Posts: 1
Threads: 1
Joined: Jun 2025
Reputation:
0
Hello. I'm thinking of setting up a Nas... I come from Synology 1522+. I want to ride a thunder.. Have: 2 mvme 7 x SATA 3.5 drives 1 disc 2.5 And I had thought of the n305 plate... but I see that it only has 6 satas and no PCI express... And I don't know what other combinations of motherboard together with CPU you recommend..... My priority is noise and that it does not consume much since being connected 24/7... I need that if although it is not essential, a couple of virtual machine.... What can you recommend for motherboard + CPU..?
Posts: 4,947
Threads: 2
Joined: Jun 2022
Reputation:
35
Coming from a Synology 1522+ and thinking about building your own NAS, nice! The Topton N305 is a solid little board, but you’re right—it has only 6 SATA ports and no PCIe slot. So if you want to connect your 7 SATA drives plus the 2.5" disk, you might find yourself a bit short on ports, and no PCIe means no easy way to add things like a 10GbE card or an NVMe expansion.
If you’re after low noise and low power consumption (which makes total sense for a 24/7 setup), I’d look for an mITX board with an efficient CPU that has enough SATA ports or at least PCIe to expand.
Some recommendations:
ASRock Rack boards: They have mITX boards with onboard Intel CPUs (often low power) and decent SATA + PCIe options. Plus, some support virtualization well for your VMs.
Intel NUC or mini PCs with Thunderbolt might not give you enough SATA ports but can be paired with USB or Thunderbolt expansions if you want quiet and low power.
If you want to stick with AMD, look for mITX boards with Ryzen CPUs that have good power efficiency, enough SATA, and PCIe lanes for expansion.
If you want 7+ SATA ports, you might need to add a SATA controller card, which will require PCIe.
Since noise is a priority, consider cases with good sound dampening and low-RPM fans, and maybe an efficient CPU cooler.
