DIY NAS Build Guide for Self-Hosting

Quick Recommendation

Build a Jonsbo N3-based NAS with an Intel N305 ITX motherboard, 32 GB DDR5, and TrueNAS SCALE. Total cost: ~$450-550 diskless. This gives you 8 hot-swap 3.5” drive bays, 8 cores for Docker containers, ZFS for data integrity, and 2.5 GbE networking — in a compact, attractive enclosure. It outperforms a Synology DS923+ at a lower price with better hardware.

Why Build Your Own NAS?

vs Synology/QNAP

Factor	Pre-built (Synology)	DIY NAS
Price (4-bay, diskless)	$450-600	$350-500
Price (8-bay, diskless)	$900-1,500	$450-600
CPU	Celeron J4125 / Ryzen R1600	N305 (8C/8T) or better
RAM	2-4 GB (upgradeable to 8-32 GB)	16-64 GB (your choice)
Setup time	20 minutes	2-4 hours
Software	DSM (polished, vendor-locked)	TrueNAS/Unraid/OMV (flexible, open)
Repairability	Limited (proprietary parts)	Standard PC components
File system	Btrfs/ext4	ZFS, XFS, Btrfs (your choice)

The DIY advantage grows with scale. A 2-bay NAS? Buy a Synology DS224+. A 4-bay? Synology is still competitive. 6+ bays? DIY saves hundreds of dollars and gives you better hardware.

Parts List

The Recommended Build (~$450-550 diskless)

Component	Recommendation	Price
Case	Jonsbo N3 (8-bay hot-swap)	~$130-150
Motherboard	ASRock N305-ITX or Topton N305 ITX	~$120-150
RAM	32 GB DDR5-4800 SO-DIMM (2x16 GB)	~$60-70
Boot drive	128-256 GB M.2 NVMe SSD (for OS)	~$15-20
PSU	Included with Jonsbo N3 (modular 250W)	Included
CPU cooler	Included with motherboard (N305 is fanless or low-profile)	Included
Total		~$450-550

Add drives separately — see our Best Hard Drives for NAS guide. Budget $140-190 per 8 TB drive.

Budget Build (~$250-350 diskless)

Component	Recommendation	Price
Case	Fractal Node 304 (6-bay) or generic ITX case	~$80-100
Motherboard	Topton N100 ITX (4x SATA)	~$80-100
RAM	16 GB DDR4-3200 SO-DIMM	~$25-30
Boot drive	128 GB M.2 NVMe SSD	~$15
PSU	Any 80+ Bronze 300W+	~$35-50
Total		~$250-350

Good for 4-6 drives. The N100 has 4 cores (sufficient for NAS + light Docker) but fewer SATA ports than the N305 boards.

High-Performance Build (~$600-800 diskless)

Component	Recommendation	Price
Case	Jonsbo N4 (12-bay) or SilverStone CS381	~$150-200
Motherboard	ASRock B660M-ITX/ac + Intel i3-12100	~$200-250
RAM	64 GB DDR4-3200 ECC (if motherboard supports)	~$120-150
Boot drive	256 GB M.2 NVMe SSD	~$20
HBA card	LSI SAS 9211-8i (IT mode) for 8 additional SATA ports	~$30-50 (used)
PSU	Seasonic 450W 80+ Gold	~$60-80
Total		~$600-800

For 8-12 drive arrays, heavy ZFS workloads, and VM hosting. ECC RAM is recommended for large ZFS pools.

Case Options

Jonsbo N3 — Best Overall (~$130-150)

The most popular DIY NAS case for good reason:

8x 3.5” hot-swap bays with backplane
ITX motherboard compatible
Compact footprint (similar to a 2-bay Synology in depth, wider)
Included 250W modular PSU
Tool-less drive installation
Dust filters
Room for 2x 2.5” SSDs on the motherboard tray

Limitations: Only ITX motherboards. The included PSU is adequate but not modular-premium. Limited airflow if all 8 bays are populated with 7200 RPM drives — consider replacing the stock fans.

Fractal Design Node 304 — Best Budget (~$80-100)

6x 3.5” drive bays (not hot-swap)
ITX motherboard
Excellent airflow design (3x 92mm fans included)
High build quality
No included PSU (buy separately)

Limitations: 6 bays max. Not hot-swap. Larger than the Jonsbo N3. Drive installation requires removing side panels.

SilverStone CS381 — Best for Expansion (~$170-200)

8x 3.5” hot-swap bays
Micro-ATX motherboard support (more PCIe slots for HBA cards)
Room for 10+ drives with creative mounting
High airflow with 2x 120mm fans

Limitations: Micro-ATX means larger footprint. More expensive. Overkill for 4-drive builds.

Jonsbo N4 — Maximum Density (~$150-180)

12x 3.5” hot-swap bays (most in any ITX NAS case)
ITX motherboard
Compact for the bay count
Included PSU

Limitations: Very tight cable management. Thermals can be challenging with 12 drives. New model, less community feedback than the N3.

Choosing a Motherboard

Intel N305 ITX — Recommended

The Intel i3-N305 is the sweet spot for NAS builds:

8 cores / 8 threads at 15W TDP
Intel Quick Sync for Plex/Jellyfin transcoding
Low power consumption (10-15W system idle)
Multiple SATA ports (4-6 depending on board)
2x M.2 NVMe slots on most boards
DDR5 support

Recommended boards:

ASRock N305-ITX: 4x SATA, 2x M.2, 2x 2.5 GbE, DDR5 SO-DIMM. Well-supported, widely available.
Topton N305 ITX: Similar specs, often cheaper. Available on AliExpress. Less community support but functional.

Intel N100 ITX — Budget Option

Same architecture, half the cores (4C/4T). Fine for pure NAS use (file serving, streaming). Gets tight if you want to run heavy Docker workloads alongside NAS duties.

Key limitation: Most N100 ITX boards only have 2-4 SATA ports. For 6+ drives, you’ll need an HBA card (requires a PCIe slot, which ITX boards have only one of — and you might want it for a 10 GbE NIC instead).

Intel 12th/13th Gen — High Performance

For builds that need to double as a serious compute server:

ASRock B660M-ITX/ac + Intel i3-12100 (4C/8T, Quick Sync)
More PCIe lanes for HBA cards and 10 GbE NICs
DDR4 ECC support on some boards
Higher power consumption (30-50W idle with drives)

Only justified if you’re running VMs, AI workloads, or have 8+ drives needing an HBA.

Operating System Options

TrueNAS SCALE — Recommended

Best for: ZFS data integrity, serious storage, Docker support.

TrueNAS SCALE is the recommended OS for DIY NAS builds:

ZFS: Best-in-class data integrity with checksums, scrubs, snapshots, and self-healing
Docker: Native Linux-based, full Docker Compose support
Free: Open source, no license cost
Web UI: Modern, improved significantly in recent versions
Replication: ZFS send/receive for efficient off-site backups

Downsides: Steeper learning curve. ZFS pool layout decisions are permanent (can’t easily add drives to an existing RAID-Z vdev). Wants 1 GB+ RAM per TB of storage for optimal ARC cache performance.

Unraid — Best for Flexibility

Best for: Mixed drive sizes, gradual expansion, VM hosting.

Mixed drives: Add any size drive at any time without rebuilding
Docker: Native support with a huge Community Applications library
VMs: KVM with GPU passthrough
License: $59-129 (one-time)

Downsides: Not ZFS — less data integrity protection. Parity-based writes are slow. Single-parity = single-drive fault tolerance. See our TrueNAS vs Unraid comparison.

OpenMediaVault — Best for Simplicity

Best for: Users who want a simple web-based NAS OS without ZFS complexity.

Debian-based: Install any Linux package, full Docker support
Web UI: Clean, straightforward
Free: Open source
Plugin system: SnapRAID, Mergerfs, Docker, etc.

Downsides: No ZFS out of the box (can install manually). SnapRAID + Mergerfs is less robust than ZFS. Smaller community than TrueNAS or Unraid.

Plain Linux (Ubuntu Server / Debian)

Best for: Experienced Linux users who want full control.

Install Ubuntu Server or Debian, set up ZFS manually, configure Samba/NFS shares, run Docker. Maximum flexibility, zero hand-holding. This is what you do if you’re already comfortable administering Linux servers.

Assembly Guide

Step 1: Prepare Components

Unbox everything. Verify you have:

Case with included hardware (screws, drive caddies, PSU if included)
Motherboard + I/O shield
RAM (SO-DIMM or DIMM depending on board)
Boot SSD (M.2 NVMe)
Data drives (3.5” SATA)
SATA cables (if not included with case backplane)

Step 2: Install RAM and Boot SSD

With the motherboard outside the case:

Insert RAM into SO-DIMM/DIMM slots (align notch, press firmly until clips engage)
Insert M.2 NVMe SSD at 30° angle into M.2 slot, press down, secure with screw

Step 3: Mount Motherboard in Case

Install I/O shield in case cutout
Align motherboard standoffs with screw holes
Secure motherboard with screws (don’t overtighten)

Step 4: Connect Power

Connect 24-pin ATX power to motherboard
Connect 4/8-pin CPU power
Connect SATA power to drive backplane (or individual cables to drives)

Step 5: Connect SATA Data Cables

Connect SATA data cables from motherboard to drive backplane (or individual drives)
Route cables cleanly — airflow matters with 4-8 spinning drives

Step 6: Install Drives

Mount drives in caddies (hot-swap) or directly in bays
Slide into bays until connectors engage
Verify all drives are detected in BIOS before OS installation

Step 7: Install the OS

Flash TrueNAS SCALE ISO to a USB drive using Balena Etcher
Boot from USB (F11 or F12 for boot menu on most boards)
Install TrueNAS to the M.2 boot SSD
Reboot, access the web UI at the assigned IP address
Create your ZFS pool (see TrueNAS Setup below)

TrueNAS SCALE Initial Setup

Create a ZFS Pool

Navigate to Storage → Create Pool
Name your pool (e.g., tank)
Select drives for your vdev:
- 2 drives: Mirror (50% usable, 1 drive redundancy)
- 3 drives: RAID-Z1 (67% usable, 1 drive redundancy)
- 4 drives: RAID-Z1 (75% usable) or RAID-Z2 (50% usable, 2 drive redundancy)
- 6+ drives: RAID-Z2 recommended (better redundancy)
Enable compression: LZ4 (transparent, nearly free performance)
Record size: 128K for general use, 1M for large media files

Create Datasets

Datasets are like folders with their own ZFS properties:

tank/media — for movies, TV, music (record size: 1M)
tank/photos — for photo libraries
tank/documents — for personal files
tank/docker — for Docker container data
tank/backups — for backup targets

Set Up SMB/NFS Shares

Navigate to Shares → SMB or NFS
Create shares pointing to your datasets
Configure permissions (user/group or ACL)

Enable Docker

Navigate to Apps → Settings
Select a pool for Docker storage (use an SSD dataset if available)
Docker is now available via CLI (ssh in) or the Apps catalog

Power Consumption

Build Type	Idle (no drives)	Idle (4x HDD)	Idle (8x HDD)
N100 build	8-10W	25-35W	45-65W
N305 build	10-15W	28-40W	48-70W
i3-12100 build	20-30W	40-55W	60-85W

Annual cost at $0.12/kWh (N305 with 4x HDD):

Idle: ~$30-42/year
Active: ~$40-55/year

Compare to Synology DS423+ with 4x HDD: ~$30-35/year. DIY power consumption is similar for the same drive count.

Total Cost Examples

4-Drive Build (N305 + Jonsbo N3)

Component	Cost
Jonsbo N3 case	$140
ASRock N305-ITX	$130
32 GB DDR5 SO-DIMM	$65
256 GB NVMe boot SSD	$20
4x Seagate IronWolf 8 TB	$600
Total	~$955

Usable storage: 24 TB (RAID-Z1) with ZFS checksums, 8-core CPU, 32 GB RAM.

Synology DS423+ equivalent: $450 (unit) + $600 (drives) + $25 (RAM upgrade to 8 GB) = $1,075. Less RAM (8 GB vs 32 GB), weaker CPU (J4125 vs N305), same drive count.

8-Drive Build (N305 + Jonsbo N3)

Component	Cost
Jonsbo N3 case	$140
ASRock N305-ITX	$130
32 GB DDR5 SO-DIMM	$65
256 GB NVMe boot SSD	$20
8x WD Red Plus 8 TB	$1,120
Total	~$1,475

Usable storage: 48 TB (RAID-Z2) with ZFS checksums and 2-drive fault tolerance.

Synology equivalent (DS1821+, 8-bay): $1,100 (unit) + $1,120 (drives) = $2,220. The DIY build saves $745 and gives you a faster CPU and 4x the RAM.

FAQ

Is building a NAS hard?

If you’ve built a PC before, a NAS build is identical. If you haven’t, it’s straightforward — there are fewer components than a gaming PC. The OS installation and ZFS setup takes more thought than the hardware assembly.

How much RAM do I need for TrueNAS/ZFS?

Minimum 8 GB. Recommended 16-32 GB. ZFS uses RAM for its ARC cache — more RAM means more frequently-accessed data is served from memory instead of disk. The old “1 GB per TB of storage” rule is a guideline, not a hard requirement. 16 GB handles most home setups.

Can I use my old desktop as a NAS?

Yes. If it has an Intel or AMD x86 CPU, 8+ GB RAM, and enough SATA ports (or you add an HBA card), install TrueNAS SCALE or Unraid. The main concern is power consumption — an old desktop draws 50-100W idle vs 15-30W for a purpose-built N305 system.

Should I use ECC RAM?

For TrueNAS/ZFS: recommended but not required. ECC prevents in-flight data corruption from memory bit-flips. For a home server, the risk of ECC mattering is low, but it’s cheap insurance if your motherboard supports it.

How loud is a DIY NAS?

Depends on fans and drives. 3.5” HDDs produce 25-35 dB of noise. 7200 RPM drives are louder than 5400 RPM. The Jonsbo N3 with its stock fan and 4 WD Red Plus drives (5400 RPM) is about as loud as a quiet desktop — noticeable in a silent room but fine for a closet or utility room.