The Jonsbo N3 NAS Review - Still the BEST?

Recommended Jonsbo N3 NAS Builds For $300 - $500 - $1000+ nascompares.com/guide/recomme...
The Jonsbo N3 NAS Case Review - nascompares.com/review/the-jo...
Jonsbo N2 vs N3 NAS Case - Get It Right First Time! nascompares.com/guide/jonsbo-...
nascompares.com/2023/09/08/to...
I Built the Jonsbo N2 NAS - • I Built the Jonsbo N2 ...
Jonsbo N2 NAS Build Complete Guide UnRAID/TrueNAS - nascompares.com/2023/09/01/jo...
Jonsbo N2 NAS Case Review - Still The Best? nascompares.com/review/jonsbo...
Amazon:
Jonsbo N2 Build for Under/Around £250
Jonsbo N2 + TopTon Intel n5105 Celeron / Pentium n6005 Build (+$35)
Jonsbo N2 Case ￡74.04 (Ali) - amzn.to/3Z3f3Mu
Topton N5105 + 128GB NVMe + 4GB RAM ￡193.48 - amzn.to/47ZibNw
SATA 6 Connector ￡4.19 - amzn.to/3ZbYGNJ
400W SFX PSU ￡24.36 - amzn.to/3qQRzxG
Aliexpress links
Jonsbo N2 - s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DD9...
Topton N5105/N6005+4GB - s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DCl...
SATA x6 Cable - s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DeD...
400W SFX PSU - s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_Dk3...
300W PSU - s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_Dmu...
The Jonsbo N2 vs N3 NAS Case Comparison • The Jonsbo N2 vs N3 NA...
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Jonsbo N2 Build for Under £500
Jonsbo N2 + Intel Core i5 12th Gen + 16GB RAM + 10GbE Build
Jonsbo N2 Case ￡74.04 (Ali) - amzn.to/3Z3f3Mu
SATA 6 Connector ￡4.19 - amzn.to/3ZbYGNJ
400W SFX PSU ￡24.36 - amzn.to/3qQRzxG
B660M ITX Motherboard £235.79 + Intel Core i5 12490F CPU + 16GB RAM - amzn.to/3LatkS2
ARGB CPU Radiator Fan (LGA1700) ￡13.38 - amzn.to/3sLPy6c
(better option for CPU Fan) Noctua NH-L9x65 CPU Cooler £49 - amzn.to/3EqsLjd
X540-T2 Intel Chipset PCIe x8 Dual Copper RJ45 10Gbps ￡39.34 - amzn.to/3Z3GSUU
Tbkoly Controller Card Motherboard Expansion Card 1 To 5 Port SATA £20.45 - amzn.to/3P8F3RV
Aliexpress Links
Jonsbo N2 - s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DD9...
SATA x6 Cable - s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DeD...
400W SFX PSU - s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_Dk3...
Mobo+Intel i5-12490F+16GB - s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DCM...
Cheaper CPU Fan - s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_Dd9...
Better CPU Fan - s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_Dk1...
2x M.2 NVMe Card - s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DmF...
---
Best Jonsbo N2 Build for £750-1000
Jonsbo N2 + Gen4/5 MoBo + Intel Core i5 12th Gen with Int Gfx + 32GB RAM + 10GbE Build
Jonsbo N2 Case ￡74.04 (Ali) - amzn.to/3Z3f3Mu
SATA 6 Connector ￡4.19 - amzn.to/3ZbYGNJ
600W SFX PSU ￡43.78 - amzn.to/3sMaf1P
Asrock Z690M-ITX/AX gEN 4/5 Motherboard £171.20 - amzn.to/3EMpjQ9
Intel Core i5-12600K 12th Gen £239 - amzn.to/45UtNiQ
Corsair VENGEANCE LPX DDR4 RAM 32GB (2x16GB) £59.99 - amzn.to/45CB2fV
ARGB CPU Radiator Fan (LGA1700) ￡13.38 - amzn.to/3sLPy6c
(better option for CPU Fan) Noctua NH-L9x65 CPU Cooler £49 - amzn.to/3EqsLjd
X540-T2 Intel Chipset PCIe x8 Dual Copper RJ45 10Gbps ￡39.34 - amzn.to/3Z3GSUU
Tbkoly Controller Card Motherboard Expansion Card 1 To 5 Port SATA £20.45 - amzn.to/3P8F3RV
(Optional) 2x M.2 NVMe PCIe 4 X 8 Card GLOTRENDS Dual M.2 PCIe 4.0 - amzn.to/3ZaeEbk
AliExpress Links
Jonsbo N2 - s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DD9...
SATA x6 Cable - s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DeD...
Cheaper CPU Fan - s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_Dd9...
Better CPU Fan - s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_Dk1...
2x M.2 NVMe Card - s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DmF...
600W SFX PSU - s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DFm...
H610 mini itx Motherboard - s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DlX...
i5-12600K CPU - s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DkQ...
Corsair 16GB Memory - s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DlY...
---
Video Chapters
00:00 - The Start
00:55 - Where is the Jonsbo N3 Build?
01:20 - The Jonsbo N2 vs N3 Case
02:10 - Jonsbo N3 Price and Availability - WTF???
04:15 - Jonsbo N3 Case vs the N2
04:50 - Those 8 Bays of Storage
05:30 - USB 10G Nice
05:45 - LEDs
06:05 - Ventilation and Cooling?
07:48 - ITX...not ATX...WHY?!
08:14 - Bigger and BETTER PCIe Support
09:30 - The Jonsbo N3 PSU Space...eh?
10:40 - The Jonsbo N3 Case fans
11:23 - The SATA Backplane
11:55 - The Downside of ITX and SATA
13:00 - Molex...and SATA Power? Eh?
14:20 - The Shipping Box
14:40 - The Instructions
15:10 - Opening up the case
21:00 - I STILL do not like the "trays"
23:55 - Verdict and Conclusion
Thinking of buying a product mentioned in today's video? If this video has helped you make that decision, you can use the links and we will get a small % profit of whatever you buy.

[@shadowr2d2]

Thank you for posting this video 🎉. You have a new subscriber. Kindly keep up the great 👍 work..

[@Zefram0911]

great run down. cant wait to see the build video.

[@be-kind00]

Perhaps we should look to using a short rack mount case or a mini tower with 1 or 2 of those hot swap modules that fit in drive bays.

[@Unselfless]

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

[@nascompares]

Cheers for the feedback

[@aliessa8515]

Looking forward to the build

[@ericneo2]

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.

[@JeffreyKelley]

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.

[@Wirenfeldt1990]

12:34 my solution was picking up an M.2 to 5x SATA thing when picked up the Erying board.. seeing as it has 2 m.2’s.. 1 for a 120 GB boot drive and one for SATA ports..

[@JTop79]

I would love a microATX compatible case with 8 hotswap bays + option to install 2x2.5 in a small form factor.

[@nascompares]

We all do!

[@jirehla-ab1671]

​@@nascomparesis there a free way to auto synce iphone photos videos to any nas (excluding synology)

[@zAngus]

Just looking for a new case. 6 months later does this exist yet?

[@scrampker]

@@zAngus curious myself

[@turkeyphant]

Is there any way to cram two more 3.5" HDDs inside there at all?

[@davidg5898]

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.

[@nascompares]

Thanks for pointing out that omission dude. Hugely appreciated

[@davidg5898]

@@nascompares I got mine pretty soon after it released in the US, so I don't know if the current version still has those semi-hidden LEDs. There's no mention of them on any of the specs or in product pictures, so maybe there's a revision of the backplane without them? I don't know.

[@bhco]

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

[@simons.-xb3tf]

92mm fans have the same mounting holes - they specifically pointed that out as far as I can remember ... TLDR: You're supposed to use 92mm fans where they have 100mm

[@csxtrainman95]

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.

[@mrkmdz]

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.

[@JohnPonthecuff]

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.

[@HaimPeretz]

Can you fit small GPU and m.2 nvme 10gbe nic card in the 2 pci slots?

[@healthy5659]

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.

[@nascompares]

Tbh the N3 feels like the better choice overall ( IMO etc etc). My N2 Vs N3 comparison will come soon, that will articulate my points better

[@CubeRhinoDev]

what m-atx case would you choose? i currently have the jonsbo n1 but my drives have had overheating issues and im looking to size up. have plenty of room

[@jackipiegg]

Is there a DIP switch on the backplane to control staggered power up on this? The new ones come with it, you can adjust 200ms/400ms/or no staggered on the DIP switch.

[@nascompares]

I'll check this on Monday. Sorry for missing it!

[@Whatisrock237]

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

[@monochrome5297]

you can use a breakout board, like risers to make use of the the 2 slots, i have looked through them, and i came up with a pretty nice idea how to do it

[@nascompares]

Cheers for sharing!

[@CrankedUpFitness]

Can you please share some examples where I can get 10gbe and still be able to fill up the 8 hdd's.

[@tombouie]

Thks Robbie; But I haven't seen the Eddie-nator (or heard from the Sea-gull-nator ;) for quite a-while.

[@AlbertoChain]

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.

[@marksulloway5669]

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?

[@leszekzajac7772]

get mobo supporting pci-e bifurbication and split pci-e into 4x nvme that gives you 6x nvme, including 2 on motherboard, something like b550i ax from gigabyte... use sata for OS and 6x 4 tb nvmes sound very tempting, but then you don't need that case...and without at least 10Gb network pretty pointless ;), but you can use pcie-x16 to 4x m.2 card with bifurbication and then m.2 to pcie-x4 cable to run single slot gpu, another one for 10gb nic ( fitted somwhere "floating" then use those as1166 6xsata m.2 cards for sata ports and run 8x sata hdd + 2x nvme for cashing on mobo and have one m.2 for os

[@user-xv3de8gq2r]

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.

[@vipast6262]

@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.

[@nascompares]

I found this this was a 'thing' after editing (Eddie pointed it out and I remember seeing them in my CWWK NAS AIO-T6)... annoyed at myself for forgetting!!!!

[@DavidSiebert]

@@nascompares That is correct. You can also get m.2e cards that have 2 sata ports if you want. I have also seen some Chinese boards with 8 sata ports. I would really wonder about an I9 honestly if you are going to use it as a home server an i5 or 5800g would work fine. As much as it pains me I would go with the i5 because the 13th gen Intel cpus are very good.

[@Yandarval]

True. However. We shouldnt have to do these "workarounds".

[@vollhorst140]

@@Yandarvalyou don’t have to , just buy a mainboard for storage usecase. Supermicro and ASROCK rack have a few with 8 or more sata ports. They are more expensive than a consumer board but if you are going for 8 drives, 150$ more for the mobo won’t break the bank.

[@vipast6262]

@@DavidSiebert The persformance and power envolope that is best for this small form factor, a 5900 (non-x) and a 7900 (non-X) would be a better choice.

[@AustinMichael]

The PSU extension cable is common on SSF or compact cases. Most of my SFF Caselabs or Sliger cases uses them.

[@ZeronicMatrix]

I like to see this case with MicroATX, you can find some with enough sata plugs, 2 nvme for TrueNAS, a 10G card and a GPU for Transcoding.

[@nascompares]

Sadly, it's ITX, DTX, or bust!

[@davedenis]

What would be a MicroATX board with these features? Considering a Node 804 build which is MicroATX and a board like this would fit the bill.

[@lamvuong5411]

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.

[@mattb7406]

Great vid!! Amd itx mobo w onboard 2.5gbe?

[@nascompares]

I promise to try and do more AMD soon!!!

[@meccu19]

Can you compare this with node 804?

[@andrebrait]

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

[@nascompares]

Unsure. Haven't got one here to try. But alof of the time, it's the strict alignment of the mounting screws that will be the deal-breaker, especially in a space economy case like this

[@markwoll]

Mine was just delivered yesterday. I begin building tonight.

[@nascompares]

Lovely stuff! Share your thoughts on it man.

[@markwoll]

@@nascompares First impressions are close to yours. The PSU is going to be a long term issue, airflow wise. It blocks 10 of 17cm across the back of the MB and there is 8.5-9 mm between the PSU and the MB. The MB is an Asrock Rack X570D41-2T with a Ryzen 5700X. I chose a Noctua NH-L12S in hopes the 12" fan would help with the 570 chip set and 10g chip cooling. There is just 1cm at the back to add 80mm fans. In theory they will fit, but I need to pick them up tomorrow to know for sure. Getting good airflow might be a challenge. I might rig a 40mm fan at the front of the case aimed diagonally across the obstructed part of the MB. It would be PWM so hopefully not a noisemaker.

[@markwoll]

So I got it built up. I need a different Oculink cable for the second set of 4 drives. Had to order another from the UK. Such is life. I ran Memtest for about six hours and temps were good. Airflow with 2 80mm pwm fans on the back helped. Temps actually improved with the 8 drives populated. I'm not using the pcie slot, cable management is pretty good, but the psu cables take up a lot of room.

[@markwoll]

So, I received the new oculink cable and hooked up all the drives. I did have a bit of a chore with the 8th drive, getting it seated and connected. The mounting of the drives is not the best by a large margin. But, I don't think they will loosen. The temps are very acceptable. The noise levels are a bit high, not bad but higher than I would prefer close by in the office. Rigging up PWM 100mm fans will be a project to cut the noise floor. I am having an issue with the power button, it might be a thing with the MB. I don't anticipate shutting the NAS down all that much. The IPMI can control the power, as can Truenas Scale.

[@PIXX3L5]

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

[@nascompares]

Yeah, I realised after the recording.... LIVID. Especially after discussing and showing one on the CWWK AIO-T6 NAS Review. Bugger!

[@PIXX3L5]

@@nascompares no worries I'm sure most of your subscribers will realise the easy error. I'm really excited to get this case but I've heard the fans at those sizes are hard to find

[@karlschuneman7960]

Your unit suffer from the same problem mine has, the SATA power connector is not attached to the harddrive backplane. It is not soldered to the backplane.

[@nascompares]

Thanks for highlighting, will investigate this when I get back on Monday. Cheers!

[@imperiosfei]

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?

[@nascompares]

Interesting. I'll add this to the every growing list of why I hate those bloody "trays"

[@Vitium92]

If I remember correctly, on another channel they stated that the JONSBO handles were made of silicone, so there is no problem about heat, and under 'normal' operating drive temperatures (up to 50 ºC ) the rubber dampeners should not degrade, but it also depends on the type of rubber used on them, not sure on that.

[@EmperorTerran]

Why is there no dust on all that stuff around?

[@nascompares]

Eh?

[@monochrome5297]

you can load it with side fans if must

[@kevinwade1253]

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.

[@nascompares]

Tbh not a vast amount more, but then it comes down to how the device is used by the clients. Plus QNAP/Syn use in house CPU fans, custom PCBs for the builds and generally end up with a lower power consumption as a result

[@RossHouck]

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.

[@RossHouck]

Also, I think you're looking for m-ATX rather than ATX motherboards.

[@nascompares]

*waves english flag passive aggressively, like a bit of a dick* let's agree to disagree!

[@Wirenfeldt1990]

Shortening MOther BOard to MoBo is fairly universal, i thought?

[@hiRyan329329]

Roughly where is "this side of the ocean"? Genuinely curious as I also frequently call them "Mobo" here in America Edit: Nvm I see where he started calling the DTX vs ATX mobos "cards". Its alien to me but tbh I wouldn't have noticed if I wasn't looking for it

[@EmperorTerran]

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€

[@nascompares]

SStay tuned next week for an absolute INSANITY build in the Jonsbo N2N3 style (Wednesday maybe)

[@javahne4007]

Nice review, but if we are looking at these kind of cases, wouldn't it make more sense to look at cases like the Fractal Design Node 804, which offers much more flexibility?

[@LittleMopeHead]

Yes, but Node 804 is bigger, m-atx, and does not have hot swappable bays. People have different requirements.

[@mjsmith1242]

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.

[@Bytional]

8 bay but still ITX board, cable management still a mess(backboard still use SATA connection instead of SFF-8643), terrible PSU options, HDD tray feels terrible.

[@nascompares]

Gonna go out on a limb and say you aren;t a fan of it?

[@Bytional]

@@nascompares nope, but I guess it's more accessible in the west, so I understand why some people choose it.

[@skylier36]

Would love to see a video on the 45Drives HL15 (Homelab 15 bay)

[@nascompares]

Didn;t know about this one. Added to my watch list! Cheers.

[@mistakek]

Same, but I'm sure we're going to see these reviewed by all the creators that went to the 45drives creator summit. I'd get one for sure, but shipping down here to Australia would cost me a lot :(

[@BenRook]

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.

[@ALex-qc4lf]

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

[@ALex-qc4lf]

Also you could use an m.2 SATA card to get enough storage 😉

[@Qibbles]

that psu thing is confusing... The N3 looks like such a nice upgrade from n2 but deeper look makes me happy with my n2

[@nascompares]

It's those extra inchs for the CPU fan/HS and PCIe Cards that win this won for me. My N2 vs N3 video should land very soon.

[@crankgreenwatts]

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 👍

[@nascompares]

N3, without question between them. The price difference is so small vs the scalability and physical space allocation internally to components and airflow

[@crankgreenwatts]

@@nascompares been looking at the ERYING mobo and the i9 looks a great option. Will see how it stacks up from a price perspective compared to the ROG and Ryzen combination.

[@be-kind00]

That's really a drag about not supporting mATX. I won't be getting this case. What are the best matx nas cases?

[@nascompares]

the Audheid (goes by a bunch of brand names) is good. Watch my video on Amazon/Ali express NAS cases, I cover 2-3 good mATX/ATX cases

[@wolthar6797]

Node 804 ?

[@be-kind00]

@@wolthar6797 I just read a bunch of amazon reviews on the node 804 and they were not good.

[@tek_soup]

i just bought, 10/19 will have 10/21 amazon. 😀

[@Deletistjerk]

The only thing that’s an improvement over the N2 is double slot PCI-e support. You can bifurcate PCI-e and use 2 single slot cards.

[@berightback1456]

You can call me crazy But I would love to see DIY video for all NVMe NAS (like flashtor 6 alternative)

[@billychia-lungtai4692]

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!

[@nascompares]

Sadly, this is a really common error and as Ali is a site that is built on speed and 'blink and you'll miss it' page design, I'm sure you won't be the last one hit by this. Even I was, and I was going through those pages slooooooooooow for video preparation, realising the price I was showing on screen for the N3 was the N2 (that product page is a joke/crime!). I feel for you bud

[@thestreamreader]

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.

[@chrisrocheleau106]

I think this is more of a limitation of available M-ITX mobos than the case. I am finally starting to purchase gear for my N3 Build and had to dig into AliExpress to find a Erying M-ITX board that had 3 NVME slots so I would be able to do exactly what you are describing with mirrored cache pool, 8 drives and an available PCIe slot for future network card expansion. Of course the Erying board does not clearly describe the speed of 1 of those NVME slots so I'll find out in a month when it gets here 😅

[@thestreamreader]

@@chrisrocheleau106 yeah report back mine is up forsale I became so frustrated i got this case i gave up.

[@esunisen3862]

Do you know if a Deep-ITX would fit in there ? That would be EPYC xD

[@nascompares]

I love what you did there! Also, afraid not

[@Wirenfeldt1990]

Mine is in the mail, with the Erying 11500H having landed already.. It’ll be nice to get out of the Synology ecosystem

[@praetorxyn]

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.

[@nascompares]

Got a couple of potentials coming soon, in the form of a bulkier Silverstone case (review landing next week) and a couple of the U-NAS cases at the end of the month. Stay tuned

[@praetorxyn]

@@nascompares I think the Silverstone one you mentioned is the one I am talking about. Gossip says the backplane feels very cheap and flimsy and fragile, and that the HDDs aren't well ventilated so they run hotter than they should.

[@nascompares]

The drive tray vents are not great! When the vid goes live, you hear me bang on about this alot. It (hopefully) will form part of my triple tier desktop build I'm working on

[@Stuart0870]

The Erying motherboard you're getting, only has two SATA ports, how are you making a NAS from that?

[@KimmoJaskari]

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.

[@nascompares]

I agree, to a point. But that key is tiny and the screws are very 'soft', so it would be phenomenally easy to tear them up with even a marginally different sized bit. That said, I could certainly elaborated this point better in the vid! Cheers for watching man

[@Yandarval]

Im rather surprised, that there is no mention of the lack of holes for cooling in the backplane. Those two included fans are going to do nothing without them.

[@shadowarez1337]

I glued 2x120mm slim Noctua fans and took out the mesh in front of case way more cooling the back fans don't do enough

[@shadowarez1337]

Just got mine inna few days ago $114 shipping was brutal but i needed something i could build a great powerful Nas without gimped Arm CPUs.

[@nascompares]

*smashes like button* true, true, TRUE

[@ImmortalDemonix]

I was about to do the same thing but they just started showing up on Amazon & newegg 😅

[@shadowarez1337]

@@ImmortalDemonix seen that lol if impatient on a case Ali express if can wait a month amazon. What's odd though that Noctua Fan controller stopped existing and shot up over $100

[@zazelskycrest2525]

i like the video, but how i wish we can have the smoke test thing to see how the air circulate

[@nascompares]

Tbh I haven't the facilities here to do so. I'd love to attempt that those. Will ponder that one

[@zazelskycrest2525]

@@nascompares im not an expert, but i believe an air flow/circulation test is more important in Nas then in normal computer. Normal computer now are made as a piece of furniture, to be shown/display thus they can have more fan and since the pc is displayed in open, it help on the thermal issue. A lot of people i know store their nas in closet or somewhere hidden, thus it is more important to direct the air outlet outside so that the closet wont build up and recycle hot air. That smoke test will greatly be informative on that. Some people suggest thermal camera but sometime, the hotspot near some of the ventilation hole is not due to air out but more due to component position

[@AidenPryde3025]

You mentioned a D7 case? Who makes that?

[@nascompares]

That would be the AUDHEID K7 8 Bay NAS Case (not D7, my bad) - amzn.to/3tMby1C

[@AidenPryde3025]

@@nascompares oh, darn I thought you said it supports ATX. Got an X11 ATX I want to turn into a backup server and that form factor would have been perfect (double decker w/ disks on bottom).

[@Raintiger88]

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.

[@nascompares]

The N2 / N3 fan noise can be Adjusted with the fan connected to the mobo, but even then it's not that low when doing so. Also, yeah, that N6005 board is a steal! I would have used that topton one in my n2 build video, but I had to "match" the current gen Turnkey NAS' for the theme, which was the N5105. Good choice!

[@Raintiger88]

@@nascompares Actually, no fan control on my MB. I use a noctua adapter that comes with most of what they sell (I'm pretty sure it's just an inline resistor) to get the fan a little quieter. But it's still in the garage.

[@chriscardwell3495]

I agree to rubber handles are naff - the cost difference . . . rubber handles versus plastic trays - must be minimal

[@nascompares]

I just don't like how dodgy they feel to pull out in the event of a hot swap

[@Cypher_NZ]

It's a SFX case psus are basically always internal.

[@nascompares]

There's internal...and then there is "deep inside the middle of the case, using an extension cable adapter" internal

[@SUPERSS90]

Wow since you have so many can i have one?

[@anthonygallegos87]

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.

[@TazTheTech]

If they made a 10 bay that supports micro atx or atx they would sell so many of these

[@turkeyphant]

100% agree

[@josecintron85]

just looked on Amazon (US) and it arrives in 4 days, total price $170 (usd)

[@nascompares]

And I bet the stock is like 4 units

[@johnfritz1164]

I bought the N3 on Amazon US for $170 with free 2 day shipping. It was delivered Oct 1.

[@simons.5442]

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 ...

[@Cr4ft3r99]

Still prefer the Fractal Node 304 … 6x 3.5 drive bays and much cheaper and smaller overall, can use a standard psu and a miniITX mb

[@8xhj0q893hjm0938umh]

6x3.5+2x2.5 SSDs

[@tgeorg12]

No hotswapping

[@zyghom]

"because of you" I will be building another PC after what: 40 years or so ;-) All arrived apart from Jonsbo, but I ordered both: N2 and N3

[@nascompares]

I think, if I look long and hard at this comment, there might be a compliment in there!

[@zyghom]

@@nascompares bravo ;-)

[@jaytruesdale1805]

Tape the Allen wrench to the bottom/back of the case so you can find it later. Or just go buy another one.

[@vudu5vudu]

Use a magnet.

[@nascompares]

All true, I just really liked the nuance of the placement of the N2 key holder. Or better yet, replace that with standard Phillips/Crosshead screws anyway!

[@matldn2697]

Your point of not being a ATX compatible is a very sore point. Then the build could accommodate a PCI to SATA expansion and a 10 gigabit Ethernet card. This is not good.

[@jaylord55]

if it was slightly bigger even m atx would be awsome

[@nascompares]

M-atx case review coming later this week

[@r0tb3rt]

I wish there would be a case that supports 8 HDD bays but accepts ATX MoBos.

[@nascompares]

I know... absolute dealbreaker for many

[@r0tb3rt]

@@nascompares Not really but it limits drastically. For me it will do, I will use a ASRock Z690M-ITX with a i5 12400. Both internal m.2 will be equipped with an 1TB nvme in Raid-1 while the PCIE will be equipped with a decent adaptec raid card. 10gb ethernet would be nice but the 2.5g from the ASRock will do. Overall a great case with potential but that mitx is kind of a bummer.

[@wolthar6797]

Fractal Define S

[@r0tb3rt]

@@wolthar6797 too big

[@vollhorst140]

FractalDesign node 804 8 easy bays, 4 harder to reach.

[@Acid_1982]

N3 интереснее, спасибо за обзор. Хотя ваш язык я не понимаю, но видео сняли доходчиво.

[@FrenziedManbeast]

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.

[@nascompares]

All true...annoyingly, annoyingly true!!! Cheers for the comment man

[@ZombieLincoln666]

“nicker” is a risky word to use

[@vollhorst140]

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.

[@nascompares]

I think you missed the several times in the vid that I said that it is a good case, but I have three specific dislikes.... the trays, the odd Alan key choice and the PSU placement. Thinks can't be binary in a review...gotta be critical

[@vollhorst140]

@@nascompares hmm I think voiced my thoughts wrongly. A review has to be critical, I agree. After watching the video, I could remember what and why this case would be Bad but not why it is good. The amount of time and intensity spend on critical points is much bigger than the positive aspect. Which gave me the feeling this must be a bad case.