Jonsbo N3 vs Fractal Design Node 804 NAS Case - Which Should You Buy?

[@enrimich64]

Honestly, M-ATX support made the choice obvious for me, plenty of space to turn it in a different direction at a later time.

[@vollhorst140]

Nice video! Thank you. A small corrections here on the node 804. technically it has 10 mounting options for 3,5" drives and additional 2 for 2,5" drives. Personally, i would judge these cases similar. If you want convenience and 8 3,5" is want you need, the N3 is the better choice. Its a really neat case! If you need more Storage, more network, more compute power the 804 is the better choice. You can stuff in the 804 10x3,5", 2x2,5" drives and stuff at least additional 5x2,5" sata ssd in the space under the first HDD carrier (its a mess inside but possible ). Furthermore 4 pcie slots to play with and massice cpu coolers. Its case for more hands on people.

[@ApxuBbI]

Curious if Fractal is cooking something new for NAS case. Would be great.

[@RichardHamblen]

I have the 804 and have the N3 on order... they serve different uses. The N3 replaces my HP microservers Gen8 which supported 4 drives. Similar footprint and I support 8 drives and I can run a few docker apps to support home automation. The 804 is my workhorse app server, so it has a data centre card and a high end graphics card, so it is a child for syncing storage, but the parent for high end apps such as facial recognition and ANPR for security cameras, Need more space and more cooling for different use. love them both but recognise they are for different uses.

[@KayJay01]

I would love to see a Jonsbo N4 that's just slightly larger with support for m-atx motherboards and ATX PSUs. Would be the perfect NAS case IMO.

[@ericli8534]

N4 doesn't support 8 3.5 HDD, only 6 3.5 plus 2 2.5HDD.

[@KayJay01]

@@ericli8534 Well that’s a pretty big step back. Wtf are they doing? Let’s hope they do an N5 that doesn’t take steps backwards..

[@DougCuthbertson]

Thanks. That was a great review. I subscribed. You nailed the use cases when you said the Node 804 is more of a sandbox environment, while the N3 is focused on storage. I can really see the appeal of having a backplane for hot swapping drives. Nevertheless, my priority is learning how to use TrueNAS as a backup storage server and hopefully a media server. I recently completed a NAS build in my 804. I'm glad it supports mATX motherboards. It didn't take long to discover that TrueNAS Core didn't recognize/support the built-in Realtek NIC, so I had to add an Intel 82575/82576 ethernet adapter. I also added an LSI Logic SAS 9207-8i adapter with a couple of SAS-to-SATA breakout cables to make wiring a little simpler. I'm also probably overly concerned with cooling. I added a couple of Artic BioniX 120 mm fans just to be sure enough air is pumped into the case. The 804 and the mATX motherboard made these changes easy.

[@isrnick]

If you are going to use a Fractal Design case for a NAS I prefer the Define line of cases over the Node line, you can use cases like the Define R5, R6, 7, or 7 XL, and all of them have individual drive trays, though there isn't a backplate, but at least you can hot swap individual drives relatively easily.

[@kleash]

Node looks hella sexy though.

[@hatti.mueller]

Exactly the comparison I was looking for and I got all the information I needed. Thank you for this video.

[@markwoll]

My build in the N3 has been going for about a month. I have a similar cpu cooler to what you show. I added two 80mm fans to the back of the case( they are external PWM fans ). Cooling has not been an issue. Drive and cpu temps have been very reasonable ( Ryzen 5800x ). Noise wise, the 8 enterprise 16tb drives are louder than the fans. I'm pretty happy with the size of the case, which was one of the decisions drivers.

[@Nick85]

What was your solution for attaching 8 drives to an ITX board?

[@markwoll]

@@Nick85 The MB is an AsRock rack x570d4i-2t. 2 Oculink connectors. The OCulink cables are 4 drives per. One came with the MB and I had to order the other. For spinning drives it works well enough in Truenas scale.

[@Nick85]

@@markwoll I've yet to learn about OCulink connectors. Thanks for the reply! I've got something new to figure out now :)

[@thestreamreader]

i was gonna get that MB but only supports 1 m.2 so cant do dual nvme. i currently have asrock z690m. i have also been trying to have dual nvme cache drives, 10 gb nice, and load 8 drives and a sata boot drive for proxmox. I have been a month as well trying to figure this out. I just reached out to a company in California that makes custom risers for pcie to take x16 to 2 - x8. I am waiting to hear back from them. I am so disappointed in this case overall anyone wanting to really fill the 8 bays has to do some real study and possibly overspend on MB. Its hard when trying to get 10 gbit and trying to fully populate this fully. I wish he would cover how to populate this with 8 drives and 10 gbE.

[@jeticusgaming]

This was the EXACT video I was looking for, thank you!

[@patrickcennon5617]

Thanks!

[@nascompares]

You sir, are a gentleman! Currently fighting a losing battle vs black Friday (making videos and articles for the channel) and feeling pretty wiped out...but seeing a notification that you went out your way to donate and support a content creator is MASSIVELY appreciated!!!!! You have yourself a fantastic weekend mate!

[@zuzupa4o4e99]

In N3 is easier to change disks BUT ... If you plan to use server grade 16TB+ disks you should really pay attention on vibration and temperature. 804 offers better spacing, better cooling and way better anti vibration system ... and believe me these go a long way. Now calculate the very low 1-2% failure rate of these disks and the massive 60 months warranty. Build the system right and you probably won't need to change anything in the next 5-7 years. IMHO if you are building your first NAS and you want to play with storage Jonsbo N3 will do. But If you need a really stable storage solution with tens of terabytes secure real estate FD 804 is very hard to beat as a compact DIY case.

[@diablobarcelona]

Thank you for (again) for an amazing quality review. Ordered my N3 this evening and it will arrive in 3 years and 5 months ... PMSL... seriously it's arriving in May IIRC... fingers crossed it'll be here well before that.. 119€ from China.

[@patrickcennon5617]

Node 804 also has a couple of mounts for ssd’s inside the front cover Had for 6 years now use as my main PC as I have purchased a ts-453Be, ts-1277 and a tvs-h1688x since You can never have too many backups‼️

[@Doogin21]

I was just looking into this! Thanks for posting

[@Parax77]

I upgraded to the N3 from a Node 304. The 304 is also ITX with internal PSU, but he N3 HDD "tunnel" with backplane and forced airflow is far superior. So no downsides to this upgrade.. The 804 is just too big, and I don't like the HDD Blocks with no forced airflow. If I want a box as big as the 804 then the N5 would be my choice..

[@danagoyette7932]

If you want to really show just how big those cases are, I'd suggest including a few common objects such as soda cans in the shot. You could even show it in terms of N soda cans stacked in a given dimension.

[@blackcoffee3323]

Hi, also you could check Thermaltake Core v1, it is cheaper but has good 200m fan and same shape as fractal node (more mini atx PC than NAS)

[@sashag1547]

This is helpful thanks. These are the 2 I landed on for my upgrade from the n1. While the n1 was great, 5 hdd's just didn't go as far as I was expecting. Pretty ready to add a few more. It's either upgrade case or add external via hba card. Sadly that seems to cost 2x for 8 bays and a psu.

[@Levelupeachday]

are there any 3d printed solutions for the front pannel drive bay? If not that might be a good project.

[@esunisen3862]

One big difference is that the 804 can fit a 240mm AND a 280mm radiators at the same time, but only if you remove the 3.5" drive cages. And you still keep the possibility to have 4x120mm fans at the front at the same time. Watercooling the N3 may be possible but not without modding the case.

[@blakeparry1983]

the jonsbo clearly makes a better just NAS storage build option I weighed up both for my build and was leaning towards the fractal as i wanted better motherboard/cpu options and pcie expansion space that the m-atx form factor allows. In the end buggered off both options and went for the Antec P101 Silent. 8 3.5" bays that are easy to access/replace and nicely cooled good fans and sound deadening Full ATX motherboard and expansion options full atx power supply support I got mine quite cheap new Only downside is that its big and its heavy - but these were minimal on my list of requirements Is clearly designed as home server/NAS case - worth a review!

[@kevinintheusa8984]

I did the same for my first NAS and now I want another one for my office storage and I am leaning towards the 804 since I want to repurpose an older ITX MB but have a larger 1070 GPU for transcoding. I love the Antec and I almost got another one but it is huge and my closets are getting full.

[@blakeparry1983]

@@kevinintheusa8984 Yeah its huge and heavy! lots of nice smaller ITX format cases coming out these days for NAS use too

[@greatwavefan397]

That Fractal Design case is big!

[@idiocracy9530]

Problem with N3, is that the backplane does not accommodate 3.5 to 2.5 adapters like the icy dock. In the 804, you can install 24x2.5 ssd's in 8 icy docks. You can't do that in the N3. Not having a backplane is a good thing. In the N3 you can only install 8 drives. If you only ever need 8 drives, it's fine. 304 & 804 could do with an update, albait a small one as the cases don't really lack much.

[@IatFaiLeong]

I would pick Silverstone CS381 with 8-bay hot swap HDD. It may be bigger than the N3, but it supports micro-ATX and SAS hard drive.

[@jpk6916]

and costs 5 times

[@jpk6916]

just add an HBA LSI SAS and you have all you want

[@marcosv8426]

@@jpk6916 Silverstone CS382 costs $250 on Amazon; only $106 more than the Node 804.

[@TheLevitatingChin]

N3 with 4x 8tb ssd and i5 13500 is working like a charm for plex and nas duties. I plan to get pfsense and pihole vm's running at some point too. I went this route as I wanted a near silent machine and the ssds are the only way to do that. As a bonus it barely draws 20w idle. And that saving does add up on a 24/7 machine.

[@ParkerTyler]

What mobo did you go with?

[@lamar9525]

NICE! Great comparison!

[@frankwong9486]

Wish jonsbo make a bigger one which support matx , they are way cheaper then overpriced itx board and also provide more pcie slot

[@xiingli]

Are there any upcoming cases to wait for? Both of these have really crappy compromises that makes me want to get a synology.

[@Oracleman1]

I think you should have a look at the Kolink Sattelite Cube Mini-ITX case, It's a very cheap and really nice case with good ventilation. It can hold 3 HD's by default but with a couple of Phantek PH-HDDKT_03 you can easily fit 5 HDD's. And of course 2 NVME's on the ITX motherboard ;-)

[@rainerzufahl]

Could you please confirm the type of backplate on the jonsbo? The official website and every listing displays it as SAS only, but you said SATA in this video. Which is it?

[@brianhecimovich4488]

As far as I know, SAS is backwards comparable with SATA, but SATA ports cannot handle SAS drives…

[@Gamer_1745]

When will we get a Jonsbo N3 build video?

[@turkeyphant]

You need to compare these to the 9-bay aliexpress case!

[@timezonewall]

I couldn't find a 9 bay nas case on aliexpress, what do you search for?

[@drpainjourney]

You forgot one big minus with the Fractal case ... there is Hard drive where you can ONLY 2 screws to secure the hard drive! The holes don't match up Seagate HDD ... That's why I literally throw out my case for like 1 month ago.

[@davedenis]

So it would be possible to get an RTX 3060 and a SATA expansion in the N3?? That would make for a pretty capable home server build with dual purpose gaming.

[@iamrage4753]

flexibility is important in a case

[@kiki_de]

I bought the N3 and what really is f-ing me up is that this case has no proper power switch because it is hidden inside.

[@YTBossSC]

I don't want to seem like a hater, I enjoy your videos. That being said, I have to pause to read when you post any text. The white text the size and just HARD TO READ as the video is playing