I’m trying to build a DIY NAS, I already have some (6) 3.5" SATA disks, a Mini-ITX case, and power supply, but I’m still unsure on which motherboard & CPU to get. I think a motherboard + N100 combo is a good option because of the price and power consumption.

I’m currently using a MiniPC with an i5-6500T (4784 passmark) and an external HDD enclosure connected with USB using RAID-1 (software) which uses about 35W. The USB enclosure is limited to 2 slots, and I’ve heard from here that it can be problematic in combination with RAID. The N100 (5551) boards have a slightly better passmark score but most importantly more expandability (SATA & PCIe) and supposedly a lower power consumption. The i5-6500T has a TDP of 65W, the N100 a TDP of 6W, that doesn’t say much but it seems to a lot better when looking at info online. The N100 also apparently has Quicksync support while the i5’s support is limited and struggles to encode 1080p (100% CPU usage).

There are 2 main boards I’m considering. The BKHD 1264 and the ASRock N100M. ASRock is a better known brand, but their version only supports DDR4 and 2 SATA ports while the BKHD board supports DDR5, has 6 SATA ports, and has 4 × 2.5G network ports. I’ve also heard complaints about high temps (90c) with the N100m because it only has passive cooling, while the BKHD board has active cooling and a large heat sink. However, the BKHD board is a bit more expensive (~€150 vs ~€130), but it seems worth it because I won’t have to add an external HBA.

What do you think would be the better option?

EDIT 2024-05-26: I ended up getting the ASUS Prime N100I-D D4 because it’s significantly cheaper (€95). It does have less SATA ports (1), but I accidentally bought a SATA card so that actually works out pretty well.

#selfhosted