My NAS build - mostly AliExpress!

I decided to bite the bullet and build my very first DIY NAS. With some setbacks via Amazon, I finally got it built with some new and some old drives! By the way, I have decades of experience as an IT tech, so patience is a byproduct of all those years, This is what I finally used.

Specs:

Case: Jonsbo N3. (AliExpress)
MB: Topton 8 bay Intel n150 NAS motherboard (CPU included - fanless) w/ 2 SFF-8643 to 8 SATA, 2 NVMe M.2 ports, 1 10G port, 2 2.5G ports, (AliExpress)
Memory: 1 48Gb SO-DIMM (AliExpress)
CPU fan: None
PSU: Corsair SF750 (Amazon)
Case fans: 2 Noctua NF-A9s, 2 Noctua NF-R8s with purchase of 2 Fan grills (Amazon)
Boot drive: Orico NVMe SSD 1 TB M.2 drive (Amazon)
Cables: SFF-8643 (2), 4 pin to 3 pin standard fan adapter (2), 4 Pin Molex Y Splitter adapter (1) (AliExpress and Amazon),
Storage drives (new): 1 Seagate 12Tb, (AliExpress), 1 WD Blue 12 Tb (Amazon), 1 WD Blue 10 Tb (Amazon)
Used storage drives from old systems: 3 WD 4 Tb, 1 Samsung 2 Tb and 1 Seagate 2 Tb
OS: Openmediavault 7.

I used the Noctua NF-A9s to replace the two case fans the N3 came with. I used the Noctua NF- R8s to supplement the case cooling (there was already space allocated on the N3 for them and added the grills to prevent any cable mishaps). I had a mishap with the backplane that came with the N3, as removing one of the SATA port cables also ripped the port off the backplane! Luckily, AliExpress had the backplane in stock, so I was only a week or so with less than the whole 8 ports. I love the “new for me” SFF-8643 ports as it saves a LOT of clutter, with the SATA ports.

Originally, I had plans to use UnRAID as my OS, but it didn’t agree with my Orico boot drive (it kept disappearing and appearing by itself). That did not bode well for a stable system. I contacted the manufacturer of the drive and they told me quote “Use another operating system”. So I installed Openmediavault 7 (OMV7) with no oroblems except for user error . It also saved me money as there is no licensing fee for OMV! I decided to use RAID 1 (striping) to keep most of my storage - 50 Tb of drives using RAID 1 gave me 45 TB of storage to use.

The CPU now only uses 5% on regular load, the memory is only at 6% on regular mode. Which is great!

The only worry now is overheating of the HDDs since there is barely any space between the drives now that the bay is full. I keep searching for a mod to use to help cool the drives down. Hopefully there will be a solution eventually. But with the max temperature of 39-41 degrees C for the drives and a cool 27C for the CPU, I can live with it for now.