Build Your Own Minisforum N5 Inspired Mini NAS: A Comprehensive Guide
I love and adore this thing. The ($729 USD) Ryzen 7 255 packs 8 cores/16 threads, a 58-TOPS NPU and Radeon 780M for balanced home media, storage and light AI, while the ($1,299) Ryzen AI 9 HX Pro 370 brings 12 hybrid cores, ECC memory support, a 50-TOPS engine and Radeon 880M. The 255 nails everyday performance on a budget, whereas the 9 HX Pro 370 ensures headroom for heavier workloads.
At these prices, it unfortunately really edges out the budget homelab user. Especially when put up against the notion of having to sell your current mini-pc that is potentially powering everything already…
Riiiight? That’s what I’m saying! Let me use whatever mini-pc I want, but give me the charm and glamour that I feel with the Minisforum N5!
As you’ve undoubtedly noted from the previous “pillar” NAS builds, I absolutely value NOT relying on Mini-ITX. It makes builds unnecessarily large, and I don’t believe it to be power efficient enough, no matter the level of ATX power supply you find. It simply doesn’t hold a candle to a laptop-brick style power delivery system.
