Unboxing & Review of a 9-Bay NAS Motherboard from AliExpress!

[@nadtz]

Just to throw it in there Topton isn't really a no name brand, maybe not well known to the average eastern consumer but they've been around for a while (along with cwwk). Compared to some of the stuff you can find on ebay and aliexpress while I wouldn't exactly recommend them to someone who wasn't DIY oriented I've had pretty good luck with the hardware I've gotten from them.

[@c0p0n]

Well known in the homelab world. I have one of their n100 router boxes, great stuff

[@nadtz]

@@c0p0n Same, I have been very happy running opnsense on mine and have used a couple of their NAS boards for low power low cost builds for friends.

[@mndlessdrwer]

If you've got a 10Gb or faster capable network switch, I'd toss an appropriate 10Gb+ NIC into the PCIe 3.0 x16 slot. They're not terribly expensive these days and it'll get you faster connectivity. If I remember correctly, you can get 2x25Gb ethernet on a PCIe 3.0 x16 NIC, but that would probably be excessive due to the bandwidth limitations of SATA3.

[@delduked]

One of those Ethernet ports should have been 10gb. I would buy that

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

I wish

[@4eyesleo]

They are 10g together with llink aggregation =)

[@c0p0n]

​@@4eyesleothere's nuance to that

[@wiedapp]

Most of these boards come with Intel i225v or i226v NIC, so a dab at the Intel Update Assistant while being in Windows wohld possibly have helped. And if everything else goes wrong, you could possibly find drivers with the hardware ID from the device manager and Google...

[@w3isserwolf]

The Brand is Topton. I also run 2 NAS Boards from them But with an 6005 processor.

[@joseph3164]

4 2.5Gb ports nice!!

[@Nalianna]

could run it as your NAS, and also as your router :)

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

@@Nalianna Yes, and by default, as you see in the video, they even ship it with pfSense, you can use it as Router and/or NAS

[@B.D.B.]

I bought a variation of this board for an SFF build. The Topton N17, comes with 7840/7940 and support UDIMMs (not SODIMMs), but it's not as useful for a NAS build as it only has 4 SATA ports. Though I suppose you can use the PCIe x16 (x8 electrically) or one of the M.2 slots, to add more if you don't need the slot. I think I also saw a variation with 1x10G+2x2.5G networking. I can't for the life of me figure out what chipset they use though (probably A620, but I'd really like to know if it supports PBO or not). Edit: the 10G variation is actually an N100 board and uses the Marvell AQC113C controller for the 10G port.

[@fedefede843]

what about disk performance? power consumption? those are the things I'd like to see in a nas mobo review.

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Please see the 2nd video on this motherboard on my channel, power consumption is 75 watts with all disks in use and disk speed was limited to Ethernet, which is 2.5Gbps

[@fedefede843]

@@TechnicallyUnsure oh, that is the video I was looking for. Good stuff, thanks!

[@JohnPonthecuff]

I believe that you need to get a TPM Header (module) for TPM to work (it is the ASUS compatible one)....

[@HORNOMINATOR]

detailed overview, cool that this stuff exists

[@r0galik]

Default String is my favourite company.

[@guidobyfredo]

vanilla BIOS, what's not to like lol

[@Airbag888]

Too bad it lacks quicksync.. what's the power draw at idle and under load? That's important info and I can't find it in your other videos.. 🤔

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Please check the follow up video for more info kzbin.info/www/bejne/rKPYiKCMmceSo6s

[@Airbag888]

@@TechnicallyUnsure Got it, so 70W idle.. that's 50 too high for me haha thanks

[@ankorot]

What was the idle power? (12W for just CPU that sits idle looks very weird and very high to be trusted)

[@user-vo9sv3no8g]

This board /CPU combo support ECC RAM? If not, is it wise to run True NAS on it?

[@eXsoR65]

Man I’ve looked everywhere to see if anyone had done a video and just today I came across it. Did you do a follow up video of running TrueNAS for a longer time? I’m really interested in this board to build a TrueNAS box

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Yes, here's the follow up video kzbin.info/www/bejne/rKPYiKCMmceSo6s

[@user-vo9sv3no8g]

I’m not sure that this board /CPU combo can run ECC RAM. If so, is it wise to run TrueNAS on it?

[@send2ady]

It works with 96 GB Ram also (2x48) - the CPU supports ECC but i bet the MB don't

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

You are right and the 64GB limit is mentioned in AliExpress listing, but as you said, the CPU supports more

[@BrunodeSouzaLino]

You can use ECC anyways, as the memory controller has been part of the CPU since 2008. All Ryzen SKUs support ECC RAM, but it has to be unbuffered. Only EPYC SKUs support Buffered ECC. You could address 128 GB, but 48GB is the highest capacity you're gonna find for a single ddr5 sodimm.

[@AinzOoalG0wn]

@@benjiro8793 so can you get ecc buffered on desktop cpu for ryzen? or is EPYC a must? 🤔 and based on whats said, doesn't seem like the motherboard matters these days? as long as the cpu supports ecc?

[@JKos-cz9lj]

@@AinzOoalG0wnall 7000 desktop ryzens supports ECC but the motherboard also should support.

[@AinzOoalG0wn]

@@JKos-cz9lj ah, i see, ty my friend 😊

[@milk4chillout]

internal usb is perfect for unraid os did you test the chineese nvme?

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Yes, NVME SSD came with the motherboard and it worked fine, installed the OS on it and did some speed test, all seems to be in order.

[@dktol56]

I would like to know what chipset provides the 8 sata ports accessible thru the sff-8643 connectors. I'm guessing ASMedia or maybe JMicron. Too bad you didn't run lspci when you had Ubuntu installed.

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Sorry, missed that in this video, please keep an eye out for the new video, it will include a lot more info on this motherboard

[@JKos-cz9lj]

does it support ECC ram, and what is real idle power usage?

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Please check the follow up video kzbin.info/www/bejne/rKPYiKCMmceSo6s

[@akurenda1985]

Do you know if the PCIe slot supports bifurcation?

[@pabloszi]

I have this board from cwwk. Till now didn't find any option in bios to turn on bifurcation.

[@Airbag888]

Bifurcation tends to be very expensive, 99% sure this does not have it

[@mamdouh-Tawadros]

Do you need that kind of power for NAS ?

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Not really, they are advertising it as a NAS motherboard, but I think Proxmox is a better choice as the main OS. You can run TrueNAS as a guest VM on Proxmox and do passthrough for the disks.

[@aleJohnny]

Do you know the power consumption? Idle, Full load, etc?

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Please check the follow up video for more info kzbin.info/www/bejne/rKPYiKCMmceSo6s

[@aleJohnny]

@@TechnicallyUnsure The follow up is about the X99, no?

[@freegameshow4743]

Quick question: have you desoldered the capacitor under the 2x4 pin of the processor power supply? Because I've got a capacitor blocking the plug.

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

No, I did not desolder anything, maybe you got a different board or a different revision ?

[@freegameshow4743]

@@TechnicallyUnsure It's exactly the same, but with just one extra capacitor.

[@khirasier]

pretty sure even a n5105 nas motherboard would crush a premade nas letalone a 7840hs

[@HaimPeretz]

In the AliExpress page I found this board supporting ECC RAM, is it right?

[@HaimPeretz]

"Support SO-DIMM DDR5 memnory technology 2*SO-DIMM DDR5 memory slots DDR5 supports 5600 by default and is compatible with 4800/5200MHz (supports ECC notebook memory) Maximum capacity of single memory: 32GB Maximum capacity of dual channel: 64GB"

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Yes, what I heard was and I quote: "All DDR5 come with inline ECC" (sic)

[@dfcastro]

Is it possible to configure Raid 5 on it or should we add an external controller?

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

I think you should be able to do that, I don't see why not. In the follow up video I installed TrueNAS and everything works well there too

[@shtewps]

Was the usb4 port working in Ubuntu?

[@shtewps]

@TechnicallyUnsure is that a "yes"?

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Sorry for the late reply, finally got a chance to try it. Yes, it works, driver part was a bit pain, but USB4 port works

[@monish05m]

does it support passing though the pci to vm, does the bios have any IOMMU settings ??

[@krimzon653]

having 4 ethernet ports is pretty good !

[@jonisup1]

Does it support bifurcation of the Pcie slot?

[@danielzebrowski5038]

Does the BIOS / PCIe slot support bifurcation?

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Stay tuned, in the upcoming video, I will show bifurcation and more on this motherboard

[@mi.canal.de.youtube]

Where is network and storage benchmarks? I mean the title said nas motherboard, and you even got windows and counter strike in it. I just don't get it

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Sorry, it's on the 2nd video, please see: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fXuUgIWNarCLb8U

[@mi.canal.de.youtube]

Thanks! ​@@TechnicallyUnsure the 2nd wasn't show/suggested

[@hrgagan9192]

whats the power draw on this when running the NAS?

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

70W

[@nitehawk68]

Does it support Proxmox?

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Yes, it does. I will actually upload a new video where I'm doing more with this motherboard.

[@r0galik]

Proxmox is just a Web interface for qemu... Everything supports it

[@weilou5057]

Good luck with those unknown brands MB. I bought similar kind of MB from Amazon for a nas build. However two out of 6 sata ports don’t work. Only thing good is that they accept return. I have to pay $80 shipping to send it back to china. I will never buy any unknown brand MB from China any more.

[@Vinterloft]

Topton is not a no-name brand. They've been around the block

[@dokt9304]

Bro said there's no driver when you can just download the genric one straight from Intel/AMD 🤣💀💀

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

What? We are talking about driver for Ethernet

[@frenchieman971]

@@TechnicallyUnsureyup exactly and you just miss a very easy step to check you driver by yourself. Also Topton is very easy to answer on Aliexpress chat, WeChat and Skype to give your the support links of each of their thousand products. They are OEM manufacturers for many many many brands in China but also around the world, that’s why they don’t put their name on their products because they sell OEM and accept custom ODM names if you buy from 100/1000/10.000 units etc. They are big big big big in China and responsible for many Mini PC designs and Laptops boards and AIO Pc’s too…their pdf catalog is HUUUUGE.

[@xgeko2]

are the 2.5gb ethernet intel or realtek?

[@DATApush3r]

Intel Ethernet controller I226-V 2.5GbE

[@freegameshow4743]

in the BIOS, I can't access my hard disks. Are there any settings I need to change?

[@freegameshow4743]

I took the same barrette as you. CT32G56C46S5

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

How about the M.2 drive? Did you install it? What power supply are you using? Did you install CPU cooler properly?

[@freegameshow4743]

@@TechnicallyUnsure The prosseceur is well cooled, I put a ssd sata, and a corsair 750 watts

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

So it just randomly reboots? Maybe bad install? Is power supply new? Did you connect the extra CPU power connection to the motherboard or just the 24-pin one?

[@freegameshow4743]

@@TechnicallyUnsure I'll try to do a clean install to see. Thank you for your help.

[@ostrov11]

спасибо, хорошая работа.

[@freegameshow4743]

The motherboard reboots after the truenas boot. I don't get it. I need help please.

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

That never happened to me, something is not right. Did you install your own RAM? Maybe RAM is not compatible?

[@freegameshow4743]

@@TechnicallyUnsure I took the same barrette as you. CT32G56C46S5

[@freegameshow4743]

I think it was the installation that had the problem because I installed ubuntu server with casaos and it works fine. Thanks to you @@TechnicallyUnsure

[@apocalypsevingt-cinq156]

Jonsbo make PC and NAS cases.

[@dktol56]

With your Windows install, the missing drivers are likely from Intel (the NIC's) and AMD (the cpu/chipset). The easiest path to getting the missing drivers is with a free utility called Snappy Driver Origin. Then again, this mobo is aimed at a Linux (or freebsd) based NAS or firewall, so who cares about Windows.

if it works fully with windows would be a good board for adobe workstation...

[@kamilhorvat8290]

What a strange idea, buying chinese crap on aliexpress and use it to store your data. It may work for a while, but when it crashes and causes you to loose all your data, you are on your own. I'd recommend such data storage solutions only to ppl I really hate.

[@TechnicallyUnsure]

Motherboard crashing? How? And how does "motherboard crashing" leads to losing your data stored on your own disks? Maybe if it crashes mid-copy you might lose those data, but how's that different from any other motherboard? Don't get me wrong, I get what you saying, low quality/cheap stuff from China, causing issues, low shelf-life, and all that, but for a regular home user it's no different than any other motherboard. Any motherboard can crash and it won't really necessarily directly cause data loss