v3
- Requirements
- Research
- New NAS build
- Requiremnts
- iteration 1: Jonsbo N2, AMD Ryzen 5 5500, 32GB, 2x8TB WD blue (885$)
- iteration 2: AMD Ryzen 5 5500GT GPU, SeaSonic PSU (900$)
- iteration 3: Noctua case fan (873$)
- iteration 4: no newegg, no case fans (900$)
- iteration 5: 8-port PSU, downgrade to 16GB RAM (920$)
- iteration 6: back to 3-port PSU
- iteration 7: 12 TB 7200RPM drives, cabling, and back to case fan
- Remaining issues:
- References
- The Order
- Post-order notes
This is the rebuild of the v2 marcos server, which took many shapes of form. I also piggy-back an external NAS/media server build to server as a backup for the media, but that I'm also considering as a full marcos replacement if it works well.
Requirements
Posted the following on r/homelab:
Hi,
First time poster, long time home lab builder.
I'm looking at building a new rackmount server for the home, specs are:
- at least 16TB of storage after RAID-1 (so 32TB), keeping the current 4x8TiB, ideally with room for expansion, at least one 8TiB spare
- 32GiB RAM (current has 1.3GiB in swap with 16GiB onboard)
- 8 CPU cores is fine, v2 has 10 cores and is mostly idle
- low noise (not fully silent, noctua fans are fine)
- low power (not sure how much power is in use now)
- some remote management, some standard like IPMI or serial is best, would tolerate HDMI with a NanoKVM
- rackmount (4U, max 21" depth, ideally 3U and less than 20" depth), must fit a a 4-post rack like this
- 2000-5000$CAD budget (1500-3500$USD)
I currently have a [CSE-733TQ-500B][] Supermicro case with a [ASUS PRIME X470-PRO][] board, 16GB of Kingston memory and a AMD Ryzen 5 2600x. I'm not happy with that build:
- the box is huge (20" x 17" x 7", tower)
- yet the 4 SATA drives are all crammed together in this tiny enclosure
- the 2600x doesn't have a GPU, so i had to use an extra GPU card
- the OOB management is non-existent: I tried setting up a serial adapter to get the BIOS over serial but got garbage
The enclosure issue is a huge problem. Even with only the first two 8TB Ironwolf drives in there, they reach 46°C and 51°C, with the 4 drives, it burns up to 55°C and 61°C. There's essentially no cooling there, fully enclosed.
Because of this post, I'm considering a Sliger case, possibly a CX3701 (3U, 10 x 3.5" drive slots), but I worry about cooling: how can those 10 slots possibly cool down without a fan? So I'm also looking at the CX4712 (4U, 10 x 3.5" + 2 x 5.25"), which has room for cooling fans for the drives. I like the upgradability through the 5.25" slots as I'm bound to pivot to SSDs eventually, possibly in the lifetime of this build, but perhaps that's overkill.
The Sliger cases also seem expensive to me, and have free shipping only to the US (I'm in Canada).
Ideally, I'd keep the current board to save on costs, but I feel it's close to EOL anyways (it's 5 year old), so I wouldn't mind building from scratch. Wondering if I need mITX or mATX or a full ATX build. Worried about finding a board with enough SATA connectors or messing with incompatible expansion cards.
Considering staying with AMD, but open to other opinions. I like the low-power, so also considering Ampere.
RAID is software (ZFS), OS is Debian (of which I am a developer).
I'm sparing you the absolutely horrid view of the two-post rack right now: building this server would be a good step in the right direction in cleaning all this up.
Thoughts? Thanks!
[CSE-733TQ-500B]: https://www.supermicro.com/en/products/archive/chassis/SC733TQ-500B [ASUS PRIME X470-PRO]: https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/PRIME-X470-PRO/
Research
Silent rackmounts
- SilentPC 2u Xeon server: 2245$, 3 x 3.5" drives. Not great.
- eRacks QUIET2: 1400$, 3 x 3.5", still not enough drives
- QuietPC 2U Breeze D5: 1600$CAD+, 4 x 3.5"?
Reddit recommended Dell R270 in 2022, maybe using normal rackmount servers is an option?
Sliger
Michael Lynch built a budget NAS in 2022 with the Fractal Node 304, a clever 6 x 3.5" drive mITX case (yes, it must be crammed in there). (Sold by Canada Computers at 155$.)
He updated it in 2024 to this Sliger 3U trayless case with room for 10x3.5" drives, 4x2.5" SSD mounts, two 120mm exhaust fans, for 340$, about the price of my original Supermicro case. It's a Mini-ITX build though, and I have a full-sized ATX board, which he regretted because of limited expansion:
If I were to do this over again, I would have bought a rack-mounted chassis that has slots for six to eight 3.5" hard drives and a motherboard with either multiple PCI slots or at least eight SATA ports.
I asked sliger for a spec. I think those cases look amazing, and probably the next build.
From what I gathered from reviews, they are seen as too expensive for the build quality, but I kind of like the design. It's really bare though: no power supply, backplace, essentially nothing. An alternative I've found on reddit is Chenbro.
They seem to have trouble finding me a case that's 23" while still providing cooling for the drives. They typically send me towards Icydock type solutions, in which case I could just slot a FatCage into my existing 5.25" slot (189$USD at B&H).
They dohave the CX4712 but it's 25" deep, 2" deeper than the current server. I'd like to keep this within the 19" rack size which depths are apparently "600 mm (23.62 in), 800 mm (31.50 in) or 1,010 mm (39.76 in)", and I'd target the shorter depths. The rack I'm targeting shrinks down to 22" (and up to 44"), for example.
Update: seems like it's either the CX4712 or the CX3702, but which doesn't have direct fan. They say it has decent airflow, but it could be an issue for my warm drives. They're working on a 12-drive top-loaded 4U case that would be 17" deep that might pre-order in May with shipping in June, so maybe I'll wait for that.
Local rackmount suppliers
Those are interesting local suppliers of Gigabyte servers:
- Asi
- Canada Computers
- Cloud Ninjas
- Elco systems (no online pricing)
- International Computing Concepts
Other providers:
- http://www.atic.ca/ built marcos v2, still no HTTPS?!
Drives
Apparently, this provider resells refurb drives, 400-500$ for 20-26TB anyone?
Other cases
Other reviews
Motherboards
- Topton:
- NAS Motherboard N6005 4x Intel i226-V 2.5G 17x17CM Soft Routing: 6x SATA, 2xNVMe, Intel 11th gen, 2xSO-DIMM DDR4, 4x2.5Gbps, HDMI/DP, 17x17cm Mini-ITX
- Minisforum also make tiny boards, but not lots of SATA sockets, i had bookmarked the BD770i for some reason
- was recommended ASRock (e.g. this one) because, presumably, they can run ECC memory, but one needs to check forums first. had trouble sourcing them so switched back to gigabyte
New NAS build
Starting from scratch, this is a new build for an off-site backup NAS / media server.
Requiremnts
- small (think mini-ITX)
- easy hotswap drives
- good drive cooling
- quiet (less than 25-30db?)
- room for at least 4 SATA
- video / audio output
- local suppliers, as much as possible (AKA no amazon/newegg)
N2 case specifications
Really liking the - Jonsbro N2 as it's smaller than the N3. This drives much of the other components (e.g. it requires a SFX PSU and a ITX mobo).
The N2 case specs are:
| spec | detail |
|---|---|
| Dimension | 222.5mm(W) * 222.5mm(D) * 224mm(H) (11.1L) |
| Material | External cover: 2.0mm Aluminum alloy; Internal Structure: 1mm Steel |
| Drive Bay | 2.5SSD*1 / 3.5HDD*5 |
| Motherboard | ITX |
| PCI Expansion Slot | 1 x Low profile single slot |
| Front I/O Port | 1*USB3.0 / USB3.2 Gen2 Type-C/Audio+Mic (Headset+mic combined) |
| PSU Support | SFX≤150mm |
| Max. CPU Cooler Height | ≤65mm |
| Max. Display Card Length | ≤197mm long (Low profile) |
| Cooling System | 120x15mm fan*1 (built-in) |
| Weight | Net 2.9kg |
So:
- the CPU cooler must be ≤65mm
- the power supply must be SFX ≤150mm
- we have room for 5 x 3.5" drives and 1 x 2.5", but also room for a PCI expansion card (low profile)
iteration 1: Jonsbo N2, AMD Ryzen 5 5500, 32GB, 2x8TB WD blue (885$)
| Type | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 5500 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor | $109.00 @ Newegg Canada |
| CPU Cooler | Noctua NH-L9a-AM4 33.84 CFM CPU Cooler | $49.95 @ Amazon Canada |
| Thermal Compound | Arctic Silver Ceramique 2 Tri-Linear 2.7 g Thermal Paste | $5.99 @ Canada Computers |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte A520I AC Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard | $139.99 @ Newegg Canada |
| Memory | Kingston FURY Beast 32 GB (1 x 32 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory | $93.99 @ Amazon Canada |
| Storage | Western Digital WD Blue 8 TB 3.5" 5640 RPM Internal Hard Drive | $164.97 @ Newegg Canada |
| Storage | Western Digital WD Blue 8 TB 3.5" 5640 RPM Internal Hard Drive | $164.97 @ Newegg Canada |
| Case | Jonsbo N2 Mini ITX Desktop Case | - |
| Power Supply | Fractal Design Ion SFX 500G 500 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply | $156.99 @ PC-Canada (OOS) |
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts | ||
| Total | $885.85 | |
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-08-30 14:39 EDT-0400 |
that iteration doesn't actually have a GPU, because the 5500 is missing a
G suffi! I was also advised against Fractal Design for the PSU and
instead a SeaSonic.
iteration 2: AMD Ryzen 5 5500GT GPU, SeaSonic PSU (900$)
working on PCPartPicker Part List
| Type | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 5500GT 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor | $159.99 @ Best Buy Canada |
| CPU Cooler | Noctua NH-L9a-AM4 33.84 CFM CPU Cooler | - |
| Thermal Compound | Arctic Silver Ceramique 2 Tri-Linear 2.7 g Thermal Paste | $5.99 @ Canada Computers |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte A520I AC Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard | $171.99 @ PC-Canada |
| Memory | Kingston FURY Beast 32 GB (1 x 32 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory | $121.99 @ PC-Canada |
| Storage | Western Digital WD Blue 8 TB 3.5" 5640 RPM Internal Hard Drive | $164.99 @ Memory Express |
| Storage | Western Digital WD Blue 8 TB 3.5" 5640 RPM Internal Hard Drive | $164.99 @ Memory Express |
| Case | Jonsbo N2 Mini ITX Desktop Case | - |
| Power Supply | SeaSonic SSP-300SFG 300 W 80+ Gold Certified SFX Power Supply | $115.99 @ PC-Canada (OOS) |
| Total | $905.93 |
- Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
- Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-08-30 14:03 EDT-0400
this switches teh CPU to a 5500GT which has an onboard GPU, and a SeaSonic PSU (which is back-ordered and doesn't have enough power connectors, see below).
cooling noise question
Note that the Ryzen 5 5500GT apparently ships with the Wraith Stealth fan which is rated for max 40dBa, which is out of spec. That's why the Noctua s in there, even though it's likely only available from Amazon or Newegg.
Also note the Noctua fan is a really low profile one, and doesn't support high loads, according to the compatibility chart. It also requires a (free of charge) adapter. The NH-L9X65 (65mm) apparently fits the case and should support higher loads. It's rated for 24dB(A) and it's compatible with the Gigabyte A520I board and the 5500GT CPU.
Note that the built-in fan has the clearance for the case (45mm), so the fan could be installed later.
Note that the built-in fan on the N2 might be noisy as well. In this build, it seems they used another noctua fan, the Noctua A12x15 PWM 55.44 CFM 120 mm Fan which might be worth it, especially since the ridiculous situation I ended up with in the v2 build where I replaced the CPU fan only to after notice the noise came from the case fan... And indeed, that iteration doesn't replace the CPU fan!
In this build, they also complain about the case fan noise and replace it with a Noctua.
So I think that might be the right way forward: start with the built-in fans, and replace the ones we find too noisy with Noctua fans, on demand.
power supply issues
It seems that essentially all SFX power supplies are back-ordered out there. Once we turn Amazon back on, we can get the following instead:
- Silverstone SFX 500 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply SST-EX500-B (173$+, 3 power connectors)
- Silverstone SFX 300 W 80+ Bronze Certified SFX Power Supply (ST30SF-V2) (130$+, 3 power connectors), used in the reference build, which warns about the short board connector
TODO: talk with pc-canada to see how back-ordered is back-order. Their FAQ says "you'll get a date when you pay", which sucks, especially when Amazon is riiiight over there.
Also note that the SeaSonic power supply only has three SATA power connectors. Is that too few?
From the other build I found, this cooler master 850 sfx gold that has 8 ports, just like this Cooler Master v750 SFX gold. Those are probably too powerful for our needs here, the reference build is 300W. The Fractal Design Ion SFX 500G 500 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply from the original iteration has 4 connectors.
But note that, from what I can tell from the poor documentation of the Jonsbo case (at least from this image), it seems that the backplane only needs two power plugs, and D-sized ones too. So the SATA connectors on the PSU are not actually used! You can see the connected backplane on this image as well.
This other build also used a Silverstone 500W (SST-EX500-B) PSU with only 3 connectors and two AMP/Molex connectors, so it seems the molex connectors are the critical part of that build here, and here the SeaSonic doesn't work anyways because it only has one!
From the reference build, it seems like the "24-pin ATX cable is just barely long enough to plug into the Topton N18 motherboard". The Silverstone spcs say that cable is 300mm, so maybe we would like something longer here? It's unclear: comparing the photos of the N18 and the Gigabyte A520, the Gigabyte's ATX connector is closer to the edge, so it might be a little better in that regard.
So, back from the top, it looks like the PSU options are:
- Thermaltake Toughpower SFX 450 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular (PS-STP-0450FPCGUS-G), 115$ B/O PC Canada, discontinued, no cable length specs
- Silverstone SFX 300 W 80+ Bronze Certified (ST30SF-V2), 130$ Amazon (from reference build, "short" 300mm ATX cables)
- Fractal Design Ion SFX 500G 500 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular (FD-PSU-ION-SFX-500G-BK), 157$, B/O PC Canada (from first iteration), 350mm ATX cable! peripheral cables same as reference
- Silverstone SFX 500 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular (SST-SX500-LG), 173$, Amazon (mentioned above, same 300mm ATX connector)
- Silverstone Extreme 500 Bronze 500 W 80+ Bronze Certified SFX (SST-EX500-B), 203$, Amazon (mentioned above, 400mm ATX connector, has a really nice diagram of each cable and lengths)
It does look like I'll need a thin SATA cabling wrap though to slim through that port.
iteration 3: Noctua case fan (873$)
| Type | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 5500GT 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor | $159.99 @ Best Buy Canada |
| Thermal Compound | Arctic Silver Ceramique 2 Tri-Linear 2.7 g Thermal Paste | $5.99 @ Canada Computers |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte A520I AC Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard | $139.99 @ Newegg Canada |
| Memory | Kingston FURY Beast 32 GB (1 x 32 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory | $93.99 @ Amazon Canada |
| Storage | Western Digital WD Blue 8 TB 3.5" 5640 RPM Internal Hard Drive | $164.97 @ Newegg Canada |
| Storage | Western Digital WD Blue 8 TB 3.5" 5640 RPM Internal Hard Drive | $164.97 @ Newegg Canada |
| Case | Jonsbo N2 Mini ITX Desktop Case | - |
| Power Supply | SeaSonic SSP-300SFG 300 W 80+ Gold Certified SFX Power Supply | $115.99 @ PC-Canada (OOS) |
| Case Fan | Noctua A12x15 PWM 55.44 CFM 120 mm Fan | $27.95 @ Newegg Sellers |
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts | ||
| Total | $873.84 | |
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-08-30 14:46 EDT-0400 |
This one removes the CPU cooler and adds a case fan.
iteration 4: no newegg, no case fans (900$)
| Type | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 5500GT 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor | $159.99 @ Best Buy Canada |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte A520I AC Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard | $171.99 @ PC-Canada |
| Memory | Kingston FURY Beast 32 GB (1 x 32 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory | $121.99 @ PC-Canada |
| Storage | Western Digital WD Blue 8 TB 3.5" 5640 RPM Internal Hard Drive | $164.99 @ Memory Express |
| Storage | Western Digital WD Blue 8 TB 3.5" 5640 RPM Internal Hard Drive | $164.99 @ Memory Express |
| Case | Jonsbo N2 Mini ITX Desktop Case | - |
| Power Supply | SeaSonic SSP-300SFG 300 W 80+ Gold Certified SFX Power Supply | $115.99 @ PC-Canada (OOS) |
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts | ||
| Total | $899.94 | |
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-08-30 14:57 EDT-0400 |
This removes all fans and also the thermal paste I forgot to remove in the last iteration.
The case, unfortunately, needs to be bought at NewEgg and, even there, the white cases are not available.
iteration 5: 8-port PSU, downgrade to 16GB RAM (920$)
| Type | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 5500GT 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor | $159.99 @ Best Buy Canada |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte A520I AC Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard | $171.99 @ PC-Canada |
| Memory | Kingston ValueRAM 16 GB (1 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL22 Memory | $70.00 @ Vuugo |
| Storage | Western Digital WD Blue 8 TB 3.5" 5640 RPM Internal Hard Drive | $164.99 @ Memory Express |
| Storage | Western Digital WD Blue 8 TB 3.5" 5640 RPM Internal Hard Drive | $164.99 @ Memory Express |
| Case | Jonsbo N2 Mini ITX Desktop Case | - |
| Power Supply | Cooler Master V750 SFX GOLD 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply | $185.21 @ Vuugo (OOS) |
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts | ||
| Total | $917.17 | |
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-08-30 15:08 EDT-0400 |
iteration 6: back to 3-port PSU
| Type | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 5500GT 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor | $159.99 @ Best Buy Canada |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte A520I AC Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard | $171.99 @ PC-Canada |
| Memory | Kingston ValueRAM 16 GB (1 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL22 Memory | $70.00 @ Vuugo |
| Storage | Western Digital WD Blue 8 TB 3.5" 5640 RPM Internal Hard Drive | $164.99 @ Memory Express |
| Storage | Western Digital WD Blue 8 TB 3.5" 5640 RPM Internal Hard Drive | $164.99 @ Memory Express |
| Case | Jonsbo N2 Mini ITX Desktop Case | - |
| Power Supply | Silverstone SFX 500 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply | - |
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts | ||
| Total | $731.96 | |
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-08-30 21:28 EDT-0400 |
with newegg and amazon
| Type | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 5500GT 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor | $159.99 @ Best Buy Canada |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte A520I AC Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard | $139.99 @ Newegg Canada |
| Memory | Kingston ValueRAM 16 GB (1 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL22 Memory | $65.00 @ Amazon Canada |
| Storage | Western Digital WD Blue 8 TB 3.5" 5640 RPM Internal Hard Drive | $164.97 @ Newegg Canada |
| Storage | Western Digital WD Blue 8 TB 3.5" 5640 RPM Internal Hard Drive | $164.97 @ Newegg Canada |
| Case | Jonsbo N2 Mini ITX Desktop Case | $243.00 @ Newegg Sellers |
| Power Supply | Silverstone SFX 500 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply | $173.26 @ Amazon Canada |
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts | ||
| Total | $1111.18 | |
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-08-30 21:30 EDT-0400 |
manually merged: 1148$
| Type | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 5500GT 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor | $159.99 @ Best Buy Canada |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte A520I AC Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard | $171.99 @ PC-Canada |
| Memory | Kingston ValueRAM 16 GB (1 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL22 Memory | $70.00 @ Vuugo |
| Storage | Western Digital WD Blue 8 TB 3.5" 5640 RPM Internal Hard Drive | $164.99 @ Memory Express |
| Storage | Western Digital WD Blue 8 TB 3.5" 5640 RPM Internal Hard Drive | $164.99 @ Memory Express |
| Case | Jonsbo N2 Mini ITX Desktop Case | $243.00 @ Newegg Sellers |
| Power Supply | Silverstone SFX 500 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply | $173.26 @ Amazon Canada |
| Total | 1148.22 |
iteration 7: 12 TB 7200RPM drives, cabling, and back to case fan
rationale is that i'm already considering swapping in 2x8TB in the source server for this, so might as well beef up the backup.
i'm also concerned about the noise of the N2 case fan after reading reviews.
finally, I untangle the USB cabling mess and figure out which SATA cables to buy.
| Type | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 5500GT 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor | $159.99 @ Best Buy Canada |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte A520I AC Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard | $171.99 @ PC-Canada |
| Memory | Kingston ValueRAM 16 GB (1 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL22 Memory | $70.00 @ Vuugo |
| Storage | Western Digital WD Blue 12 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive | $274.99 @ Western Digital |
| Storage | Western Digital WD Blue 12 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive | $274.99 @ Western Digital |
| Case | Jonsbo N2 Mini ITX Desktop Case | $243.00 @ Newegg Sellers |
| Power Supply | Silverstone SFX 500 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply | - |
| Case Fan | Noctua A12x15 PWM 55.44 CFM 120 mm Fan | $27.95 @ Newegg Sellers |
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts | ||
| Total | $1222.91 | |
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-08-30 22:04 EDT-0400 |
manual merge: 1460$
| Type | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 5500GT 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor | $159.99 @ Best Buy Canada |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte A520I AC Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard | $171.99 @ PC-Canada |
| Memory | Kingston ValueRAM 16 GB (1 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL22 Memory | $70.00 @ Vuugo |
| Storage | Western Digital WD Blue 12 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive | $274.99 @ Western Digital |
| Storage | Western Digital WD Blue 12 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive | $274.99 @ Western Digital |
| Case | Jonsbo N2 Mini ITX Desktop Case | $243.00 @ Newegg Sellers |
| Power Supply | Silverstone SFX 500 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply | $173.26 @ Amazon Canada |
| Case Fan | Noctua A12x15 PWM 55.44 CFM 120 mm Fan | $27.95 @ Newegg Sellers |
| SATA cabling | 6x elbowed SATA cables | 29.99$ @ Amazon Canada |
| USB-E adapter | USB "E" connector to 20-pin USB 3.2 connector | 15.99$ @ Amazon Canada |
| USB-3 adapter | 20-pin USB-3.0 to 9-pin USB-2 converter | 14.99$ @ Amazon Canada |
| Total | $1457.14 (missing tax on cabling) |
Extras
- 6x SATA cables with elbows (29.99$ @ Amazon Canada)
- the USB "E" adapter converts the weird "internal USB-C 3.1 cable" AKA USB-E to more regular 20-pin USB 3.2 connector (15.99$ @ Amazon Canada), which connects the front panel USB-C connector correctly
- the USB-3 adapter is a 20-pin USB-3.0 to 9-pin USB-2 converter (14.99$ @ Amazon Canada), which converts the, well, 20-pin USB-3 front connector to a USB-2 socket, since there's only one USB 3 socket on the board, according to the board manual
One flaw with that setup is the front USB-A socket will incorrectly be labeled "blue" which typically implies USB-3, but in the back it is a USB 2.0/1.1 socket.
The USB mess
For older boards, one would use a USB Type-E to 9-pin converter (9.00$ @ Amazon Canada) to connect the front panel to an old USB-2 connector. This was done, in the reference build with a splitter, even, to connect both ports. Quite messy, since then even the modern-looking USB-C port is USB-2!
Note that there's the whole front panel for sale on Ali Express of course (25$) except it's not quite the same as the N2 because both sockets are USB-A. It did clarify, for me, how this was setup and shows the weird "USB-E" connector, which the N2 manual calls "USB-C" (the other, 20-pin connector is "USB 3.0" in their nomenclature").
Let's try to clarify all those acronyms and connectors.
- USB-A: the classic, standard, normal user-facing USB connector, can be male or female, typically carries USB 2 (480mbps) or USB 3 (5-10gbps) if labeled blue
- USB-C: same, but more modern as it can carry USB 3 and 4 (40-120gbps), reversible
- 9-pin USB: internal connector, can be male or female, normally USB-2 only (so should only be connected to a black USB-A connector)
- 20-pin USB: same, but should be able to do USB 3 (10gbps?)
- "USB-E": internal USB 3.1 connector I just found out about, apparently it's designed to deliver USB-C signals to motherboard, see this presentation and this standard which defines it as a "20 pin shielded header"
In that sense, it's perfectly normal to convert that signal to the 20-pin USB 3.2 port, even though the USB-C connector itself has... 24 pins!
This section of wikipedia on USB hardware has comparisons between various external USB connectors, but does not know about the internal USB-C 3.1 connector (AKA "USB-E"). The USB Signaling section explains well the various "2.0", "3.1", "3.2" (which was released in USB 3.0, believe it or not).
Yes, something went terribly wrong around USB 3.1. I fully expect this to become even messier.
motherboard and CPU architecture notes
The AM4 socket is kind of old at this point. According to Wikipedia was released in 2016 and upgraded to the AM5 in 2022, already 3 years ago. v2 was built with a AM4 socket, so this is definitely not an upgrade: we're building a system based on a 10 year old socket.
But then again, I'm not sure we need to upgrade the CPU that much? And besides, the CPU itself is not old: the AMD Ryzen 5 5500GT was released in 2024 and is part of the Zen 3 (7nm) released in 2020. At the time of writing, AMD just pushed out Zen 5 (3-4nm) and Zen 6 (2-3nm) is supposed to come up somewhere in 2026 or 2027.
Compared to the Ryzen 5 2600x in marcos v2:
- it uses less power (65W vs 95W)
- it has a GPU
- it supports higher memory clock rates and capacity
It even rivals with my new laptop's CPU, although it gets beaten up on power consumption and memory bandwidth (as my laptop has DDR5).
I tried to look for newer stuff. I really did. AM5 boards don't have many onboard SATA sockets (those with more than two are rare) and opening the door to Intel reaaaally broadens the spectrum of possible boards, sometimes with no clear benefit. The boards were not easier to find, were more expensive, didn't have more USB-C sockets, or 2.5gbps, although there was more variety in terms of boards with support for more SATA sockets.
As soon as we zoomed into the following specs, however:
= 4 sata ports
- DDR5
- miniITX
... prices just shoot through the roof: cheapest is the Asus ROG STRIX B860-I GAMING WIFI Mini ITX LGA1851 Motherboard at 250$ then we land in the atrocious Gigabyte B650I AORUS ULTRA Mini ITX AM5 Motherboard (290$) and it goes downhill from there.
Mini-ITX is definitely a niche, that said. It's one of the smallest motherboard form factor out there and will not be easy to replace in the future. I remember this being a challenge in replacing the board in v1 which lead to v2 be a full ATX, but now I'm looking at this gigantic tower and I want small again.
Or rackmount.
This build is small.
Remaining issues:
- case availability (newegg)
PSU availability (ask the supplier or amazon)
issues outlined by PC parts picker:
Warning: The Gigabyte A520I AC Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard supports the AMD Ryzen 5 5500GT 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor with BIOS version F13. If the motherboard is using an older BIOS version, updating the BIOS will be necessary to support the CPU. (@pollo says this is likely not an issue and the mobo should be up to date)
Note: A USB 2.0 to USB 3.2 Gen 1 header adapter is required. (solved above with an adapter, losing USB 3 speeds)
Note: A USB 3.2 Gen 1 to USB 3.2 Gen 2 header adapter is required. (solved above with an adapter)
References
- gigabyte board manual
- Jonsbo N2 case manual, newegg page (which has more pics and docs than the homepage
The Order
Ordering this build is a mess. There's about 12 tabs open from 7 different suppliers. I'm ordering two builds, because I'm either stupid or courageous, and want to experiment with putting many of those around. One as a backup on a remote site, the other as a possible replacement for marcos v2 or to provide a remote backup for friends.
Note that we don't order RAM because we sourced some from a friend for cheaper (60$ for a 1x16GB and 2x8GB).
I didn't order any OS drives. Those are now dirt cheap: a 256GB NVMe drive is 32$ right now. marcos already has two: i can either reuse those or upgrade them and reuse the spares. I also have 2x128GB 2.5" SSD drives I can use to start with, although one of those will need a bracket for the 3.5" tray.
Build 1
This is the base build.
| Type | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 5500GT 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor | $159.99 @ Best Buy Canada |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte A520I AC Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard | $171.99 @ PC-Canada |
| Case | Jonsbo N2 Mini ITX Desktop Case | $243.00 @ Newegg Sellers |
| Power Supply | Silverstone SFX 500 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply | $173.26 @ Amazon Canada |
| SATA cabling | 6x elbowed SATA cables | 29.99$ @ Amazon Canada |
| USB-E adapter | USB "E" connector to 20-pin USB 3.2 connector | 15.99$ @ Amazon Canada |
| USB-3 adapter | 20-pin USB-3.0 to 9-pin USB-2 converter | 14.99$ @ Amazon Canada |
This one doesn't have drives and is the test box that might eventually replace marcos, so it doesn't have drives or a case fan (because noise is less of an issue for marcos).
Build 2
| Type | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 5500GT 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor | $159.99 @ Best Buy Canada |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte A520I AC Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard | $171.99 @ PC-Canada |
| Storage | Western Digital WD Blue 12 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive | $274.99 @ Western Digital |
| Storage | Western Digital WD Blue 12 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive | $274.99 @ Western Digital |
| Case | Jonsbo N2 Mini ITX Desktop Case | $243.00 @ Newegg Sellers |
| Power Supply | Silverstone SFX 500 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply | $173.26 @ Amazon Canada |
| Case Fan | Noctua A12x15 PWM 55.44 CFM 120 mm Fan | $27.95 @ Newegg Sellers |
| SATA cabling | 6x elbowed SATA cables | 29.99$ @ Amazon Canada |
| USB-E adapter | USB "E" connector to 20-pin USB 3.2 connector | 15.99$ @ Amazon Canada |
| USB-3 adapter | 20-pin USB-3.0 to 9-pin USB-2 converter | 14.99$ @ Amazon Canada |
Together
| Type | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | 2xAMD Ryzen 5 5500GT 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor | $157.99 @ Memory Express |
| Total Memory Express | $377.34 | |
| Motherboard | 2xGigabyte A520I AC Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard | $171.99 @ PC-Canada |
| Total PC-Canada | $418.46 | |
| Storage | 2xWestern Digital WD Blue 12 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive | $274.99 @ Western Digital |
| Total WD | $498.73 (discount for "Buy More, Save More") | |
| Case | 2xJonsbo N2 Mini ITX Desktop Case | $243.00 @ Newegg Sellers $558.78 total |
| Case Fan | Noctua A12x15 PWM 55.44 CFM 120 mm Fan | $27.95 @ Newegg Sellers (delivered sept 4-11) $43.25 total |
| Total newegg | $602.03 | |
| Power Supply | 2xSilverstone SFX 500 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply | $173.26 @ Amazon Canada |
| SATA cabling | 2x 6x elbowed SATA cables | 29.99$ @ Amazon Canada |
| USB-E adapter | 2x USB "E" connector to 20-pin USB 3.2 connector | 15.99$ @ Amazon Canada |
| USB-3 adapter | 2x20-pin USB-3.0 to 9-pin USB-2 converter | 14.99$ @ Amazon Canada |
| Total Amazon | $687.47 | |
| Memory | 2x8GB Gskill and Kingston Technology HyperX FURY Black16 GB CL15 DIMM DDR4 2400 MT/s Internal Memory (HX424C15FB/16) | 60$ |
| Total | $2555.03 | |
| Per build | ~1280$ | |
| Without drives | ~1050$ | |
| With drives | ~1500$ |
A few notes:
- Amazon was, as expected, ridiculous: the 4 items are sold by 3 different merchants, and shipped in 3 packages, estimated delivery from Sept 4 to 10
- Best Buy was surprisingly bad: I couldn't go through checkout at all, and there was that stupid one-per-user limit. The error was "Sorry, we can't complete your checkout right now. We’re working to fix this issue quickly." with a 30 second timer that i retried about a dozen times and eventually gave up.
- the Memory Express price is a "price beat" from the Bestbuy price, which saved 40$
- This is, obviously, much less than the original 1500$/build amount, but that's because the second build doesn't have 500$ of drives, obviously. Drives were actually 50$ cheaper than expected at WD, which is nice to see.
Post-order notes
Apparently, LTT Labs produce power supply tests. Unfortunately, they did not test the one I ordered, so I don't know if it's any good. Their reviews of two other Silverstone PSUs did not show any significant issues, although one of them failed during testing (but was replaced and then passed the tests).
Shipping
At this point, all orders are confirmed, but not shipped or received. Boxes are checked when received, a note is added when shipped, tracking numbers are kept in email.
- ☑ Memory Express (2 CPUs, shipped)
- ☑ PC Canada (2 mobos, shipped)
- ☐ WD (2 HDDs, shipped)
- ☑ Newegg (2 cases, shipped)
- ☑ Newegg (1 fan, shipped, lost, filed a claim at newegg, new one shipped, and got two at once!?)
- ☐ Amazon Canada (2 PSUs, shipped, in progress)
- ☑ Amazon Canada (2x SATA cable bundles, shipped)
- ☑ Amazon Canada (2x USB-E converter, shipped)
- ☑ Amazon Canada (2x 20-pin/9pin converter, shipped)
- ☐ Friend (memory)