Topton DIY NAS Motherboard Rundown!
Over twelve years ago, I built my very first DIY NAS. At the time, I had a very specific and unconventional idea in mind for my DIY NAS to be: small, with a passively cooled CPU, room for about 6 SATA drives, without breaking the bank. A bit surprisingly, I stumbled on a discounted motherboard that met this criteria, the ASUS E35M1-I Fusion. The motherboard met my criteria and it wound up being incredibly inexpensive, so naturally I bought it!
In every year since, finding a motherboard for one of my DIY NAS builds has become more and more difficult. Solid state drives’ dominance for performant storage is the most likely reason. Nobody is–nor should be–building a computer today where multiple hard drives are primarily responsible for storage. As a result, finding lots of SATA ports on “consumer-grade” Mini ITX motherboards has become increasingly rare.
Enter Topton’s NAS Motherboards
Just over two years ago, people started to ask me about some NAS motherboards that they had been seeing on Aliexpress.com. The motherboards met all of my ideal criteria, plus they included more storage via two M.2 slots and 2.5Gbps networking!
I’m no stranger to ordering inexpensive things from sites like Aliexpress, but I’ve found that the quality, the amount of shipping time, and a frustrating customer support experience tended to torpedo the value proposition. I found the Topton N2 NAS Motherboard irrisistable and decided I’d buy one to try it out and then featured it in the DIY NAS: 2023 Edition.
I was impressed enough with the Topton N2 NAS Motherboard that I decided I’d try and solve some of my complaints about buying from overseas vendors and resell them in the briancmosesdotcom store on eBay.
Since then, I’ve been steadily ordering small batches of Topton products and reselling them on eBay. As of this blog post, I’ve yet to have a motherboard returned to me which wound up being defective.
Topton keeps releasing interesting Mini ITX Motherboards!
I halfway expected Topton to rest on their laurels and simply periodically update this one NAS motherboard, but they’ve far exceeded my expectations. Topton keeps introducing new motherboards while continuing to supply their previous models, too!
I wish that I had the resources to review more of these motherboards and stock them in my eBay store. Given my positive experience reselling the models that I do stock, I thought it was worth detailing all of their motherboards that I’m aware of and picking out my favorite three.
I created a spreadsheet with specific details about the Topton motherboards that I’ve been made aware of which I think would work well in a small-form factor NAS or Homelab machine.
Here’s a summary of that spreadsheet:
| Model | CPU(s) | RAM | SATA | M.2 | PCIe? | NICs | Ali | Amz | eBay |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N2 | N5105 N6005 |
2xDDR4 SO-DIMM | 6 | 2 | No | 4x2.5GbE | $166 $202 |
$190 $240 |
$200 $240 |
| N3 | N5105 | 2xDDR4 SO-DIMM | 6 | 2 | No | 4x2.5GbE | $130 | $170 | $195 |
| N4 | J6412 J6413 |
2xDDR4 SO-DIMM | 6 | 2 | No | 2x2.5GbE 1x1GbE |
$164 $174 |
$190 $200 |
$184 $200 |
| N5 | N5105 | 2xDDR4 SO-DIMM | 6 | 1 | No | 4x2.5GbE | $121 | $170 | $160 |
| N7 | N100 N305 |
1xDDR5 SO-DIMM | 6 | 2 | No | 4x2.5GbE | $189 $289 |
$200 $300 |
$275 $382 |
| N10 | i3-N305 | 1xDDR5 SO-DIMM | 6 | 2 | Yes | 4x2.5GbE | $290 | $318 | |
| N11 | 8845HS 7940HS |
2xDDR5 SO-DIMM | 9 | 2 | Yes | 4x2.5GbE | $493 $543 |
$555 $650 |
|
| N12 | i3-1115G4 i5-1135G7 i7-1165G7 |
2xDDR4 SO-DIMM | 6 | 2 | Yes | 4x2.5GbE | $209 $269 $299 |
$300 $376 $420 |
|
| N13 | LGA1700 | 2xDDR5 U-DIMM | 8 | 3 | Yes | 2x2.5GbE | $169 $209 |
$190 $240 |
$307 |
| N14 | N100 i3-N305 |
1xDDR5 SO-DIMM | 6 | 2 | Yes | 2x2.5GbE | $169 $269 |
$189 | $399 |
| N15 | 8505 i5-12450H |
2xDDR5 SO-DIMM | 10 | 2 | Yes | 4x2.5GbE | $199 $299 |
$239 $319 |
|
| N16 | LGA1700 | 2xDDR5 SO-DIMM | 8 | 2 | Yes | 4x2.5GbE | $140 | ||
| N17 | 7840HS 7940HS |
2xDDR5 U-DIMM | 4 | 2 | Yes | 2x2.5GbE | $319 $379 |
$559 $405 |
|
| N18 | N100 | 1xDDR5 SO-DIMM | 6 | 2 | No | 1x10GbE 2x2.5GbE |
$133 |
Disclaimers:
- I tried really hard to find quality links to the motherboards on AliExpress, Amazon, and eBay. None of those product listings (except my own!) incorporate Topton’s model number. Please double-check with the vendors if something looks out of place!
- All of these links are either to Brian’s eBay Store or are affiliate links.
- The information in this table is really generic. If you want more details, then check out the Topton NAS / Homelab Motherboards spreadsheet.
3. Topton N2: N6005/N5105 Mini-ITX NAS Motherboard (6x SATA, 2x M.2, 4x 2.5Gbps NICs)
Sentimentally, the very first Topton motherboard is a natural fit for my top three. The two CPU options (Celeron N5105 or Pentium N6005) are both efficient and incredibly capable CPUs. Despite not being documented, many users have had luck running up to 64GB of DDR4 RAM in their machines. The storage options (2x M.2 NVMe and 6x SATA3) allows for a significant amount of redundant storage. Finally the, four Intel I226v network interfaces are still a really nice surprise.
These N5105 / N6005 CPUs are a generation behind the remaining motherboards in my top three, which could be disappointing. But if RAM is important to what you plan to do, then the dual DDR4 SO-DIMM slots are a big advantage over the remaining motherboards. When I re-built my offsite NAS, I still opted to pick the Topton N2 motherboard.
2. Topton N14: N100/i3 N305 Mini ITX NAS Motherboard (6x SATA, 2x M.2, 2x 2.5 Gbps NICs,1x PCIe 3.0 x4)
As much as I liked both the N5105 and N6005 CPUs, I like the Intel N100 CPU a little bit more, it is more powerful, and has a lower TDP (6W). But what I really like about the Topton N14 is that it drops two of the 2.5Gbps NICs in exchange for a PCIe 3.0 x4 slot. The availability of this slot to use for something like a HBA or a 10Gb NIC is quite compelling.
The single DDR5 SO-DIMM slot is kind of bittersweet. DDR5 RAM is more expensive than DDR4, and generally speaking, buying larger sticks of RAM tends to be a bit costlier. A 48GB DDR5 SO-DIMM sells for $150+, while a 64GB Kit of DDR4 SO-DIMMs is about $40 dollars cheaper. Even worse, there don’t seem to be any 64GB DDR5 SO-DIMMs on the market, yet.
1. Topton N18: N100 Mini ITX NAS Motherboard (6x SATA, 2x M.2, 2x 2.5Gbps NICs, 1x 10Gbps NIC)
This motherboard is brand new to me, and I’m really excited about it. As soon as I have enough cash, I plan to buy it. It’s powered by the N100 CPU, has the same storage options (6x SATA and 2x M.2), but has different network options: dual Intel I226-v NICs, and a 10Gbps NIC (Marvell AQC113C).
The inclusion of an onboard 10GbE NIC is really exciting, and from what I can tell, the price of these motherboards is incredibly competitive. I hope to be ordering these motheboards in the near future to review and sell!
Final Thoughts
If you count all the different motherboard combinations, a single company by itself is resoponsible for nearly two dozen different motherboards that I’d be interested in building a DIY NAS or homelab machine out of. In recent years, I’ve had a hard time finding 10 motherboards across numerous other manufacturers.
What do you all think? Which of Topton’s motherboards are you most interested in, and why? Which motherboard(s) should I be buying and adding to my eBay store? Let us know in the comments, or come tell us in the #diynas-and-homelab channel in the Butter, What?! Discord server!