Jonsbo N2 SFF Intel I5-12500T based Build

[doesntaffect]

I ditched my EPYC Build and switched to Intel. Transition went smooth as hell - moved the disks & USB stick. Done. 

Had to reconfigure the temperature sensing plugin for the new sensor. That was all, aside from the hardware build process. 

 

Background for swap:

Since years I was looking for a NAS like case and finally Jonsbo released the N2 last year - A 5x 3.5" 222.5mm(W) * 222.5mm(D) * 224mm(H) cube like case, close to the size of a usual NAS. 

I allows for an ITX board + low profile cooler and is SFX powered. I also wanted to try the 12/13th Gen Intel CPUs.

 

Hardware related notes:  

 

I went for an Intel I5 12500T (T Because I wanted low noise cooling in a to often to warm cabinet). Everything else is standard. Same 4x 4TB WD Reds plus 2x 1TB M.2 in Raid 1 for cache (65% used for docker, mostly photoprism). Might swap the 12500 for an 13400T later in spring. 

 

For remote access I purchased a Blikvm CM4 PCIe card which puts the RPI CM4 based PIKVM board into the case (yeah, that sacrificed the one and only PCIe slot). But, with that config I have the same level of remote access to the BIOS level like with the IPMI BCM on an AsrockRack board.  And with Tailscale enabled I can remote into the Bios from anywhere. 

 

I removed the front USB cables from the board since I don't use them and they would only limit ventilation and just look messy. 

 

To power the HDD backplane I ordered 2 custom 6-PIN to female Molex cables. They fit well into the case and the 20/22cm length is just right for this config.

 

Hardware list: 

 

• Case: Jonsbo N2
• PSU: Corsair SF-450
• CPU: I5 12500T
• Cooler: NH-L9i-17xx chromax.black w/ NF-A9x14 HS-PWM chromax.black + 1x Noctua NF-A12x15 PWM 120mm on the back
• Memory: 2x 8GB DDR5 4800 AD5U48008G-DT
• Board: ASUS ROG Strix B660-I Gaming (Wifi & BT disabled)
• M.2 2x 1TB WDS100T1X0E
• HDD: 4x WD RED attached w/ 4x slim Sata cable, 1 Sata port on backplane unused
• Remote access: BliKVM CM4 PCIe (ATX power on/off, BIOS access, console access), Powered through USB-C PSU until I get a decent PoE Switch

 

The system draws 26 - 31W when 3 disks are parked, with all disk running 38 - 40W. Noise level is very low, only the disks are noticeable. 

Temps (Degree celsius) are: CPU 34° - 36°, Board 28, M.2's 42° for the one on top, 48° for the one mounted at the bottom of the board. HDDs 33° - 37°, Ambient Temp in the cabinet 23 - 26°. 

 

What I noticed is that the Intel based system is more responsive, especially videos archived in photoprism now play super fluent/fast without any load time. 

On the AMD system that didn't work at all - no sure if that's related to transcoding capabilities (I am more the hardware than Plex/encoding guy).

 

Todos:

Swap the HDDs to 4x 2TB SSDs

Swap CPU with 13400T

Slightly improve the cabling, although it’s already quite decent and nothing gets obstructed.

 

 

Few Photos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 6 by doesntaffect

[Wibbling]

Hello, that's an incredibly nice build. I'm looking at the Jonsbo N2 as well for a small NAS that removes a lot of the hassle my Microserver Gen8's have.

[hispeedsurfer]

Very nice, may I ask where you got the Jonsbo N2 case.

[doesntaffect]

I bought the case, the KVM card and the super thin 4xSata cable through AliExpress, shipping to Germany took 3 weeks, no import taxes on all 3 items.

 

Couldn’t find any shop for case & Blikvm in the EU.

 

the SF450 psu isn’t sold anymore (SF550 is the smallest nowadays) so I went for a used unit. 

The psu does not come with a compatible Molex cable so had to get 2x custom cables through Etsy.

 

[NoobSpy]

On 2/6/2023 at 9:49 AM, doesntaffect said:

I bought the case, the KVM card and the super thin 4xSata cable through AliExpress, shipping to Germany took 3 weeks, no import taxes on all 3 items.

 

Couldn’t find any shop for case & Blikvm in the EU.

 

the SF450 psu isn’t sold anymore (SF550 is the smallest nowadays) so I went for a used unit. 

The psu does not come with a compatible Molex cable so had to get 2x custom cables through Etsy.

 

 

I have the same case and it's an amazing case. I love it so much. Just have a few weeks and cant wait for a v2. With a little retooling it can be a stellar case. The only thing I don’t like is that they haven’t used the sled system so you can detach the top and bottom with one screw and have separate frame you can tinker with. As it is now the bottom part is attached so you cant really manage the PSU cables. The fan in it is silent. My drive make more noice.

 

This case does need the angled SATA cables like the ones you have and I forgot to order them as I figured I can just get them here. However not these.

[Pri]

Very cool case, I would have killed for something like this as an alternative to a QNap/Synology/Asustore type 5 bay system when I needed it. I like the low power draw too, thank you for including that in the build information

[fwiler]

My itx board has same position for sata and would like to order slim cables.  How long of cable do you need?  I see some for sale around 200mm in length.

 

[doesntaffect]

I am using this one, 50cm long: https://a.aliexpress.com/_EuC3Yt7

[marshes]

@doesntaffect great build, took lots of notes to apply to my ryzen based build in the same case.

 

did you consider using an m2 to sata adaptor to get a 5th drive in? Debating on sacrificing one of the m2 ports to do this. And potentially add an ssd for parity with the m2 for the OS.

[trurl]

11 minutes ago, marshes said:

ssd for parity

SSDs in the parity array cannot be trimmed. Usually SSDs would go in a pool outside the parity array.

 

11 minutes ago, marshes said:

m2 for the OS

The Unraid OS is unpacked, fresh from archives on the boot flash drive, into RAM, at each boot, and the OS runs completely in RAM. Think of it as firmware. None of the Unraid OS is on any of your storage devices.

[doesntaffect]

7 hours ago, marshes said:

 did you consider using an m2 to sata adaptor to get a 5th drive in? Debating on sacrificing one of the m2 ports to do this. And potentially add an ssd for parity with the m2 for the OS.

Yes, I was looking at different options since I wanted to use all drives and 2x M.2 to have them in Raid 1, since my docker are sitting on the cache. And I also wanted to have the Pikvm internally, so had to spend the PCIe Slot for this.

 

At the end I couldn’t find a suitable solution for me that allowed me to keep both M.2 and 5 instead of 4 drives.

 

As of now the build is close to perfect for me and runs like a charm. Super stable, draws just 26W with several dockers running.

I will use the empty HDD slot for a cold standby disk for the case 1 drives failes. I then only need to swap them and add the new drive to the array.

[marshes]

Thanks for the replies. Good point on Unraid. I’d think the comment still holds true as a docker pool separate from the OS, and I guess OS redundancy isn’t really needed with Unraid? Actually not too familiar with Unraid yet as up until now I’ve only had an old DAS and separately, messed around with OMV. 

OP, makes sense! I just opened up my N2 and am excited to build in it. Cases have really come a long way, and the build quality looks pretty solid.

 

Couple last Qs on your build: can you link to the Molex cables you bought? How much slack was left in the sata cables? Looks like 20cm and 30cm ones can be bought through Ali.

 

[trurl]

16 minutes ago, marshes said:

OS redundancy isn’t really needed with Unraid?

You must always have a backup of flash drive, or, at least, the config folder from flash, which is where your configuration (all settings from the webUI) is stored. As long as you have a current copy of config, you can always put that on a new install of the boot flash.

[doesntaffect]

20 or 30cm Sata will be to short, my 50cm is probably 10cm to long but still doesn’t create a mess. I linked the cable in an earlier post.

 

The two Molex cables are custom made and I ordered them through Etsy. Couldn’t find any shop that sells 6pin to female Molex in Germany.

 

The cables have to be 20cm minimum, better 22cm for the bottom Molex connector to decent bending angles for the cables.

 

[tangfamily]

This is a fabulous build, and the details of the cables are excellent for someone like me who is looking into this exact case! BTW, where did you purchase the Intel I5 12500T? Generally I don't see it on Amazon, for example. Would there be much difference in swapping it out for a 13500T? Final question ... would it work as a standalone plex quicksync server? Thanks for your advice! 

[doesntaffect]

12500 / 13500T - shouldn't make a difference, however the BIOS has to be up to date to support 13Gen. I bough the 12500 used on eBay.

I am also not using plex, however can see that transcoding performance is much higher than with my prior AMD system - tested with photoprism.