Best NAS build 2024 (New to NAS)

[Enquiries]

Hi,

Firstly i have to say you are really great in explaining and comparing NAS setups. I have been watching a lot of your videos and for someone with medium knowledge of PC building i learned a lot about NAS setups from your videos. I saw your review of the Jonsbo N5, and although its not out yet, it made me think about a potential setup. Using the N5 as a base for a NAS build, i wanted to ask you:

- What motherboard would you choose to go with this case? Could be great if it has EEC memory options, Quicksync, Strong CPU, Power efficient, NVM support, and enough PCIE options
- What processor would you recommend with that board
- And in case i want maximum cooling and as quiet as possible, what cooling would you add to this case?

Oh and one last question, in case setting up a BIOS for this build is something a bit too advanced for me, is there a chance i can get help with this, i dont mind paying for it.

Thank you very much in advance, you rock!

All the best,
Vincent van Bentem

[ed]

Thank you for your kind words and for reaching out with your questions about building a NAS using the Jonsbo N5 case. It's great to hear that you've been finding the NAS setup videos helpful. Let's dive into your questions to help you plan out your NAS build:

Motherboard Recommendation:
For the Jonsbo N5 NAS build, I recommend considering the ASRock Rack X570D4U-2L2T motherboard. Here are the reasons why it fits well with your requirements:

EEC Memory Support: The ASRock Rack X570D4U-2L2T supports ECC (Error-Correcting Code) memory, ensuring data integrity which is crucial for NAS setups handling important files like videos, photos, and documents.

Quicksync Capability: It features an integrated GPU with Quick Sync Video support, beneficial for hardware-accelerated transcoding in Plex.

Strong CPU Support: Compatible with Ryzen 3000 and 5000 series processors, providing strong CPU options for your NAS needs.

Power Efficiency: Designed for power efficiency, which is important for 24/7 NAS operations.

NVMe Support: Includes PCIe 4.0 x16 and PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots for NVMe SSDs, offering fast storage options.

PCIe Expansion: Offers sufficient PCIe options for expansion cards such as additional network adapters or RAID controllers.

Processor Recommendation:
Pair the ASRock Rack X570D4U-2L2T motherboard with a processor like the AMD Ryzen 7 5700G. This CPU combines strong performance with integrated Radeon graphics, supporting your Plex server needs for up to 4K video streams.

Cooling Solution:
For maximum cooling efficiency and quiet operation in the Jonsbo N5 case, I recommend the Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black CPU cooler. It provides excellent cooling performance while remaining whisper-quiet, ideal for a home NAS setup.

BIOS Setup Assistance:
If setting up the BIOS seems daunting, you can seek professional assistance from local computer shops or online services that offer remote setup support for a fee. Many professionals specialize in configuring PC components remotely, ensuring your NAS build is optimized and ready for use.

Storage Recommendation:
Consider pairing your NAS build with WD Red Pro 10TB or WD Gold 12TB hard drives. These drives are optimized for NAS environments, offering reliability, performance, and ample storage capacity for your files, videos, and Plex media.

[Joss]

Hello, my first post… after finally getting around the local watchdog. Glad to be here. Really like all the NASCompares content.

After the recent Intel CPU debacle, I've also been looking at AMD-based systems. (But I'm also waiting to see how the next generation of Intel CPUs will fare.)

Some comments on the ASRock Rack motherboard.

According to the ASRock website and user comments online, standard Ryzen CPUs like the 5700G will not support ECC. This means that you would need one of the PRO variants, for example the Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (65W) or the Ryzen 5 PRO 5655GE (35W). Note: I'm not sure if these CPUs have a configurable TDP like the non-PRO CPUs. (The 5700G can be configured down from 65W to 45W, for example.) So the 35W 5655GE might be a better choice, if you are looking for a low-power build and can't tweak the 5755G TDP down.

Another option I would consider is going with the basic ASRock Rack X570D4U, which doesn't come with two 10GbE RJ45 ports like the 2L2T variant, just two 1GbE ports. Instead, I would add a dual 10GbE SFP+ card. Afaik SFP+ fiber doesn't consume as much power as copper ports. Furthermore, I've been reading that the newer X710 is thermally superior to the older X550 networking chipset. (Another option is to go for a dual 25GbE SFP28 card, because they are backward compatible, so they should work with switches that only have SFP+ ports; however, SFP28 cards consume more power, of course, and personally I'd only upgrade if both my switches and clients would support it too.)

Generally, ASRock Rack motherboards (all?) come with IPMI, and that will consume additional energy, more than 7W on this board, which would be a waste, if you don't need IPMI (or have a PiKVM etc.). Afaik you can't disable the BMC. There are jumpers on some ASRock Rack motherboards, which iirc handle some part of the BMC system, but you can't use them to disable BMC/IPMI completely.

And if you're going for Unraid, which I would, then an internal boot drive would be preferable. (Adding a flash drive to the external I/O isn't too great imho.) But the motherboard neither has an internal USB Type A port nor a USB2 9-pin header, which you could use for a USB2 9-pin-to-dual-Type-A splitter/adapter. There only seems to be a single 19-pin USB 3.2 gen1 header on the board. There are USB3 19-pin-to-dual-Type-A splitters/adapters, but then you'd lose both connections to the front I/O. So you'd first need a 19-pin female to dual 19-pin male splitter, and then use one of the two new 19-pin male headers to add a USB3 19-pin-to-(dual-)Type-A adapter. That way you could add an internal USB flash boot drive, and still retain at least one connection for the front I/O, maybe two, because once Unraid is loaded into RAM, you can saturate a full 19 pin connection again, I think.

Any thoughts/comments? (tia)

[Joss]

There is also another thing. According to the X570D4U manual, all PCIe lanes, including the M.2, will be downgraded from PCIe 4.0 to 3.0, if a Ryzen with integrated GPU is used. So it's a fine board for a server, but not so much, as soon as you go the home NAS route with an iGPU e.g. for transcoding. PCIe 3.0 x8 is still fast enough for a beefy NIC, even for dual QSFP+ (2 x 40GbE), but losing that much speed on the M.2 SSDs, which you might need for app data, Unraid caching, ZFS cache (L2ARC), is imho not recommendable.