N100 to replace my N40L

niggyg

niggyg

niggyg

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I'm still rocking a HP N40L with a custom BIOS, 4 drives and the OS on an SSD. It's been the best bang for buck hardware I've ever purshased!

Alas, I've had an itch (not that kind!) for something a little newer, quieter, lower powered and faster.

I'm thinking...

* N100 - but this is a minefield and I'd like to seek advice, can you get a pre built SFF N100 PC and rip it out of it's enclosure? - this would save a lot of money if possible. Each MOBO seems to have compromises, ideally i'd like;
* PCI-E port to allow for a 10G NIC in the future
* 2 M.2 ports, 1 for an SSD and another for SATA expansion
* Jonsbo case, the N4 looks nice, but I like the per HDD LED on the N3.
* Unraid - I've not used it before but it seems the way to go. If I got the one year $49 license am I going to regret it or, is it more likley i'll never need to upgrade?

The N100 seems like it ticks lots of boxes.

I'm thinking of copying this build with an Asrock N100DC-ITX:
 
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Have a look at CWWK's NAS mobos. I have one with N355 CPU, two M.2 and six SATA ports, two 2.5GbE Ethernet but there's another with eight SATA ports and a 10GbE Ethernet. Google cw-at-10g-8p
 
Thanks, I was pulled in by the 6W TDP of the N100. I wonder what the real word differences are on power draw between the N100 and N355. The CWWK's look to tick more boxes too.
 
It is very difficult/near impossible to get the power levels closer to tdp levels on those boards, more like 18w for n100 and 30-40w for n305/355. Something to do with the SATA controller.
I have a SSD only NAS built with a n305 board CWWK, running TrueNAS as and happy with it so far.
 
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Any recomendations on quiet PSUs to go in an N3 or N4?

Why do all the builds you see use a 650W, 750W or 850W PSU, surly that is overkill?
 
I'm sure I've seen somewhere somebody has installed one of those little NAS boards into the bottom of an N40/N54 carcass and made the sata connection work.
 
Steveocee said:
I'm sure I've seen somewhere somebody has installed one of those little NAS boards into the bottom of an N40/N54 carcass and made the sata connection work.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I've seen that. I was tempted myself but I think I'll go down the Jonsbo N3 or N4 route.
 
I ended up buying a cheap N100 from AliExpress and couple that with a five disk DAS.
That replaced the N54L, in terms of being a media server.

TERRAMASTER D5-310 HDD .​

The above being the DAS.

No doubt the cost of the N100 NUC type box I bought have now increased in price.
 
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Vimes said:
I ended up buying a cheap N100 from AliExpress and couple that with a five disk DAS.
That replaced the N54L, in terms of being a media server.

TERRAMASTER D5-310 HDD .​

The above being the DAS.

No doubt the cost of the N100 NUC type box I bought have now increased in price.
Click to expand...
Thats an intresting, slightly different solution. How does the DAS connect? Through a single USB.
 
niggyg said:
Thats an intresting, slightly different solution. How does the DAS connect? Through a single USB.
Click to expand...

USB 3.2 gen 1 for me, gen 2 gives the potential for greater throughput.
That DAS supports gen 1, as does the small NUC.
The limitation are the mechanical HD'S, in transfer rates etc.
 
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niggyg said:
Any recomendations on quiet PSUs to go in an N3 or N4?

Why do all the builds you see use a 650W, 750W or 850W PSU, surly that is overkill?
Click to expand...

If power draw is the driving factor, it’s definitely worth splurging on the PSU. Between the PSU and drive choices is where you can make the most significant energy savings.
 
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Is second hand on a PSU a bad idea? I'm looking at the Corsair SF450. It seems a slightly more sensible choice for the build.

I'm also wondering if I should just grab some RAM now before the continued price increase.
 
I think you're too late on the RAM prices. A wanted post in the MM would be less painful if someone wants to sell what you need.
 
Snapshot said:
I think you're too late on the RAM prices. A wanted post in the MM would be less painful if someone wants to sell what you need.
Click to expand...
Maybe I should just get an 8GB stick untill prices return to normal.

The MOBO I'm looking at says it takes "DDR5 supports 4800MHz by default (note: compatible with 5200 and 5600, it will automatically downshift to 4800MHz) "
 
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