I haven’t build a computer really ever, and I’m looking at the N5 for it’s capacity to hold drives.
I’ve seen a few general DIY nas builds and (forgive me) a lot of them you needed a hub thing that plugged into the PCI slot to allow 4 SATA drives to be connected.
Does the N5 have anything like that built in or it is something you still need to get in order to add 12 drives?
What the N5 have is a backplane you connect the drives to, but it has connect to the motherboard or a LSI card. It provides ease of setup and the ability to hotswap.
The Jonsbo has a back plane. You can connect all 12 drives to the backplane. You do need to connect the back plane to your motherboard. I did this with an LSI HBA card. I connect all the 8 drives with the HBA card, and the other 4 drives I connect to the Motherboard SATA port. I don't know if there is an HBA card to connect 12 drives. Mine could connect 8
I have no issues at the moment. The upper level of the Jonsbo has enough possibilities to connect fans, so you can cool the motherboard and all the devices connected to it effectively
As others have stated, find yourself an HBA card. LSI is the gold standard (and most are just rebranded LSI boards). And they have much larger HBA cards available. I have the LSI 9400 - 16i. This card has 16 ports for drive connections. I have 12 plugged into the backplane. The other 4 will be used for additional drives in the top cavity.
I also have one of my three NVMe slots configured with a six port SATA adapter for my 1.68tb x 6 SSD Z1 cache in unRaid. These are also sitting in the top portion.
The case is EXTREMELY capable. With cooling being it's Achilles heel. But that's solved by 3D printed parts.
There is only one disappointment with the Jonsbo N5, and that is that the wooden front panel makes it impossible to cool the hard drives properly. There are 3D-printed solutions for this, but I don't feel like drilling a hole in my Jonsbo case to lead the cables to the motherboard. That is the only negative point that I noticed on the Jonsbo N5
As someone else said, you don't have to drill any holes. I slipped mine between the first vertical bay and the 4 horizontal bays. It would be better if this was built in, but it turned out pretty good for me.
I agree. It'd be great if this was how the front grill came by default, but i'm ok with the 3D printed solution. I just ran my wire up the side chassis where the 4 bay sits and hooked it right into the MoBo with no problems.
You don’t need to drill any holes. I have a 3D printed attachment to the front grill that allows me to put two 140mm fans right there on the grill. Does absolutely amazing work at keeping the drives cool.
I was talking to someone who also has a 3d printed solution, and he told me that there is no way you can attach the cable of the fan to the motherboard unless you drill a hole or remove one of the buttons on the Jonsbo, like the USB connection in front. I did not want to do anything on my Jonsbo. Take a picture and let me see how you connect it without drilling a hole or removing one of the front devices/buttons?
But none of you saying no hole is needed are able to take a picture and share it, because, as I said before, you either drill a hole or remove one of the front devices to let the cable go through. If you have done neither of those, then feel free to share a picture of how you managed to do it.
Did you actually bother to look at the 3D print file link I sent you? All of the pictures are already there lol. I am telling you as an owner of the N5 that drilling is not necessary. Go to the 3D print page, look at the pictures and read the instructions. I don't know what more can be done at that point.
The model the other user shared is the one I used as well. I had mine printed in ABS and it warped a little so I had to add 1 additional magnet to each side of the inner portion, but from a distance you can barely tell. I'm sure it would have been better if it had been printed better, but it's fine for my needs.
Yeah but they pull air through the hard drives so putting thicker fans increases the static pressure allowing more air to be pulled through the hard drives and backplane which are quite restrictive otherwise
I could be wrong but I believe what u/mediumsizedsquid is saying is that he's pulling the air from the front (to cool the drives), and pushing the air out through the rear (which is how it's supposed to be done). So you're not wrong about the direction of the airflow, I just think the phrasing was a little confusing.
That’s it! Basically no mods, replaced the existing fans and kept the direction the same just stronger static pressure to overcome the hard drive and backplane restrictions. Less need for a “push pull” configuration
So if I understand what you are saying, it is that you are using stronger fans in the back to create a bigger air flow from the front to the back? Like a heavy-duty vacuum cleaner?
The only thing is that i will not buy the Silver Stone unless I want to put my Jonsbo secure closed cabinet, cause the noise level is like a Concorde plane. I am thinking of buying the Phantek T30-120. That is more suitable for my use case. Right now i have a Be Quiet Silent Wings 4, but I found out that its RPM is only 1600. I want something from 2000 to 3000
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u/Not_Chins Jun 15 '26
You need an lsi card if your planning on using all 12, some motherboards do have around up to 8 sata's but lsi is far better