The only other bits and bobs I had to get was a small ATX Flex power supply to suit the enclosure, couple sticks of memory 2x8GB), two 4xSATA to SFF cables (to go from the backplanes to the mobo) and a fan splitter cable. Unfortunately it’s still sitting in the office to put together LOL
My reasoning with the N5105 board was the 6 SATA, 2xNVME, 4×2.5GB ports. Sure it’s only got 4 cores/4 threads but then again, so do a lot of QNAP and Synology NAS’. And with a case I never have to change, I can change out the Mobo in a few years time when other’s get cheaper and better spec’ed. The one downside to purchasing anything off Aliexpress is the lack of documentation.
I think the biggest cost in the whole project is the case – due to it’s physical size. Shipping to AU was in the $100 mark alone. You can buy almost complete kits (Case, Mobo, PS, memory etc) from the one seller. In my case, it was slightly cheaper getting the case and Mobo sent from China and getting the rest local.
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So many strange limitations. Why? B450+APU If you dont want nvme Nas, or Ryzen 3100 or higher with B550 board can deliver you +4 m.2 through bifurcation card – you can use it for nvme Nas or to connect +4 strange adapters for m.2 that you like, 10gbe lan etc. To low power consumption you can play with cpu tdp in BIOS and use picoPSU or HDPLEX. And if you make a little research, you can even use ECC memory
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Great video! After the £1300+ NAS it is nice to see some cheaper options. I liked the look of some of the cheap Aliexpress cases until I saw the shipping cost.????
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I would be really interested in a comparison of Intel vs AMD comparison for video transcoding. i know quicksync is king… but what performances can you expect from an AMD CPU? not everyone needs multiple 4k videos being transcoded at all times, so if the AMD CPUs would handle 1 or 2 videos transcoding, then that would open up the choises of CPU for a lot of people…
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Be interested to see what you can when buying from UK retailers.
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Wow, great timing! I bought a Ugreen dxp4800 plus and have been running with hot temps (don’t seem uncommon). I recently got a 15U server rack and might be interested in building a rack mounted server and selling the Ugreen so I’m excited for the video you’re planning on doing with the rack server build!!
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Chinese trade tariffs for US consumers could be great for us on the other side of the pond. Faced with higher US tariffs and likely lower US demand the Chinese will choose to sell more in Europe, pushing prices down for Europeans / Brits. Thank Trumpy ???? !
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Honestly I think you’ve beat the low DIY end to death,. What are the high end DIY options?
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The Qotom board with Atom C3000 cpu has build in SFF8087 connector that you probably missed so it gives you 4 + 2 on board sata. STH did nice review of it under the name of a Everything Fanless router
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Great video! Can you review the CWWK N100 purple board? I’m curious because it uses ASM1166 controller instead of the more common JMB585 controller.
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Great info in this vid again. I have been going over a lot of your videos because I’m looking into making a server/nas with 12x 12tb drives and 4 x pci 3 m.2 2tb, My use cases: long term storage, backup family of 6 data from phones and tablets, few vm’s, plex, steam cache, downloads and more. I do have a x570 mobo with a 5900x in a box but it doesn’t have ecc and uses a lot of power prob. Just finding a board that can handle all that is a little tricky for a decent price with 10gb. Keep up the great work looking forward to all the future videos.
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As an idea for a future video, look into RockStor OS and compare it against OMV, specifically focussing on the use of encrypted BTRFS partitions.
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Why not the q670 white? Just came out and looks very promising. Also, would love if aspm c-states was discussed more here.
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overpriced, underpowered, too lacking in resources
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I run my Unraid server with a B450 motherboard and a 5600G. In hindsight I should have done with Intel for the quicksync support but it’s done well to host my Jellyfin server and do transcoding.
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Are any of these capable of gaming like what was shown by Asustor with the Flashstor gen 2 using iscsi at Computex?
Would I be able to build an nvme nas capable of gaming for a price competitive with the Flashstor gen2?
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What I’ve learnt from the years of building NAS and homelab, you don’t need to go for ITX unless your space is really limited, going MATX or even ATX really remove lots of your problems, like limited SATA, PCIE slot or IO, and remember in a NAS system, most of power consumption are from your HDD, it matters very little your CPU TDP is 15W or 45W.
If you worry about the case, most of 8 bay or even some 6 bay NAS cases can support MATX now, and you can just use a mid tower PC case if you don’t care about the look.
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I just grabbed the other day the n17 with 7840s…building my first Nas for plex in a Jonsbo N2 case…my only worry is that the ram is limited to 4800mhz. If someone would want to use transcoding in plex/jellyfish as AMD is not always supported/for working for now. intel a310 eco from sparkle is a great piece as its low profile and single slot
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Went seconhand with a used lenovo m83. It only has a 4th gen i5, 16gb ddr3 . I have a 500gb 2.5″ ssd and a 12t wd red nas drive. It runs next cloud well and truenas well. Whole system cost 250.00 us
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helpful video! you sound and look just like alfie solomons
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I bought a TOPTON computer on Aliexpress and I don’t recommend it, it’s a disposable and maintenance-free product. I don’t recommend it either.
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A new Edition Form this Video ?
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As a noob with 4x 4tb nvme drives and only basic knowledge, what would you recommend for me?
I don’t care about crazy speeds, i just don’t want to have all of these connected to my PC with a bunch of usb cables and the storage separated by drives.
Also, would i just hook the nas up to the wall and plug it to my spectrum router?
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I have an old Athlon x4 860K – should I just use that or is it worth investing in one of these if I am looking to build a NAS with 2x 4tb HDDs for image backup? I am a photographer.
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Dont we require ECC support for devent NAS build?
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is a 13400 a viable option?
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Anyone tried Erying motherboard with i7-13620H on board??
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I need ECC, 10Gb, Quick Sync, mini itx
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Personally I wouldn’t touch the Frankenstein Chinese boards made out of parts pulled from old boards.
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I thought that’s was gonna be actual CPUs and Mobos. Not these no name brands
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x99? Not really power efficient.
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AMD AM4 boards do support ECC. Take a look at the ASRock B550M-ITX/ac. It supports ether a 16 or 32 Gb dimm.
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Great channel! Found you through while researching about m.2 adapers for my usecase. Looking to build a nas with i5 7400 to have a jellyfin on it, it should be quite power efficient with right psu too
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There have been numerous complaints about the N305 combo MD, – mostly unexplained crashes and instability.any comment ?
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I just bought a beelink s12 with n100 and installed aan nvme 4tb and sata 4tb ssd run plex and jellyfin on it
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Does intel 13th and 14th gen has problems?
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Everything without ECC memory is useless as a NAS
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Got my old B360 and i5 8400 for media and storage amd updated my lan. Never had any video glitch.
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I am running an epyc 9124. One box that can do everything simultaneously. I don’t need fast networking because it is all local. Workstation, gaming PC, NAS, all in one box, simultaneously.
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You should do this video on board from Tiawan, for those of us who do not want everything in our home to be from mainland. Which would also include not buying from AliExpress as a major method.
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Hi guys! I would really like your help on building my first NAS. I just want my nas to do my own streaming service like Plex or other like it. And i would like to stream it in 4k. What do you recommend i get for this?
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One solution for mITX+ECC+new gen CPU is AM4 Ryzens offering paired with B450/B550 mITX boards, or even A520 (preferably ASRock or ASUS, as they report the best ECC support). When paired with Ryzen PRO G series APUs, you get the iGPU that you can use with Jellyfin for hardware transcoding support (no Plex as far as I know). Just don’t use normal G-series CPUs, as they don’t support ECC.
If you don’t need iGPU, then you can go for any modern Ryzen, as they support ECC (except non-PRO G-series).
Very important – Ryzen only support unbuffered ECC (UDIMM) opposed to registered ECC (RDIMM) with server chipset boards. UDIMM memory is a bit more expensive and usually harder to find on a used market. Still, you can usually get 2x16GB DDR4 ECC UDIMM for around 120USD new. The highest size support I’ve seen on the mITX boards was 2x32GB.
Using Ryzens PRO G-series also should produce lower idle power, as those have monolithic cores, similar to laptops, thus not needing to power the infiniti fabric between chiplets.
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For real DIY nas You will need at last 2 PCIe elecrrically x8. One is for network card ( 25/40/100 GB/s ) and one for hard drive controller ( LSI / Hap/ Dell? ). More PCIe lanes with bifurcation should be recomended as well. Problem is that user grade motherboards got only 1 PCIe x16 and some X4 or more often X1 slots.
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That X99 mobo is a little risky. Did some digging since I was interested in it. In April 2024 BKHD (manufacturer) released BIOS R014, which is shipped as a default with new purchases. It somewhat fixed ECC memory support (wasn’t working with earlier R009 revision of BIOS) but there were many configuration options cut from BIOS – people report that this includes, but is not limited to Intel VT-d and power configuration. I don’t know if Intel VT-d is enabled by default or not in the new BIOS, but for me this system was suppose to be NAS and a homelab machine for Proxmox. It is also not an mITX motherboard – it is larger and manufacturer states that it is a CeB format, so it won’t fit in cases that have no spare room over mITX tray.
Mobo with CPU (no drives etc.) idles at around 45-50W jumping to 140-150W with CPU fully stressed. MiniPCI-E slot shares its lanes with one of the NICs. At least with old R009 BIOS bifurcation worked perfectly and someone tested ASUS 4*m.2 card and all of the drives were seen in BIOS and were bootable, as the PCI-Ex16 slot was set to 4x4x4x4. VRM and chipset radiators run hot, where VRMs’ radiator was around 65-70C with downdraft cooler on the CPU. Chipset radiator was around 55C. So be sure to add some airflow if you plan a build with this mobo/CPU combo.
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Great video! thank you!
any changes since the release?
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How many ram are recommend, 2×8 GB oder 2×16 GB?
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Hello. Which pc case is compatible with the first CPU combo?
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Does the n305 i3 MB supports ECC RAM?
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I have the Amazon version of the M305 but my data get corrupted. Memory and drives are good. Bought two of these motherboards and got the same issue. Not sure what bios option to change to fix this. Any ideas?
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i gotta say as ive started to move towards handling other peoples data professionally all of a sudden the two features i look for first are ecc memory and bios support. even if it means buying something older, it helps me sleep better.
that said, yea ok youre right to focus where you do in this shootout, you make good points
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What is the best motherboard cpu combination for nas and media server? Thanks.
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There is new one which look nice for all ssd diy alternative on ali. 6 Bay NAS Motherboard, i5-12450H 8505 Max, 6 x NVMe, 6 x SATA3.0, 1 x PCIEx4, Mini ITX, 4 x Intel i226-V, 2.5G, Firewall Router, 2 x DDR5 Motherboard
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nice how you reviewd different solutions
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Looking at the ERYING i9 13900HK, can anyone confirm if both NIC work in TrueNAS?
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I’ve been favouring m-atx, something like the Erying i5-13420h, because with two slots, you can hopefully add a IT mode SAS card as well as a dual 10gb NIC, but then I’d go for a larger case with more bays
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Amazing video, I’ve watched it a few times now.
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Love this. I just did a very very similar build and board selection process. Ultimately I went with a lower power board for just NAS use with a few Docker containers on an N100 build. It’s built out for good until I need a newer, bigger system, and I won’t look back at it to wonder if it could be better because I have no more lanes to support anything else hahahaha ???? so working within the itx form factor with these sorts of sff builds is an art form in itself. For me power consumption was the main thing along with total storage availability. 2.5g Ethernet was gravy because this isn’t a performant NAS, but a backup one. I plan on also building a near line storage NAS for video editing. I think people fall into the trap of making their hardware a jack of all trades but a master of nothing. Use the N100s for what they are good at, low power and non mission critical applications.
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why so many boards with 4 x 2.5 GbE and so few with 1 x 10 Gbe?
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Been going down this rabbit hole for a bit. Some thoughts:
1) the i9 mb seems similar to the minisforum ms-01 solution. However minisforum includes 2 spf+ 10g and 2 2.5 g Ethernet ports, as well as 2 usb4. Plus, besides the 3 nvme slots, there is the option of adapting one of the nvme slots to u.2. This unit, especially with the cheaper i5 version is a complete nas flash storage with the option to add a decent gpu. Also, with the usb4/TB ports you can use the DAS solutions to really build up an array. I’m particularly looking at the Terramaster D5 Hybrid which is 2 hd/ssd sata drives plus 3 nvme slots. In the past I’ve built a 16 tb nvme das using the OWC 4ms and got about 1200-1800 MB/s transfers between the OWC and my Mac mini.
2) the Xeon mb option is reflected in the tons of e-waste towers from HP (z440 to z840) and Dell. These are interesting because of the 2 16x pcie slots, 1 8x pcie slots 1 4x slots. The slots are full length and full height. The many/cheap 4x nvme to pci cards which require bifurcation like HP does makes for an easy flash nas and the also cheap dual 10gb Ethernet pci cards makes for fast transfers. Again, these server/workstation towers often come with an nvidia card, such as a quadro. The only downside is the power requirements. Which is hilarious!
Thanks for the video!
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Found a review for the Xeon 6x 2.5gbps Ethernet port motherboard https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHAs6xHmhhE&t=1474s
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And here I sit trying to decide whether to build a NAS using a mini ITX mobo or get my Cisco UCS C240 M4 with 12 10TB SAS drives running. The Cisco is kind of big and noisy though and a bit of a power hog. It has two 1200W power supplies. Lol
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I’m new to this stuff, what kind of case would you guys use for say 4, 6 or even 10 drives? I like that inserted mobo with 2016 cpu, my drives aren’t that new but i’d love to rock 2.5gbit
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Listen (I know you can hear me, just an expression)! I am at the crossroads between buyng the cwwk 9 sata board or the minisforum AR 900i for my Jonsbo N3 case. I am not a graphics monster kind of guy, but with the minisforum, I will use the PciE slot for an LSE controller, but with the cwwk it can handle drives from the board (leaving the PciE slot open. I don’t know who will read this, but GIVE ME your assessment. It will be a NAS and maybe turn into a VM machine of some type (windows, linus etc.) with 32GB DDR5. OK so nobody knows me, and I don’t know you (except the NASCompares guy). Let me know… almost time to buy..
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Shoulda said in the title it’s Intel-only. Even then it pissed me off very highly.
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If ECC doesn’t matter and the used market is something you’re comfortable with – there are now many H110 ITX and Q170 ITX boards. Some are even coming with external 12V or 19V PSUs (HP 7.4mm barrel jack), like the Asus Q170T.
A Pentium G4560 or i3 7100 would be dirt cheap to use with them. They’re limited to 4 SATA slots (or in case of regular ITX, however many your HBA can support) and having access to 7th gen means the HD 630 will do hardware transcodes for 4k DV/HDR content with no problem if you need it. In fact, QuickSync means you get better performance than from Nvidia or AMD by a long shot.
Now the only way I’d ever consider this is for an ultra budget NAS that’s also space constrained (so Optiplex or similar is not an option) – but you can do a full build for under $200 guaranteed.
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Hey, do you have any more links to the X99 Xeon MoBo Combo? Seems that combo is MIA now.
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I have 11500 what mobo do you recomment? atm I’m using some really cheap Asus but it seams like its not really working out for nas/homeserver usage.
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Do you know where can I buy a a 4x 3.5″ tray with integrated sata backplane to build my own case around?
Something not to expensive but functional.
Buying one of these retal nases to break it apart is expensive and kinda stupid 😀
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Considering I want an all flash NAS, is the ar900i the best choice? If so would one of the 4 nvme slots have to be used for os?
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Beware, CWWK AMD-7840HS don’t have ECC. The processor does not have ECC in this board.
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Would be nice to get a video on matx board options too 🙂
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You are the God of NAS out there. Thank you for your content.
I appreciate your work so much!
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Another interesting summary.
Have you verified the sata throughout on the N305 board, or Indeed the N100 version? Someone recently did some heavy testing on the BKHD green N100 version and oddly the sata controller was tied in at pcie2x1 speeds. Which is a bit mad since the cpu is pci3x9. Any thoughts?
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I wonder if anyone’s tried building a NAS from a used Framework mainboard. Might be worth considering for a future video.
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Has anyone purchased the X99 Mobo with the six ethernet ports? And if so how well does it work as a NAS setup?
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The The X99 Motherboard + XEON + RAM Kit is not an ITX standard size, is is a little bigger. You can non fit this board in a Jonsbo N3 case.
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Supermicro x11ssm-f is micro ATX, has 8 Sata, 2 pcie 3.0×8 and 2 pcie 3.0×4. It’s like $140 on eBay.
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If you’re willing to look at MicroATX boards, and I would due to the availability of the relatively inexpensive Fractal Node 804 case (mATX, 10 3.5″ bays), you open up a world of possibilities. For instance the ASRock B550M Steel Legend, with 2.5GBe, 6xSATA, and 2xfull length M.2 slots (and 1x short M.2 slot for a Wi-Fi card). If all you want is mirrored flash storage, get 2 M.2 drives, and one 2.5″ SATA to boot from, and get a small/cheap case like the Fractal Core 1000 (#notspon).
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What we truly need is cost effective NAS cases! Everything on the market is crazy expensive. The 4 bay case for mITX motherboards are a minimum $80 and anything for mATX, you are looking at $200.
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gotta say I love your channel, and your voice
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From AliExpress? Why not use hardware that doesn’t support the CCP? Sorry, I don’t buy anything that isn’t Tawain.
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How about a dedicated video about m.2->sata cards, whats a multiplier, which ones are good and you can use them reliabilty, stress test disks on them, power consumption added compared to LSI hba cards would not be bad either. Just an idea. As I see lot of comments shooting these down as unfit for the NAS job.
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How about the R5-5650G for £130 new on eBay w/ cooler, with ASRock or Gigabyte A520i/ac for £105, Amazon? It’s only GbE, but supports ECC (and some other enterprise-y stuff from the Ryzen Pro) for a lot less than the CWWK board. The R5-4600G is currently £82 on Amazon too, which seems like a deal. (I haven’t actually built it, I’m using a Pi 4)
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Sorry, I went through but I didn’t see one with 6+ SATA, 10GigE in a single port, and a pair of NVME sockets. Is that an unrealistic spec to be looking for? I don’t mind which form factor the motherboard has.
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One thing that needs to be said about Minisforum and their boards is that being a smaller chinese manufacturer, their BIOS and firmware support is absolutely dreadful… Also many of the bios options are labeled wrong or translated incorrectly. If some sort of vulnerability or fault is discovered year or two down the line you’re out of luck!
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My Next Upgrade for my NAS Homeserver is most likely a Minisforum MS-01 together with a QNAP TL-D1600S (comes with PCIe-Card and Cables). But the i3 N305 Boards looks really good too
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I have a Rosewill RSV-L4500U NAS chassis.
It’s a proper case with room to grow with 15 drive bays. I don’t understand why you pretend here that there’s nothing out there that will take a bunch of drives and still support ATX boards. It’s not like the chassis is incredibly expensive either.
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Hi, You‘ve mentioned a high power consumption for the CWWK board. Can you maybe provide exact numbers for that, unable to find anything online unfortunately. Did you also test ECC in the CWWK? Thanks!
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Does CWWK AMD-7840HS support WON (Wake-on-LAN)??
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Not spending $300+ without 10GbE. What’s next? A 20 port 2.5GbE board? Do these manufacturers not understand that there is MORE than just 2.5?
Nonetheless, thanks for the video!
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Would love to see some DIY ATX NAS CPU, and motherboard solutions. Why? server and NAS build combo
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n305 are not available on Ali 🙁
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PCpartpicker really sucks for picking out mobos with ECC support, because since AMD has no official support on their AM4/AM5 boards, they just filter EVERYTHING. That makes the site useless for finding AMD ECC boards that aren’t server-grade, so I just ditch it completely. Skinflint is infintely better for finding mobos
Great video though, thanks a lot for the mention of the AMD mobo + cpu combo that has ECC. It looks really good
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Great video, thank you. What would you recommend/can you do a build for a £2k budget for 4K transcoding and VMs NAS with ECC RAMs? I am thinking of a 4-6 bay and really don’t want to go with Synology or QNAP as I don’t like being restricted and under the mercy of their abrupt hardware and software policies. Thank you and keep up the great work.
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Garbage grade Ali express shite. Level up your channel.
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the AMD 7840HS does NOT Support ECC.
Only the AMD Ryzen PRO 7840HS supports ECC! Which is probably not used by this Board from cwwk.
So the Board probably only supports On-Die ECC which is a default from DDR5 but no MultiBit ECC.
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Where would you find the ddr5 ecc sodimm for that amd motherboard. I can’t seem to find any.
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The nas is going in the closet. The case just needed to hold hard drives. So shape of the case doesn’t matter too much. Look for lots of hard drive bays.
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Isn’t cpu+mobo combo usually a cpu and a mobo not soc?
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I’m looking for something a wee bit different from a traditional NAS.
I’m looking for a box with the specs to run AI models at decent speeds that fits within the physical footprint of a traditional home NAS.
Currently I’m running them on my home PC (128GB RAM, Core i5 12600K, NVME drives all around) and it’s performing quite well along the lines of ChatGPT but with it being hosted entirely at home. For AI the two big factors are 1) Dedicated GPU and 2) buttloads of RAM with the minimum being 128GB.
My main model takes up around 72GB of RAM because the entire model loads itself into RAM for speed and then uses the GPU to process queries.
Folks won’t believe it now, but at-home AI will be a thing in the future. Why? Because every single one of the publicly-available online models are neutered beyond belief to “comply” with local laws in pretty much every country on the planet.
Uncensored/unrestricted AI models are not but those are really only available to folks like me with the tech to run them in our own homelabs.
As they grow in popularity, more folks are going to be looking at dedicated mini PCs/servers so they can run 24/7 without requiring use of the user’s own PC.
And they’re going to grow in popularity because it only takes about 15-30 minutes to set an AI up complete with an web-based interface, depending on your ISP speed.
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0:18: ???? Exploring additional motherboard and CPU combos for DIY NAS builds based on viewer suggestions.
3:19: ⚙️ High-performance processor with efficient power consumption and solid build quality.
6:37: ???? High-performance AMD motherboard with impressive features and reasonable price point.
9:37: ???? Impressive storage capability and build quality of AMD Ryzen CPU + motherboard combo for NAS builds.
12:56: ???? High-performance motherboard with impressive storage capabilities and fan-assisted heatsink.
16:19: ???? Newer TopTon n100 series boards offer improved M2 MVB and PCIe upgrade slot compatibility.
19:24: ???? New motherboard with ECC support offers power efficiency, while pre-attached CPU mobo combos vary in power consumption.
Timestamps by Tammy AI
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Please note the additional risks when using combo cpu+motherboards. One issue can take out both components and you can’t replace either separately.
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I would suggest anyone really want AIO go with Xeon D1581 board, 16 cores 32 threads, 32 PCIE lanes(gen 3), support ECC, newer ones even have 2.5G or 10G on board, downside of course it’s an old CPU, 65W TDP.
If you want a low power NAS build but N100 or N305 is just cutting too much, you can go with Pentium 8505, 4 e-core, 1 p-core, 6 thread, 20 PCIE lanes, about 10W highier than N100, but enough power to do your basic NAS things, some boards have 2.5G nic, 2 full speed X4 nvme, some sata port and even 1 PCIE X 1 slot, but this one is a bit new and rare right now, you may need to wait for Q3 or Q4 2024 to see them show up in your country.
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CWWK links to Minisforum
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With the amd motherboard that supports ecc – does the cpu support it too ?
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I’m trying to figure out what cpu and ram combo would be required for a 8 * 12tb disk nas that would be used for nfs share to a jellyfin server hosted on a separate system
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You should check out Supermicro X13SAN-H. It’s a 3.5″ SBC rocking 12th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-1265UE Processor, M2 x4 and PCIe 4.0 x4 SlimSAS
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I was convinced I was originally going to go a custom build but with the f4-424 pro hitting almost all the boxes for what I was trying to get out of the custom it didn’t make sense to put in the time that was going to be required. The video before this and this one haven’t made me regret my decision at all.
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hi, for the CWWK amd board, i saw it has a hard drive power supply holder. Does this mean I dont need to connect the HDD power cable to the PSU and can just use the board to supply the power to all 9 HDD? Anyone has tested it?
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Thanks to your videos, my vision about NAS or storage is expanding, I built a XEON v4 with storage thanks to your tips. Thank you for the daily information.
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minisforum ar900i can’t recognize any sata adapter, whether it’s by pcie slot or m.2 to sata. One other person also reported sata not recognized on raid card installed.
Also tired of these vendors sending out the highest power consuming cpu’s with these boards. Where’s the low power, fast storage boards?
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Every board is already up +200$ lol
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Going by my own experiences the only advice I can give to those considering the motherboards linked in the video description is this: *read the reviews*. While there are many complaints, by far the biggest culprit seems to be with BIOS issues that cause many headaches. A lot of this stuff is simply junk. Sometimes it’s fun to play with junky hardware but building your NAS around these motherboards might not be the best idea. Just my 2c.
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You should make merch with seagles on it
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FYI: Gigabyte B550I motherboard supports ECC UDIMM.
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Great video as always! One test I would love to see in the future is a mini-ITX nAS DYI build with a MB as the MSI MPG Z790I EDGE since that one has 3xm.2 slots and 4xS-ATA ports paired with a i5-13500T or i7-13700T CPU. The low powered edition CPU (35w TDP) is almost always left out on the other tech reviewers. In my mind this would be the perfect match? A full CPU with all the features and cores/threads but with a low frequency to keep the power and heat as low as possible.
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I hope minisforum makes a AR900i version that has the 14900HX CPU, performance wise its 1 to 1 with the desktop 13900K at around 100 watts less. the Serpent canyon 12th gen nuc enthusiast might be a good choice as well, barebones it sells for $650 but it has an A770M graphics card built in, if you buy a 64 GB of Ram kit and a pcie 4.0 NVME it uses 20 watts at idle, pretty good for an all flash media server or something
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Would really appreciate a video on bigger atx boards for something like a 24 bay nas? I have an older dual Xeon board that’s getting slow. E5 2470 v2, and I use just about every pcie slot on it, HBAs, 10gb, video card for transcoding, etc.
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Hi again, so cool that you included the minisforum motherboards.
I can image it’s very hard to make a list of motherboards like this because everybody’s usecase is different.
For me the BD770i is perfect.
Yes there is only 1x 2.5gb nic but thats fine because all my switches 2.5gb so i dont need anything faster than this speed.
I picked the lower board because this is already way overpowered for my needs and the 790i consumes more power.
The 55w tdp is just a (max) number, the server idles most of the time and thats way lower (23w in my case).
The reason AMD boards were left behind for a long time must be native Plex support for the AMD igpu. Plex now natively supports AMD igpu transcoding and it does it like a champ out of the box. When i transcode a 4k movie on this board the cpu usuage goes from 1-2% to 3-4% and powerusage from 23w to 26w, thats really low.
I build this system with powerusage in mind but i wanted to have the ability to (if i wanted) put a gaming vm in there maybe to stream games to one of my nvidia shield.
At the moment i only use this unraid server for Plex, Radarr, Sonarr, Sabnzb, pihole, home assistant, twingate and it handles it like a champ.
Good video keep it up!
PS: I wanted to add, my previous itx motherboard in my nas server is a Topton N100 4c/4t and it used 1w less idle compared to the Minisforum mobo. The N100 is nice and could handle most of my needs but didn’t offer any more processing power playroom. Since the power usage (in idle) is almost identical I opted for the mobile powerhouse cpu
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As you add boards I’d love to see mentions on if they’re suitable for transcoding as well.
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BD770i is really nice board – my idea is to do it in this way: I took one of m.2 slots put there m.2 to pci express adapter and to that 2 port 25G nic (Intel E810-XXVAM2 can use pci 4.0 so 4 lanes should be enough). Another m.2 + pci x16 slot as it support x4x4x4x4 mode will be utilized by nvme drives. So in final I can have 5 disk nvme NAS capable of 50Gb transfers.
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6:00 there ?
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I used a motherboard pulled out of a lenovo ThinkCentre M73 SFF. It has an Intel Dual-Core i3-4130 3.4GHz processor, 8GB ram and works great for Unraid used as a backup server. Cost $25 USD.
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only Ipmi is missing
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It sais 2.5 Gig Ethernet on their site ?
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Terrible pronunciation of my name but thanks for the mention, I’M FAMOUS! Moma would be proud….
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Totally not related but I’d be curious on how that N305 board would fare as a TV box?
I’m still looking for the perfect replacement for my nvidia shield, but it’s just too damn good compared to the alternatives, yet it’s so old and lacking development
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Could someone please let me know if there’s some manual available for the i3-N305 board? In particular, I’d like to know the specifications of the CPU fan (type (fixed or variable RPM), size, voltage). Thank you.
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I went with a G ryzen and a b550m VC from msi-only new part- board has 2xnvme pcie3x4-this cuz the G ryzen-, 8 EIGHT sata ports by the way sata and nvme can all work at same time, a couple pcie slots for any future whatevers. Now for my use case, 1G lan is more than enough, Id say but still have them pcie slots justin! 6x hdds now and an os ssd, no cache drive, dont think ill need it, at least not now, and i read that most ssds will have not a good time being cache, since their lifetime is on the amount written. Wanted to get one of them X99 setups though, but this was quicker and less power, all on an old PC case with hdd mounting spaces with a couple extra fans thrown in there
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What about this new board from CWWK? (can’t seem to add the link)
It is AMD based with no intel transcoding support but it has alot more power (dedicated GPU)compared to the N305, more storage connectivity upto 9 sata ports, ECC memory support with the 7940HS CPU and even an pcie slot for future 10gb upgrade. Will this board be the endgame for DIY builders or am I missing something?
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If you haven’t a problem with second hand things. I have picked up an i5 8500t with an Asus z390 ATX mobo with Asus hyper M.2 card, 64GB ddr 4 2666, ATX Gold powersupply all in an old case with lots of 3.5 and 2.5 inch bays. Still have a lot of PCIE and Sata ports free for the future. Power draw <40W. All for around €200, storage not included
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What OS are we going to run on this?
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AliExpress for European buyers is awful. Months for delivery and often non-functioning then weeks of return delay.
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For Just a NAS I would get a motherboard with an intel N100 intergrated and add SATA ports over m.1/PCI-e or just a regular NAS
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While I see the appeal of MOBO+CPU options, I think the lack of serviceability makes them simply not worth it. I recently bought a 4650G because of the ECC support and okay CPU performance (and because it was dirt cheap, $110). Just slot it into any AM4 Gigabyte/ASUS board and UDIMM ECC is fully supported for a total of $200 MOBO+CPU. Still thinking about if I should do an ITX build with Jonsbo N1 or an ATX building with a Define R7.
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Another great video! Thanks!
Is it possible to build an efficient PC on one of these motherboards in which the raid array will be managed like a NAS and will have most of its functions? I don’t have typical network needs because I work alone on video editing, but I care about data security. I was thinking about a PC with two NVMe drives and a 4-6 HDD array.
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The n305 board sharing the pcie late between the m.2 and the 3.0×1 slot was the reason the went with the n100 green board. Those lanes are not shared. Of course, after I ordered it, About a month ago Topton released a new version of the n305 board that does not share this lane.
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i highly recommend a used Server with a Xeon 26xx, 26xxv2, or 26xxv3. Can pick them up with CPU + Ram for 80 to 150 bucks, and some come with 10G Lan and more SAS/SATA then one needs.
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i had a fealing, that no one car in nas community about synology anymore. does you feel the same?
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Why? Do British! Techtubers talk like? This. Now?
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The N-series of Intel chips, especially not of the 8-core variant, are pretty weak, so if you plan to use them with dockerised apps, not so good… Intel’s i* H-series and now Ultras are the way to go for efficiency and because they have iGPUs with well supported hardware accelerated transcoding for the media serving use-cases – some apps/platforms may require extra cost for supporting Nvidia or AMD encoders – they make good basis for such builds. Newer gen may also be seated in TB3/TB4 enabled board, so device extension is quite possible…
However, one could venture experiments with Epyc Siena. Why? Most boards for Siena come with 2 or 4 NICs, 2 of which often are RJ45 ports, with the other 2 for SFP28, so up to 52Gbps trunked output… enough to feed a quadruple of 10Gbps clients. Of course, those optical ports need connecting to a good switch. MikroTik has one with 16 SFP28 ports, if I recall correctly. SFP28 ports and transceivers can work at 10Gbps speed, basically being supported in SFP+ cages… Then, those Siena boards can be paired with Siena chips… starting from an 8 core 16 thread units you can scale now or in the future, depending on workloads, up to 64 core 128 thread design of Zen 4c chips, granted running at the efficiency oriented part of the bell curve. Add to that DDR5 RDIMMs support and 6 to 8 slots of those, and you can start small, then bump your platform as needed or as promos happen… Same for the storage and extensions… MCIO or slimSAS ports on boards are great for cable routing, after all most boards support splitting of signals into 4x or 8x SATA or SAS devices. Still, with a couple of MCIOs, you can easily use one or two split to cover spinning rust devices and still have some for bifurcation for NVMe U.2 drives to get better speed out of the NAS. Why is that a great thing? If you ever wanted to do a SATA SSD NAS, you’d be looking into 4TB+ models. Currently, at those capacities, SATA devices cost roughly the same as many cheaper enterprise PCIe3 or PCIe4, often around $20 of difference… for max throughput and iops nearly 5 times higher than the average SATA units… Once those U.2/U.3 drives drop in prices for high capacities, they may become defacto first choice even for homelab and NAS uses. Then, having a board that can easily already support those devices would be great and far easier to sell the idea to your spouses, so the wife-approval factor may be a benefit here as well.
So building NAS on your own you need to differentiate between those with minimal usage scenarios needing something as efficient as possible and those willing to have a platform they can expand in the future per the needs or promos…
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While Synology seems to be taking forever to upgrade to gen 12 processors, I am more and more looking with interest the Supermicro SuperWorkstation 531A-IL for a solid unRAiD build. What do you think?
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Ali Express?, goodbye.
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I just finished up my nas upgrade with an Minisforum BD770i. The AMD Ryzen 7 7745HX (8c/16t) is a beast. In Unraid system idle it uses only 23w since it’s a mobile chip. I used an m.2 nvme to 6x sata adapter and it works like a charm. Since Plex natively supports amd igpu’s this mobo is a champ at transcoding. I highly recommend this motherboard.
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Greetings and thank you for the video! I enjoy your channel.
Looking forward to your video on NAS with ECC memory. I bought a *used* Lenovo P520 that included 128gb ecc memory and a 2135 XEON for $300 US. The internals are fantastic. The power – ouch – it has a 900 Watt power supply. I bought 6 *used* 10TB HDD and 2 1TB NVMe drives. I’ve installed TrueNAS Scale just to play around with it (I’m an old pro on building PCs but a newbie on building NAS and VMs). Wish me luck…and any feedback would be greatly appreciated!
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If you are going for a N305 in 2024, then I suggest you get a 8505 instead, a bit more money and Watt, much more powerful and 20 PCIE lanes.
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Hey, I have been really struggling to find a NAS to upgrade to. I want to run mostly 4k HDR HEVC content. I play it mostly on my LG G1. And I don’t understand HEVC thing, some of that content doesn’t run when I play it on the TV off my Plex Server ( currently using a Synology 216+). I have watched quite a few videos but I still can’t make an educated purchase.
Can point me to a product? I really want good performance in a small box. A small pc sounds like a good choice but I kind of prefer a NAS, somethign that runs at home 24/7.
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N100-N305 MB+CPU are crap. If you Seriously need more and faster PCIE lanes, or if you need more than 16 GB ADRESSABLE, not just recognized RAM. (By the way only single chanel) this combo is not the best.
I Strongly recommand the combo MB + CPU from CWWK => AMD-7840HS/8845HS/7940HS – 9 SATA/8-BAY/9-BAY NAS – USB4 – 4 NETWORK 2.5G – PCIE X16 ITX MOTHERBOARD:
I dont put links, i don’t why, but my comments won’t show up. Soo i try without link.
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Gosh I’ve been looking for weeks now for that N305. It’s a purple unicorn!
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why is everyone so obsessed about ITX mobos?
they lack PCIe and SATA connectivity, RAM expansion, space for bigger (silent) cpu cooler,
if I weren’t using my X99-S desktop workstation as main PC, I’d simply make it a NAS build, since also the case (Fractal Define R5) supports 8 HDD bays already…
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Just yesterday I finished building & setting up my first NAS. Went with Gigabyte B550i Aorus Pro paired with Ryzen 7 PRO 4750G, 2x 32 gb ECC, 4x Exos 18X and SN850X, built in Node 304. I think it’s quite well balanced home NAS for 2.5 Gbit network.
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Kraftwerk…thank you
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Power consumpion on Erying? ????
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Anyone up for a challenge?
Mini-ITX, Intel, >=11th Gen Intel CPU with 2x Media Engines, IPMI, IOMMU, 5x SATA, 1x NVMe, 1x PCIe x16, 1x >= GigLAN, 1x Monitor-Port, >=2x USB, (ECC support)
Any experience with these NVMe to SATA adapters?
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@5:44 Ok, that sound is trippy
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N305 IS NOT AVAILABLE!!!
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Since ECC is one of the most important things in a NAS if you value data integrity (which most NAS builders do), maybe you could bring out more prominently which ones support ECC and which ones don’t?
And for a list of “best NAS CPU+mobos for NAS” there’s very little ECC support among the suggested alternatives.
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the mobo you’ve shown with xeon – biggest question is whenever it requires gpu to boot up …
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I’ve been hesitating clicking the buy now on that e612 Xeon board with the 2.5g ports
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I think as soon as you review an item the aliexpress stores use this as an opportunity to start increasing prices. Sometimes they just up their shipping costs to give the illusion of a cheaper product. ???? Or am I just being cynical.
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I would say that a SuperMicro X14QEH+ mainboard with 4 Intel Xeon Scalable 5th gen Platinum 8593Q processors. This way you have 17 MCIO PCIe 5.0 x8 connectors and room for 24 NVMe PCIe 5.0 SSD’s at full speed. +2 NVMe PCI 3.0 x4 ports for slower speeds. That Mobo will certainly fully saturate 400GBps networks. It’s a cheap ass solution for if you want to replace a NetApp MetroCluster. Especially when compared to the best NAS/SAN solution in the world, the FAS9500.
I don’t get why you would call consumer goods, the best motherboard CPU/Combo’s while there are so much better Enterprise solutions.
with your solutions it is even hard to saturate a normal 10/40 GBps connection. As soon as more then 40 users connect to your storage solutions, you will run into bottlenecks.
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The problem is these boards are not built to last. I have an alderlake n305 mini itx diy router like these and it just stopped working. It never reached temps above 80 degrees Fahrenheit and ram and name test fine outside of motherboard. Dealing with topton customer service has been an ordeal the past two months trying to RMA.
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They say on Reddit that the sata controller on that n305 board from JMicron is bad, particularly doesn’t allow CPU to reach some higher C-states
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I have an idea for building a Gen 4 TrueNAS.
Biostar b550m MX/E, already indicates it supports bifurcation and its good price where im at. Bifurcation cause i plan to use a 4x nvme adapter.
My old Ryzen 3600. Relatively power efficient, at first i had the idea for an Epyc build, but that idles close to 100W.
ECC unbuffered memory can also be used here.
Also have a RX6400 when i need to use a gpu, as this will be a TrueNAS machine i probably wont need a gpu much.
I will probably buy two 40gbe mellinox connect x3 and some DAS cables.
Would need to think of something for an efficient small psu, i like sfx ones, but most of them have bad efficency at low wattage.
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Is there any sense in getting the 13900H? Will all that power be utilized? Why not just go and buy the 12800H, even though there is a performance drop of 25,000 passmark vs. 29,400 passmark. The number of PCI-E lanes is the same – 28. Also, DDR4 is cheaper than DDR5.
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That XEON board is very interesting. The rest seems overpriced.So unless you actually need ITX for your build.
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ECC please with this cheaper CPUs…
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First!
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I stay away from n series (n100,n305) chips. They don’t support hyperthreading (all “E” cores), don’t have good single core performance, and only provide 9 lanes of pcie gen 3. Makes it very difficult to build a NAS with SATA, NVME, and 10 gig networking without something getting starved for pcie lanes
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I bought the Aoostar R7 on the back of your review so would be interested to see what you do with it. So far mine is running Unraid and I am seeing some interesting behaviour. Works, mostly 🙂
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Sadly the N-305 MoBo is sold out everywhere on Aliexpress. Tried buying one last week and the order got cancelled yesterday. ????
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Can’t recommend Terra master made by the chinese
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If you are looking to sell your old Erying i would buy it off you 🙂
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Minisforum AR900i would be a perfect candidate here
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