This unit also sells as T-Bao R3/Pro, I have been using the 5500U version for about six months. I've been using with Unraid for data backup and media streaming, I've also managed to get perfect hardware transcoding with Jellfin, that's a huge plus for me. For the moment I am waiting for a PCI riser cable to arrive, the HDD daughterboard uses only half of the PCI slot. I will try my luck and see if I can use an additional SATA controller card for extra storage. I've tested the internal NVMe slot with a SATA adapter, but it only worked on Windows.
I have watched several video guides out there by different creators regarding home labs, but this channel is the most relatable especially for beginners. For someone who grew up in Windows entirely, this one created a nice cushion for me to take a big step in exploring Linux and other home lab stuff. Please keep it up!
You are learning to lean into the haters. I love it. - truenas = you are doing it wrong - OMV = you are doing it wrong - unraid = you are doing it wrong - casaos = you are doing it wrong - windows 11 = 😮
I really appreciate how accessible you make working on systems like this feel for most folks. I can share these with people I know who are less techy (that's probably not a real word) than I am and not have to worry about completely alienating them. Thanks!
I've had this with n100 for almost a month. I added 32gb ram + two 4tb ultrastar hdd drives. Copes very well with many tasks. I also replaced the fan with a Noctua NF-A9x1 and I'm currently looking for a fan for the radiator because it's noisy. Great for home needs!
i'd be interested to know which fan you are considering & if you managed to reduce noise. It's a great device but way too noisy too in my point of view
This looks like a great solution for a compact home media server. Should be plenty powerful to run jellyfin and navidrome off of it. Thanks for the review!
This was my thought. I’m trying to setup a JellyFin server for the first time. Would this be powerful enough for being a 4k media server using JellyFin?
I have the Ryzen 5 5500U version of this AOOSTAR machine. You are correct that the fan spins at a fixed speed on the default header. I found that an 80mm Noctua fan fits pretty snug between the original fan mounting points and will stay put with 2 little gobs of bluetac or hot glue while giving way more airflow at a higher rpm. Running a pretty simple Linux desktop distro with casaOS has been stable and painless.
Although I'm a software engineer work, at home I'm an average Windows user. I only need a NAS to protect against a disk failure so Windows simple disk mirroring is fine. I also run a Plex media server as well as a printer server. This nice looking PC replaced 3 separate boxes - a homebrew SBC printer server, an old Netgear NAS, and an external WD drive. Incidentally your review greatly influenced me to go this route.
I’ve found my people. Im just looking for a simple windows nas unit to stores drives for my media server and this or the WRT PRO seems to fit the bill.
I ended up getting two of these, a couple months apart. One of them I'm using to run OMV as a NAS, and the other I'm running Linux Mint plus CasaOS and Cockpit. The goal was to learn more about Linux while having a couple NASes for backup purposes, and worked for both. Decent discounts during Amazon sales.
FYI the R1 I just got from Amazon DOES support fan control for the lower fan. I replaced the 2-pin fan with a 4-pin slim fan, plugging it into the same header, and the BIOS allowed me to adjust the speeds. In Win11, Speedfan did not recognize it however "Fan Control" did and I was able to create custom curves. I also added 3/4" rubber feet to the bottom to improve airflow, and between that, the fan curves, and adding a heat sink to the NVME SSD, the SSD's temp dropped 10-15 degrees, with very little noise from the fans or hard drives, which were quite loud prior. The BIOS date is late November 2023, so maybe updating older units with new firmware will help, or maybe my board is a newer version.
I have a DIY N100 NAS machine (Asus N100 ITX mobo) and its performance for NAS/Jellyfin is amazing. Having these features in a cute little box is really amazing. I was about to buy this R1 machine on Cyber Monday, but I really wanted it to be able to handle 4 SATA drives, so I decided to wait and recently Aoostar announced a quad SATA N100 machine and let's hope it delivers a nice design. Maybe I should buy a Mini ITX case, but shipping costs are prohibitive for me. If I only would need 2 SATA drives, I would have bought this little guy.
unRAID’s default global temp warning is the same as for a normal spinning rust HDD. It doesn’t have the settings to set global temperature warnings based on the type of storage medium. So you’ll have to set individual temp warning settings for each SSD. Especially NVMe is built to run hot so have a look at the NVMe’s spec sheet and set your temp warnings accordingly. I typically set mine at 60°C for warning and 65°C for critical. It looks like a nice box! If it would’ve had a few more 2.5 GbE ports it would be the perfect AirPort Time Capsule replacement for those who know how to tinker a bit. Run pfSense in a VM on Proxmox and the storage as a mirrored pool. 👍
I mean, the dual NICs it have still makes it a viable option for a router, but with a couple more ports most people wouldn’t need to run a separate switch and I think many are appealed by that.
"I ran windows" Dude. Much respect. I just deployed a new Plex server and decided to just install it on a Windows 11 miniPC. No issues since I deployed. Sometimes the simple answers are the best answers.
I got this thing to run proxmox backup server (virtualized in pve, I know, dumb idea) and a few other lightweight things like a backup pihole for DNS redundancy. It's a cool design, however I was fairly disappointed that the marketing material showed 2x nvme slots and 2x ram slots, but when I got it I found out that's only for the Ryzen versions. Oh well, too late, it's just running PBS and that's all I needed it for. Noctua fan upgrade helped, and I think I'm going to replace the thermal paste because everything I've seen in this price range had bad thermal paste application at the factory. Fun little box.
i have a small server in an HP ProDesk 600 G4 SFF also running windows. It works pretty well as long as you take care of some unwanted windows "features" In Virtualbox i have 3 Machines running Linux to give me a Docker, a nextcloud and a Pihole. It works very stable since September when i set it up. Greetings from Germany
A good impartial review, as usual - well done sir! I was a bit surprised that neither version of this system were already out of stock at Amazon - if you find other places selling them, links would be appreciated.
I bought the ryzen version on aliexpress without ram and storage and the AOOStar branding for $314 including shipping at the YCSD Official Store. It arrived in just under a month. The seller was very helpful and answered all my questions.
I like the idea with the dual bay and as a home appliance server, but wished it had 4 drive bay (instead of 2) and also rack mountable instead of the stylish case.
Haha 😅 yeah that sounds nice but that’s a whole other type of product.. It’s like looking at a small hatchback and wishing it had a truck bed and 6 seats. 😂
AOOSTAR started a pre-order of its new NAS barebone in an aluminium case. AOOSTAR WTR PRO 4 Bay 90T Storage INTEL N100 Nas Mini PC for $289. Looks awesome.
I believe they have a 6 and 8 bay nas coming "Soon™️" and I'm really excited because it sounds like it'll be a perfect match for what I want to set up at my parents place for some remote backup
Huh, this actually looks like the perfect little system for my needs, with minimal headache. My current NAS sits in my bedroom and it’s loud, so I’ve been looking to replace it. All I need is Jellyfin, home bridge, and file storage so yeah. Looks like I’m gonna be looking into this one a little deeper. Thanks for the video!
You can probably get those drives out by using a pull tab made from Duct tape on the drive. Stick tape say 3" on the top of drive then hangs off 2" or so and fold 1" back on itself to cover the sticky side. That's obviously the pull tab to grab the drive and pull out.
7:55 Oh boy, I didn't see why it would'nt work either, but installing Proxmox on this one is a real headache : v8.1 just wouldn't install, and v7.4 needed to *type in* custom X11 settings for the graphic cards to be recognized before launching the installer (no text-only intall with v7.4). Once v7.4 is installed, the update to 8.1 goes smoothly. I even managed to get ful hardware acceleration on a LXC running Jellyfin. Thanks UA-cam for two crucial walk-throughs
I i were to buy this, i'd much rather go for the ryzen one. Waay more horsepower there to run a few game servers, also the dual m.2 slots kinda make it an all around better option. Sure the n100 is much cheaper but the ryzen one seems pretty well priced so if you can use the extra performance then it's a no brainer
Most M.2 have a safe operating temperature up to around 70°C according to their spec sheets. Don't know why the default is set to 45°C in UnRAID, I have changed all mine because I got tired of looking at the false warnings (and emails)
Doesn't appear to be available (yet) directly on Amazon UK, but might be what I'm looking for. It's a shame there doesn't appear to be an internal USB for boot purposes, and the dual m.2 as you pointed out.
Re-test with 2.5" SSD's (with drive adapters) and UNRaid in BTRFS (to see if power draw is lower at idle) Definitely a pretty clean looking little "NAS" with light "SERVER" capability, but the low power CPU's just can't hang for the most part Thanks for this...I have to kick myself every time I see your video's because I immediately go to "the jungle site" and click buy...but then realize I'm broke...LOL I don't think just having two NICs will allow passthru for PROXMOX because it won't have a dedicated port/ip for the webgui Keep em coming!!!!
I'm thinking of getting one of those, but for a Truenas Scale build... perhaps that R7 5700U model instead, because I want to run a whole ton of docker containers. :P NextCloud with a ton of plugins is a resource hog, but there are some stuff that I can only find there... oh well.
One thing I haven't seen any video cover yet is setting up an N100 machine with Proxmox with iGPU passthrough using SR-IOV. I've seen a few posts in Chinese detailing how to do this. It should be doable to run Proxmox with a Linux VM running Jellyfin and another (possibly Windows?) VM to run games, both sharing the iGPU through SR-IOV. I'd imagine the performance wouldn't be amazing, but it should at least allow you to do game streaming and play lightweight/retro games directly from the HDMI port through one VM, while Jellyfin is serving hardware-transcoded video in a different VM, all of this with pretty inexpensive hardware.
Novaspirit Tech did one recently, though not specifically the N100 but the principle should be the same. ua-cam.com/video/9ruxTChA4Y4/v-deo.htmlsi=xTIKaVRZjZ2OoLgU
When I was taking apart my R1 to install the NVME SSD and RAM, I noticed that the motherboard in the center of the unit connects to the backplane (for the 2 sata drives) via what looks like a 4 lane PCIe connector. The motherboard has 2 of these connectors and one of them is unused. Any idea if the spare connector could be used to hook up a second m.2 NVME SSD via a PCIe to m.2 cable/connector?
I saw the same thing, but my guess is no. I would assume that's from a similar PCB design with a different chip, or to allow that same board to fit into a different chassis. The N100 only supports 9 lanes of PCIe. 2 of those are probably already going to the NICs, with another 2 going to the NVMe. I imagine the SATA backplane is just a x1 connection. It's possible, but I can't imagine they would sacrifice performance on other used components or pay more for PCIe switches to have add functionality to an unused connector. That being said, I haven't tried so who knows haha!
the reason for the idle power draw is that your NAS drives dont spin down. the OS needs to tell it. I can only hope WD drives dont ignore OS commands as long ago you could tweak the firmware.
I think Im going to buy both the R1 and R7. Just for shiggles and gits. Change out the HP G3 mediaserver with one. Use the other for virtual drives and home assistant. Not sure, but I'll find a use for both, justified or not.
They need a 3rd version with the intel i300 8 core thingy. Double the cores would be even more helpful performance wise, but stay in the same basic power envelopes, with not lots more money spent.
I am interested in getting my feet wet with this unit, however I do need some advice. Primary job of the NAS will be to backup my wife and I computer docs and possibly phones to this, and from there using Idrive for cloud backup. I plan using a 4tb NVME drive in the M.2 slot to backup everything instead mechanical drives. What software should I use on the Aoostar that would show up "easily" on our Windows and Mac laptops and phones to connect everything together?
Hi, if you could manage to get that Ryzen one, and compare them, I think a lot of us viewers would be thankful. 😊 Cheers! P.S. Watched a few of your old videos today, as I'm planing to reuse my old 3400G for home NAS. Kids growing too fast and I need a safer way to keep all the memories.
The N100 seems to be everywhere these days, but I really don't like the single channel memory. If there was a version similar to that with dual channel memory (I realise the N100 is single channel only) I would be interested. I wonder if there's a comparable option somewhere that does include that feature.
All of the N-Alder Lake CPU's are single channel RAM. Since they're just E-cores from the 12th gen, probably no technical reason why they couldn't use dual channel. Intel likely didn't want them to cannibalize sales from the higher-end, so they crippled the performance somewhat by going single channel.
I always thought Unraid's nvme temp sensors were a bit touchy. If I recall I think I raised the temp threshold 5-10 degrees so I wasn't getting tons of notifications.
@@HardwareHaven Yeah! I've always thought that a dual 3.5" bay thing in that same 1L footprint would be a perfect little 3L stackable NAS, htpc, whatever.
I think for non critical services it’s fine. Like playing retro games and hosting Jellyfin, sure. I wouldn’t also use it as my router though at the same time haha
Is this a good fit for the following: Thank you for the great content! 🙋🏽♂️ I’m looking to replace a Hikvision NVR of IP camera’s with AI capabilities. I’m looking at Coral + Frigate at the moment… I am also open to other options? Current Setup: 1X Hikvision DS-7608NI-I2/8P 8CH 1X 4TB Drive 1X 2MP PTZ 2X 4MP Turret 3X 2MP Dome 1X HDMI Monitor Goals: 1. Face and Person Recognition with Frigate or BI + Deepstack 2. iOS Push notifications with a snapshot of the event 3. Access to camera’s from HomeKit if possible 4. Below 25W of power consumption with two 4GB Skyhawk HDD 5. Hub for Home Assistant I appreciate all the help 💪🏽
I think you can use the VA API, but not sure how well it performs. It can probably software encode just fine unless you’re trying to run multiple transcodes simultaneously. I want to do more with some of the newer ryzen ships when I can.
The Ryzen models can Decode/Encode: h265 (8 & 10bit), h264, VP8, VP9, AVC. And can Decode VC-1. The only non-supported format is AV1, which may not matter if you aren't trying to use it as a game streaming PC.
great video, i have two old 3.5" hdd, and i hope one day i can use them for something xd (those hdd (160gb) are from my first PC litteraly 15 year ago lol)
@@HardwareHaven thanks for confirming 👍 it's useful for non US people, as they offer international shipping in their website unlike Amazon Were you sent this one by aoostar? If you are in touch with them, do you know what can customers expect in terms of bios updates, support, etc? I bought two 5700u earlier 👍
Great little device, though i wouldnt trust the N100 as those tend to lag on windows. For linux, sure it might work. You should do a review of something like an HP Proliant DL 360 G7
Hello! I have a question, I'm building a home lab server with an e5 2680v4 and 32gb do you think it will be enough to have a MC modded server and Terraria Modded server and a RAID?
@@HardwareHaven no worries! I've been digging the content. I setup my first server after watching your budget unraid guide. Now I'm eyeing one of those ASRock n100 boards. Keep em coming!
“Great video! Just a heads-up for everyone considering products from companies like Aoostar. While their tech is innovative and affordable, it’s important to be aware of potential security risks. Given the influence of the Chinese Communist Party over private companies, there are concerns about possible backdoors and data privacy issues. Make sure to research independent reviews, use robust security software, and keep your firmware updated. Stay safe and informed! 👍”
Looks like the perfect living room HTPC/NAS/Plex server and no need to learn any software since it's Windows makes this accessible. My original plan was just to plug my 2 external HDDs into the USB 3.2 of a N100 mini PC, but this is only slightly more expensive and looks much nicer, probably would perform better and draw less power as well? Time to shuck a couple of drives.
Which is what, Denmark? The highest in the US is around 30? I just feel if that's one of the criticisms that you're really nailing on this wouldn't be the type of unit that somebody that concerned with power would be buying.
Review for a thing thats already not available as the links show within 1 hour after release of the video. And no its not because this is sold out being a huge succes.
I believe there is supposed to be more in stock soon. I reached out to the manufacturer to see if they had details. I'll put their response in a pinned comment.
Nice lil' machine - too bad that you cannot get it in europe. As far as I'm concerned i see a system that ... Well ... Can be beat in terms of idle watts by diy solutions. Or even a well thought out pico psu server on a more powerful platform. If youre going to sink 30 watts at idle into a system them this doesnt really make a ton of sense. I'd rather have two external hdds plugged into an optimized n100 mini pc at that point, taking advantage of usb 3. N100s are the new pis for me nevertheless :) (and i wish i could say "despite being much more expensive")
Hi, great video as always fun and entertaining! I need help with a choice I'm not sure about. I have a motherboard that supports 4th gen cpu's but an i7-4770 cpu will cost me around 80$ and i have to buy ddr3 ram for around 25$ or i can get an x99 motherboard combo with a xeon e5-2670 v3 and ddr4 16gb ram for 65$. I think that the x99 is the better choice because the cpu is more powerfull that the i7 4gen, the ram is ddr4 and it will be cheaper. I want to use this system for gaming, streaming and video editing. Im gonna pair it with an rtx 2070 super. Is the x99 really the better choice?
A bigger fan and a dust filter would've given it the air-purifier-credz that it emulates
Hahaha true
It’s that heavy you could just put in on a sponge cloth and replace it ever 6 months and filter all you want.
This unit also sells as T-Bao R3/Pro, I have been using the 5500U version for about six months. I've been using with Unraid for data backup and media streaming, I've also managed to get perfect hardware transcoding with Jellfin, that's a huge plus for me. For the moment I am waiting for a PCI riser cable to arrive, the HDD daughterboard uses only half of the PCI slot. I will try my luck and see if I can use an additional SATA controller card for extra storage. I've tested the internal NVMe slot with a SATA adapter, but it only worked on Windows.
I have watched several video guides out there by different creators regarding home labs, but this channel is the most relatable especially for beginners. For someone who grew up in Windows entirely, this one created a nice cushion for me to take a big step in exploring Linux and other home lab stuff. Please keep it up!
Thanks! I’m glad to be of help 🙂
“And really just anything else you might want to do with a desktop PC”
*Shows B Roll of washing his motherboard in the sink*
Well to be fair, it was screen capture of watching a UA-cam video... but yeah I thought it was funny too haha
You are learning to lean into the haters. I love it.
- truenas = you are doing it wrong
- OMV = you are doing it wrong
- unraid = you are doing it wrong
- casaos = you are doing it wrong
- windows 11 = 😮
coming next: Windows XP SP3 :D
I really appreciate how accessible you make working on systems like this feel for most folks. I can share these with people I know who are less techy (that's probably not a real word) than I am and not have to worry about completely alienating them. Thanks!
I might frame this comment. It’s nice to feel like you’re actually accomplishing what you’re trying to do haha. Seriously, thanks!
I've had this with n100 for almost a month. I added 32gb ram + two 4tb ultrastar hdd drives. Copes very well with many tasks. I also replaced the fan with a Noctua NF-A9x1 and I'm currently looking for a fan for the radiator because it's noisy. Great for home needs!
i'd be interested to know which fan you are considering & if you managed to reduce noise. It's a great device but way too noisy too in my point of view
This looks like a great solution for a compact home media server. Should be plenty powerful to run jellyfin and navidrome off of it. Thanks for the review!
This was my thought. I’m trying to setup a JellyFin server for the first time. Would this be powerful enough for being a 4k media server using JellyFin?
I have the Ryzen 5 5500U version of this AOOSTAR machine. You are correct that the fan spins at a fixed speed on the default header. I found that an 80mm Noctua fan fits pretty snug between the original fan mounting points and will stay put with 2 little gobs of bluetac or hot glue while giving way more airflow at a higher rpm. Running a pretty simple Linux desktop distro with casaOS has been stable and painless.
Nice! Good to know
@@HardwareHaven kinda wanna see you pick up a ryzen version and pit it against the zimacube in a "price to practicality" comparison.
Thanks. Loved the tear-down!
Glad you enjoyed it! Next time buy yourself 5 months of a membership, that way you get early access and such. I really appreciate the tip though 👍🏻
Although I'm a software engineer work, at home I'm an average Windows user. I only need a NAS to protect against a disk failure so Windows simple disk mirroring is fine. I also run a Plex media server as well as a printer server. This nice looking PC replaced 3 separate boxes - a homebrew SBC printer server, an old Netgear NAS, and an external WD drive. Incidentally your review greatly influenced me to go this route.
I’ve found my people. Im just looking for a simple windows nas unit to stores drives for my media server and this or the WRT PRO seems to fit the bill.
I ended up getting two of these, a couple months apart. One of them I'm using to run OMV as a NAS, and the other I'm running Linux Mint plus CasaOS and Cockpit. The goal was to learn more about Linux while having a couple NASes for backup purposes, and worked for both. Decent discounts during Amazon sales.
FYI the R1 I just got from Amazon DOES support fan control for the lower fan. I replaced the 2-pin fan with a 4-pin slim fan, plugging it into the same header, and the BIOS allowed me to adjust the speeds. In Win11, Speedfan did not recognize it however "Fan Control" did and I was able to create custom curves. I also added 3/4" rubber feet to the bottom to improve airflow, and between that, the fan curves, and adding a heat sink to the NVME SSD, the SSD's temp dropped 10-15 degrees, with very little noise from the fans or hard drives, which were quite loud prior.
The BIOS date is late November 2023, so maybe updating older units with new firmware will help, or maybe my board is a newer version.
I have a DIY N100 NAS machine (Asus N100 ITX mobo) and its performance for NAS/Jellyfin is amazing. Having these features in a cute little box is really amazing. I was about to buy this R1 machine on Cyber Monday, but I really wanted it to be able to handle 4 SATA drives, so I decided to wait and recently Aoostar announced a quad SATA N100 machine and let's hope it delivers a nice design. Maybe I should buy a Mini ITX case, but shipping costs are prohibitive for me.
If I only would need 2 SATA drives, I would have bought this little guy.
unRAID’s default global temp warning is the same as for a normal spinning rust HDD. It doesn’t have the settings to set global temperature warnings based on the type of storage medium. So you’ll have to set individual temp warning settings for each SSD. Especially NVMe is built to run hot so have a look at the NVMe’s spec sheet and set your temp warnings accordingly. I typically set mine at 60°C for warning and 65°C for critical.
It looks like a nice box! If it would’ve had a few more 2.5 GbE ports it would be the perfect AirPort Time Capsule replacement for those who know how to tinker a bit. Run pfSense in a VM on Proxmox and the storage as a mirrored pool. 👍
I mean, the dual NICs it have still makes it a viable option for a router, but with a couple more ports most people wouldn’t need to run a separate switch and I think many are appealed by that.
Such a great design! A dual drive enclosure and mini PC in one. My 25W Celeron J tower holding various 3.5” HDDs will soon be replaced by this format.
Content has been really improved compared to how it was before!!
Great video!!
Glad you think so! I’ve been trying to lol
@@HardwareHavenDefinitely your hard work has paid off!!
This channel really does everything!
Lol
"I ran windows" Dude. Much respect. I just deployed a new Plex server and decided to just install it on a Windows 11 miniPC. No issues since I deployed. Sometimes the simple answers are the best answers.
Hahaha yeah. I’m curious about updates, but I think Windows is definitely overlooked and undervalued in the self hosting world.
I got this thing to run proxmox backup server (virtualized in pve, I know, dumb idea) and a few other lightweight things like a backup pihole for DNS redundancy. It's a cool design, however I was fairly disappointed that the marketing material showed 2x nvme slots and 2x ram slots, but when I got it I found out that's only for the Ryzen versions. Oh well, too late, it's just running PBS and that's all I needed it for. Noctua fan upgrade helped, and I think I'm going to replace the thermal paste because everything I've seen in this price range had bad thermal paste application at the factory. Fun little box.
i have a small server in an HP ProDesk 600 G4 SFF also running windows. It works pretty well as long as you take care of some unwanted windows "features"
In Virtualbox i have 3 Machines running Linux to give me a Docker, a nextcloud and a Pihole. It works very stable since September when i set it up.
Greetings from Germany
Was looking forward to this one!
If anyone's wondering how i know these things. Get raid 10 and find out!
Hahahahaha yes
A good impartial review, as usual - well done sir!
I was a bit surprised that neither version of this system were already out of stock at Amazon - if you find other places selling them, links would be appreciated.
Thanks! And I know it’s listed on Aoostars actual website for $270
I think they’re also on AliExpress
I bought the ryzen version on aliexpress without ram and storage and the AOOStar branding for $314 including shipping at the YCSD Official Store. It arrived in just under a month. The seller was very helpful and answered all my questions.
I like the idea with the dual bay and as a home appliance server, but wished it had 4 drive bay (instead of 2) and also rack mountable instead of the stylish case.
$$$
you could probably use smth like kubernetes and put to without the cases into a rack mount case, idk if that would work but it might be an idea
Haha 😅 yeah that sounds nice but that’s a whole other type of product.. It’s like looking at a small hatchback and wishing it had a truck bed and 6 seats. 😂
AOOSTAR started a pre-order of its new NAS barebone in an aluminium case. AOOSTAR WTR PRO 4 Bay 90T Storage INTEL N100 Nas Mini PC for $289. Looks awesome.
I believe they have a 6 and 8 bay nas coming "Soon™️" and I'm really excited because it sounds like it'll be a perfect match for what I want to set up at my parents place for some remote backup
Huh, this actually looks like the perfect little system for my needs, with minimal headache. My current NAS sits in my bedroom and it’s loud, so I’ve been looking to replace it. All I need is Jellyfin, home bridge, and file storage so yeah. Looks like I’m gonna be looking into this one a little deeper. Thanks for the video!
You can probably get those drives out by using a pull tab made from Duct tape on the drive. Stick tape say 3" on the top of drive then hangs off 2" or so and fold 1" back on itself to cover the sticky side. That's obviously the pull tab to grab the drive and pull out.
This would be a gorgeous kodi box
Wonderful video, as usual. Thanks for all of the great content.
Thanks Collin!
7:55 Oh boy, I didn't see why it would'nt work either, but installing Proxmox on this one is a real headache : v8.1 just wouldn't install, and v7.4 needed to *type in* custom X11 settings for the graphic cards to be recognized before launching the installer (no text-only intall with v7.4). Once v7.4 is installed, the update to 8.1 goes smoothly.
I even managed to get ful hardware acceleration on a LXC running Jellyfin. Thanks UA-cam for two crucial walk-throughs
I i were to buy this, i'd much rather go for the ryzen one. Waay more horsepower there to run a few game servers, also the dual m.2 slots kinda make it an all around better option. Sure the n100 is much cheaper but the ryzen one seems pretty well priced so if you can use the extra performance then it's a no brainer
I don’t necessarily disagree!
Intel is better for media streaming
props for the shoutout to etaprime. hes the emulation goat
10W at idle without drives seems a bit high, did you activate C states in the bios?
A couple of 2.5" HDD's might give more airflow to help with the M.2 SSD temp issue - as long as you don't need high storage capacities...
For sure. I almost put some SSDs in there as well
you could always shuck some of the 2.5" 4tb hdds out of some portable hdds.
Most M.2 have a safe operating temperature up to around 70°C according to their spec sheets.
Don't know why the default is set to 45°C in UnRAID, I have changed all mine because I got tired of looking at the false warnings (and emails)
Doesn't appear to be available (yet) directly on Amazon UK, but might be what I'm looking for. It's a shame there doesn't appear to be an internal USB for boot purposes, and the dual m.2 as you pointed out.
Re-test with 2.5" SSD's (with drive adapters) and UNRaid in BTRFS (to see if power draw is lower at idle)
Definitely a pretty clean looking little "NAS" with light "SERVER" capability, but the low power CPU's just can't hang for the most part
Thanks for this...I have to kick myself every time I see your video's because I immediately go to "the jungle site" and click buy...but then realize I'm broke...LOL
I don't think just having two NICs will allow passthru for PROXMOX because it won't have a dedicated port/ip for the webgui
Keep em coming!!!!
I'm thinking of getting one of those, but for a Truenas Scale build... perhaps that R7 5700U model instead, because I want to run a whole ton of docker containers. :P NextCloud with a ton of plugins is a resource hog, but there are some stuff that I can only find there... oh well.
Seeed Studio make the reServer, which is of a similar form factor. They use i3 & i5 mobile processors.
One thing I haven't seen any video cover yet is setting up an N100 machine with Proxmox with iGPU passthrough using SR-IOV. I've seen a few posts in Chinese detailing how to do this. It should be doable to run Proxmox with a Linux VM running Jellyfin and another (possibly Windows?) VM to run games, both sharing the iGPU through SR-IOV. I'd imagine the performance wouldn't be amazing, but it should at least allow you to do game streaming and play lightweight/retro games directly from the HDMI port through one VM, while Jellyfin is serving hardware-transcoded video in a different VM, all of this with pretty inexpensive hardware.
Novaspirit Tech did one recently, though not specifically the N100 but the principle should be the same. ua-cam.com/video/9ruxTChA4Y4/v-deo.htmlsi=xTIKaVRZjZ2OoLgU
When I was taking apart my R1 to install the NVME SSD and RAM, I noticed that the motherboard in the center of the unit connects to the backplane (for the 2 sata drives) via what looks like a 4 lane PCIe connector. The motherboard has 2 of these connectors and one of them is unused. Any idea if the spare connector could be used to hook up a second m.2 NVME SSD via a PCIe to m.2 cable/connector?
I saw the same thing, but my guess is no. I would assume that's from a similar PCB design with a different chip, or to allow that same board to fit into a different chassis. The N100 only supports 9 lanes of PCIe. 2 of those are probably already going to the NICs, with another 2 going to the NVMe. I imagine the SATA backplane is just a x1 connection. It's possible, but I can't imagine they would sacrifice performance on other used components or pay more for PCIe switches to have add functionality to an unused connector.
That being said, I haven't tried so who knows haha!
the reason for the idle power draw is that your NAS drives dont spin down. the OS needs to tell it. I can only hope WD drives dont ignore OS commands as long ago you could tweak the firmware.
Hi, may I know what is the max power consumption in the wall with 2 HDD? Thanks!
I think Im going to buy both the R1 and R7. Just for shiggles and gits. Change out the HP G3 mediaserver with one. Use the other for virtual drives and home assistant. Not sure, but I'll find a use for both, justified or not.
I have a HP G2 (i5-6500T 35W). It destroys my N100 Beelink mini pc. Those HP 1 liter mini pc's rock.
Loving this channel so much 🤓
Glad to hear it!
Can you please do a video on how to optimise a budget nas/Plex server for lowest power draw while keeping the same performance
How did you install Unraid onto the unit as it comes with Win11 preinstalled? Can you share the key steps with me please?
Was watching it as nas was confused why it was so expensive even more than the damn wd dual bay and asustor 4bay.
And it had no much discription
tbh jellyfin is very simple on windows pc especially when you add folders from different drives
For sure! It was super simple
Hi, you may wanna use Sunrise on the server PC with Moonlight on the client's PC instead.
The Aoostars are sold out on Amazon.
I believe they have stock on their site with stock for Amazon coming. I’m currently trying to confirm details and will update in a pinned comment
They need a 3rd version with the intel i300 8 core thingy. Double the cores would be even more helpful performance wise, but stay in the same basic power envelopes, with not lots more money spent.
2BAY We won't be upgrading. 4Bay will be using the INTEL N305 CPU.
I have the 5700, fans are super noisy, cpu fan in particular which I don’t think can be replaced
That yellow tab is a deal-breaker if you have cats. 😂
Hahahaha
Can you know the temp of the HDDs using these?
I am interested in getting my feet wet with this unit, however I do need some advice. Primary job of the NAS will be to backup my wife and I computer docs and possibly phones to this, and from there using Idrive for cloud backup. I plan using a 4tb NVME drive in the M.2 slot to backup everything instead mechanical drives. What software should I use on the Aoostar that would show up "easily" on our Windows and Mac laptops and phones to connect everything together?
I got this from AliExpress last year, but their older version with athom a300u. Would you say n100 is a big jump, upgrade?
Hi, if you could manage to get that Ryzen one, and compare them, I think a lot of us viewers would be thankful. 😊 Cheers!
P.S. Watched a few of your old videos today, as I'm planing to reuse my old 3400G for home NAS. Kids growing too fast and I need a safer way to keep all the memories.
If I get it I will. Odds are it will be a different system with the same or similar CPU. We’ll see!
And it definitely flies by!
The N100 seems to be everywhere these days, but I really don't like the single channel memory. If there was a version similar to that with dual channel memory (I realise the N100 is single channel only) I would be interested. I wonder if there's a comparable option somewhere that does include that feature.
the Ryzen models with 5500U and 5700U both have dual channel memory.
All of the N-Alder Lake CPU's are single channel RAM. Since they're just E-cores from the 12th gen, probably no technical reason why they couldn't use dual channel. Intel likely didn't want them to cannibalize sales from the higher-end, so they crippled the performance somewhat by going single channel.
I always thought Unraid's nvme temp sensors were a bit touchy. If I recall I think I raised the temp threshold 5-10 degrees so I wasn't getting tons of notifications.
That could be it too!
Is there some sort of dual 3.5" caddy/attachment thing to turn a dell micro into something like this?
Are you talking about the little “1 liter” mini PCs?
@@HardwareHaven Yeah! I've always thought that a dual 3.5" bay thing in that same 1L footprint would be a perfect little 3L stackable NAS, htpc, whatever.
Everything in one basket NO WAY !! been there done that seen this before, Nightmare. Aka. Apple Routers etc etc
I think for non critical services it’s fine. Like playing retro games and hosting Jellyfin, sure. I wouldn’t also use it as my router though at the same time haha
yeah, light stuff.. Nothing mission critical tho !@@HardwareHaven
Is this a good fit for the following:
Thank you for the great content! 🙋🏽♂️ I’m looking to replace a Hikvision NVR of IP camera’s with AI capabilities. I’m looking at Coral + Frigate at the moment… I am also open to other options?
Current Setup:
1X Hikvision DS-7608NI-I2/8P 8CH
1X 4TB Drive
1X 2MP PTZ
2X 4MP Turret
3X 2MP Dome
1X HDMI Monitor
Goals:
1. Face and Person Recognition with Frigate or BI + Deepstack
2. iOS Push notifications with a snapshot of the event
3. Access to camera’s from HomeKit if possible
4. Below 25W of power consumption with two 4GB Skyhawk HDD
5. Hub for Home Assistant
I appreciate all the help 💪🏽
How would the R7 Ryzen version compare running Plex Server since it doesn't have Quick Sync like the N100?
I think you can use the VA API, but not sure how well it performs. It can probably software encode just fine unless you’re trying to run multiple transcodes simultaneously.
I want to do more with some of the newer ryzen ships when I can.
The Ryzen models can Decode/Encode: h265 (8 & 10bit), h264, VP8, VP9, AVC. And can Decode VC-1. The only non-supported format is AV1, which may not matter if you aren't trying to use it as a game streaming PC.
I have a different n100 mini PC and with batocera i can play up to ps2/gamecube at native. And some xbox games.
Anybody know how to access the boot manager on this?
thanks
great video,
i have two old 3.5" hdd, and i hope one day i can use them for something xd
(those hdd (160gb) are from my first PC litteraly 15 year ago lol)
Does it have any RAID option in the bios?
There is no RAID setting in the R1's BIOS, so if you need to raid, you can see for yourself what soft raids are available.
Awesome Video as usual. Look forward to the next!
I'll do something similar but with a Raspberry Pi 5 running CasaOS. 🤪
I left a comment earlier mentioning that the barebones version could be sourced somewhere else, did you delete it @Hardware Haven?
Nope UA-cam might've pulled it automatically, especially if it had a link. But yes, you can get it barebones from Aoostar's website!
@@HardwareHaven thanks for confirming 👍 it's useful for non US people, as they offer international shipping in their website unlike Amazon
Were you sent this one by aoostar? If you are in touch with them, do you know what can customers expect in terms of bios updates, support, etc?
I bought two 5700u earlier 👍
personally, I don't like the feet, why not make the screws next to the feet, so you don't have to rip them off?
thats fair. I'll just take anything better than the normal rubber feet that fall off after opening the case up 3 times
I was really planning on buying it after watching your video sadly they don't ship to my country : (
Perfect remote backup nas?
The R1 is a steal for 250 usd (current price), however, it's lacking two extra 3.5" drive bays I need to setup my home server.. bummer..
Doesn't the R1 have two 3.5'' drive bays?
@@cigijelisia4251 Yes, but I said "two EXTRA drive bays" 😉
Great video 👍
Thanks 👍
Apple trashcan designers must be screaming Rn 😂
Lol
Great little device, though i wouldnt trust the N100 as those tend to lag on windows. For linux, sure it might work. You should do a review of something like an HP Proliant DL 360 G7
Hello! I have a question, I'm building a home lab server with an e5 2680v4 and 32gb do you think it will be enough to have a MC modded server and Terraria Modded server and a RAID?
I think that should be plenty if I had to guess! 👍🏻
Could the wifi slot run a coral TPU?
I completely forgot to see if it supports PCIe. That’s a big L on my end 🤦🏻♂️
@@HardwareHaven no worries! I've been digging the content. I setup my first server after watching your budget unraid guide. Now I'm eyeing one of those ASRock n100 boards. Keep em coming!
“Great video! Just a heads-up for everyone considering products from companies like Aoostar. While their tech is innovative and affordable, it’s important to be aware of potential security risks. Given the influence of the Chinese Communist Party over private companies, there are concerns about possible backdoors and data privacy issues. Make sure to research independent reviews, use robust security software, and keep your firmware updated. Stay safe and informed! 👍”
Great vid
Thanks!
Looks like the perfect living room HTPC/NAS/Plex server and no need to learn any software since it's Windows makes this accessible. My original plan was just to plug my 2 external HDDs into the USB 3.2 of a N100 mini PC, but this is only slightly more expensive and looks much nicer, probably would perform better and draw less power as well? Time to shuck a couple of drives.
I’m trying to setup a JellyFin server for the first time. Would this be powerful enough for being a 4k media server using JellyFin?
I see you finally got those googly eyes. Good for you man! Lol
👀
Wish things like this were available in India 🥺
The fan thing is weird. sysfan isn't controlling the bottom one. 🤔🤨
0:50 how does he know? 🤨
What game was that on the video ?? Look nice 😊
I don't know if talking about a 10w difference like its an issue. That's like a $12-14 a year difference.
unless you live in places where it costs $0.50+/kWh
Which is what, Denmark? The highest in the US is around 30? I just feel if that's one of the criticisms that you're really nailing on this wouldn't be the type of unit that somebody that concerned with power would be buying.
Man, every time I see Europeans online worrying about minuscule power draws I really start to appreciate my $0.12/kWh here in ON, Canada lol
It's $0.36/kWh in the Bay area, and goes to $0.45/kWh during peak hours
Hello from the Unraid newsletter
If you've ever used anything with e-cores, you'd run away from this for "daily tasks".
Review for a thing thats already not available as the links show within 1 hour after release of the video. And no its not because this is sold out being a huge succes.
I believe there is supposed to be more in stock soon. I reached out to the manufacturer to see if they had details. I'll put their response in a pinned comment.
And I believe there's already stock on Aoostar's website.
Nice lil' machine - too bad that you cannot get it in europe. As far as I'm concerned i see a system that ... Well ... Can be beat in terms of idle watts by diy solutions. Or even a well thought out pico psu server on a more powerful platform. If youre going to sink 30 watts at idle into a system them this doesnt really make a ton of sense.
I'd rather have two external hdds plugged into an optimized n100 mini pc at that point, taking advantage of usb 3.
N100s are the new pis for me nevertheless :) (and i wish i could say "despite being much more expensive")
Hi, great video as always fun and entertaining!
I need help with a choice I'm not sure about. I have a motherboard that supports 4th gen cpu's but an i7-4770 cpu will cost me around 80$ and i have to buy ddr3 ram for around 25$ or i can get an x99 motherboard combo with a xeon e5-2670 v3 and ddr4 16gb ram for 65$. I think that the x99 is the better choice because the cpu is more powerfull that the i7 4gen, the ram is ddr4 and it will be cheaper. I want to use this system for gaming, streaming and video editing. Im gonna pair it with an rtx 2070 super. Is the x99 really the better choice?
Yes X99 is the better option because you can carry over the card and RAM as you upgrade.
Yeah I agree
Thanks very much@@HardwareHaven @lemonhead192 !!!
#lego MY SERVER! Imagine what clever designs await the raspberry pi 5.1
shame these arent available in europe
You can also usw wsl
High WAF factor