Jonsbo N2 NAS Build with TopTon Board Build (Complete Guide) – UnRAID/TrueNAS

Last updated on 07 Sep 2023 📧 Subscribe
Contents hide
1 Jonsbo N2 Build with TopTon NAS Board Walkthrough
1.1 What You Need for the Jonsbo N2 NAS Build
1.2 Start of the Jonsbo N2 NAS Build Guide
2 UnRAID Installation on the Jonsbo N2 NAS Build Setup Walkthrough (Optional)
2.1 UnRAID on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 8, Accessing the BIOS Menu of your Jonsbo N2 Motherboard
2.2 UnRAID on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 9, Booting from the New UnRAID Installer USB
2.3 UnRAID on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 7, Accessing the HDMI Port and Keyboard Control
3 TrueNAS Installation on the Jonsbo N2 NAS Build Setup Walkthrough (Optional)
3.1 TrueNAS Core on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 6, (OPTIONAL) – Install an NVMe SSD
3.2 TrueNAS Core on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 9, Reboot the NAS
4 Jonsbo NAS DIY Vs Synology and QNAP? Better or Worse?
5 Need Advice on Data Storage from an Expert?

Jonsbo N2 Build with TopTon NAS Board Walkthrough

It’s almost comical now how easy it is to build your very own NAS server from scratch. Building your own server expands the boundaries of your tech understanding. A lot of this ease is attributed to the modular approach to PC and server building that has emerged in recent years. This is especially true for network-attached storage (NAS) devices. The increased availability of pre-configured server motherboards from brands like TopTon and the wider availability of server-ready cases make building your own low-cost, open-source alternative to big brands like Synology and QNAP increasingly easy. Today, I want to guide you through building the Jonsbo N2 NAS build using a cost-effective pre-built TopTon NAS board. This guide will help you finish in just over an hour and will enable you to use popular NAS software such as UnRAID and TrueNAS. Let’s begin.

Note – FULL Video Tutorial HERE on the YouTube Channel

In a Rush? Here are the full details on the Recommended Jonsbo N2 NAS Builds for $250, $500, $750 and $1000 – HERE on the blog (with parts) and HERE on YouTube:

Jonsbo N2 + TopTon Intel n5105 Celeron / Pentium n6005 Build (+$35)

  • Jonsbo N2 Case ￡74.04 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE
  • Topton N5105 + 128GB NVMe + 4GB RAM ￡193.48 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE
  • SATA 6 Connector ￡4.19 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE
  • 400W SFX PSU ￡24.36 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE

￡264.64 (128GB M.2 NVMe + 4GB RAM + 400W PSU)

(Optional/Swap) If you want to save some money:

  • Topton N5105 (NO EXTRAS) ￡159.82 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE
  • Cheaper 250W SFX PSU ￡13.15 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE
  • (needed for cheaper PSU) SATA to Molex Adapter ￡0.78 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE

￡247.47 (no M.2 NVMe and Cheap PSU)

Note, you need an SSD for TrueNAS OS (USB for UnRAID)
Jonsbo N2 + Intel Core i5 12th Gen + 16GB RAM + 10GbE Build

  • Jonsbo N2 Case ￡74.04 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE
  • SATA 6 Connector ￡4.19 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE
  • 400W SFX PSU ￡24.36 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE
  • B660M ITX Motherboard £235.79 + Intel Core i5 12490F CPU + 16GB RAM – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE
  • ARGB CPU Radiator Fan (LGA1700) ￡13.38 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE
  • (better option for CPU Fan) Noctua NH-L9x65 CPU Cooler £49 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE
  • X540-T2 Intel Chipset PCIe x8 Dual Copper RJ45 10Gbps ￡39.34 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE
  • Tbkoly Controller Card Motherboard Expansion Card 1 To 5 Port SATA £20.45 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE
  • (Optional) 2x M.2 NVMe PCIe 4 X 8 Card GLOTRENDS Dual M.2 PCIe 4.0 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE

Total 390.44 (i5 CPU + 16GB RAM + 2x10GbE + 400W PSU + Case + Cables)
Note, you need an SSD for TrueNAS OS (USB for UnRAID)
Jonsbo N2 + Gen4/5 MoBo + Intel Core i5 12th Gen with Int Gfx + 32GB RAM + 10GbE Build

  • Jonsbo N2 Case ￡74.04 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE
  • SATA 6 Connector ￡4.19 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE
  • 600W SFX PSU ￡43.78 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE
  • Asrock Z690M-ITX/AX gEN 4/5 Motherboard £171.20 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE
  • Intel Core i5-12600K 12th Gen £239 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE
  • Corsair VENGEANCE LPX DDR4 RAM 32GB (2x16GB) £59.99 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE
  • ARGB CPU Radiator Fan (LGA1700) ￡13.38 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE
  • (better option for CPU Fan) Noctua NH-L9x65 CPU Cooler £49 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE
  • X540-T2 Intel Chipset PCIe x8 Dual Copper RJ45 10Gbps ￡39.34 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE
  • Tbkoly Controller Card Motherboard Expansion Card 1 To 5 Port SATA £20.45 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE
  • (Optional) 2x M.2 NVMe PCIe 4 X 8 Card GLOTRENDS Dual M.2 PCIe 4.0 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE

Total £586.63 (Amazon) + ￡123.51 (Aliexpress)
Note, you need an SSD for TrueNAS OS (USB for UnRAID)

What You Need for the Jonsbo N2 NAS Build

Although this guide is designed for the Jonsbo N2 NAS, the range of TopTon NAS motherboard combos is diverse. Some elements of this guide might differ based on the TopTon motherboard you choose. Generally, you’ll need the following items:

  • Jonsbo N2 NAS case – HERE

  • TopTon NAS motherboard (either with memory and SSD included or purchased separately)- Amazon HERE

  • Storage media (HDDs and SSDs)
  • A USB drive (if you’re using UnRAID to run from or TrueNAS to install from) – HERE
  • A 6x SATA multi-lane cable – HERE

  • A minimum of 250-watt SFX PSU – HERE

  • Internal USB pin converter (board dependant)- Example #1 HERE , Example #2 HERE

  • Philips cross-head screwdriver
  • USB keyboard, mouse, and HDMI monitor/capture card
  • Optional – Download Advanced IP Scanner HERE, as it is a really useful tool for analyzing your network and finding your new TrueNAS Core NAS for remote access
  • Optional – A Disk Image to USB conversion too. I recommend ‘Rufus’, currently in ver 3.19 and can be run in a portable .exe form that doesn’t require installation – DOWNLOAD
  • Optional – Download the latest stable release of TrueNAS Core here as a system image (you will be converting this to USB later on) – DOWNLOAD
  • Optional – Download the latest stable release of UnRAID here as a system image (you will be converting this to USB later on) – DOWNLOAD

That’s about it! The only other things you’ll need are time and patience. Avoid rushing the build as you’re working with internal components in a relatively confined space.

Start of the Jonsbo N2 NAS Build Guide

Unpack all components for this build and clear away any unnecessary materials.

Place the Jonsbo N2 NAS case on a table. Use the included small Allen key to remove the top lid from all four corners.

Go to the back of the Jonsbo N2 case and take out the four thumb screws around the fan.

Detach the fan using the small fan connector linked to the internal starter board.

Next, remove the screws securing the plate around the PSU compartment.

Grab the PSU and divide the power connectors into two sets: one set with individual SATA and molex connectors and another set with the thicker connectors.

Feed the SATA and molex cables into the PSU compartment and immediately into the right cavity leading to the SATA backplane where drives connect.

Thread the larger power supply connectors into the back of the PSU compartment, lifting them out through the case’s top.

Now, link the two molex PSU power connectors to the white molex connectors on the backplane behind the primary storage bays.

Affix the previously removed black plate from the Jonsbo case to the back of the PSU and Insert the PSU into its compartment in the Jonsbo case. Ensure the molex connectors remain in place and that the larger power cables are still outside the case.

Fix the plate to the back of the Jonsbo case to secure the PSU.

Connect the multi-lane SATA cable, carefully aligning each numbered cable with the corresponding SATA port on the backplane (next to the molex power ports).

Guide the SATA cable through the cavity above and out of the top of the Jonsbo case. Ensure cables are attached to the right drive numbers and threaded correctly.

Reattach the fan to the rear of the case using its white four-pin connector and secure with the thumb screws.

Unbox the TopTon NAS board, starting with the metal backplane.

Mount the metal backplane in the available rectangular cavity of the Jonsbo case, ensuring readable text faces the right way. The network/ethernet port should be on the right when viewed from the case’s rear.

Carefully place the TopTon motherboard inside the top of the Jonsbo case, aligning connectors with the gaps in the backplane. If done right, the motherboard’s corner screws will align with the N2 case screw holes.

With all cables hanging outside, fasten the four corners of the TopTon motherboard to the Jonsbo N2 case.

Right now, it should look like this (ignore the disconnected white 4 pin PSU connector, needed to disconnect briefly to take this photo):

Connect each SATA connector from the multi-lane cable to its corresponding numbered SATA slot on the motherboard’s top right.

Plug the 20-pin PSU cable into the motherboard’s corresponding slot.

Connect the PSU’s four-pin port to the motherboard’s power port. If your PSU has a combined eight-pin plug, it might split into two four-pin groups. Ensure you select the right connectors and slots for this.

If you bought memory separately, install it in the available slot now.

The same goes for if you have purchased a CPU fan separately + connect with the CPU fan power plug (white, next to the CPU socket)

Some TopTon motherboards have varying front panel, USB pins, and LED pins.

If yours doesn’t have the right USB pins for both USB type-A and type-C front panels, you’ll need specific adapters to connect them.

For front panel LEDs and the power button, consult your motherboard manual to identify the right pins.

Note that the Jonsbo case doesn’t have a reset button, so you won’t find a corresponding pin.

Before sealing the Jonsbo case, briefly test the PSU’s power delivery via the main port. Ensure the power button illuminates when pressed. When you plug in the PSU with a mains cable, a brief crackling sound indicates live power, and the PSU is responsive. If power flows and the power button is on, the CPU fan and/or rear fan should activate.

If you’re installing an M.2 NVME SSD, do so now. Afterwards, seal the top of the case using the four screws and Allen key.

Prepare your storage media for installation. Unlike many cases, the Jonsbo N2 doesn’t have individual hard drive trays. Instead, it uses a combination of screwed guide plugs and silicone handles.

Attach the handles by screwing them into each hard drive’s base. Traditionally, the drive face is opposite the SATA connector.

Insert four rubber thumb screws into each drive’s available screw holes. Screw each plug just enough to close its small gap. Over-tightening can misalign the drive inside the chassis.

Repeat for each drive you’re installing.

Guide each drive into the Jonsbo’s slot, ensuring the SATA connector is at the bottom. This positioning ensures the drive’s SATA connector meets the NAS board’s connector.

Reattach the front panel. If it doesn’t align with the rest of the N2 chassis, the drives might not be fully connected.

Your system is now boot-ready. From here, you must decide on the NAS server software for your Jonsbo N2.

UnRAID Installation on the Jonsbo N2 NAS Build Setup Walkthrough (Optional)

If you’ve chosen UnRAID as your desired software for the Jonsbo N2 NAS, the following steps will help you get started:

UnRAID on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 1, Get the Latest Stable Release of UnRAID

Head to the UnRAID website HERE and download the latest stable release of the software to your local PC, Linux or Mac system. Make sure to remember where you downloaded it. You CAN recommend the USB creator tool and that can allow you to create a system image of the UnRAID loader, but some users have highlighted that compatibility issues with some USB sticks and capacities have been highlighted. So, that is why I recommend scrolling down and downloaded the latest stable release of UnRAID to your local PC/Mac system.

UnRAID on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 2, Preparing the USB

Connect the small form factor USB Drive to your system (again, this is the one I used from Sandisk) and after a few seconds, it should appear as an available USB Drive. The drive MAY need formatting (you will be prompted to do so), if that is the case, then you can format it via the system prompts and by default, it will format it to FAT32 (as long as your USB is less than 32GB). If you are not presented with a system prompt to format your USB, then you can head into My PC, or My Computer via a windows computer and right-click the drive, select ‘format’ and format it that way. IMPORTANT – Make sure in the ‘volume label’ or Drive Label field, you call the drive UNRAID (all in caps and no spacing)

If you have used the USB for other things previously, there is a chance that the drive has existing partitions in place. For that, the quickest way to completely remove any partitions is to open up the bottom-left windows system menu as normal, and then just type diskpart and open the command-line GUI tool. From there, use the command list disk to show the available drives that are connected, you will see your USB (normally disk 1 or 2, but can differ depending on your system layout and can be spotted by the storage amount). From there, type select disk # (where # is the drive number that your USB is shown as) and then type clean, which will then remove any index structure for the drive (i.e the partitions and existing format) and then you can go back to the My Computer/My PC page and format the drive to FAT 32 as normal.

UnRAID on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 4, Creating a USB Loader Image of UnRAID

Now that your USB has been prepared for the UnRAID USB setup, the next thing you need to do is move the appropriate installation files over to it. Find the .zip UnRAID Server installation you downloaded earlier on your PC/Mac system.

Then use the 1st party extractor tool or 3rd party tools such as WinRAR, then extract the contents of the downloaded .zip to the UNRAID USB drive (DO NOT CREATE ANY ADDITIONAL FOLDER STRUCTURE)!

REMEMBER! This will completely format your USB drive and any files that are on that USB will be destroyed. The process upto this point will have turned the USB into a pure boot image tool – the USB will not be usable for traditional storage again unless you completely format it again.

Now that you have the files extracted onto the UNRAID USB drive, you need to go into the folder structure and right-click the .bat file ‘make_bootable’, then select ‘run as Administrator’. This will open a new cmd window.

In this new CMD window, you simply need to press any button and the bootable batch file will do it’s thing in less than a second. Press any button again to exit the CMD window. Next, we need to amend a folder to ensure the drive is picked up as a bootable drive in the Jonsbo N2 mobo.

File the folder labelled ‘EFI-‘ and then rename it ‘EFI’. That’s all, there is nothing else left to change.

You can now safely remove the USB using the contextual system options on Windows/Mac systems and then prepare to install the USB inside the Jonsbo N2 NAS.

UnRAID on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 7, Connecting the USB, Keyboard and HDMI Monitor

Next, we need to connect the external means to install UnRAID on the Jonsbo N2 NAS. Unlike when you set up your Jonsbo N2 NAS for the first time, UnRAID cannot typically be installed via the network. UnRAID requires you to use a KVM (keyboard, Video Mouse – though you won’t need a mouse!) and go through the installation using a low-res graphical user interface. Now you will ONLY need this setup/items for the installation and initialization of your UnRAID server and after that, you will be able to use the server over the network/internet as normal. You are going to need a basic USB Keyboard (not a Bluetooth or wireless one, as these may need drivers to run and you cannot install drivers at this point) and an HDMI Monitor/TV. You CAN use a mouse, but it is not hugely necessary and 99% of the choices in the setup of UnRAID can/will be via keyboard input. Also, I would also recommend connecting the NAS to the network during setup as this will allow the system to assume certain network values during setup that will save a tonne of time later. Once that is all connected, do NOT turn the NAS on yet – there is one small and slightly time-sensitive thing to do.

 

UnRAID on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 8, Accessing the BIOS Menu of your Jonsbo N2 Motherboard

Now that your Jonsbo N2 NAS is all connected and you are ready at your keyboard/Monitor, turn the NAS on and wait till you hear a beep (should take between 5-15secs depending on the Jonsbo N2 NAS). As soon as your hear that noise (and likely see a flashing character or underscore on the monitor screen), you need to continuously hit the ESC / F12 / F2 and/or DEL keys (not at the same time, just back and forth). One of these will result in the system displaying the blue BIOS menu (it changes between motherboards and Jonsbo N2 uses a mixture of mobos in their Intel and AMD-powered systems). You need to be quick, as you only have about 3 seconds to do this before the Jonsbo N2 will automatically boot from the small internal 4GB/5GB flash OS module that boots into Jonsbo N2 .

UnRAID on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 9, Booting from the New UnRAID Installer USB

When you are in the bios menu, tap right until you reach the ‘Boot’ menu. From here, you need to change the boot priority order and ensure that the USB Drive is in Boot Priority #1. This is because UnRAID loads and runs from the USB drive. Normally, the Jonsbo N2 NAS will boot from the internal  SSD that contains the Jonsbo N2  OS by default (differs, depending on the board you bought from Topton, whether it inc an SSD and a pre-installed OS like pfsense, etc). When you are done, head into the ‘Exit’ tab using right and select save and exit. This should result in the system rebooting and you will be greeted with the UnRAID initialization page.

 

UnRAID on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 7, Accessing the HDMI Port and Keyboard Control

Next, you need to start getting the system ready for Initialization and Setup. I would strongly recommend running the first-time installation via a direct interface with the Jonsbo N2 NAS over KVM locally connected. You will need to connect an HDMI Monitor/TV/Capture Card to the HDMI port of the NAS, a Keyboard (and/or mouse) to an available USB port) and then connect the power/network connections to the NAS and boot the device up.

After this method of connection (as it allows you to check everything is working), you can switch back to accessing the system over the network in future.

You have two options with how to access the configuration and controls.

You can use the HDMI+Keyboard if you choose for console/command level access. Alternatively (much more recommended), use a program such as Advanced IP Scanner, which is free and VERY useful anyway, or even network command prompt) to scan your local area network and find where the Jonsbo N2 with UnRAID is located (i.e it’s IP).

This IP (eg 192.168.1.113) is what you put into the URL bar of your web browser and it will load into the login GUI for UnRAID. From here you will need to use the username ‘root’ in combination with the password that you created during initialization.

And that is about it. You now have UnRAID installed as the default OS of your Jonsbo N2 NAS. Now, it is worth remembering that UnRAID does require the use of a licence key in order to use all of the storage features. The type of licence you will need will be largely based on the scale of your storage (in terms of # of drives). However, you CAN go ahead and register for a free 30 day trial of UnRAID from within the GUI and get started.

From here you can do anything and everything that his highly regarded and exceptionally low resource-consuming server software offers. Head into the Storage area and start creating pools, as well as areas for caching and lots more features.

UnRAID was recently updated to ver.6.10.3 in a stable release of the massively portable format The first thing you are going to need to do when setting up your UnRAID > Jonsbo N2 NAS server is set up your storage. Do this by heading into the storage tab and following the handy steps on the screen. After that, you can pretty much do anything on your new lightweight NAS server!

TrueNAS Installation on the Jonsbo N2 NAS Build Setup Walkthrough (Optional)

For those leaning towards TrueNAS on the Jonsbo N2 NAS, keep in mind that TrueNAS requires more hardware resources. Thus, you might need to upgrade your CPU and memory. Follow these steps for the installation:

Head to the TrueNAS Core website HERE and download the latest stable release of the software to your local PC, Linux or Mac system. Make sure to remember where you downloaded it.

TrueNAS Core on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 2, Download Rufus USB Image Tool

Head to the Rufus website and download the latest version of that tool – I recommend downloading the standalone executable file here, as then it will immediately run when you double-click the file, without installation etc. It may redirect you to Github, but it will be the same executable file. Once again, remember where you downloaded it.

TrueNAS Core on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 3, Preparing the USB

Connect the small form factor USB Drive to your system (again, this is the one I used from Sandisk) and after a few seconds, it should appear as an available USB Drive. The drive MAY need formatting (you will be prompted to do so), if that is the case, then you can format it via the system prompts and by default, it will format it to FAT32 (as long as your USB is less than 32GB). If you are not presented with a system prompt to format your USB, then you can head into My PC, or My Computer via a windows computer and right-click the drive, select ‘format’ and format it that way.

If you have used the USB for other things previously, there is a chance that the drive has existing partitions in place. For that, the quickest way to completely remove any partitions is to open up the bottom-left windows system menu as normal, and then just type diskpart and open the command-line GUI tool. From there, use the command list disk to show the available drives that are connected, you will see your USB (normally disk 1 or 2, but can differ depending on your system layout and can be spotted by the storage amount). From there, type select disk # (where # is the drive number that your USB is shown as) and then type clean, which will then remove any index structure for the drive (i.e the partitions and existing format) and then you can go back to the My Computer/My PC page and format the drive to FAT 32 as normal.

TrueNAS Core on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 4, Creating a USB Installer Image of TrueNAS Core

Open the Rufus application and from there you will see the USB Drive (listed as NO NAME, or ‘UNTITLED’, ETC) at the top. From there, look to the select image/find image option (depending on the ver. of Rufus or your USB Image Creator tool of choice) and find the TrueNAS Core disk image you downloaded earlier). If the drive is not listed, it may have downloaded as a compressed/archive file. If that is the case, head to the location of where you downloaded TrueNAS Core (in your file explorer, not in Rufus) and right-click the file you downloaded. If the option to ‘extract‘ is visible, then you can extract it (i.e unpack it to the original form) in that same download directory. From there, head back into RUFUS and then the TrueNAS Core system image should be visible. Select it, then run the Rufus System image creator tool and create your USB bootable TrueNAS Core disk image.

REMEMBER! This will completely format your USB drive and any files that are on that USB will be destroyed. The system image creator tool will turn the USB into a pure boot image tool – the USB will not be usable for traditional storage again unless you completely format it again.

TrueNAS Core on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 5, REMOVE THE USB FROM YOUR PC!!!!!!!!!

Really, really important and sometimes overlooked. Once the USB creation is completed, you need to remove the USB (using the eject hardware safely option at the bottom right of your windows machine taskbar as normal). DO NOT accidentally leave the USB in your USB Ports for any longer than necessary. If you leave it in and your system reboots at any point (eg in a normal ‘end of day shut down, go home, reboot tomorrow’ scenario), then the system might boot directly into the TrueNAS Core installation and although it is easy to exit from, it can change your system default boot preferences, maybe even remove your primary boot drive as the OS drive – requiring a little messing with a windows installation disk to change it back. The odds of this are very small, but not zero, so make sure to safely remove your USB drive when the TrueNAS Core system image creator tool is completed.

TrueNAS Core on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 6, (OPTIONAL) – Install an NVMe SSD

This is an optional step, but one I would certainly recommend for newer-generation Jonsbo N2 NAS devices. TrueNAS is a lot like a traditional computer operating system (eg Windows or macOS) in it’s architecture and will run at its best when the necessary boot files are located on a seperate, smaller and faster area of SSD/flash storage away from the general bulk storage. So, if possible/available in your Jonsbo N2 NAS, I would recommend installing a smaller m.2 NVMe SSD drive and then using that as the target/location for your TrueNAS Core installation. This is not compulsory and you can also use a single HDD or SSD in one of the main storage bays of your Jonsbo N2 , however, it means that this drive will unusable for general storage (i.e in any RAID configuration or storage pool). This CAN be negated with some creative portion creation, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Additionally, do NOT try to install TrueNAS Core on another USB drive that is connected to the system – this isn’t particularly stable and tends to result in a poorer TrueNAS Core experience. M.2 NVMe bays and their location in the Jonsbo N2 NAS changes depending on the system. Reminder – TrueNAS is NOT a big program and you can use an SSD as small as 32GB and still have a tonne of provision for future storage space. However, M.2 NVMe SSDs are not available in smaller sizes than 120GB. Lower size than this and you will generally only find 2240 SSDs and/or SATA M.2 SSDs. These are still perfectly fine to use, but the performance difference between SATA and NVMe (PCIe) is HUGE! You can find many SSD options here on amazon for as little as $30  – Find Low Capacitiy and Low Price M.2 NVMe SSDs HERE on Amazon (already filtered the results)

NOTE – If you plan on upgrading the memory of your NAS to 4GB-8GB-16GB or higher (in order to use ALL of the features of TrueNAS Core to their fullest extent), I would recommend doing so at this point before rebuilding the physical chassis again, as many Jonsbo N2 NAS have the 2nd SODIMM memory slot in really tight locations.

TrueNAS Core on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 7, Connecting the USB, Keyboard and HDMI Monitor

Next, we need to connect the external means to install TrueNAS Core on the Jonsbo N2 NAS. Unlike when you set up your Jonsbo N2 NAS for the first time, TrueNAS cannot typically be installed via the network like QTS/DSM/etc. TrueNAS requires you to use a KVM (keyboard, Video Mouse – though you won’t need a mouse!) and go through the installation using a low-res graphical user interface. Now you will ONLY need this setup/items for the installation and initialization of your TrueNAS Core server and after that, you will be able to use the server over the network/internet as normal. You are going to need a basic USB Keyboard (not a Bluetooth or wireless one, as these may need drivers to run and you cannot install drivers at this point) and an HDMI Monitor/TV. You CAN use a mouse, but it is not hugely necessary and 99% of the choices in the setup of TrueNAS core can/will be via keyboard input. Also, I would also recommend connecting the NAS to the network during setup as this will allow the system to assume certain network values during setup that will save a tonne of time later. Once that is all connected, do NOT turn the NAS on yet – there is one small and slightly time-sensitive thing to do.

TrueNAS Core on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 8, Accessing the BIOS Menu of your Jonsbo N2 NAS

Now that your Jonsbo N2 NAS is all connected and you are ready at your keyboard/Monitor, turn the NAS on and wait till you hear a beep (should take between 5-15secs depending on the Jonsbo N2 NAS). As soon as your hear that noise (and likely see a flashing character or underscore on the monitor screen), you need to continuously hit the F12 and/or DEL keys (not at the same time, just back and forth). One of these will result in the system displaying the blue BIOS menu (it changes between motherboards and Jonsbo N2 supports a mixture of mobos in their Intel and AMD-powered systems). You need to be quick, as you only have about 3 seconds to do this.

TrueNAS Core on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 9, Booting from the New TrueNAS Installer USB

Next, you need to tap ‘RIGHT‘ on the keyboard and head to the ‘Save & Exit’ option. At the bottom, you should see, under the ‘boot override‘ option, your USB Drive. Tap ‘DOWN‘ until you are highlighting the USB and then tap ‘Enter‘ or ‘Return‘ on your keyboard, as this will push the Jonsbo N2 to boot from that USB and begin the TrueNAS Core installation. Later on I will show you how to force the system to ALWAYS boot into TrueNAS Core, but for now, we just need it to read from this USB this one time.

TrueNAS Core on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 10, Rebooting and Starting the TrueNAS Installer

This next step is a bit of a quick one. Around 5-15 seconds after you selected the USB Drive in BIOS, the screen will display the TrueNAS Installer option page. Tap ‘Enter’ as soon as you see it, as the page is on a countdown and when it reaches zero it will (possibly, depending on the version) reboot and then you will have to repeat the last few steps again!), So, in order to avoid this, tap ‘ENTER‘ as soon as this page appears.

After a few minutes, the TrueNAS Core GUI/Command will appear on your monitor and all you need to do is navigate the config choices to set up your TrueNAS Core NAS the first time.

Important – TrueNAS Core runs at its best when it is run on a separate drive from your storage. Much like an Operating System, you can install TrueNAS Core on an available SSD in a SATA or NVMe SSD slot in the Jonsbo N2 NAS, then (after initialization) you can go into the TrueNAS Core > Storage area and create a pool of storage using the available storage media bays,

It is NOT recommended that you install it on a USB drive, for reasons of speed and power-connections.

After you have completed the setup and are back at the initial TrueNAS Core boot menu, select the ‘SHUTDOWN‘ option (not reboot/restart, for reasons I will explain in a moment).

TrueNAS Core on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 8, Remove the Boot USB Drive AND CHANGE BIOS!!!

Once your Jonsbo N2 NAS has fully powered down, you need to disconnect the USB drive you installed earlier with TrueNAS Core boot loader on it. You need to do this otherwise, when you reboot the Jonsbo N2 NAS, it can potentially reboot into the bootloader again. You can skip past this and/or it will not action a reinitialization without your input, but better to remove the USB and therefore allow the system to always immediately boot into the TrueNAS Core system you just created.

Next, you need to head back into the BIOS from earlier. Keep the Keyboard and HDMI Monitor connected and use the same method you used earlier during the initial boot of the Jonsbo N2 (pressing F12 and/or Delete repeatedly when you hear the first Jonsbo N2 beep after about 10-15 secs) and as soon as you are greeted with the familiar blue BIOS screen. From here, tap right a few times to highlight the ‘Boot’ option and change the option for Boot Priority #1. The default is Jonsbo N2 OS, you need to change it to the drive you installed TrueNAS on (whether that is a SATA/NVMe SSD or one of the main storage bays).

This will change the boot order to allow the system when it is first powered on to always boot into TrueNAS. After this, you can click right again in the BIOS menu to select the option to Save and restart. The system will then boot into the TrueNAS initialization (first time setup).

TrueNAS Core on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 9, Reboot the NAS

Upon rebooting the Jonsbo N2 into TrueNAS Core (can take up to 5 mins, but usually much quicker). You have two options with how to access the configuration and controls. You can use the HDMI+Keyboard if you choose for console/command level access. Alternatively (much more recommended), use a program such as Advanced IP Scanner, which is free and VERY useful anyway, or even network command prompt) to scan your local area network and find where the Jonsbo N2 with TrueNAS Core is located (i.e it’s IP). This IP (eg 192.168.1.111) is what you put into the URL bar ofay web browser and it will load into the login GUI for TrueNAS Core. From here you will need to use the username ‘root’ in combination with the password that you created during initialization.

And that is about it. You now have TrueNAS Core installed as the default OS of your Jonsbo N2 NAS. From here you can do anything and everything that his highly regarded ZFS powered server software offers. Head into the Storage area and start creating pools, as well as areas for caching and lots more features.

TrueNAS was recently updated to ver.13 in a stable release of the FreeBSD format, as well as new improvements in the Linux-based version ‘TrueNAS Scale’. The first thing you are going to need to do when setting up your TrueNAS Core > Jonsbo N2 NAS server is set up your storage. Do this by heading into the storage tab and following the handy steps on screen. After that, you can pretty much do anything on your new ZFS NAS!

You can find out more about TrueNAS in my full review below that covers everything I like and dislike about the platform:

Jonsbo NAS DIY Vs Synology and QNAP? Better or Worse?

The perennial question for many tech enthusiasts: how does a custom-built NAS stack up against pre-packaged solutions like Synology and QNAP? The decision largely boils down to convenience vs. cost. For individuals who prioritize convenience and have a bit more to spend, a pre-assembled NAS from brands like Synology and QNAP offers an attractive package. With everything set up out of the box, from hardware to software, and a unified warranty, it’s a hassle-free solution. On the other hand, for those with a tighter budget, technical knowledge, and time on their hands, a DIY NAS like the Jonsbo N2 offers an economical alternative. The detailed Jonsbo N2 build listed in the guide above provides a 5-6 bay NAS system with an Intel Celeron processor popular in the server market, 4GB of DDR4 memory, 4x 2.5 G LAN ports, M.2 NVME support, an unused PCIE slot for 10GbE additions, and KVM capabilities. Factoring in all components, delivery, and a lifetime UnRAID license, the entire build costs roughly £350. Here’s a price breakdown:

Hardware:

  • Topton N5105 NAS Motherboard – £149.37 (with 4GB Memory + 120GB NVMe Included – £127.72 Bare)
  • Jonsbo N2 5/6 Bay NAS Case – £74.60
  • SATA 6 Cable Fan/Multi-Cable – £11.59
  • SFX 250W PSU – £25

Total = £260.56 with 4GB Memory + 120GB SSD (£238.91 without SSD/Memory)

Additional (i.e. optional/flexible):

  • + $59-89 for UnRAID Basic/Plus License HERE
  • + $0 for TrueNAS Core/Scale
  • + $7 for a 32GB USB
  • +£29.40 Delivery to UK

For comparison, acquiring a similar level of hardware from brands like Synology, QNAP, Terramaster, and Asustor will set you back between £600 to £800:

Clearly, the Jonsbo N2 build offers a significant cost-saving, coming in at over half the price of its branded counterparts. But this economical choice does come with trade-offs. You might end up relying on community-supported software, which could be less intuitive than proprietary software bundled with turnkey NAS solutions. Moreover, the time and effort invested in building and maintaining the NAS need to be factored in. Even with a clear guide, the DIY route will never be as plug-and-play as a pre-built solution.

 

Additionally, a custom-built NAS like the Jonsbo N2 typically involves dealing with warranties from various vendors. This means your components like the CPU, motherboard, case, PSU, and cables may all come with different warranty terms and lengths. Compatibility checks, troubleshooting, and potentially more maintenance time are other considerations. In conclusion, while building your own NAS can be both financially and personally rewarding, it does lack the comprehensive support and seamless experience associated with turnkey solutions from brands like Synology and QNAP.

 

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      343 thoughts on “Jonsbo N2 NAS Build with TopTon Board Build (Complete Guide) – UnRAID/TrueNAS”

      3. 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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      4. Loved your vid, TrueNAS is a bit sketchy to first setup but does it job after a while of tinkering. The 6 port sata controller based on the ASMedia 1166 chipset is the way to go? Works great with TN instead of the JMB585… Don’t cheap out on that one. I used a PCI x4 card, neater and cleaner with cables. And btw, for the money and quality of parts stop using the Ali bords and just buy an Asus N100 or something… Good bios, great hardware and you can support local or national companies
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      11. 6:20 You have seen nothing. I once received a server power cable packed in a box which was larger then the case box on your desk. Bit shorter but much wider. It was also packed in all kinds of bubble wrap. A fricking standard power cable! ????
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      18. So you get the unraid license for free? So your nas cost hundred bucks more. And it is an Motherboard and a io shield.

        And proxmox is a hypervisor and has absolutely nothing to do with network attached storage.
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      29. Thank you. I’d love to see the next steps: actually connecting the box to the internet and your in-house network and configuring the system to function as intended. Good job!
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      32. Helpful hints:
        1) first boot the motherboard outside of the case. If it is dead you don’t want to be wasting time installing it and routing cables
        2) never use a cheap USB drive. Use a Samsung Fit or Bar USB Drive. You can do a search for the guy who tested them out and they beat out the rest. I am not sure but I think you can clone the USB. If so get two so when the first one dies you are not scambling looking for configurations.
        3) update the BIOS. If the board dies it can be RMA’ed.
        4) Use the Preclear tool in Unraid on the hard drives before using them. Side note, if you want a really nice NAS case SuperMirco offers a 4 bay one. It is not cheap but it will last and also keep your drives cool. best of luck.
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      33. back when i build my nas , i buy a full atx lga 1150 with 2pcie 16x 2pci 6 drives 4dim , for 70eu , and got a celeron for 40 that i later upgrade with i5 , got a 10gb nic , and still got a free pcie for gpu or extra storage , and house everthing in old style case that had 8 drive slot , and 4dvd slots , yes is bit bigger and you may need more time to swap a drive , but is much more powerful and upgradable ,
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      35. It’s really crazy how budget you can go! ATM I’m looking at a total budget of 200usd for a NAS with 16TBs of storage in a raid 6 config no idea how I did it but it’s an amazing thing crazy utility.
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      37. Have no idea what is going on those permissions.
        However.. on my xcp-ng server all i needed to do was to pass through an lsi controller and plug in a disk and by magic it picked it up immediately. Dropped in 5 more driver and a few seconds later i has a zfs pool.. v cool
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      38. you deserve a like and sub
        give this man a like
        ????????????????????????????????????????????
        it’s rare to find legend people nowadays
        Thanks man that was super helpful
        ❤
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      40. Wow. another great video. Thanks so much for all the excellent content. I’ve been gearing up to replace my old Dell PowerEdge r510 12-HDD server. It’s such a noise generator and power hog. I wonder if you could maybe do a video that focuses on daisy-chaining servers for more space. I don’t want to manage multiple Unraid instances. What I’d like to do is set up one server and then attach multiple SANs as my library grows.
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      41. Thaks a lot for this! It made building my N2 NAS a breeze. Different motherboard, different power supply, but this video is an excellent resource in any case.
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      44. Great experiments! May I ask What’s the power consumption of this DIY NAS? Also if we don’t mind put the power block into the case, can I use my old pc regular power block to power up this DIY NAS? Many thanks!
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      46. In the days of lore, way back, when Drobo first appeared and later all the little NAS boxen were born; I decided that they were too expensive and way under-powered. Then I found a way to build my own home lab NAS, one where I could host containers as well as serve shares, etc. This predates Unraid and TrueNAS. Many pros were building rackmount 4U servers but then came along some very well suited m-ITX server boards. Supermicro, Asrock, Gigabyte, etc. The first build utilized Joyent’s fork of OpenSolaris and their base image called SmartOS, providing ZFS, Zones, networking, etc. in a private cloud. Then Linux became capable of the same (Joyent was bought by Samsung and development slowed). I switched to Ubuntu Server with LXD to manage native containers and VM’s and Microk8s for Kubernetes. I was even able to import my zpool. But now I am thinking I may switch to TrueNAS Scale and build a 3rd generation NAS with a Jonsbo NAS case. Newer m-ITX boards have come a long way. The advent of those M.2 PCIe SATA adapters, will free up the 16x PCIe slot allowing for dual 10GbE network card. Ultimately, home builds can be built for less but if you put a bit more power into the build, you get a lot more out of it. However, you will end up being more expensive but your NAS will be more of a home lab server.
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      50. I have the same NAS case, and I’m curious about your hard drives’ behavior. Mine are always active and noisy, even when not in use. Do you experience the same issue with your setup?
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      52. Would you make an episode about what’s better? UnRAID or TrueNAS? What gives more possibilities? What is updated more often? And what, in general, will be a better solution?
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      55. Thanks for the great info. 
        I have just built my home made NAS based on this tutorial with Unraid and it is spinning away happily on my table.
        I deviated slightly by going with the Node 304 case which I purchased locally from eBuyer for £74 delivered and the same board with 4 GB memory and the 128 GB NVME from Amazon for £151. With the saving I also added a 10 Gbe PCI card from Ali Express for £71 and a Hisource 4 port 2.5 Gbe + 2 10 Gbe uplink ports for for £29 from Ali Express
        I have to admit that getting the 10 Gbe link working with Unraid (!***!) was a bit stressful, but everything now works as it should.
        Onwards and upwards and thanks again.
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      59. Thank you so much for this detailed video. I used it for my own Jonsbo N2 build and it was so helpful with the step-by-step instructions and guidance on the gotchas. It saved me so much time to pre-plan. Excellent video!
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      63. Hey, as this vid is 4 months old, I just wanted to ask if the mobo is holding out good? I’ve been considering it myself, just wondering if theres anything you found out later that someone looking to buy one may want to know before making a decision. Cheers for the good vid ????
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      67. HI, Great vid! I must have watched this a few times now, and am currently building my own. Currently unable to track down the pdf for the header pin layout. Did you ever add the link in for that?
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      75. This video is really well done. I have been trying to give an answer to this question for four years now. The problem is summarized at the end of the video. My time costs much more than what I save by building it myself “from scratch”. But on the other hand I am too stingy , and I like to build things myself. Frustration.
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      79. The price of the shipping from Aliexpress not only varies, but can make or break your budget so it should definitely not be left out. For example here are the prices as of Nov 2023:
        Jonsbo N2 (Aliexpress): $93 + $97 shipping to the US = $190
        Jonsbo N2 (Amazon): $150
        Jonsbo N2 (Newegg): $140

        Jonsbo N3 (Aliexpress): $117 + $99 shipping = $216
        Jonsbo N3 (Amazon): $170
        Jonsbo N3 (Newegg): $162

        As you can see, if you are in the US it’s a no-brainer to buy the case from Amazon/Newegg as Aliexpress offers an inferior shipping experience.
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      87. Just a couple notes on this as I have the same case. First if you did NOT use the angled sata cables on the backplane they won’t warranty the case. Second I found a flat dual molex adapter that saved me even more room. Between the angled sata cables (same slim blue your using with 90 degree one end), and the molex adapter I was able to replace that loud inefficient 15mm fan with the standard 25mm one. Also replaced those grates on both side with basic wire grills. Both those things got me better air flow as well as less noise.
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      90. i’m a bit disappointed, your title said you were gonna build a NAS, but you just assembled a NAS :/ (i was expecting electronic component tinkering, not computer parts tinkering…)
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      91. I have just built a TopTon board (Same version) with a Jonsbo case. One note is you can actually fit that board out with 64Gb Mem so Truenas has plenty of spare capacity. I also spec’d out a lot better power supply just for the peace of mind. Wish you had done this review earlier as I would have gone with the case you had.
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      97. I’m a little confused… Did you show the correct extra parts (Re: video ~35:00)? Of the four parts shown, it seems that I would need (1) of the parts shown (top & bottom right side parts), but nothing from the left top/bottom parts. Additionally, if I select either top or bottom right side parts then I now have (2) 20-pin connectors (one from the front panel USB and one from the adapter (top/bottom right side parts)) which now need to go to a 20-pin + 20-pin splitter (not shown on your display of parts). Unfortunately, my Topton MoBo has not arrived yet so I can’t reference what is there in order to understand what’s what with all the parts you showed. Can you provide any more clarity to this? Thank you so much and thanks, again, for making this very informative video!!!!
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      98. Investing that much time and effort probably isn’t worth it unless you have time to waste or very specific possibly high-end applications.
        Also, you may want to got get a more current ITX board + CPU for more performance and RAM in this case.
        Honestly for a simple setup like that it probably is better connecting something like a TerraMaster D5-300C or ORICO-NS500RC3 to a Raspberry Pi.
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      99. I dont think you save so much time going turn key as you have to learn the software. Easiest is take an old machine, install Nas software learn how it fits in your life. Then upgrade hardware later. As a person whos built many computers, the hardware part wasnt the issue. Learning the Truenas/Proxmox/Unraid interface probably didnt take longer than the Synology interface. Now I have a machine which can grow cheaply if needed.
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      100. Those front USB connectors are standard, USB3 and USB3.1 for the Type A and Type C connector respectively, and are found on most modern motherboards. That Topton board is made as cheaply as possible, so it only has basic USB2 connectors, which is why they wouldn’t fit.
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      102. Totally a great replacement for another orange channel. You explain everything that you had to go through and other options to tackle those issues. Great vid! It s subscribe for me bud!
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      107. according to Topton, the pin headers on their motherboards (N5xxx and N6xxx) is only USB 2.0, were you able to confirm/deny it? The blue ports on the mobo however are indeed 3.x
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      112. your antiquated selection is crap in 2023.
        Fractal Design Node 804 – Black
        MSI PRO B550M-VC WiFi ProSeries Motherboard
        Ryzen 7 5700G 8-core, 16-Thread Processor
        Thermalright AXP120-X67 WHITE ARGB Low Profile CPU Air Cooler
        Corsair VENGEANCE LPX DDR4 RAM 32GB (2x16GB) 3200MHz
        WD_BLUE SN570 1TB M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3
        IBM M5015 Array Card, Megaraid 9260-8i SATA/SAS Controller RAID 6G PCI-E x8
        INTEL Original X540-T2 Ethernet Converged Network Adaptor X540T2BLK
        8×3.5 drives, + 8x 2.5 drives & small cage
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      113. Congratulations on the 100K it is quite an accomplishment. Brilliant video. Fantastic presentation. I have a big unraid system featuring a Xeon E3 with 16 bays. but I do EVERTHIING on this. I have never regretted building my own NAS.
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      122. Beautiful build, nicely done, and I love the “on the cheap” side of things (so much, must be the Scottish in me ????) Makes me want to do this rather than get another Synology. I have the skills, but Synology just made things so “easy” that I got lazy. Thanks for the video and congrats on 100K! Here’s to the next 900K ????
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      133. I built one from used parts on eBay, for the magic price of about £187, 10 SAS 2tb drives i picked up for 80 quid, Dell H200 perc 24 quid( needed firmware changing to LSI SAS 9210-8i ), the motherboard (FM2 with 8gb of DDR 3 and 500w PSU) came to together from what someone was tipping, 64gb SSD OS disk i picked up for around 7 quid, eBay again, the only build that was new was the Mini SAS 36Pin SFF-8088 to 4 x 29Pin SFF-8482 SATA Power Cable 0.5m 20 quid, 2 x Molex to 4 SATA power cable 10 quid and a new ATX case from Amazon for around 30 quid, i manage to pick up 6 BEQUIET 120mm fans for 16 quid, i used TrueNas 12 at the time, now been updated to version13, it runs as my SMB and plex server, its on a 1Gb Lan of which i can use nearly all of the bandwidth maintaining 110MB all the time download(single user at a time), at the end of the day, i really enjoyed building it, it was fun, Im planning on building more, good stuff
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      136. I can afford to buy a branded NAS, but I prefer to go through similar to what you see in this video, not because I want to appear tech savvy, but because of the drinking involved during and after the build. I especially relish the heavy drinking involved when it fails and I have no one to blame but myself. Cheers!
        ????????
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      141. I got the same mobo (justo with the intel N6005)… there’s an internal USB port… just sayin its safer tu put the usb in ther so no one “accidentally ” pulls it out… huge mistake I made with going with a pico PSU… changed it to a 400w… no working fine… thank you for your videos! ther really helped deciding what to get!… went also with unraid
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      142. “Best Jonsbo N2 Build for Under/Around £250”
        You need a maths lesson, parts included in this comes to around £300 not £250 (based on your pricing shown)
        Also pricing is a lot higher than you stated form the sources you stated, and you use both £ and $ which is confusing /constructive criticism use one or the other
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      143. 49:16 Well I personally usually chek that 127 other things in the BIOS to make sure I don’t have to reinstall the whole system just because I changed something like SecureBoot only after I installed the OS. 🙂
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      145. Hey – nice job here. There is also the value of the learning that is in depth – you can also upgrade individual components to go with as you need. The cost of upgrading a turn key is quite a bit larger – you have about the same 2x factor I think. Interesting – worth the hour invested to watch here!
        And congratulations!
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      147. I just built one for my friend, N6005 + 16 RAM + H6 case + 1 TB NVME SSD + 250W PSU + Unraid Plus, and spent nearly £330.

        Of course, I was building this while in China, so the shipping cost is way lower, but spent another £25 mailing it to UK.
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      148. Hey, I’ve been looking for an alternative to my NAS as mine is currently my old gamingpc, which is complete overkill and higher than ideal power consumption.

        Can I as, why this wouldn’t be good to use with TrueNAS at it seemingly fits their hardware requirements.

        I’m a bit new to all this, so please excuse me if this is a dumb question.
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      151. I *loved* this build video. So much detail, great explanation, and it is clearly a done with love for this topic. I’d be interested in a similar build video if you can find a low-cost build with drive trays rather than those off rubber-pull attachments.
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      154. It’s not just about the time spent. It’s about how much your data is worth. If you’re not thinking about things like patrol reads and notifications on disk failures. Rebuild processes for the array. Those types of things… you can end up with bit rot or data loss when not noticing hardware failures.
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      155. It’s so weird to me that JONSBO is a brand of NAS now, when fifteen years ago JONSBO was a line of table lamps at IKEA. (Rather nice ones, too!)

        (Unlike a lot of other IKEA product names, JONSBO does not appear to be a Swedish placename, but there was a 20th Century Norwegian artist named Kåre Mikkelsen Jonsborg so maybe that’s the etymology idk)
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      159. Pretty Nice Video of this build! But the most important question i have is how high is the power consumption ? Is it the same like the Qnap / Synology or is the power consumption much higher because Qnap / Synology did some optimization of their used components ?
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      161. “Sorry Captain Planet” you had a few clever comments. I have a Synology DS213 that I now realize is 10 years old but it’s all I need with 2 1TB WD Red drives in hybrid. If I had the need I’d be into building my own.
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      162. New to your channel. NASCompares and you’ve never built a NAS from scratch before?! You can build one better than any QNAP, Synology, etc. for less. As for the USB connectors from the case. They match EXACTLY what they are since one is USB 3.0 and the other is USB-C 3.2. There is nothing non-standard about them. The issue is your motherboard only has USB 2.0.
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      166. Brilliant video! This is the best tutorial and guide I’ve seen for building a fully-functional, do-it-yourself NAS. I especially appreciated the step-by-step details, and your objective, brand and device-specific recommendations, evaluations, and critiques of each of the components. The Unraid solution allowing the use of such an enormous variety and size of SATA disk drives is likewise amazing. You have motivated me to take this on myself. Thank you! Now subscribed.
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      172. Been down both paths for 20+ years. If I want to impress my peers I build my own servers. If I want to impress my family get a Synology. Played with Unraid to make hardware pass through setups with Windows XP/98 systems and 3DFX and Creative EAX cards and its an ongoing project, fraught with many many issues. They are fun projects, but you will get to the stage that other hobbies call you and a Synology is the way to go. After all, we don’t live forever and the kids will inherit them, so they need something less IT knowledge base intensive.
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      173. I’ve been looking to upgrade my Synology to a DS423+ or similar, that’s what brought me here.
        But, from what I could see, this build is just not worth the cost or hassle when I can get a pre-built unit with Synology’s DSM that is basically plug and play. Great if you want to build your own system for the hell of it, but personally I just can’t justify the time.
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      174. One recomendation I would make is using a way better power supply like an FSP or Sparkle to enhance the reliability and stability of the build (start with a good foundation) and to turn the power supply around so the vents allow the power supply to suck in cool air and the rear to exit the heat. Most newer motherboard do use the USB3 connectors provided by Jonsbo. The rest of the video is great. Congratulations to your subscriptions! Dr. Dave
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      177. Hmm way less money then i thought. Built my own stuff sense my early teens but never looked in to NAS. Now days whit all the data we have on our hands this might be a good time to start my first NAS project. Grats on 100k and thanks for the info.
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      178. What a fantastic guide! I THANK YOU!
        I’ve assembled PC last time probably 35 years ago – not many things have changed since then I can see.
        Btw why did you go with 5105 rather than 6005? No big price difference there…

        You have kept the t-shirt but you have changed the watch between the recordings – even 2 times !!! 😉
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      183. No, thank you for the fantastic video. Hope you hit 200k soon you guys deserve it. Really appreciate the thorough details My one tip would be to invest in a build mat for that poor old scratched table, helps dampen noise, stops things rolling, can be anti static or have a brand logo.
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      185. Congrats on 100k! This was an interesting video… I look forward to seeing you put it through it’s paces. It’s a shame that the Jonesbo case only holds five 3.5″ drives, though… if it at least held the full 6 that motherboard and cable supported, it might be more of a contender for my next upgrade dollars, once my 4-bay Synology is no longer adequate. (Doesn’t seem worth the money to upgrade and add only a single drive)
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      192. I watched this vid and got the Tipton, I can’t work out how to turn down the fan header which seems to run at full whack all the time which is annoying, I don’t see it in the bios only the cpu. Is there another way to control the fan header?
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      193. For a future video, I would be interested to know how that Jonsbo N2 case handles the heat of a 13th gen i3 or i5 or i7. Does it throttle badly? Does it cook the drive underneath?
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      198. I’ve built many computers over the years. For me, assembling the hardware is fairly easy, configuring the software/OS is what will be a challenge for me. I have two old synology NASes and they’re ok. I’m looking to upgrade, so having the option to build a new NAS is a good thing to have. Knowing me, I probably won’t build because the software seems like something I would have to invest time into learning (and I don’t have the time unfortunately). The detailed guide on the website is really good and I will be bookmarking it in case I change my mind.
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      202. Congrats on 100k subs! I also built a NAS/HTPC (with TrueNAS) in this case recently. For the most part, I love it and would absolutely recommend it for DIY NAS/HTPC builds.

        Regarding the not-so-quiet case fan: if your motherboard has an extra fan header, connect the fan to that instead of the drive backplane. The backplane has no speed control and runs it at 100% speed 100% of the time. But hooked into the motherboard you can set the speed in the system’s BIOS. Mine now runs very quietly while still keeping the drives at 30-45°C (depending on load).

        My only gripes with the case are:
        1/ I wish the shank (the unthreaded part) of the bolts for the drive track grommets were longer so that they could be screwed in tightly.
        2/ Why is the dust-catching mesh only on the side grills of the motherboard section but not on the top grill? It should be the opposite since the top is where most air intake will be happening and the sides would be exhaust (or they could have put mesh on all the grills). I removed the mesh from the sides of the motherboard area and hot-glued a mesh to the top.
        3/ Too many different bolt types for the exterior. One part has Phillips thumbscrews, another has small hex flat head bolts, another has Phillips truss head bolts, and still another uses the standard Phillips hex head case bolts. If those hex flat head bolts were Phillips instead, the whole case could be managed with a single Phillips screwdriver. And the truss head bolts could have just been standard case bolts.
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      205. Just to point out the metal thing you call “backplane” is actually called “i/o shield”. There’s a backplane on this case though and that’s the green board on the drive bay where you connect your drivers.

        TrueNAS would’ve worked, although it’d have complained about not enough memory. it would’ve probably been fine though.

        And congrats on 100k subscribers mate.
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      207. Actually great to see this option being shown, between an off the shelf ready to go NAS and a rack mounted NAS (but not everyone has the space for 1U, 2U or even 4U racks). I might go down this route next time.
        If you can find one get the Intel N100 board instead, for a little more money (coz it’s newer) it’s way more powerful then the N5105, I’m running pfSense on the Intel N100 as my router, but I haven’t seen a board only version on Aliexpress yet although the search is terrible, it’s just what I’d do, especially if you wanna run lots of containers or CCTV recording, the N5105 can do that just fine, coz I’m doing it on my QNAP TS–464, just thinking more longer term.
        Robbie, one thing that might be worth testing is PSU orientation and temperatures, I see you put the fan facing inwards, would be interesting to see if temps on the motherboard and in fact drives were higher or lower if the PSU was facing out through the case vents, and thinking about after seeing Gamers Nexus test a Fractal Design mini ITX case, if there’s any sound difference the orientation.
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      208. Robbie, how about a video where you give us a glimpse of your upcoming videos and open the comments to request videos. I watch a lot of your older videos as I tackle new projects and find that many are out of date due to software updates, many need clarification ( I need the Step By Step Guide For Complete Idiots type instruction), and asking questions generally gets no replies from anyone.
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      209. Nice project but some improvements are possible. For example some cable management should be in order in the space behind your fan. As it is now the cables are obstructing the airflow to the Sata backplate. And the airflow is already disputable as it is with such constructions. And by the way: that “backplate” is also known as an i/o shield.
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      211. Great video, exactly what I was looking for.
        I would like to point out a detail that was left out about the total cost, standard low budget PSUs normally have abysmal power efficiency under light load which means that the PSU could even pull double the required wattage from the wall (so, half goes to waste because of inefficiency), over a span of 5y this could add up to a substantial difference in the final price.
        (this is based on the fact that normally a NAS comes with a 12V power supply which is designed for that type of load while a standard PSU for PCs has 3V, 5V and 12V rails and the unit normally has its peak efficiency around 50-65% load)
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      213. I’ve been thinking about building a NAS myself but conflicted with platform. I want storage but also the ability to run a plex server and a small vm or two for system monitoring and other random things.
        Would a topton N6005 board suffice for this or, do I need to go with a ryzen 5700G?
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      218. Great video, and congrats on the 100K although I’m only just finding the channel now. Currently running 3x Buffalo Linkstation units on RAID 1 each and looking for something to increase my capacity/drive use efficiency and this has been a huge help. Any recommended 6x 3.5″ bay cases out there?
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      220. Great Video. I got motivated to build my own NAS, but when I checked out current prices on the recommended parts, I ended up with a $500 shopping cart on Amazon. Bummer. I guess word got out. That’s generally what happens. Still looking to keep the cost to about $250 – $300 . . .
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      221. Does any air actually flow out between the drives? I mean, that’s the point of that case fan right?

        Why would you run the OS from the USB stick? Wouldn’t it be considered better practice to use the nvme or the last sata for a small ssd?
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      226. I may have missed it, but was there a power consumption figure mentioned for this? PSU efficiency is quite important when you’re leaving something running 24/7! I was tempted to build one with a pico itx psu but daisy chaining power connectors is very frowned upon to get the necessary molex/sata connections!
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      230. Nice video, thankyou congratulations to 100k subs. I am horrified by the psu. This thing looks like fire hazard, I would not connect anything to it. Was probably the cheapest shit money could buy.
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      231. Wouldn’t it be better to put the power supply the other way around, so the fan is drawing the air through it’s dedicated grill on the NAS side? Or there was a particular reason to not do that that I haven’t noticed?
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      237. Fun! Wish I had build it like this myself last year, but that motherboard didn’t exist back then. Man, what a beautiful case. Mine is huge.

        Just as you’ve described, both NAS solutions have their ups and downs. I like both. My Asustor has been nice to me. The ones I built are used to back it up.
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      246. Another great video, and congrats on the 100K subs.
        You’re gonna have to do A LOT more content with this new bad boy. Detailed setup, apps, containers etc. Can’t wait for more!!!
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      259. Thank you so mutch @Robbie and eddy for the great videos and geting to 100K you both deserve this and more @NASCompares ps how about a DIY nas with a APU 8 or more cores and 32 gig of ram or 16 gig 6 m.2 0r 6 sata ssd`s and a nic 2.5 or 5 or 10 gig so on you get what i mean then plex test it with a vm and prox mox thanks as ever Kenny
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      260. The sad thing is that buying a modular PSU and short cables, in order not to have to deal with cable management, would cost more than the entire build.

        I really would ike to see a standard to make PC builds as cable-less as possible. Think about HP and lenovo workstations, or the old Mac pro.

        Congrats on the 100K milestone.
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      261. Great video! I’d love you to do a higher spec version of this video and see what you can put together on a £1000 budget. Even if it’s just a demo of what components you’d put together on that budget without the actual build! Would be great!
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      262. It’s not the peace-of-mind that’s worth the difference in price between the home built unit and a, say, Synology unit. It’s the support you get on an off-the-shelf unit and, specifically with Synology, it’s the software suite; DSM and all the wonderful Synology packages.
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      265. So the total cost in cash terms (but not time clearly) would be in the same order as say a TERRAMASTER F4-423 at around £450. So on that basis what does your DIY approach offer over the prebuilt solution? ????????‍♂
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      268. Thanks for the video and congratulations on reaching 100k subs. Definitely a major landmark for any channel.

        I’d be very interested in how this compares to the Storaxa if that ever arrives.
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      269. Congrats!
        You’ve read my thoughts with this DIY NAS. But I had some doubts about noise level of each part (PSU fan, motherboard fan, etc.), then got tired of reading reviews for each potential part of this build… Finaly, I’ve bought terramaster and cleaned up my shopping cart at Ali. )))
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      272. Robbie, thanks a lot for doing this! I have a couple of questions: (#1) About 23:18 you stacked up all the PSU wires (of the DOA PSU) behind the fan intake guard. Are you concerned about the reduced airflow from the cabling obstruction, and if not, why not? (#2) The RMA PSU came without cables, how did you handle that? One last note, your closing comments on being time rich-money poor and the expertise needed to do all of this are GREAT! So many people just forget about all of that and it’s really important to remember. Thanks again for another very informative video.
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      274. Thanks! After being retired for 8 years from IT at a fortune 50 company, I have spent the last 6 weeks watching network and nas videos on YouTube because I got a knee replacement and have lots of time. @Nascompares is one of the better channels and to celebrate thier 100k here’s a tip. If you can afford it, you can too!
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      276. Yeah, Roll-your-own!… Here goes, DSM.7.2 with RedPill on Xeon E3-1226, 16GB Ram, 10 Sata ports (6 active now), two NVME drives) and a Four Port 2.5GB LAN. All for less than that NAS board plus its ram!. Oh, Container Manager in 7.2 is just brilliant!.
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      277. Greetings from Germany. I also discovered your channel a few months ago and subscribed. Congratulations on 100k subscribers. I like to watch your channel and it has also helped me in the decision which NAS I buy and then landed on the Synology DS 920+. Self-build is no longer an option for me. I used to assemble my PC myself, but that’s long gone. The professionals can still better assemble a system than me and it’s enough for me if I then only perform the one or other upgrade.
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      278. Congratulation for you 100k subscribers, well done.
        Just a stupid question. Why did you install the PSU with the fan pointing into the housing instead towards the housing? At least I would have installed it the other way around so that it could freely suck or blow air directly outside…
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      284. I subscribed when there were only a couple thousand subs. I thought to myself that this channel would never break 10K because NAS is such a small market. But here you are, 100K. Congrats!
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      287. Congratulations mate. I’m a recent subscriber, and I don’t watch every video (I mainly skip the ones on low-end NAS’s like the Synology 225X or whatever, as I know I’ll never get those), but you’ve provided great information and even when I feel I have a pretty different lean on a lot of things, I enjoy it nonetheless.

        And here I was expecting the 100K special would be Robbie embarking on The Great Seagull Massacre of 2023. Maybe an idea for 200K!
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      294. Congrats! Pretty soon you can slap a shiny plaque behind you, or maybe make a NAS case out of it!. A channel I run needs just 8k to hit 100k. Man is it slow going once you start watching the subscriber count 😀
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      295. This was fun…nice to see you build that in an hour ????

        Would have been nice to use a faster motherboard with more memory that can handle more complex VM duties… This seems like something you’d find in prebuilts
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      296. Congrats on 100K subscribers.
        Yeah, I can easily see 10+ hours of build time which at any reasonable hourly rate would easily add $200 to $400 dollars unless one was doing it as a learning experience and was extremely cash poor and time abundant (a student or someone laid off in a severe recession). Reminds me of the old Heath Kits for radios and other electronic devices. Even if one would do it once, would one do it twice, let alone half a dozen times? I am still puzzled by the price disparity between a laptop and a NAS. If I go to my local Target department store I can see laptops from an i7 all the way down to a Celeron. A NAS doesn’t have a large screen or a keyboard why does it cost more to manufacture than a laptop? Or the disparity between a NAS and an Apple Mac Mini. A NAS is brain dead, but has lots of storage, while an Apple Mac Mini has lots of processing power, but little storage and needs a “Time Machine” (which Apple no longer manufactures) for backup. Perhaps there is a synergistic setup between an Apple Mac Mini and a NAS. But, unless there is a new Apple product announcement Docker X86 is crippled on Apple Mac Mini with Apple Silicon (M1, M2, etc) and one is dependent on a limited and aging supply of Apple Mac Minis (which are soon going to lack security upgrades).
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      299. I get the budget objectives of this build but personally I’d want a more standardised components setup. Brand name PSU for sure (e.g. seasonic sgx-500 fully modular), a major brand ITX or matx mboard running a recent gen intel (for transcoding ability so no need for gpu) and a matching case to suit either a storage or performance server bias or both. Unraid has the flexibility for sure I have mine on a 12 year old system running backup for other devices as its main function. I was going to throw it out for ewaste otherwise but it got me thinking with the case it was in being about to hold 10 hdds. That’s often the first time you come across unraid when you wonder what do with old hardware after an upgrade.
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      303. congrats on the subs! great video. How high are the heatsinks on the mobo? I have an ye olde HP microserver with nice pro-level drive caddies that I’ve been wondering about updgrading for a while. In the microserver the proprietary size HP Mobo has 30mm high heatsinks, and is squeezed in under the drive bays at the bottom. Do any of the BKHD mobo heatsinks/connectors stick up higher than that? Might work if I can urge the microserver case to develop a new hole for the backplane.
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      322. I just want to say thank you! I have been watching your videos for a bit now and the passion, and need for the truth with no bull sh#t comes through along with the love of what you do. That’s why I can sit and listen to an hour about True Nas and it is compelling at 58 minutes just as it was at 2 minutes. So again thank you for the incredibly tedious and hard work that you do!
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      325. At first a 1-hour video seemed long, but every point mentioned was pertinent. And it’s the weekend anyway, so. 😉
        Only addition I would have liked is an overview of network shares management.

        And you are spot-on my user usecase/profile: Home techie power user currently using a Synology that likes its simplicity but that still keeps an eye on other totally open source platforms for a bit more control/flexibility (and lot more verbose logs!!). And so I agree with every single of your comments.

        Indeed, an “easy” mode in TrueNAS or more wizards across the system would be greatly helpful because I may be tech-savvy at some level, still maybe not quite the TrueNAS level.
        So to have something to bridge the gap between current TrueNAS “complexity” and Synology DSM “simplicity” would be perfect.

        The other thing that makes me hesitating from leaving Synology ecosystem is the turn-key/hand-holding/well-integrated (DSM/mobile) apps. But even there — and it’s one of the reasons I’m looking elsewhere — is that in the recent years Synology has seemed to neglect all their non-business apps.
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      327. I would find it very interesting.
        If u would test out TrueNAS scale ad the review u have made now about TrueNAS Core.
        It’s out of beta and in the release channel.
        And it opens up a tons of possibilities as a Linux user, because of docker and k8s.

        I really trust and enjoy ur indept reviews.
        It would be great to see that for TrueNAS SCALE.
        Best regards from me.
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      328. Adding a comment here to your most recent upload, hoping to get a reply. Watched 100’s of your uploads now. I need a new nas (4-10 bays). My old one died. Won’t be editing on it or doing anything taxing (fancy) with it, so not bothered with nvme caching etc. Just storing/accessing files locally via LAN. Best option? (Ideally with faster than 1.0GBe)
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      329. I’d be all over TrueNAS (and/or Proxmox), but I have a QNAP TS-453D and for the life of me I cannot boot off the internal drives. No, I am not happy booting off an external USB drive. Do you, or anyone, have any tricks to be able to boot directly off the internal drives on a midrange QNAP device?
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      332. Sweet! Great deep dive as always without being intimidating for us newbies rob! – bit the bullet last year on a tvs-h1288x due to your coverage and don’t regret it as it’s been great overall but with all the gross stuff that’s been happening in the qnap camp, definitely considering potentially repurposing it for a truenas. Possible?
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      333. I’m looking into a NAS system. But I don’t know how much I want to do with it. Right now I only want storage. But I also bought a raspberry pi 4 just for experimenting, and now I have: an add sinkhole, VPN server, Home Assistent, link to smart meter, DDNS server, selfhosted Bitwarden, node red, ZigBee network, and on and on… In just three months. So yea.. it will probably not only be for storage and will take over all tasks from the pi, start media server, couch potato, radarr, lidarr, security cameras with AI face detection, etc. I think I just have to go with TrueNas because eventually I want it all….
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      334. I was using freenas/truenas before I got a qnap for ease of use. Truenas wipes the floor with qnap, you just need some patience to get your head around the user interface. Please also advise everyone that you can run truenas on an old pc or in a virtual environment to test.
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      335. Yayyyyy Robbie is back! I bought a qnap based on your review. Your info was great. Its a shame that qnap decided to, there is no delicate way of saying this, shaft thier user base. I really think this is a fantastic idea and would love to see more of your valuable input. Might be time to get the big hammer out and doctor my tvs-1282. Once more it’s good to see you with your enthusiasm for nas. You are back on the watch list. Thank you Robbie.
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      336. Thanks for this look at TrueNAS. I’m eagerly awaiting your review of that IXsystems box you’ve got there as well as a “Setting Up” video on it. If at all possible it would be nice if you showed a basic, recommended system setup from the point of view of Joe, Jane and Baby Bag-O’Donuts.
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