Jonsbo Intros N4 Micro-ATX Case for 8-bay DIY NAS Builds

[btarunr]

Jonsbo over the weekend introduced the N4 White and N4 Black, a series of cube-shaped Micro-ATX cases designed for DIY NAS server builds. The case has eight drive caddies, six of which are 3.5-inch, and two 2.5-inch. All 8 bays come with SATA 6 Gbps backplanes, so you can hot-plug them. These drive caddies, along with an SFX PSU bay, and a 120 mm fan vent, make up the lower 60% of the case. The upper 40% holds a Micro-ATX motherboard tray with four half-height expansion slots. Besides low-profile expansion cards, you can have a CPU cooler as tall as 70 mm up there.

The lower compartment has a perforated front panel covering the drive caddies, while the front side of the upper compartment has a classy wood embellishment. This wood embellishment has the power/reset buttons, a type-A USB 3.2 port, and a USB 3.2 type-C. The upper compartment has panel perforations along the sides and top. The Jonsbo N4 comes in two trims as we mentioned—black and white. The case measures 286 mm x 300 mm x 228 mm (WxDxH), weighing 3.75 kg. The company didn't reveal pricing information.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[natr0n]

I remember a time when this would be a normal case with extra drive bays.

 

[nguyenquan1]

what a perfect setup
_ 6 HDD for data, run in raid/ raidz mode.
_ 2 ssd for cache or swap file.
_ main m2 drive OS is on mainboard, installed fake-nology or truenas or vm esxi with whatever.

 

[katzi]

Ooo that's a pretty chassis.

 

[neatfeatguy]

I actually like the looks of this one. Had I not already something built I wouldn't mind getting one of these.

 

[aktpu]

Fractal Terra, but make it NAS

 

[Michael_O]

Nice. I bought one of these months ago which is serving its purpose. https://www.aliexpress.us/item/1005...t_main.20.52611802CGBICD&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa
The Jonsbo looks somewhat similar

 

[Chaitanya]

what a perfect setup
_ 6 HDD for data, run in raid/ raidz mode.
_ 2 ssd for cache or swap file.
_ main m2 drive OS is on mainboard, installed fake-nology or truenas or vm esxi with whatever.

Better yet add NICs through one of the M.2 slots for better network capabilities(all the way from 10Gbps to multiple 1Gbps connection).

 

[ArcanisGK507]

I feel like they lost sales by not giving it the necessary height for a full GPU.

That's the executive version of this:

I had one and it was quite fresh and organized... it had room for improvement, yes... but a shame Coolmaster discontinued it... for me it is one of the best layouts from ITX to E-ATX...

 

[efikkan]

What is the point of having a Network Attached Storage server with 6 drives on top of your desk ~40 cm away from your ears? I just don't see the point of having a "stylish" file server, when people are going to stash it away as far as possible, either in the same room or somewhere hidden.

There is a flaw in this design though, there is no fan for the two drives on the right. Such a setup needs airflow for drive longevity.

And for a home(?) NAS that's not going into a big rack, I would probably sacrifice hot-swapping for a fairly silent case (e.g. from Fractal Design). The case in this article will be fairly loud. Someone running 6 disks in a file server will probably average >2 years between drive failures, so it's not like people can't tolerate that 5 min downtime opening a case.

These days I no longer run a complex RAID setup at home, I'm sticking to RAID1 or single drives, depending on how important the data is.
But those of you who do, what kind of sustained read/write speeds are you achieving? (for realistic setups, not massive servers)

 

[JohH]

I'm already sick of this wood-accent fad.
It will look dated quickly.

 

[neatfeatguy]

I feel like they lost sales by not giving it the necessary height for a full GPU.

That's the executive version of this:

View attachment 337741

I had one and it was quite fresh and organized... it had room for improvement, yes... but a shame Coolmaster discontinued it... for me it is one of the best layouts from ITX to E-ATX...

That's what I'm using for my gaming system and my server system - HAF XB Evo. I find it provides better cooling over several mid and full towers that I used to have.
Server has two front fans for intake, top 200mm and rear 120mm for exhaust.
Gaming system has 240 rad on front with 2 fans in push configuration, top 200mm and rear 120mm for exhaust. The front panel is the only spot to mount a 240 rad so this means you loose out on a little bit of space for a GPU. You get just shy of 13 inches (safe bet is anything shorter than 12.5") for a GPU. I've got a 12" long 3080Ti right now (I used to have a 12.9" 980Ti and it butt up right next to the rad).

Only thing I wish it had was 2 more spots to house HDDs/SSDs.
Also, you're limited for CPU cooler height, especially if you want to mount the top 200mm fan.
Otherwise I love the case.

If I had a micro-ATX board and not the ATX I'm currently using, I wouldn't mind picking up something like this Jonsbo Intros n4 for my server.

 

[chodaboy19]

They should have made all the bays 3.5". Are the power supply cables preventing this?

 

[claes]

Don't know why they didn't just make a matx version of the N3 + door.