Reader test: Jonsbo N2 NAS enclosure from our giveaway – Another good result!

Towards the end of last year, we raffled off a very early Christmas present together with Caseking, which found its lucky winner after some delivery problems. He was kind enough to share his own impressions with us, which we will of course not withhold from you. So here’s the corresponding reader test today, enjoy!

Jonsbo N2 NAS enclosure in review – Not a direct successor, but a chic variation instead

What began as a winter project and ended with glorious spring weather

The Jonsbo N2 is superbly packaged and well protected against external influences. Not only does it have foam protection against knocks, but the case is also wrapped in a plastic bag. Nice for the customer, not so good for the environment.

The case is very cleanly manufactured and has no sharp edges, paint noses or similar defects. The gap dimensions also indicate high-quality manufacturing/good QM.

The four side screws can be quickly loosened with the Allen key supplied and the top can be removed.
I would see a standardized screw concept as an option for further development. Currently, you still need a Phillips screwdriver to loosen the knurled nuts and for the “inner values”, but more on that later.

The user manual provides a quick overview and is well structured.

The individual accessory packs are sensibly packed according to their intended use. The packs also contain more screws, straps, etc. than required. A big compliment here for giving the buyer enough options with these penny items in case a screw gets lost or is simply poorly made.

Now we come to the inner values of the Jonsbo N2.
As there are Phillips screws in the system anyway (mainboard, HDD, power supply, etc.) and also others on the case itself, it would have made sense to install the four screws from the lid in the mold as well. There would definitely be space in the case for an appropriate tool.

I reused part of the foam packaging for the assembly, as the rubberized underside of the case was rather a hindrance for me during assembly.

 

I installed a Mini-ITX from Asus in combination with an I3-12100T. To be on the safe side, I opted for the option of active cooling and gave the CPU an Alpenföhn Panorama 2. The system was completed with used parts from my own box of bits and pieces. A Samsung 970 EVO 500GB for the operating system and a DDR4-3200 16 GB kit.

The installation was a little more fiddly than expected, as there is only space in the case behind the power supply (be quiet! SFX Power 3) to stow away unused cable lengths. A modular power supply could certainly help here, but you also have to bear in mind that the Jonsbo N2 is not a midi tower. So everything is fine. After the functional test, the cables were optimized a little and fixed with cable ties.

As the rear fan doesn’t leave much room for plugs and cables, I decided to use 90° angled SATA plugs. This works really well.

The Jonsbo N2 can hold a maximum of 5 HDDs. The supplied rubber bumpers are screwed to the sides of these, as well as a rubber band at the front for easy removal. In this way, the hard disks are well decoupled from the housing and do not transmit any vibrations. Three 8 TB hard disks are currently installed in Raid 5 mode. So there is still room for improvement if the storage fills up over time.

In final operation, the NAS runs with Open Media Vault as a data backup and access point for photos and videos in the local network. As I had no previous experience with NAS, learning the ropes and setting it up was a little more time-consuming than expected.

All in all, the project was a lot of fun and I was able to learn a lot.
Many thanks at this point to Igor and his team, as well as the great community!