Jonsbo N1 - highspeed NAS/SAN with zfs (theory crafting)

Hardware Cases / Chassis
1

I feel in love with the Jonsbo N1 a while ago for the design and functionality, and the 1x 2.5 and 5x 3.5 in small case. Since then I’ve been toying around with a setup in my head that should be highspeed, zfs, and not way too expensive. Feel a bit ashamed that I didn’t think of oldschool case modding and cheating.

Anyways, here’s something to work from.

  • Jonsbo N1 $150
  • ASRock A320M-ITX or similar motherboard with 1x m.2 and can take 64GB ECC $140
  • AMD RYZEN 3 PRO 4350GE, AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 2200GE, or similar $140
  • 64GB RAM DDR4 ECC UDIMM 2x32GB $320 used from ebay
  • IBM M5110 8 port 6GB raid flashed as IT $25 used from ebay
  • Something low profile talking 10GB $30 used from ebay
  • NGFF M.2 Key M to PCIe x4 Gen3 32Gbps Extender Cable Adapter R42SF $25

Total: $830-ish

Now comes the tricky part. Cut out room for a low profile pcie card at the back of the case. Drill a hole, straighten the bracket on the card, fasten it with a nut and bolt.

5
5800×800 77.8 KB

Don’t know how the 140mm fan in the N1 is but if it gets too hot swap it out for a Noctua industrialPPC or a Phantek T30.

Think this should work if i’ve haven’t had a brain fart some way down the way.

(Disks not included.)

2

Skip that RAID card, and get yourself at LEAST the LSI 9207-8I

For the NIC, grab a Mellanox ConnectX-3, very low power

I agree that chassis looks very nice, very Apple like. Its always been a dream of mine to rebuild an old Xserve into something modern

3

Make sure you check it beforehand if that combination even uses ECC, from what I heard others say, including @wendell, that’s a very weird rabbithole.

But if that works do tell, I wouldn’t mind getting stuff like that too.

4

Ryzen with integrated graphics don’t support ECC. You have to get a Ryzen PRO CPU or get a discrete GPU if you want graphics (well, or get some IPMI)

1 Like
5

IBM/Lenovo ServeRAID M5110, Dell perc H200, Dell perc H310, Dell perc H710, HP have a couple too, and a bunch more raid controllers all use similar sas controllers (LSI SAS2008-SAS2308) that can be flashed with the LSI SAS 9207-8i firmware that allows JBOD/IT mode if the original firmware don’t. A lot of them comes preflashed and dirt cheap on ebay.

Cool. They seems to have good Linux support too.

6

Thanks for pointing out. Why making it easy, AMD? But for this I found a bunch of used Ryzen 3 Pro 4350G that have ECC support for $140. Ryzen 3 PRO 2200GE has a similar price.

7

Not remotely as fun, but a SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SDV-4C-TLN2F might actually be the best alternative. $700 +$200 for 2x32GB DDR4 ECC RDIMM. The ECC udimms breaks the former setup.

1 Like
8

Since you mentioned that board, maybe check this out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvE4HNJZeIg

1 Like
9

Xeon D are neat little things and a lot of value if you can snag a good deal. I managed to snag an AsrockRack D-1541 board back in 2019 for like $500 new and have yet to find a similar deal on that SKU or higher. Obnoxiously expensive for what they are though if they’re not on sale. At $700 a D-1521 board isn’t that great of value in my book. Also found this for the US folk SuperMicro X10SDV-4C-TLN2F, Mini-ITX,Xeon D-1521. with active fan & I/O shield 672042197606 | eBay

1 Like
10

Look for the NAS Motherboard N5105/N6005.
Does not have a PCI slot, but enough SATA (6) ports and NICS (4 x 2.5). It’s about $240.

11

That case is not something designed for this product but something generic right? I’m saying this because I have a Saturn Mantiz Pro eGPU enclosure inside the same form factor. Don’t get me wrong this thing is a beefy aluminum case and it looks nice.

1 Like
12

Wouldn’t surprise me. Chinese patent laws are… flexible :slight_smile: and there’s some designs and tech that are seen as open for all, even if it’s not open source.

13

Finishing off this. 2FA was totally right, a board with a D-1541 like the SuperMicro X10SDV-4C-TLN2F is the right way to go. That board checks all the marks, ecc, 6 sata, and 10GB network.

  • Jonsbo N1 $150
  • SuperMicro X10SDV-4C-TLN2F $250 used from ebay
  • 64GB 4X16GB DDR4-17000R 2133Mhz ECC Reg $110 used from ebay
  • SFX power supply, about 300W less known brand $50
    Total: $560-ish

Then comes the price of 1x ssd and 5x hdd. But a similar NAS from QNAP or Synology is at least $900-1000, and this can run zfs.

1 Like
14

This topic was automatically closed after 273 days. New replies are no longer allowed.