DIY NAS form factor a la Synology possible?

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Hi hi,

I’m currently using a DS720+ 2bay NAS my daily NAS but was considering upgrading to a bigger 4 or 6 bay version from Syno “because it just works” but wanted to explore a DIY build first and realized how hard it is to browse for motherboards and cases for this kind of build. I learned yesterday that you can add a GPU to some Synology models that have PCI slot, which made me even more curious for a DIY built (“what if I could fit a GPU without an adapter?”)

Does anyone have experience building “a small NAS with better specs” than a typical of the shelf NAS?

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You can easily make your own NAS, most people run TrueNAS to do so but you can even set it up with Windows if you wanted and share drives in a similar manner if you really wanted to.

There are all sorts of cases you can buy for various form factors and styles:

https://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-Technology-Hot-swappable-Performance-SST-CS382/dp/B0CKTYSZV9/

https://www.amazon.com/Silverstone-Technology-CS380B-Storage-Cases/dp/B01MA6NJE8/

https://www.amazon.com/KXRORS-Mini-ITX-Chassis-Computer-Aluminum/dp/B0D9K37Z6Y/

https://www.amazon.com/N2-Aluminum-Support-Integrated-Removable/dp/B0BQJ6BCB7/

https://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-Technology-hot-swappable-Performance-SST-CS351B/dp/B09WJJ9W6W/

https://www.amazon.com/AUDHEID-Enclosures-Compatible-Micro-ATX-Motherboard/dp/B09QKMQ1B1/

https://www.amazon.com/KCMconmey-Internal-Compatible-Backplane-Enclosure/dp/B09WQC44B3/

https://www.amazon.com/Argon-Network-Attached-Storage-Raspberry/dp/B09YXB7BX1/

Then you just get the MB sized for the case you wanted, there are plenty of M-ITX and m-ATX boards. Often with the “lower end” chipsets rather than the top of the lines ones because you arent usually looking to put an i9 in one of these but rather the smaller and lower power CPUs so they also have the lower end chipsets to match them.

There are also Chinese ones for NAS builds as well:

You can also check out videos like these from Wendell to get some ideas:

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My vote goes to the Jonsbo N3, if you want a small and compact 8 bay case:

The only real downside is that it is mITX which almost necessitates a SATA / SAS m.2 module. If you want something bigger with mATX support, I also love the Fractal Design Node 804:

Couple one of these two with an AM4 build, and you are golden. Here is one I threw together quickly as a reference:

PCPartPicker Part List

Type Item Price
CPU AMD Ryzen 5 5500GT $103.50
Motherboard ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ax $159.99
Memory TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan Z 2x16 GB DDR4-3200 CL16 $49.99
Storage TEAMGROUP MP44L 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 $36.99
Case Jonsbo N3 $148.00
Power Supply EVGA SuperNOVA 550 GM 550 W 80+ Gold Fully Modular SFX $99.00
Total $597.47

Although, to be fair, if you do not mind the space, the Fractal Design choice is cheaper:

PCPartPicker Part List

Type Item Price
CPU AMD Ryzen 5 5500GT $103.50
Motherboard MSI B550M PRO-VDH WIFI $99.99
Memory TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan Z 2x16 GB DDR4-3200 CL16 $49.99
Storage TEAMGROUP MP44L 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 $36.99
Case Fractal Design Node 804 $124.99
Power Supply Thermaltake Toughpower GX2 600 W 80+ Gold ATX $61.99
Total $477.45
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Oh i’ve seen those Jonsbo cases and totally forgot about them!

Thanks for the replies

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Second that. I bought and built in one years ago and the 8 default bays are great, especially because they are well ventilated.

And while I have not yet tried this, I am pretty sure you can 3D-print a 6 or 8 bay drive cage to put it into the mainboard chamber, there’s a lot of space.

If you want smaller, the Node 304 is also an option.

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Another option if you’re looking for inexpensive pre-built that allows you to use any OS, check out this very inexpensive 4 bay NAS.

AOOSTAR WTR PRO 4 Bay

Appears to be $300 for a 4 bay compact NAS with an Intel N100, dual 2.5GbE, and an M.2 for boot. Certainly not the fastest CPU, but I’d think plenty sufficient for a NAS- especially considering the price point.

I have not purchased this (yet), but it looks like a great chassis to replace my offsite TrueNAS unit.

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@saeris I am running Synology software in a VirtualBox VM for testing purposes. The only difference in the directions from the video is that I downloaded a different tiny redpill file. Any computer can probably run Synology software.

I forgot to welcome you to the forum. Most of us like to share our knowledge, so don’t be afraid to ask questions.

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Oh yeah i know xpenology and redpill :smiley: I don’t mind at all going with something else, I was just generally curious if there were maybe general small OEM (?) or Aliexpress motherboards that are commonly used in small nas builds. Since I’m so far detached from this particular topic

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thats an interesting one, shame it couldn’t house a GPU hehe

but from what I see its a barebones and you can install any OS on it?

@EniGmA1987 thats a really cool idea but i think, due to it being 3d printed, it takes a lot of space :frowning:

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Precisely. But if someone wants their NAS to just be a NAS and run their VMs & containers on something else - I think an N100 would be very suitable.

I’ve run my primary TrueNAS on a pentium G4600 and my backup TrueNAS on a 4th Intel i5. I’ve found no performance issues at all

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Can confirm an N100 is plenty fast. Driving 6x4TB SATA SSDs.

Screenshot
Screenshot1662×831 130 KB

Gonna upgrade to 2.5 or 5Gbit ethernet to make better use of the hardware I have. For now it’s just 1Gbit.

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I had the same dilemma when choosing a system for new NAS/homelab/media server. My DS415+ stopped getting updates (DSM 7.1.1 was the last one) and it started to have some weird hardware problems.

First I went with 2 different systems - one miniPC soft firewall Topton N100 for pfSense/OPNsense + very light Docker/LXC containers. For NAS I went with AliExpress mATX-C612 Xeon mobo, that has 10 native SATA ports and 2x2.5GbE. Got 8x4TB used server-grade drives for it as well. Put it all in Fractal Define R5.

But… I wasn’t happy with the power consumption in idle. Board itself sits around 60W in idle with only 1 NVMe drive. When adding 8 old HDDs it went up to 120-125W in idle. Considering energy prices in Europe it was just too much for it to be running 24/7.

After a lot more research, armed with the knowledge from previous system, I finally decided to sell my NAS and my miniPC, add some budget and went for a modern solution.

Yesterday I’ve ordered all the needed parts:

  • motherboard: CWWK Q670 NAS board which accepts LGA1700 CPUs (they have 2 variants, I went with the one that has full-sized DIMM slots and 8-port native SATA)
  • CPU: Intel i5-13500T - I got very good deal on it, cheaper than normal i5-13500 or 13600. At least 1x500 CPU is mandatory for this board to have vPro working
  • RAM: 64GB (2x32) DDR5 4800MT CL40 - I just went with the most compatible RAM for this mobo/CPU. I don’t want to OC RAM on a 24/7 running machine.
  • HDDs: went with “new” factory refurbished 6x14TB Seagate Exos x20 (2 years warranty on them) for media files and cold archive
  • SSDs: pair of used Intel DC S3710 SATA for personal file access across my desktop, laptop and tablet
  • NVMe (storage): 2x1TB PCI-E 3.0 - had them laying around from my upgrades over the years. Will mirror them and use for VM storage.
  • NVMe (boot): 512GB PCI-E 3.0 - boot drive, ISO storage etc.
  • Case: I’ve kept my Fractal Define R5 for now, I will probably be switching to Jonsbo N3 or upcoming N5.
  • PSU: Cooler Master V750 GOLD-V2 750W - got a very nice deal for an unopened unit (inventory clearance)

I will be installing Proxmox on it, virtualizing TrueNAS and pfSense/OPNsense (still deciding). I will run a few additional light VMs/containers for different services. Finally I will be running some heavier VMs for testing/learning new things.
It will be my main and only NAS/homelab/firewall/media system for now. I know that I’m putting all eggs in one basket, but at least for now I need to do it that way.

I went for more powerful setup than N100 because all the additional software that I plan to use on my system. Other reason was that N100 only offers 9 PCI-E lanes and I just couldn’t find any mobo that would offer what I need at the same time not being crippled in some kind of way. Q670+13500T is a lot more expensive, but a base board has everything I need for now with a full PCI-Ex16 slot for future upgrade (thinking about 10GbE networking). Power consumption should go down a lot as well.

For your use case a N100 motherboard could be perfect. The ones on AliExpress offer at least 4-6 SATA ports, 2-4 2.5GbE Intel I226-V NICs, 1-2 NVMe ports (usually wired at PCI-Ex1 3.0). Power consumption is usually around 8-10W in idle and 20-22W at full CPU stress. Pair that with Jonsbo N3 or N4 or Fractal 304/804 and you have a very nice DIY NAS with a very capable CPU.

If you want ready-to-go solution, then I recommend AOOSTAR WTR PRO (already mentioned here). It has 4 bays, so you will be limited a bit here.
You can choose from Intel N100 (4 cores / 4 threads) or AMD Ryzen 7 5825U (8 cores / 16 threads). Just have in mind that iGPU in N100 will do a lot better job at transcoding in Jellyfin (multiple 4K streams) compared to iGPU in Ryzen.