The Jonsbo N3 NAS Case Review

Last updated on 16 Oct 2023 📧 Subscribe
Contents hide
1 Jonsbo N3 NAS Case Review – Your Ideal DIY NAS Case?
2 Jonsbo N3 NAS Case Review – Quick Conclusion
2.1 Jonsbo N3 NAS Enclosure Specifications
3 Jonsbo N3 NAS Case Review – Packaging
4 Jonsbo N3 NAS Case Review – Design
5 Jonsbo N3 NAS Case Review – Internal Structure
6 The Jonsbo N2 versus Jonsbo N3 NAS Case
7 Jonsbo N3 NAS Case Review – Conclusion and Verdict
8 Need Advice on Data Storage from an Expert?

Jonsbo N3 NAS Case Review – Your Ideal DIY NAS Case?

Venturing into the diverse world of NAS enclosures, where design intricacies meet functionality, Jonsbo unveils its N3 NAS Case. This embodiment of aesthetic finesse, competent storage solutions, and compact design mechanics is what we’ll be diving into today. From the nuanced ‘jonsbo’ and ‘N3’ branding to the protective measures ensuring its safe arrival, this review will provide a comprehensive understanding of the Jonsbo N3. Delving deeper, we’ll shed light on its internal structure, reflecting the efficiency with which it aligns with compact motherboard requirements and optimal performance parameters. Whether you’re an avid tech guru or simply exploring reliable NAS options, this review encapsulates all that the Jonsbo N3 NAS Case has to offer.

Note – You can watch my massive review of the Jonsbo N3 NAS Case HERE on YouTube, alternatively you can watch my Jonsbo N2 Review and Build Video HERE.

Jonsbo N3 NAS Case Review – Quick Conclusion

The Jonsbo N3 NAS Case masterfully combines innovation with design finesse. From the outset, its protective packaging and upgraded features, such as the 8 SATA drive bays and two rear fans, underscore Jonsbo’s commitment to user experience. The case’s alignment with M-ITX motherboards, along with the capacity for larger CPU fans and PCIe cards, ensures both space-efficiency and future-ready adaptability. While there are minor areas for improvement, they pale in significance compared to the N3’s comprehensive excellence. For those seeking a cutting-edge NAS enclosure, the N3 sets a new industry benchmark, exemplifying both aesthetic and technological advancements.

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Jonsbo N3 NAS Enclosure Specifications

Evaluating the Jonsbo N3 NAS Case necessitates a thorough understanding of its specifications. Here, we present a concise breakdown of its design attributes, material selection, and standout features, enabling an informed assessment of its capabilities and its alignment with diverse applications. Dive in to ascertain the depth of functionalities the Jonsbo N3 encompasses.

  • Model: N3
  • Dimension: 233mm(W) x 262mm(D) x 298mm(H)
  • Material:
    • External cover: 2.0mm Aluminum alloy
    • Internal Structure: 1mm Steel
  • Drive Bay: 2.5SSD1 / 3.5HDD8
  • Motherboard: ITX
  • PCI Expansion Slot: 2
  • Front I/O Port: 1*USB3.0 / USB3.2 Gen2 Type-C + Audio+Mic (Headset+mic combined)
  • PSU Support: SFX ≤105mm
  • Max. CPU Cooler Height: ≤130mm
  • Max. Display Card Length: ≤250mm
  • Cooling System:
    • Hard disk compartment: 10025mm2 (optional)
    • Main board compartment: 8025mm2 (optional)
  • Weight: Net 3.9kg

Jonsbo N3 NAS Case Review – Packaging

Upon receiving the Jonsbo N3 NAS enclosure, its straightforward yet refined packaging is immediately evident. The distinct ‘jonsbo’ branding, complemented by the specific ‘N3’ logos, underscores the company’s commitment to quality and authenticates the product right from the outset. On opening the outer layer, what stands out is the robust protection offered by the dense, black foam. This isn’t just padding; it’s a purposeful protective layer, ensuring the Jonsbo N3 remains insulated from potential transit hazards. This level of care is noteworthy, especially given the propensity of some budget NAS enclosures to skimp on such protective measures.

Within this safeguarded environment, a trio of essentials awaits: the core component, the Jonsbo NAS, an intuitive instruction manual, and a separate box brimming with a variety of accessories. Exploring the accessory box is a regular experience. It’s packed with a plethora of handy items: specifically tailored screws for the storage devices, rubber handles ensuring ease of tray handling, multipurpose cable ties for organized setups, and an included alan key, underscoring Jonsbo’s foresight in addressing user requirements, particularly for any NAS case modifications.

The provided instruction manual, succinct yet comprehensive, is laid out on a spacious A3 sheet. It offers a snapshot of the basic setup. However, for enthusiasts seeking a more granular understanding, Jonsbo has facilitated an extensive online manual to cater to a thorough installation process. In conclusion, the packaging of the Jonsbo N3 exemplifies a thoughtful balance of minimalism and functionality. The emphasis on protective measures is laudable, ensuring that the product reaches the end-user in impeccable condition, primed for deployment.

Jonsbo N3 NAS Case Review – Design

In the rapidly advancing tech arena, the Jonsbo N3 NAS Case has distinguished itself admirably. With its sophisticated, contemporary design, augmented by remarkable storage potential within a compact architecture, the N3 has captured considerable interest.

More than its aesthetic allure, the N3 is crafted for optimal function. Its expansive ventilation is a clear illustration, with almost every surface featuring air vents. These aren’t simply ornamental but integral to maintaining a steady airflow, working in concert with the device’s active cooling mechanism to ensure stable operational temperatures.

Specifically, the top panels are punctuated with a vast array of ventilation points, highlighting Jonsbo’s dedication to thermal management, even during rigorous use.

A notable attribute is the magnetically attached front panel, offering effortless detachment. Once removed, it reveals the primary SATA storage sections, a design that will resonate with users requiring regular access or modifications.

Jonsbo’s approach to the SATA bays signifies innovation. Veering away from traditional configurations, they’ve integrated unified data and power connectors, neatly consolidated on a single, organized board. The flip side of this board is equally intriguing, featuring essential SATA connectors and a pair of molex connectors for comprehensive power delivery across storage segments.

Oddly, the Jonsbo N3 also features an additional SATA power port. This might well be to allows specific PSUs to connect 1x molex and 1x SATA power, instead of 2x molex power.

In a deviation from standard practices, Jonsbo employs a distinct method for securing drives. Eschewing traditional trays, they’ve opted for screwable plugs complemented by rubber pull handles. Although designed to possibly dampen vibrations, extracting drives offers a unique tactile experience, which might not be everyone’s cup of tea, especially considering the significance of gentle drive handling.

The front of the case boasts a versatile connectivity suite, inclusive of dual USB ports adaptable to both Type A and C configurations. Additionally, multifunctional audio ports facilitate uncomplicated audio interfacing.

The Jonsbo N3 also improves upon the Jonsbo N2 that came before it, as it features 8 LED lights that are directly connected to the SATA drive bays and the back board. Additionally, unlike the Jonsbo N2, the Jonsbo N3 features two rear fans. These have individual 4 pin power connectors and are both attached to the rear of the SATA board. You might think this substantially increases the noise in operation – they do, but not by too much. Ultimately, we are talking about a very compact NAS chassis, so active airflow is going to be massively important!

The back features a removable cooling fan, emphasizing user-friendly maintenance. Embellished with Jonsbo’s emblem, this fan derives its power directly from the primary SATA storage bay board. However, potential users should be cognizant of the missing SATA cables, necessitating an external purchase. Given the space constraints at the rear, angular SATA cables are advised. These cables are guided through a designated channel at the case’s top.

Intricate cable management is essential within the NAS, given its space-efficient design. Yet, with strategic planning, an organized setup promoting optimal airflow is achievable. In summation, the Jonsbo N3 NAS Case epitomizes precision engineering and discerning design. Every element feels purposefully placed, promising users a fluid experience. While there might be minor areas of improvement, they’re eclipsed by the overarching quality of the enclosure.

Jonsbo N3 NAS Case Review – Internal Structure

Lifting the top panel unveils a spacious chamber awaiting the motherboard. The N3 is tailored for M-ITX motherboards, recognized for their compactness and efficiency.

Another improvement that the Jonsbo N3 brings over the N2 is that this new 8 Bay case supports much bigger/taller CPU fans. For those looking at more aggressive Intel Core or Ryzen processors, this will be a massive relief!!

Equally, there is more space for longer and taller PCIe upgrade cards. There are even 2x PCIe slots available on the backplane, ensuring that the Jonsbo N3 can support much thicker cards (such as beefier gfx cards)

Recognizing the inherent single PCIe slot feature of M-ITX boards, the Jonsbo N3 replicates this design. The snug layout demands meticulous cable organization, especially when accessing SATA or PSU cables after the motherboard is set.

Post motherboard integration, there’s limited yet adequate space for cable management. Furthermore, a specialized 2.5” SATA compartment is ingeniously incorporated on the case’s side, intended predominantly for an OS drive, underscoring Jonsbo’s knack for maximizing space utility.

The Jonsbo N2 versus Jonsbo N3 NAS Case

The Jonsbo N2 and N3 NAS Cases, both emanating from Jonsbo’s design lineage, cater to different segments of the market with their distinct offerings. The N2, renowned for its contemporary aesthetics coupled with a compact framework, has firmly established itself among users who value a harmonious blend of form and function. Its design ethos, characterized by thorough ventilation, ensures that despite its compact nature, performance remains uncompromised, even under strenuous conditions. In contrast, the N3, while paying homage to its predecessor, incorporates a series of evolutionary enhancements that make it more adept at meeting the demands of today’s tech landscape.

One of the most notable upgrades in the N3 is its expanded storage capability, accommodating up to 8 SATA drive bays, compared to the N2’s 5. This not only provides greater storage flexibility but also caters to users who need robust data redundancy and backup solutions. More SATA bays mean more opportunities for RAID configurations, enhancing data protection and performance.

Furthermore, the N3’s compatibility with larger and taller CPU fans signifies its commitment to superior thermal management. Larger fans often translate to more effective cooling at lower RPMs, leading to quieter operations while ensuring the longevity of internal components. This is particularly vital for NAS systems that often run 24/7, where maintaining optimal temperatures is paramount. Shifting our focus to the cooling design, the inclusion of two rear fans in the N3, as opposed to the single fan setup in the N2, further underscores its thermal efficiency. While this dual-fan approach certainly promises better heat dissipation and improved airflow, it may slightly increase the acoustic footprint, especially if both fans ramp up under heavy loads. Nevertheless, the benefits of enhanced cooling often outweigh the minimal noise increase, especially in ensuring consistent NAS performance.

Additionally, the N3’s provision to support longer, taller, and thicker PCIe cards paves the way for more substantial and versatile expansion opportunities. Whether users aim to incorporate high-end graphics cards for GPU-intensive tasks or specialized cards for network or storage expansion, the N3 is more accommodating, making it future-proof and versatile. In summation, while the N2 offers a solid foundation for those venturing into the world of NAS systems, the N3 emerges as a more advanced, adaptable, and future-oriented solution. It’s a clear reflection of Jonsbo’s intent to stay ahead of the curve, anticipating and addressing the nuanced requirements of modern tech enthusiasts.

Jonsbo N3 NAS Case Review – Conclusion and Verdict

The Jonsbo N3 NAS Case epitomizes the synergy of innovation, practicality, and sophisticated design. Right from the initial unboxing, characterized by its robust protective foam and the considerate selection of key accessories, it’s unmistakably clear that Jonsbo meticulously curates every user touchpoint. The N3’s avant-garde design effectively couples expansive storage capabilities – evident in its upgrade to 8 SATA drive bays from the former 5 – with a streamlined form factor. Moreover, the enhanced ventilation system, now featuring two rear fans instead of one, promises unwavering peak performance even in the most demanding scenarios. On the inside, its harmonization with M-ITX motherboard specifications and insightful design nuances highlight an unmatched emphasis on space utility and top-tier efficiency. This is further accentuated by the N3’s capability to accommodate larger CPU fans and more substantial PCIe upgrade cards, ensuring users have room for progressive tech enhancements. While certain elements, like the particular screw choices for the top panel or the absence of SATA cables, might be perceived as minor gaps, they are trivial when juxtaposed against the product’s overarching brilliance and functional prowess. Conclusively, the Jonsbo N3 NAS Case emerges as a paragon of design precision and technological evolution, resonating profoundly with both seasoned tech gurus and casual users. For those in pursuit of a NAS enclosure that harmoniously melds aesthetic grace with superior performance, the N3 stands out as the unequivocal benchmark. With the N3, Jonsbo not only aligns with the established norms for NAS enclosures but transcends them, paving the way for next-generation standards.

Jonsbo N2 Pros & Cons

+ More Compact Chassis

+ Lower Price

+ Lower Nosie in Operation

+ Overal Lower Power Use

– Smaller CPU Fans/Heatsinks/Cooelrs Only

– Shorter Height+Width PCIe Card

– Fewer SATA Bays

 Jonsbo N3 Pros & Cons

+ More SATA Bays

+ More Fans = Better Active Ventilation

+ More Room for Bigger CPU Fan/Heatsinks/Coolers

+ Supports Bigger / Wider / Taller PCIe Cards

– Odd PSU Placement

– Takes up more space

– Noisier Operation
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 Aliexpress >>>

$76 (Check Aliexpress HERE)

 Amazon >>>

$170 (Check Amazon HERE)

 Aliexpress >>>

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      444 thoughts on “The Jonsbo N3 NAS Case Review”

      1. 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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      3. tl;dr: get an 8bay server. With lights-out management, more ports and options than you can shake a stick at, redundent power supplies, sensor information and then some, drive bays made to not irritate each other with vibrations, an air flow concept validated to support a full load of drives, a backplane with ventilations slots, the list goes on. For your stuff at home, if a microserver with 4x20TB won’t do you need to look for enterprise solutions.
        Thorough review, though.
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      12. 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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      21. 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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      35. 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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      37. Anyone who’s building PC’s should already have a toolkit with allen key bits, surely. Getting hung up on one of those seems a little over the top. Either way, nice case, seems like an iron plated pain in the posterior to get one after a quick look around. A Supermicro Mini-ITX mobo with an Atom processor on would be a great combo with this, some come with 12 SATA ports. My main concern about this case are all those small and thus noisy fans. I’d have liked to see a big-ass 20 cm fan on the rear or something to suck air through the whole thing.
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      39. 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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      40. 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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      41. The fan runs at full speed, sound like a helicopter up side is hd is very chilled even if they are stacked next to each other. The 4 alan key screws can be replaced with the 4 Countersunk computer screws. This case is really big even for a mini itx.
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      43. I got the information from the truenas scale community to avoid these sata extender however they gonna look like (pcie, m2, etc) because the chips on them aren’t that stable overall. Also the chip which comes with the motherboard. Therefore there recommendation is to buy a isa 9300 hba card and use the pcie slot for it.
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      44. 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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      46. 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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      49. 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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      50. 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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      52. Hello NasCompares. Thaks for all the great media that you put out. I have had home servers for a few years starting with an HP Mediasmart server. and even building an ITX model running windows server 2012 R2 essentials. About 10 years ago. It has worked wonderful up until last year when the 8tb Hard drives (4 of them,) took a dump.
        I recently came across your youtube channel and was really impressed by the Jonesbo 3 build with the Intel core i9 13th gen processor.
        My question is about the OS. After using Windows server I was wondering if there was an easier OS without a huge learning curve for me to use. I need my server to
        • Backup 2 laptops.
        • Easy to restore from Backups.
        • Plex server. Gotta love Plex!
        • Remote access for maintenance and media uploads. I have to be able to upload Grand Children photos and videos while I am out of state.
        • As quiet as possible as it will be in a spare bedroom closet.
        Thanks for all the great info that you share and thanks for the time reading my question.

        Reply

        1. The DS224+ is a network-attached storage (NAS) device manufactured by Synology, known for its reliability, performance, and feature-rich software. Here’s why it might be a good fit for your needs:

          Ease of Use: Synology DiskStation Manager (DSM) is the operating system that powers Synology NAS devices. It offers a user-friendly web-based interface that makes it easy to set up and manage your NAS, even for beginners.

          Backup Features: DSM includes robust backup solutions, such as Synology’s Hyper Backup, which allows you to back up your data to external drives, remote servers, or cloud storage providers. It also supports Time Machine backups for macOS devices.

          Plex Media Server: The DS224+ is capable of running Plex Media Server, allowing you to stream your media collection to various devices within your home network or remotely. Its hardware specifications should handle transcoding and streaming media effectively.

          Remote Access: Synology NAS devices come with built-in support for remote access, allowing you to access your files, media, and applications from anywhere with an internet connection. You can use Synology’s QuickConnect service or set up a VPN for secure remote access.

          Quiet Operation: Synology NAS devices are known for their quiet operation, making them suitable for placement in a spare bedroom closet or any other living space where noise might be a concern.

          Reply

      54. I’d like to hear how loud is the N3 case. The bottom fans (2 of them) are 100mm, compared with the N2 which has a single 120mm fan. The top fans look to be 80mm (or smaller). Won’t these get loud? Also, can you use a fanless PSU (e.g. SeaSonic SS-400FL2)?
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      55. Hello, thank you very much for the video, the truth is that I am very good at the topic of NAS, I usually pay for Google Drive but I am already spending 350 dollars a year, and I have seen or am considering the option of a NAS but I wanted to ask you something very specifically, I hope you can help me: Let’s see if the NAS is useful for what I want: we have photographers throughout the country of Colombia but each photographer is in a different city, I want to assign them a user and an amount of space and that they can only enter their space and with your user and they cannot see what others do, is that possible? Ty so much for your time
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      57. 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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      59. 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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      63. Little late to the party, but they give you more than enought rubber grommets for the drives that you can use four on each drive plus the pull on the front of them.
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      64. 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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      67. 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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      70. I have been using this case for a couple months for my Unraid server which hosts PLEX. It’s an amazing case. I use an Intel 12500t which is pretty powerful for my needs and low power usage but I also have an RTX 3060 in the case because I got a really good deal on it and use it to auto convert media to be more compatible with families playback devices. It’s overkill but it’s awesome and this case handles it all fine. The GPU gets fresh air from the side vent and I added two 80mm Noctua fans to the top back for exhaust so they pull in air from the front and sides which gives fresh air to the CPU cooler and gets rid of all of the hot air in the top section. This little case for me holds 164 TB. 160 in HDD(8x20TB) and a 4TB Sata SSD for a cache drive and for Unraid/PLEX meta data. I could use an M.2 for cache but it’s not needed.

        I have my PSU so it pulls in fresh air from the front of the case and exhausts it out of the side and for the extra data ports I used an M.2 to SATA adapter. it has 6 additional SATA ports so with all of what I have I still have an available data slot.

        If you want a great case for a NAS or home server and want to keep it pretty small, this is the way to go. There are smaller options but this one has the benefit of amazing cooling performance…at least for a NAS case.
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      71. 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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      74. I have two Lacie. One in my office and one at home. Can you do a video on how to link these two so that they act as backups of each other? If you already have done something like that, please send me that way.
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      78. Anyone using jonsbo n3, the height clerance is 298mm, does this include the bottom rubber stand. Would like to know the rubber can be unscrew out to make it lower than 298mm.
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      79. 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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      84. 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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      88. While I get the confusion about several different screws types used, I do generally appreciate hex screws.
        Phillips is a nightmare waiting to strip. For me it could all be torx haha
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      90. 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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      91. Does anyone know anything about the SATA Power Connector on the back plane? I can see the 2 molex connectors powering the drives, but is the SATA necessary or just in case a power supply only has on molex. I’m confused. Jonsbo has answered all of my questions, except that one and of course the instructions are……well you know.
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      97. Am not sure whether to lean towards the N2 or N3 ???? probably go with a ROG mini-ITX board and smash in a decent Ryzen processor and bags of memory as-well. Wish to have something that can leave on 24/7 that will run Proxmox to cover all my needs ie. PfSense/OPNSense, Storage and probably a mail server. Would welcome your thoughts please and keep up the great work ????
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      102. 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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      103. Have we figured out the power plug weirdness? I am also doubtful that three plugs are required, what makes the most sense to me is one dedicated cable plug for molex, and one dedicated cable plug for sata since most modern psu will only have one cable for molex, i have this on order and want to try it but it seems everyone just plugs in all three
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      105. I’ve got a fractal Node 304 running a socket 2011-3 xeon, 64gb ram, and all 6 internal 3.5″ slots populated. I wish I’d have known that the Jonsbo N3 was either a thing or going to be a thing before I put this thing together. I had to get very creative with the SATA power and data connectors in the 304 to keep from running them into my Noctua fan on the cpu cooler. And even with a fully modular PSU the cramped space makes me hate it. There’s decent airflow between the drives and towards the CPU fan but.. that gives time for the drives to heat the air on the way to the CPU. Not sure if that’s a big deal or not but the thing is running well enough.

        I’m half tempted to tear the whole thing down and stuff it into an N3. Especially with the addition of the drive status LED’s and two more SATA bays.
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      106. I am kind of sad that I got this case now. Looks like I am stuck with max 4 drives if I want to do 10gb fiber NIC. I tried to find a way to do bifurcation that would allow 10gb nic + the 8 drives sata. I did buy an NVME to SATA but only support is 3.0 and its rather slow when booting. Not sure I really trust it either for the long hall that would allow 8 drives to be used. But then you loose ability to do mirrored cache pool. Just every little road block that makes this thing not ideal and as stated having it in a bigger form factor would be way better. It would be nice if you could do the ultimate Jonsbo N3 build and show us how to overcome what I perceive are limitations. Support all 8 drives, 10gb network and dual mirrored NVME cache pool.
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      110. 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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      115. Imagine they would’ve gone for mATX – its entirely possible in that size and they come with up to 3x PCIe Ports and sometimes 6 SATA ports too …

        I also really don’t like how they’ve not even tought about the possibility of someone using these slots for 2.5 inch e.g. for SATA-SSDS.

        A backplane like this makes it really hard to use without any kind of attempt in proper design by the manufacturer (port multipliers, adapters, what gives, what takes … in the end you can only remove the backplane). For me these two points make these sadly a hard pass 🙁 – as I would gain nothing from those extra 3 slots.

        Who in the world uses just 8 mechanical drives. SSDs are so much better for many things (power consumption too), and are nothing special but more or less a given use-case for many of us looking into slowly adopting many parts towards flash storage as they become cheaper and cheaper …
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      117. 0:09: ???? This video compares the Johnb N2 and Johnb N3 systems, highlighting seven important differences.
        3:33: ???? The video discusses the features of two ITX motherboards that support M2 mvme slots and have multiple bays for storage.
        5:58: ???? The video discusses the differences in vibration dissipation and ventilation between the N2 and N3 systems.
        9:14: ???? The N3 system has better active and passive cooling capabilities compared to the other system.
        12:12: ???? The video discusses the placement and functionality of an internal PSU in a computer case.
        15:31: ???? The video discusses the importance of CPU heat sinks and fans in dissipating heat and the limited space for expansion cards in ITX motherboards.
        18:42: ???? The Jbow N3 case offers more space and better compatibility for larger and more powerful PCI upgrades compared to the Jbow N2 case.
        Recapped using TammyAI
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      118. Which diy NAS would you recommend to someone who is going to use it as a Jellyfin server for movies and transcoding movies to phones. Also might use it to hold basic documents/photos.
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      124. Hello, first thanks for the amazing help. You have me helped to decide building my own NAS. But I have a question. I have bought a Jonsbo N3 case. But there are no cooling fans behind the case. Can you tell me which fan coolers I can use for the Jonsbo N3 case on AliExpress ? Because it was not clear in the video !!!
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      128. 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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      133. 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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      134. 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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      141. The limitations and drawbacks of this N3 case as you outlined really shoots some major holes in the feasibility of this DIY NAS. Looks like I’ll be sticking to my Synology 8-bay or Asustor (for cheaper 2-6 bay setups) units for awhile longer it seems.

        If Jonsbo ever does a N4 with the fixes/limitations worked out…maybe then I’ll start weighing a “might-try” then. Probably a year or two more wait, I guess…with also more stability with pricing and availability to come as well. Cheers.
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      142. 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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      144. You’ve ordered an Erying M-ITX board (https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005681665317.html) for the N3 build, but it only seems to have two SATA ports on it, how are you going to make a NAS from that?

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      146. 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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      147. 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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      149. 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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      151. 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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      158. I’m doing a hypothetical nas build that I’m gonna build once I have the finances, and the jonsbo cases were super interesting to me. I wanna use an intel 13th gen, the 13500 specifically, and this video convinced me to get the N3, as well as having more drive bays, the possibility for more storage later is alluring, especially given that it’s relatively not much more expensive, I think it’s a much better pick than the N2
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      159. You could also consider the Fractal Design Node 304 for a 4 bay unit which has sufficient room for a small GPU card and standard ATX power supply.
        Space is tight if you select a fairly powerful CPU and large air-cooling device. Temperatures are brilliant with 4 noctua fans.
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      161. Great review. I bought this case, it took a very long time to arrive, but when it did the things you pointed out on video is what I felt too. I think the bit of this case that annoys me the most is they use 100mm fans at the back (bottom) and 80mm at the top. 100mm is a odd size, to the point you cannot really buy fans. As in noctua dont make a 100mm. Moreover, I agree with no caddies, dont like the rubber bits. Also the hdds do rattle a lot, so dont feel its that well dampered. I would say its a good case for the money, 8 drives. But I wish the cooling was on the drives, not at the back, which means drives dont get great cooling. Overall, 6/10 for me
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      162. 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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      168. Apparently the official jonsbo line on the molex and sata power connectors on the backplane is that all 3 need to be used when all 8 bays are populated.

        In terms of fans noctua nfa9 92mm will replace the jonsbo 100mm ones at the bottom, and nfa8 80mm will fit at the top.
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      170. Hi. I wanna. Hold a NAS for holding my media. No need to transcode and I’m using a Zidoo player in each of my rooms. Would the budget n2 build be ok for that. 4k rips etc
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      173. After my sick build I had to tear it all down I had to add the Noctua NH-U9S black as it just fits and is a tower design which works better with the Noctua fan Swap I did.
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      174. Am I the only one, who is not completely in line the with the choice of SFX psu for those kinds of machines? These home nas machines mostly run at idle/ with a pretty low powered cpu. 1. The PSUs are quite big and use up space that could otherwise be used for additional HDD. 2. They are often 300-400W in power. Which is quite overkill for for example a i3-12100 and 5 HDDs. I think the use of a pico PSU + good quality power brick would be a more sensible choice. What do you think?
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      175. I really like the N3 case but Mini-itx motherboards seem so limiting. I want something to last 5 years or more. I’d like to start out with something with 2.5G/1G built in networking with the ability to add a GPU on a PCIe slot later. I can only find Mini-itx boards with a single PCIe x 16 slot. However, I want the ability to upgrade to 10gb networking later. I heard that m.2 slots can be turned into 10Gbe networking but not sure if that is something I should consider. Do mini-itx with 2.5Gb builtin and 2 pcie slots exist?
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      177. The nic on the Z690M-ITX/ax is from Realtek and I heard this brand of nic has some issues especially for Truenas and some other Unix varients due to missing or buggy drivers. Is that still true? @nascompares
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      179. So I bought motherboard from Ali: N6005 and … both Jonsbo: N2 and N3. So far I have only 4x 3.5″ disks but… thinking upgrade N3 is the only option – the mobo I bought has 6 SATA ports and using M2 one can ad up to 5 more. But in N2 there is only place for 5 SATA 3.5″ disk. So if someone does not think more than 5 disks, N2 is more than enough. My complete system reports <50W on AC side - my SFX PSU is 450W - no idea why I bought such big one ;-) Of course why would you need GPU for real NAS - this mobo is not capable for anything else - just NAS. But the NAS one can build either on TrueNAS or... Debian -both will work great - btw on Debian one will have much more possibility to configure - I realised TrueNAS is superb but it is not really for anything but NAS. Much easier to go for Debian if one wants containers or so. Just my 3 cents.
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      181. Those dual 100mm fans on the N3 are so dumb. 100mm fans basically don’t exist, I don’t think Noctua makes one etc. There was plenty of room for 120mm fans on a case that size.
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      184. On a b550-i strix you can easily use a 5sata port m.2 adapter, use it on the front m.2 4.0 slot and use a nvme boot drive on the back m.2 3.0 port and you have the 2slot pcie slot free for a GPU or whatever. And you were complaining about having 4 pegs on the drive to go into the rail….. In your video you are missing the pegs that screw into the middle of the drive to guide it on the rails.
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      185. Looking at this the N3 for just a bunch of drives, I initially thought about using 2.5″ SSD’s with adapters in place of the 3.5″ drives. But with the price of NVMe drives nearing the price of 2.5″ SSD’s I am mulling over stripping out the SATA board in the bottom of this case and installing a powered USB hub getting power from the molex on the PSU and installing a bank of individual USB enclosures populated with whatever NVMe drives I choose – connected to the USB 3 motherboard connector. Any thoughts or suggestions or limitations on my idea?
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      187. You can use an M.2 breakout card for more SATA connections, for example if you have two M.2 slots or a free WiFi slot the “ChenYang M.2 M-Key PCI adapter” for full length or “MZHOU M.2 SATA Adapter” for WiFi slot length.
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      190. a.) Yes, the PSU should slide-in from the back. IDK why they mount it inside the case.
        b.) You can get PCIM-Key M.2 to 6X SATA 3 adapter and put it the mobo’d 2nd M.2 slot, if you’re willing to give up mirrored boot drives.
        c.) If rubber drive mounting washers really bug you, print some rails to replace them. Still have to deal with the rubber handle, though.

        Would be nice to know about the SATA power connector on the drive backplane. Also, the maximum size CPU cooler that will fit.
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      193. Maybe it’s just me, but I would never buy this to do anything other than handle data and I don’t need an ATX motherboard to do that. I use a board similar to the one you used in your N2 build, but it was designed for openwrt and has a N6005 on it. I have the N2 and I’d never want it or the other anywhere near me due to fan noise (it lives in the garage with the car). While I see your point about the GPU vs using a 10gbe card, I’d rather just go with 2.5gbe as I really don’t think my zfs setups would benefit very much and most modern itx boards will have 2.5gbe. I also love the way they do drive mounting as it cuts down on a ton of vibration. Unless you are taking the drives out all the time, not sure why you need a tray. Yes, if I have a drive failure, it will take me more time to change the drive as I will likely have to take the back off to help push the drive out. . but I still really like the rubber mounting system. My only complaint on the N2 would probably be the same for the N3 – fan noise. I guess I’ll have to wait an see how the PSU goes into that unit, but the N3 is a few years away for me.
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      194. A few critiques of the review:

        1. It is common for ITX boards to have a front and back m.2 slot. Running a 5 or 6 port m.2 to sata adapter is inexpensive and doesn’t interfere with expandability

        2. I’m not sure (and you didn’t really say) why you are hesitant about PSU extension cables, but as long as it is a sufficient gauge (which it is), it’s fine

        3. You can use any two power connectors to power all 8 drives
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      195. I don’t understand the obsession with the ITX NAS cases. Any economy of savings you might enjoy by the DIY nature are absolutely murdered by the limited selection and significantly higher costs ITX mobos present. Give me a full ATX or even mATX any day of the week…

        Personally, my NAS is currently living in a Rosewill Blackhawk ATX case repurposed from an ancient PC build.
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      198. In Australia I had to order my unit through Ali Express. Their store is atrocious! The title of the page CLEARLY stated: “JONSBO N3 N2 N1 Mini NAS Case ITX …” but then the ‘colorway’ defaults to “N2 white’. You had to make sure you pick the right unit (N1, N2 and N3) through the COLORWAY! I didn’t check and purchase the N2 instead of the N3 and they refused to allow for return because it’s CLEARLY stated. I would dispute that. Don’t get me wrong, I have no issue with the product itself. I agree with your assessment that the fan size is effing crazy! Who makes 100mm and 80mm fans! Other than all that, I like the case. It feels high quality built, it’s the smallest form I can find on the market to fit 8 HDDs!
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      200. Jonsbo seems to make some great cases but the N3 is in a bit of a weird spot for me.
        Though the N3 has some marked improvements over N2, personally I think it is best to either stick with the N2 for a compact NAS, or if you are after more expandability, might as well choose a mATX case for almost the same footprint as the N3 and gain not only more drive slots but also more PCIe slots and usually cheaper motherboards as well.
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      202. Well, I think this wasn’t a very good/informative review. More like 25 min of rambling, why this is a very bad case. Is it a bad case though? The conclusion and the vibe I good during the video are very different.
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      204. 5:50 The N2 does have drive LEDs, but they’re not visible if you use 3.5″ drives. The backplane has 2 surface mount LEDs for each drive, green for power and blue for activity. If you use 2.5″ drives with a backplane-compatible 2.5″-to-3.5″ adapter, you’ll see diffuse blue flashing through the case’s front as each drive does its thing (the green LED is blocked by the adapter/drive).
        Jonsbo seems to be listening to feedback and improving their designs with each iteration, and I think that’s why the N3 moved the LEDs to the case panel instead.
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      207. What about small mATX boards like the ASRock H610M-HVS or H610M-HDV? Both of them are around 2cm larger than a mITX board and they usually fit in mITX cases that are a bit more roomy
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      212. On nas compares web page you indicate the middle/top builds in the cons section higher power consumption, how much more we talking compared to a synology/Qnap 8 bay? considering the price of energy now a days and with these on 24/7.
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      216. Can’t wait for the build video. Watched your N2 build video and looked at your guides and saw the N3. I knew I wanted the N3 for my dream NAS.
        As for the issue with the drive pull, perhaps for those with access to a 3d printer, there may be some solutions on Thingiverse or similar sites. I know it’s not something we should be forced to resort to, but it’s an option.
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      219. @NASCompares – There are M.2 to Multi Sata connector cards as well, and you could get an ITX board with Multiple M.2 or use the internal Sata Drive for OS or a CACHE drive.
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      220. The case is good. Its the mobo offering that sucks. All we need is an itx mobo with 10gbit, ecc ram, 8xsata, 2x m.2 and something like N100 for that 6W TDP passively cooled cpu. For… hmm… 250€
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      221. I think you miss something about the rubber disk mounts. Certain types of rubber under prolonged exposure to heat can disintegrate. In a NAS case a few years from now, it will go sticky and rot away. What then?
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      225. This case is probably one of the best options, but it still has so many problems. That one from Silverstone supports ATX, but supposedly the backplane is shit and the HDD cooling is not good.

        It would just be nice if there was a NAS case with a good backplane, good ventilation for drives, good cooler support, ATX support, good HDD trays, etc.
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      228. This may be a language difference, but on this side of the ocean, we call them either motherboard or mainboards. The term card is generally reserved for ‘add in cards’. Additionally, PSUs in weird places is somewhat normal for small form factor cases.
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      229. Been waiting for this video after informing you there was this new case incoming.

        Could you not use a nvme sata adapter that has the data ports on them, yh I know it will use the slot up but some itx mb have more than 1
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      232. 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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      233. 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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      242. 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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      253. 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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      256. 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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      261. 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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      262. “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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      263. 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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      265. 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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      267. 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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      268. 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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      271. 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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      274. 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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      275. 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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      279. 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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      281. “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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      282. 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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      286. 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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      292. 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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      293. 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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      294. 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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      297. 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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      298. 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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      303. 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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      305. 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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      312. 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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      313. 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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      318. 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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      322. 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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      325. 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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      327. 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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      328. 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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      329. 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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      331. 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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      333. 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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      338. 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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      340. 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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      341. 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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      346. 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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      350. 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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      351. 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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      357. 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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      366. 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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      379. 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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      380. 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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      381. 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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      382. 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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      385. 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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      388. 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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      389. 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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      392. 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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      394. 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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      396. 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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      397. 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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      398. 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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      404. 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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      407. 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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      414. 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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      415. 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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      416. 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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      419. 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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      423. 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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