JONSBO N3 Mini-ITX NAS PC Chassis, ITX Computer Case, 8HHD+1-SSDD isk Bays NAS Mini Aluminum with Steel Plate Case, Built-in 2x10cm Fan, Power Support: SFX105mm, Support 130mm CPU Cooler

I need a relatively mid server to as a data backup repository and to power my media server, some tech in my home, plus a few services that I use professionally. Was running off a self-contained NAS for a few years and honestly it just isn't scaling well and we needed more drive bays. Using this case, I built a new server with a high end ITX mobo and a real processor. SO much better! This has some amazing features. The backplane that connects the HDDs works great with the bays. My ONLY complaint is the dang 4-pin molex power connectors on that backplane. Those are old and unnecessary. I had to get adapters so I didn't have to add yet another power cable from my PSU (especially with such tight space inside). Anyway, the trays work great. The rubber screw gromit system is simple and firm. I like it a lot. Only could have been better if it was toolless maybe, though I don't think the 4 screws per drive are bad. There is plenty of space for everything I needed. Love the amount of tiedown points. Cable management was really satisfying. My only other complaint is the top section being secured by 4 hex screws. I feel like now that the system is done and running it won't have to be accessed all that often I guess? Either way I had some anxiety trying to figure out when I finally wanted to close it up. Overall I think this unit is solidly built. Cooling has been totally adequate under load so far as long as you tune the fans well. No complaints about noise either. The included fans are totally fine. Footprint is compact enough to keep tucked away, though cool looking enough to show off to your tech friends.

This case has been great so far. Probably the most challenging aspect is finding a Mini ITX board that is suitable for NAS, and finding a suitable power supply. I’ll touch briefly on these, but this review is about the case. The build is solid - nothing feels cheap, although I am not a huge fan of the drive mounts (basically rubber grommets attached to the drives with screws and a pull handle to assist in removing the drive from the bay). It works though, and I hopefully will not be swapping drives often, so not a huge deal to me. Inside the case, with a SFX power supply and mini ITX motherboard, there is plenty of room, and nothing feels cramped. The power cable is a bit odd, as the PSU mounts in the top of the case at the front, with an extension leading to the back of the case for the external power cable. It prevents you from using the power switch on the PSU, but again, not a deal breaker for me. Cable management is pretty easy, and there are options for different motherboard configurations and presumably PSUs. Heat management has been fine so far, but there are mount points for additional fans if needed. Noise is a bit high (I can’t measure it), but it is on par with my 2022 era tower case. I can hear both of them, but it’s bot terrible. I would not recommend it in a recording studio though. The weird bits… First, mini ITX - finding a board with 10GBe and at least 6 SATA ports is challenging. I could find maybe 4 total, but I am sure other options exist. Most ITX boards lack both of those features, and only one or the other can be added via the PCIe slot. I did find one though, and while it mostly works, the network chip on the mobo is not really designed for server use. I seek kernel warnings from TrueNAS regularly, and gave to wonder if it is responsible for the occasional network performance issues I see. I may try another board at some point, but my recommendation is to do your homework - there are not really a lot of options. If you don’t need 10GBe, then you have more of a selection. Overall though, I am quite happy with the case. In fact, I am already thinking about future upgrades, and the N5 case is at the top of my list.

Bought this to build a NAS running Unraid since an 8 bay NAS from Synology was far more expensive than just building my own. It is a small for factor case so if you're not used to building in ITX cases it can be a bit cramped, but more than doable. The manual isn't very helpful when installing the PSU so pay attention to how and when you route the power cable. The only downside of this case I have found are the stock fans. They are super loud so if you have this case on your desk, or in an area in your house you'll hear the fans all the time. The stock fans are 100mm according to Jonsbo. I was able to replace them with a pair of Noctua 92mm fans. They mount just fine and the included fan grills work as well. Using the low noise adapters that come with the Noctua fans they are barely audible. Chances are your HDDs are louder. Max temps I see on the drives are never past 28c, which is ideal! Love this case and as of now if really seems to be best and smallest form factor case that also supports 8 HDDs AND a spot for an SSD cache. Loving the setup and my wallet is happy I went this route instead of the Synology setup I was looking at.

So this case was made known to me after seeing it on Youtube on channels like CraftComputing and ServeTheHome. I was basically looking for a new enclosure to add 4 more drives to my NAS in order to expand the ZFS arrays I had in there. I had a Fractal Design node 304 initially, which supports 6x HDDs in the internal cages, but I needed a total of 8 drive slots which this case supports. I initially thought of going for an external HDD enclosure, but I know how flakey USB can be, and I wanted to ensure maximum uptime and reliability for my RAIDZ arrays. The PROS: ======== -Quite roomy and very easy to build in -Feels premium and well made. -Nice touches like easy-ff sliding top panel, and removable fan panel for wiring. -Ability to fit SFX-L PSUs (with caveat) -Supports Mid-size (but not super long) GPUs if needed. For reference, my modestly long (by today's standards) 980 TI wont fit, but i imagine a smaller 4060 or something today might if it has a shorter PCB and dual-slot fan setup. CONS: ===== -Running an SFX-L forces you to remove the front panel IO board which can be done with 2x screws. It isnt an issue for me, but as I dont have a regular SFX PSU, I had to do this to get it working in the mean time. - The rubber straps for the drives work, but they feel like they would snap with a lot of hot swapping. Not a real issue, but something to note. - The worst offender to me, is the drive noise. When under load, they are quite loud with their crunchy head movement noises they make, and I would have thought the rubber isolators on the rails would have helped with this, but it doesnt do much. - Kinda expensive on Amazon, but you get prime shipping this way, and ability to return easily. Aliexpress has these for ~90 but shipping brings it up to almost the same price, and it comes from Shenzen China, so you dont have much recourse for warranty/return in that regard. Overall, I am very happy with my decision to go this route instead of getting an external enclosure to use in addition to my other case. Definitely a cleaner, more reliable and faster option.

I feel bad for using this case the way I did, but I'm just not currently in the need for a whole new server. I bought this with hopes to eventually turn it into it's own server, but for now it only holds my 8 hard drives and a full size power supply where the mother board should be. With that in mind.... I'm blown away with the design of this case. There was obviously a lot of time and effort put into the design of this case. From the HD mounts, to the back plane, to the air flow... I mean it's just all great... and at this price? It's just mind blowing. I'm using this to essentially hold 8 WD RED PRO hard disks as an external enclosure for a HBA card on my main server. I'm using an HBA external card with TrueNAS that has SATA breakout cables coming from SAS connectors. It's been up and running for 15 minutes so it's early to say anything about longevity, but the components seem to be very high quality. I was however confused on why the back plane has 2 moles power connectors and 1 sata power connector. A quick internet search mentioned that you must use all 3 power connectors if using 8 drives. Other than that small detail, I couldn't be happier. I did not want a HUGE case for 8 drives. There are other alternatives out there but they are so BIG and typically cost quite a bit more. For the moment, I couldn't be happier with my purchase. I'm gonna keep my eye on you Jonsbo! :)

I'm slightly obsessed with this odd case... I was in the market for many years for a storage dense atx or matx or itx case, I was actually very much trying to find a well build older atx case like an antec that had the old school front hdd mount stack that was commen befor we all went and becase obsessed with putting radiators everywhere and started building graphics cards that are longer than some of our more commen mid tower are long lol, but I apparently have zero luck when it comes to realizing what I need befor there is already a wide demand and I could find an nice antec or equivalent used atx case on the market even as a antiquated full or partial build or I could find any that were appropriately showing the inside of the case, and I'd been eye balling this jonsbo for a while, basicly since it became avalible on Amazon, and yes I had held off for a while because the price, I just assumed it was ur typical pressed sheet metal cheap build that couldn't be water cooled and couldn't bairly be air cooled but has 8x 3.5in bays so we haf to charge and arm an a leg for it... and to be fair to the target market here yes that is what this is so expensive, just go look around at the options and youl see what I'm saying... BUT no this is not just cheap stamped metal it is thick aluminum, I'm sure it's still mostly press formed but wow is it well built, these guys have put together a very compelling product here and knowing what I know now I actually realy love the price for what you get here... just to maybe prove how not full of it I am, I just picked up another one of these just cuz lol, the first one was built out as a very odd build becase I'm insane lol, I put in a am4 asrock pro b550 with a ryzen 7 5700x3d(had a 3600 in it as a temp waiting for this cheaper 5800x3d that was announced last year) and 32gb of ddr4 at 3800mhz and a 4tb m.2 pcie 4.0 nvme ssd for file caching and a simple 500gb sata ssd for the linux install and I put in a dual m.2 pcie 4.0 risser that also passes threw 8x pcie 4.0 lanes to a physical 16x slot and turns a full hight pcie slot into a half height slot(the mounting screws point need to be modified to make this work tho as I found out here, I had no idea after 20years of experience on custem consumer and commercial systems building and servicing that the screw point for the low profile bracket is actualy located on the opposite side as it is on the taller bracket, lol, I can see how I missed that, as why tf would anyone "need" to put a low profile bracket into a full hight slot...) and in that now half hight pcie 4.0 8lane slot I have a low profile rtx 4060 8gb card from gigabyte and on the 2 m.2 slots I have one populated with a m.2 marvel AQC107 10GBps ethernet adapter that works amazingly and in the other slot I haf a m.2 to 6x sata ports adapter to supplement the 4 ports I have on this motherboard, what I did is take 4 of these ports to 4 of my 16tb segate exos helium filled enterprise HDDs and 4 of the ports on this m.2 adapter to the other 4 same drives becase I wanted to build out a array and give myself the best chance of "load balancing" across controler, yes it works fantasticly and the other 2 sata ports on the m.2 are occupied by a esata to sata i/o adapter so I can easly plug in esata devices as needed and the other is used for my target operating system drive, I needed to be able to use pcie bifurcation 8x4x4 and with this board and core I can easly do that, and when that setting isn't set I don't get a booting system so it's kind of self incriminating when it dosnt eventually present itself to the network after remote power up, no kvm necessary lol, I also put in a 850watt true sfx(you can't use sfxl in this case, like I belive you can with the 5bay version, trust me u tried) that systems works so well, I also absolutely do not want my hdd bay fans running at 12v full speed all the time so I paired them with an adapter and ran the non pwm fans to a motherboard fan header so I can controle those via linux depending on the reported temperature of the hdds, and I also added in 2 80mm high quality pwm fans for exhaust and also tucked in another small pwm fan over the m.2 10GB nic to keep it cool, this system works so well I'm absolutely gitty lol, it's not even that powerfull compared to any of my large water cooled gaming rigs BUT I can remote into this "server" from a cheap quad core celeron based few watt mini pc that I also put 10gb nit into and BOOM I'm looking at an aggressively competive linux gaming system without any of noise or heat anywhere near me lol, I build a nice "poor man's swith" into a cheap hp usf system with a quad port 10GBps ethernet adapter also from the marvel product line, I belive its a new in box dell nic I got of ebay for way to cheap and works good enough that I went a purchased another from the seller becase they work much better than all the x540-t2 or t4 or even tbe newer x550 nic iv been testing over the last couple months, and then I was thinking... "I like this case so much, I also have another 8x 8tb HDDs from seagate(I think the are terrascale drives that run fantasticlyrics fast compared to other budget white label drives from them) I also now have a spare cheap sfx non modular psu on hand and I have this spare b450 asrock fatality board that I just pulled from another itx 4bay server that was also equipped with 32gb of ddr4 and has a ryzen 7 4750GE 35watt chip and low profile cooler, and I can get another of those m.2 rissers(why thay are so cheap is beyond me, I only paid $17 each for these for 2 of them now) and the 6ports sata m.2 adapter was only about $30 seriously... so ya I'm going to build another system in this case that is a bit less crazy that will focus on low power consumption and always on functions and will replace or supplement my cheap poor man's 10Gig switch and will also have a substantial amount of local storage but just the basic Vega graphics of that core which is fine becase I will probably run alpine on this "swich/archival target" with only local ssh access and no remote desktop and I will be tuning down everything except the nics to be low power with he help of underclocking and spinning down drives and tunning down fsns... ya I think iv made my point... lol... it's a solid case option, perfect for the homelab or nas, iv also had a flood of my enterprise clients requesting I build them a storage solution in this case so I will likely be aqureing a substantial percentage of the supply of these and who knows how long this maybe limited product will be on the market so if you catch it on sale for the $200 or less regular price point shaped just get it, you wount like how challenging it is to build a complex system in but you will feel away once your done and admiring your wierd acsentric pc lol

If you are building a small form factor NAS then this thing is the chassis for you. With and 8-Bay Hard drive with a backplane it makes it a no brainer. I set my plex up on this thing and it stays silent and cool without issue. This thing is SMALL. I love it!

I’m very happy with my purchase. This case was a nice upgrade from my Fractal Node 304 case which I’ve had for many years. Much easier to access and replace failed drives due to it dedicated drive bay compartment. It has a capacity to accommodate 8 drives so I can expand my array in the future. It sturdy and has a smaller footprint than the Fractal Node 304. My only complaint which other reviewers have mentioned is the stock fans are noisy. Compared to the Fractal Node, they are like mini industrial fans. Overtime you get used to it and it becomes white noise in the background. But initially the noise is very noticeable