I 3d printed an additional 8-disk drive bay for my Jonsbo N3 to turn it into a 16 hard disk tower. The drive bay sits above the mainboard cavity, under the existing steel lid with two new side panels 3d printed to bridge the gap. This is the result printed in Tinmorry PETG-CF:

From the back (I used two 92mm fans as in the stock drive bay) showing the I/O shield for my Gigabyte MJ11-EC1 and my custom PCI bracket for the HBA card and a SFP+ 10 gig network card:

The drive bay uses a second N3 back plane purchased from AliExpress. The front panel is held on by magnets as in the original and I just used a simple “gravity latch” to hold the HDDs in place):

The disk caddy is 227mm wide and 191mm high and should print on most printers. However, the sides are 262mm long and will need splitting in two to fit on standard 255x255x255mm print beds. 

All parts were printed on a Qidi Plus4 using Black Tinmorry PETG-CF filament (I get great results with Tinmorry CF and GF loaded filaments using their published profiles on Github) using the "0.20mm - Speedy Quality - QTC040 profile" from Stew675 here:

GitHub

Plus4-Wiki/content/orca-slicer-settings/Print_Profiles at...

Contribute to qidi-community/Plus4-Wiki development by creating an account on GitHub.

Except:

• The front and side meshes were printed using zero top and bottom layers and honeycomb infill (side) and rectilinear infill (front)

• The disk holders were printed in red Flashforge ASA (regular PETG would also work, I had the ASA to hand).

I am attaching the Orcaslicer 3mf file which has all the 3d printed parts I used in this build (screenshot below).

The CPU fan holder and PCI bracket are not strictly part of the drive bay conversion but might be useful for anyone using the same Epyc Mini-ITX mainboard:

https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/gigabyte-mj11-ec1-epyc-3151-mystery.41395/

I’m happy to provide more detailed build information and the Fusion360 files if there is interest.

N3 hat master.3mf

Do you still have 3d files for this? Would like to give it a go 🤔

@meismook

What format do you need. The 3mf file I posted earlier has all the 3d printer files. I should be able to export Fusion 360 archives if you need those also.

Something suitable for a Bambu A1. 3mf will be fine, the link at the bottom of the post isn't working so I thought I'd reach out.

Ok I'm sorted link has worked.

I'll give it a go, any advice on where to split the side prices?

The flat meshes on plate 9 of the 3mf file are glued into the sides. If you split the stl files in the middle (bisecting of the oval holes) that would IMO work best. The two pieces could be rejoined using the mesh rectangles that are glued behind the holes.

More generally you should get good results using a Bambu A1. I would recommend the Tinmorry carbon fibre loaded PETG that I used. Tinmorry publish profiles for it on their Github page, it's dimensionally stable and the black gives an excellent surface match to the Jonsbo case. Use the textured plate for everything apart from the two meshes (plates 9 and 11). These will work better printed onto a smooth plate.

Assuming that you are using a normal mITX mainboard with a standard 16x PCIE slot (rather than the Gigabyte MJ11-EC1 mainboard that I used) you can cut off the outrigger off the right hand bracket in plate 3 in the slicer (it is used to hold the 16x PCIE daughter board).

That done your build order should be

1. The two mounts in plate 3. Set M4 heat set inserts into the side holes and screw to the N3 frame (the mounts only fit one way and the face on the build plate should be upwards). There are more vertical holes than you need (design was a work in progress at this point). So wait until after stage 2 before putting heat set inserts into the vertical holes.

2. Print the main disk caddy (plate 4). When printed you will see that there are four holes through the base that line up with the correct holes in the mounts. At this stage put heat set inserts into mounts' vertical holes.

3. Attach the back plane from the inside of the disk caddy. You can either use M3 heat set inserts or (as you have unrestricted access to the back) loose nuts (I used nuts). If you have bought a replica of the Jonsbo backplane it should fit perfectly (powering using both of the molex connectors is fine).

4. Feed your power and SATA connectors upwards at the back of the N3 case.

5. Unscrew the two screws that hold the N3's perforated front grille in place. Slide the disk caddy into place from the back and screw into place into the heat set inserts you placed in step 2. You will need M4 screws about 25mm long with a small head (I made the diameter of the holes quite small, sorry). They can either be attached with a short screwdriver/allen key working inside the disk caddy or a long screwdriver through the aligning holes in the top of the disk caddy.

6. Gently screw 2x 15mm M3 countersunk screws to hold the perforated front grille into place. Don't use too much force as these screws will cut their own threads in the plastic.

7. Print some of the disk caddies (plate 5). You will need short 'disk caddy screws' such as these from Amazon: disk caddy screws

   The disk caddies should be in some relatively soft material (ASA, regular PETG, PA, TPU etc)

8. Connect the data and power cables to the back of the backplane and test alignment and electrical function in all eight of the SATA bays (BTW the Jonsbo backplane works fine with SAS disks attached to an HBA).

9. Assuming no problems in step 8 print the back fan box on plate 6 and two of the 92mm fan guards on plate 7. There are two 3pin fan headers on the backplane. The fan box screws into the mounts you printed at the start in a similar way to the disk caddy, so at this stage locate the required M4 heatset inserts into the two mounts. Because there is no access when the fan box is mounted you will need a long screwdriver/allen key at this stage (the screws need to be a similar length to those you used earlier but 'small head' requirement is relaxed.

10. Print the side panels (plate 8) and the side panel grills (plate 9). Glue the grills into place (reassembling the split side panels if needed).

11. When the left are right sides are assembled fit them into place. At the bottom they use the Jonsbo allen screws that held the metal top on. At the top back they click into place under the fan box (you will likely have to loosen the fan box screws to get them to fit). At the front you will have to remove the 15mm M3 screws in step 6.

12. Double check that everything works as intended. The build is now functionally done. Everything else is cosmetic.

13. Place the original Jonsbo lid on top and line up. Drill four 2.5mm holes to hold the cover in place (I chose not to put the holes in the stl files because of the risk of small misalignments). With 2.5mm holes use black countersunk M3 allen bolts - these will cut their own threads in the PETG, so tighten carefully. Length at the back is not important (15mm works). For the front the screws should be about 8mm long assuming (as I did) that you use nuts to reinforce. Insert and glue 2x 6mm diameter magnets into place at the top.

14. Print the two halfs of the front grille (plate 10) and the thin mesh that goes between them (plate 11). Insect screen would work just as well. Cut the mesh to size and either glue or screw (I used tiny screws from spectacle repair kit) together in a sandwich. Use a small piece of suitable fabric to mimic the Jonsbo branded handle on the bottom grille. Glue two 6mm magnets to mate with those at the front of the disk caddy.

Let me know if you need anything else. AFAIK the Jonsbo backplanes don't do staggered spin-up so you will need a PSU with a robust 12v line to handle 16 disks.

Edited February 1Feb 1 by something fishy
couple of typos and Amazon link

Wow thank you for that very very informative reply.

I'll let you know how I get on. 😊

Hi, I'm moding my matx case to fit 8 drives using the jonsbo backplane. I tried to find a N6 case but its price is prohibitive in Brazil.

I think about using just the rail structure from your project and install it sideways on my case, an Aigo Darkflash DB460M.

Could you provide the Fusion files and I'll try to modify them? I'll share them later, I think it will work in any case with a 2x120 fan opening on the side.

Thanks in advance.

Edited June 5Jun 5 by leo_bsb

On 6/3/2026 at 4:02 AM, leo_bsb said:

Hi, I'm moding my matx case to fit 8 drives using the jonsbo backplane. I tried to find a N6 case but its price is prohibitive in Brazil.

I think about using just the rail struture from your project and install it sideways on my case, an Aigo Darkflash DB460M.

Could you provide the Fusion files and I'll try to modify them? I'll share them later, I think it will work in any case with a 2x120 fan opening on the side.

Thanks in advance.

Here is the Fusion 360 archive file for all parts but the side panels (I think). The disk caddies are there but their three constituent bodies are not displayed at present (just toggle them on when the archive has uploaded to the Fusion workspace). I'm very much a Fusion amateur and this was a very iterative design so lots of things will be more complicated than they need to be, but I hope that this helps.

N3_Hat Disk caddy.f3z