03-21-2025, 01:38 PM
I totally get where you're coming from—there’s a lot to consider when building a NAS, but it sounds like you're on the right track. The Jonsbo N3 is a solid case, but if you're open to alternatives, you might want to check out something like the Fractal Design Node 304 for a more compact build or the SilverStone CS380 for more drive bays.
For the motherboard, since you're looking to run Plex and possibly Home Assistant down the line, I'd recommend looking at something with a strong CPU—maybe an AMD Ryzen 5 or Intel i5 to give you some solid performance for multitasking. You’ll also want something that supports 2.5GbE, and for that, motherboards with integrated LAN or PCIe network cards would be perfect.
In terms of the PSU, I totally agree about avoiding the cheap ones. Something like the Seasonic Focus GX 550W or the Corsair RM550x would be great choices—both are known for being reliable, efficient, and relatively quiet.
As for storage, considering your budget, you might want to go for 4x 6TB drives to get you started with RAID 5 for redundancy. Then, you could expand over time as your needs grow. For a cache drive, a small SSD like the Crucial MX500 (500GB or 1TB) would speed up things like photo/video editing, as well as Plex metadata caching.
For the motherboard, since you're looking to run Plex and possibly Home Assistant down the line, I'd recommend looking at something with a strong CPU—maybe an AMD Ryzen 5 or Intel i5 to give you some solid performance for multitasking. You’ll also want something that supports 2.5GbE, and for that, motherboards with integrated LAN or PCIe network cards would be perfect.
In terms of the PSU, I totally agree about avoiding the cheap ones. Something like the Seasonic Focus GX 550W or the Corsair RM550x would be great choices—both are known for being reliable, efficient, and relatively quiet.
As for storage, considering your budget, you might want to go for 4x 6TB drives to get you started with RAID 5 for redundancy. Then, you could expand over time as your needs grow. For a cache drive, a small SSD like the Crucial MX500 (500GB or 1TB) would speed up things like photo/video editing, as well as Plex metadata caching.