This was posted 3 months 28 days ago, and might be an out-dated deal.

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N8 Intel N100 NAS Mini-ITX Motherboard 4x2.5G i226 Ethernet Ports US$124.27 (~A$191.67) Delivered @ Topton via AliExpress

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N8 Intel N100 NAS Mini-ITX Motherboard 4x2.5G i226 Ethernet Ports US$124.27 (~A$191.67) Delivered @ Topton via AliExpressAffiliate
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jasonxc on 04/06/2024 - 05:44 aliexpress.com (2024 clicks)
Last edited 04/06/2024 - 18:12 by 1 other user
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Original Coupon Deal

Seems like an excellent choice for anyone looking to build a low-power server-router. Intel N100 has quicksync transcoding for a Plex/Jellyfin Media Server, and 4x2.5GB Ethernet Ports is perfect for a pfSense VM. 6x SATA ports and 2x M.2 slots affords you plenty of storage too.

Run xcp-ng on this and you get the best of both worlds.

In my opinion this is the smarter money purchase than the Chatreey NAS that got posted because it has 4 ethernet ports and much greater potential for storage for a lower price. All that's missing is a case, but a bit of DIY or browsing Gumtree can take care of that.

[Edit] It has come to my attention that 5 of the 6 on-board SATA ports for this motherboard are bottlenecked for some reason. They cannot reach the maximum SATA transfer speed.
If you prioritize NAS performance consider the Intel N5105 Version for $166.39:
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/849399

The N5105 does not have bottlenecked SATA ports and is $25 cheaper, but you lose the PCIe 3.0 x1 expansion slot.

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closed Comments

  • maxwellian on 04/06/2024 - 06:38

    This doesn't seem to come with any IO Shield?

    • hellbound on 04/06/2024 - 07:05

      One of the review pics show an io shield installed

      • psmedley on 04/06/2024 - 07:09

        I have one of these from a different seller, it definitely comes with an IO Shield

  • Karupan on 04/06/2024 - 06:52

    How are people using the multiple Ethernet ports on devices like this? You can’t get better combined throughput if you just run NAS on this right? So if you run jellyfin. NAS etc then you dedicate one port to each service?

    • butter on 04/06/2024 - 06:58

      You can team the NIC's so that the bandwidth is aggregated (lacp pagp etc). At least in my situation I would use one (or two) port for "LAN", one for "WAN" and one for "DMZ".

    • kyoumei on 04/06/2024 - 07:03

      You can do port bonding to get the ports to work together for better throughput, but you'd also need a network switch/setup to support it.

      Although, for a home setup it's extremely unlikely you'd see much benefit out of it. I see it more as a something I'd share in an interview or resume item for a homelab.

    • jong on 04/06/2024 - 07:32
      +3

      Usually you'd use a multi-port motherboard as a router/firewall for a home lab, and you'd build a little 3-tier Presentation/Logic/Data datacentre behind it with each tier getting its own firewalled port, and then learn how all of that works.

      The thing is, these boards are fast enough to run some small VMs as well, so another approach is to put a virtualisation-orientated OS on it, run PFSense in a VM so you have your firewall, and then maybe run PiHole or Graphana or something on top.

      Or, you could just ignore three of the NICs, put UnRaid and a 6 port SATA board on it, and call it a NAS.

      You can combine NICs using LACP, but as a general rule a single connection will only use a single port, so you don't get a speed-up unless you do some jiggery-pokery at both the client and server end to make them use multiple connections at once.

    • bazingaa on 04/06/2024 - 11:38

      check used X540 cards if you need low cost 10GbE, downside is 8x PCIe slot requirement which is not readily available in most motherboards (most extra 16x slots only support 4x)

  • LoPan on 04/06/2024 - 07:04

    https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005983121867.html

    appears to be the same but cheaper?

    • maxwellian on 04/06/2024 - 07:21

      Shipping cost adds back to around the same?

    • henno on 04/06/2024 - 07:21
      +3

      Free shipping in the OP for $192.89

      Your link is $179.07 plus $18.69 shipping which is (checks notes) not cheaper.

      • LoPan on 04/06/2024 - 07:26
        +2

        thanks, too early in the morning for me to be participating in conversations it seems

      • bazingaa on 04/06/2024 - 11:36
        +1

        +GST

    • bamzero on 04/06/2024 - 11:41

      A few suggestions by AliExpress themselves seem to be the same board under $180 and free shipping albeit sub 95% positive feedback.

      https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/1005006470519707.html
      https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/1005006960649034.html

      • internet-stranger on 04/06/2024 - 19:52

        Yea. I bought from the second link.
        Stacked with cashback and business bonus.
        Came to $181.51 AUD

    • [Deactivated] on 04/06/2024 - 18:16

      sor, wrong place, moved here

  • dualcore on 04/06/2024 - 07:09

    Looks like such a nifty package and great deal tbh.

  • seanw18 on 04/06/2024 - 07:32
    +2

    I have been running proxmox on the BKHD version of this for a few months. NAS, Home Assistant and MythTV in one low consumption machine.

    Note that the N100 and motherboard does support 32gb of ram, even if it says otherwise :"1*DDR5 SO-DIMM 4800Mhz Up to 16GB"

    • philotex on 04/06/2024 - 08:51
      +2

      While the N100 "can" support 32gb technically, there are reports of stability issues especially depending on vendor, with no clarity on if 32gb sticks have been Intel validated.

      • doobey1231 on 04/06/2024 - 09:05
        +1

        Yeah +1 for this. Even though you could physically put it in there and it will read doesn't mean its all going to work properly, be careful if the data is sensitive.

      • bamzero on 04/06/2024 - 12:24

        Hmm, something to think about then. Would be wanting to run 32GB if I got one.. I saw the pinned comment in this video saying 32GB worked (eventually) but doesn't say how long he ran it for stability testing.

        1x 32GB DDR5 in N100 motherboard worked. 2x16GB DDR4 in N5105 worked.
        However, after installing the RAM the system sat there for nearly two minutes with a blank screen before it finally did a hard restart (shut down for a second then restarted), and then RAM was detected and working fine.
        With subsequent reboots, it started fine without delay, unless you swap RAM again.

      • seanw18 on 04/06/2024 - 20:02

        Fair enough, but worth pointing out that I've not had any stability issues so far.

  • johnnytran on 04/06/2024 - 08:58
    +4

    I bought one of these yesterday to run pfSense, $219 au posted (SCA20) with fee free CC. One of the cheapest I could find that didn't have a bunch of ports I had no use for, if someone else is looking..

    8GB/128GB
    https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005984620683.html

    • kackstelze on 04/06/2024 - 09:19

      I think the passively cooling case and included power supply are worth the extra dollars for this one. You would however lose the extra sata ports and the sound output.

    • Rollins on 04/06/2024 - 09:50

      Currently running proxmox/pfsense on one of these goes very well. As per previous reply if you want a bit of storage you are very limited. It also get v fn hot…. Ive been running it for 12/18 months now and it has been very stable tbh. Surprisingly so.

      • bamzero on 04/06/2024 - 11:00

        Do you run anything else under Proxmox on it?
        How much memory you running with?

        Currently running an old NUC with Proxmox and another old ITX Pentium G3258 machine for NAS.
        Thinking I could Proxmox this board and integrate the NAS into it too

        • Rollins on 04/06/2024 - 11:14

          Nothing really just PiHole. I have a PC with NAS that I use for vm's for Lab/Testing/Fun stuff. I plan on setting this up with a lightweight NAS and using it as a private cloud storage and will prob run some other containers on there that I have on my list e.g Grafana, Probably add Snort to pfsense as ill have more memory. Maybe Suricata. Just a bigger better proxmox pfsense host really. Still small enough form factor to hide under the stairs. Its the 8Gb topton box with the n100

      • VishSunny on 14/06/2024 - 22:05

        I just received mine. I ordered mine with 16gb ram. It came with a no name 16gb 5600 ram.
        Running memtest throws errors when it get very hot ~70 degrees. When its cool, there are no memory errors.

        have you noticed anything like this? what memory are you running?

    • jj8aus on 15/06/2024 - 14:28

      I bought one of these without ram or ssd. It arrived yesterday and I just picked up a 16gig so-dimm ddr5-4800 and a 1tb crucial ssd. Have a standard usb keyboard and humid monitor plugged in. The computer is always booting to bios. I can’t figure it out.

      If I remove power and plug it in, it immediately powers on, does not wait for me to press power button. It beeps once and shows the bios page.

      If I save and exit from the bios, it just saves and then the bios kinda reloads/like a reboot.

      The ram is showing up in the bios and seems all good.

      It looks like AMI bios…and single short beep is “ DRAM (dynamic random access memory) refresh failure.”. Does this thing require a very specific type of ram?

      I’ve removed the ssd and same behaviour. Anyone got any tips?

      • internet-stranger on 15/06/2024 - 15:38

        It goes into bios if there are no bootable disks/volumes.

        • jj8aus on 15/06/2024 - 16:02

          Wow, thanks! I have never encountered it behaving like that before. I put in a bootable device and she works :) thanks again

      • johnnytran on 16/06/2024 - 00:34
        +1

        Mine works fine with their supplied ram and ssd. I asked for pfSense installed but ended up installing a fresh copy just in case. I think it beeps on boot, unless it was just beeping when I was pressing DEL to change the boot order

        • [Deactivated] on 16/06/2024 - 10:30

          Try installing OPNsense instead, more solid software.

          • johnnytran on 16/06/2024 - 22:26

            @[Deactivated]: Getting the hang of pfSense but i've read OPNsense is easier to navigate, I will definitely give it a go as soon as I get frustrated with something or run into an issue again (first morning I woke up with no internet but it's been solid since re-installing it again a couple days ago.)

  • Rollins on 04/06/2024 - 09:48
    +1

    Thanks OP,

    Didnt need it as I have one of the Topton Quad ports n100 boxes for pfsense already….. But 6 Sata ports and an ITX form factor….. Looks like im building a Mini ITX pfsense/proxmox/nas box. In true Ozbargain fashion, a deal is a deal.

  • jj8aus on 04/06/2024 - 09:49
    +1

    Better to get ram and SSD elsewhere as I presume they would include the cheapest possible stuff if you purchase with ram and SSD? Correct or not correct?

    • Commodore64 on 04/06/2024 - 10:27
      +1

      If nothing else UMart or equivalent would be easier for warrantys given memory devices fail from time to time.

    • xrailgun on 04/06/2024 - 10:55

      correct in this case, their bundled prices aren't particularly attractive. that's probably where they're actually making money.

  • Commodore64 on 04/06/2024 - 10:25

    Damn that's impressive value.
    If it had 8 sata ports that would be perfect for my ZFS pool.
    I bet the power usage is super low.

    • Switchblade88 on 04/06/2024 - 10:37

      You might be able to fit a HBA into the 1x PCIe port. It may not run at full speed, but it should do the job for a basic spinning rust NAS

    • Lonewolf1983 on 04/06/2024 - 10:48
      +1

      use an M.2 to Sata adapter, i have 5x drives running off one in Unraid and works a treat as my mobo didnt have enough ports

    • bamzero on 04/06/2024 - 10:53

      Just compared against the G3258 I run in my NAS. Max TDP of 53W vs 6W with better single core performance and obviously much better muticore with double the cores. How 9 years changes things.

  • xrailgun on 04/06/2024 - 10:53
    +1

    Interesting, it's only ~$143.25 on taobao (CNY converted). Not for everyone, but that $50 price difference can cover shipping for quite a haul.

    • CletusDB on 04/06/2024 - 11:04
      +2

      Is there a good ELI5 version of buying from Taobao floating around? I've seen a few things on there I want and I could use save some coin on this too

  • ozb88 on 04/06/2024 - 11:05
    +1

    The N5105 seems like the better buy, faster onboard SATA ports: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO8Kfi4qpY8

    • xrailgun on 04/06/2024 - 11:11

      Interesting! I would've thought the N5105 would be marginally slower since it's cheaper and using a much older gen CPU.

      • ozb88 on 04/06/2024 - 11:28

        Indeed. Although looks like the SATA speed restrictions can be avoided using an external SATA card (NVMe to SATA or PCIE to SATA) which may be the way to go.

        • xrailgun on 04/06/2024 - 12:43

          I'm saving those for future expansions :D

        • jasonxc on 04/06/2024 - 17:54
          +2

          Spaceinvaderone also found the same limit on the on-board SATA ports.

          Basically you have a choice: better NAS performance if using the on-board SATA ports + DDR4 (N5105), or slightly better power efficiency, PCIe 3.0 x1 expandability + DDR5 (N100).

          I'm going to update the OP to include the N5105 version of the motherboard.

          • [Deactivated] on 04/06/2024 - 19:03

            @jasonxc: Maybe change N100 to this item, it has Choice, but $3 dearer.

          • Nom on 04/06/2024 - 19:16

            @jasonxc: The slower SATA ports are still faster than the 2.5Gb networking. It's not an issue unless you've a 10Gb NIC.

            • jasonxc on 04/06/2024 - 21:15

              @Nom:

              The slower SATA ports are still faster than the 2.5Gb networking. It's not an issue unless you've a 10Gb NIC.

              You can reach 10Gb if you combine all four ports into one.
              And what if you're transferring data from drive to drive within your NAS? Like you might have a cache drive in the M.2 socket or a SATA SSD connected to one of the SATA ports. Transfers within the NAS will be slow. Then you have things like re-silvering and parity checks, which will take a fair bit longer.

              • Nom on 04/06/2024 - 21:24

                @jasonxc:

                You can reach 10Gb if you combine all four ports into one.

                Only if you have 4 clients all maxing out their individual 2.5Gb connection and you've got a LAG-capable switch.

                Neither of those things will be true for most people here.

                Transfers within the NAS will be slow.

                This is even more niche than the above 😁

                It's a none-issue.

                • jasonxc on 04/06/2024 - 21:49

                  @Nom:

                  This is even more niche than the above

                  Um, what?
                  How is running a parity check "niche"? It's actually pretty important if you're running a NAS. The Unraid developers recommend running one every month.

                  • Nom on 04/06/2024 - 22:32

                    @jasonxc: Niche that you need your parity check to complete in a certain time frame.

                    Mine takes well over a day (infact closer to 2) - at these sort of time frames, it just doesn't matter if it takes some extra hours.

                    • jasonxc on 04/06/2024 - 22:44

                      @Nom:

                      Niche that you need your parity check to complete in a certain time frame.

                      Wtf? More speed is "niche" now?
                      Through that line of logic, you don't need 10Gb, don't need NVMe/SSD speed, don't even need cables at all because clearly Wi-Fi 4 should be enough for most people.

                      Clutch at straws all you like, it is blatantly incorrect to claim internal data transfers are a "niche" use case.

                      • Nom on 05/06/2024 - 11:39

                        @jasonxc: We are specifically talking about parity check, because that was your example of an internal SATA speed bottleneck.

                        Why do you care if it takes 27 hours or 35 hours ? Are you sitting there watching it progress ?

                        You absolutely want speed for all those other things you listed, because otherwise you have to wait for them !

                        But to have specific requirements for partity check speed is nonsense. It takes many many hours, directly correlated to the total size of your storage.

                        There is no clutching at straws here - you're trying to highlight the slower SATA speed as some sort of issue. In practice, it's something that nobody will even notice.

    • [Deactivated] on 04/06/2024 - 18:17
      +1

      Great video, thanks!
      Bought N5105 too (after buying N100), because it seems JMB585 x5 SATA chip is wired to two PCIe lanes in N5105, compared to one lane in N100 board.
      Now I need to decide which order to cancel :)

      • Nom on 04/06/2024 - 19:15

        The SATA speed issue isn't an issue if you're running 2.5Gb networking - you're only getting 250MB/s over the wire anyway.
        A 500MB/s SATA limit isn't a limit you'll be able to hit.

        • [Deactivated] on 04/06/2024 - 19:25

          True, I dived into LACP and port bonding, only to find out that for a single SMB client, my Macbook, LACP does not improve speed. Even if the rest of LAN is 10G, Macbook is 10G.

          But (big fat but) there is a SMB Multichannel thing, seems to work: Double your speed with new SMB Multi Channel.
          My LAN and Macbook are still 2.5G, but this might change :)

      • [Deactivated] on 04/06/2024 - 19:51

        I got this N5105 board, A$174 before coupons, Choice 8-day delivery: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006221619148.html

        • nige0090 on 04/06/2024 - 20:18

          Did you get the Green board: Intel i225 or the black board: Intel i266 (probably should be i226)?

          • [Deactivated] on 04/06/2024 - 20:28

            @nige0090: Main pic says i226-V. Pic is green. How bad was my choice?

            • nige0090 on 04/06/2024 - 20:49
              +1

              @[Deactivated]: If you chose the A$174 option I think that you have the Green i225

              I'm still not clear if the i226 V resolved the problems in the i225.
              And I don't know which version of the i225 they are using.

              I was hoping that you could explain the differences and the reasons to choose either option :-)

              • [Deactivated] on 04/06/2024 - 20:53

                @nige0090:

                I was hoping that you could explain the differences and the reasons to choose either option :-)

                LOL Thank you Very much, now I have 3 boards ordered :)
                Lifehack. If $12 xxx12 codes don't work anymore, use the $8 xxx8 codes :)

                • nige0090 on 13/06/2024 - 17:06

                  @[Deactivated]: @Drone166 I also bought the green board and set it up today.
                  Windows 11 installed the i226-V driver for the 4x NIC despite, the AliExpress page clearly saying "Green board: Intel i225, black board: Intel i266 V"

                  I guess the i266 is newer than the i255 so maybe that's a good thing?

                  • [Deactivated] on 13/06/2024 - 18:53

                    @nige0090: I got three, yes three :), boards, green, black and BKHD one.
                    1. Green Option "Motherboards". JMB585. PCB says, "MW-NVR-N5105 v1.0", "MWNVRN510524050220"
                    2. Black Option "Motherboard+CPU". JMB585. PCB says "CW-N5N6-NAS", "CWN5105NAS24040137"
                    3. BKHD Option "N5105". ASM1166. PCB says "BKHD-1338NAS-17", "BKHD-1338NAS(N5105)-17-I226(alien language here)"

                    I booted each one with Debial Live USB and run "sudo lspci -vv > board.txt" on each. All of them had "LnkSta: Speed 8GT/s, Width x1 (downgraded)" on SATA controller chip. Life sux :)

                    I havent looked into Ethernet chips, my main goal is get 2x PCIe lanes on SATA controller.
                    Testing Aliexpress Choice returns now, waiting on postage labels.
                    It will be TrueNAS Scale (they dropped Core), not windows, when I settle on HW.
                    Where this guy got his N5105 with 2x PCIe lanes to JMB585 is a fkn mystery.

                  • [Deactivated] on 13/06/2024 - 19:35

                    @nige0090: I confirm that all three boards have "I226-V (rev 04)" reported by lspci command.
                    But ethernet chip markings are not the same:
                    - Green has "S3213L47"
                    - Black has "S2393L18"
                    - BKHD has "S2353L31"
                    No idea if it means anything.

  • MrPapers on 04/06/2024 - 11:38
    +1

    How do you get UEFI/BIOS updates on these?

  • ratoloko on 04/06/2024 - 17:43
    +1

    This might be the backup I have been looking for my OPNSense firewall/router, I has been very hard to find decent miniPC with at least 2x NIC without costing a kidney.
    I wouldn't trust this as a NAS, you want a proper PCIe SAS board managing the disks over onboard SATA connections.

    Side note, "24SC12" code didn't work for me, it says "Somebody already claimed it".
    "SCA12" code worked but the final price was $192.43 delivered to Sydney area, still a decent price.

    I have a 8GB and 32GB DDR5 and half dozen NVMe haha
    I bought this mem for a TOMTOM box, biggest mistake and returned it. It only accepts very specific mem or or course, seller mem.

    BONUS: If you like me, always check the manual for pinout, possible fan upgrade, front panel IO, etc. Product Specification (PDF): https://www.bkipc.com/en/product/1264-NAS-MB.html

    • [Deactivated] on 04/06/2024 - 19:39
      +1

      I has been very hard to find decent miniPC with at least 2x NIC without costing a kidney.

      You buy cheap MiniPC and just add second LAN as miniPCIe (or M.2, depends on PC) card + RJ45 header. Example
      Header screws into blank cutout plate for VGA port on the back.

      • ratoloko on 05/06/2024 - 12:53

        miniPCIe (or M.2, depends on PC) card + RJ45 header

        That looks cool but I have problems with adapters, it is the same reason why I hate those USB network dongle.
        The more moving parts, the more stuff to break or poor performance.
        The miniPC with PCI slot aren't cheap and very few have dual NIC

        I thought about building a MIni-ITX one but it isn't necessarily cheap :(
        The good side is being upgrade future proof.

        • Nom on 05/06/2024 - 13:02

          it is the same reason why I hate those USB network dongle.

          They're not in any way the same - a Network card in a PCIe M.2 slot is a real PCIe network card.

          I use this 2.5Gb card https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005686418462.html in a Dell 3050 Micro https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/135073217500

        • [Deactivated] on 05/06/2024 - 13:23

          The more moving parts, the more stuff to break or poor performance.

          It all goes inside and bolts down using screws. Have you seen pics from my link?

  • u9tvfr on 05/06/2024 - 09:24

    I've been looking for an upgrade for my plex/home assistant/ low demand nas for ages and this looks like it. I'll probably move one or two of the hard drives from the old one, pick up something larger, either reconditioned or new.
    Any idea how well this might run if I add a couple of the reolink cams to home assistant?

  • itzinfinite on 07/06/2024 - 15:10

    Does anyone have any experience with the various DIY NAS cases on aliexpress?
    I'm keen to grab one of these + a case to build a home NAS but the options brand new locally are pretty grim.

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