I turned a cheap NAS into a SLEEPER home server

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Here are the resources I used to get the backplane working:

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🎥 Curious About the equipment I use to make my videos?
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Music (in order):
🎵 "Town Groove" - Me
🎵 "The Butterfly Nose" - GARRISON
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Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:34 My plan for this system
1:20 The hardware
2:55 Cleanup and dent removal
3:48 Assembling the parts
4:59 The first two big problems
6:24 The front panel
9:28 Powering the backplane
12:17 Modifying the backplane
15:38 Does it work?
16:41 m.2 E key issues
17:54 Unraid
18:53 Final thoughts on the sleeper NAS

[mattybbg]

'While it technically works' pretty much describes my home lab setup...

[wisserwolf]

Asus makes an n100 Board with atx Powerplugs but only 1 sata port. But you should Take a Look at it if you plan to Build a thing Like That.

[HiKamMudriku]

This build is really cool and interesting

[TommyThousandFaces]

The CNVi really makes it less useful than it could be. I went for the mATX one exactly to get more expansion slots. How is the system handling powering 4 drives off of a single connector on the board? I don't think it's rated to draw enough power for 4 HDDs.

[lucasjones]

Can you look at the HP t640 thin client

[JamesTenniswood]

Use the WiFi slot for 2.5gbe and then do sata on the pic slot

[keithgoldston]

I love watching you videos thanks for sharing

[WilReid]

Calling an N100 a sleeper. lol Man, you really hate that Atom 230. Throwing a Minisforum BD770i or BD790i in it would be a real sleeper. Also a real fire hazard.

[Thewickedjon]

man suchj a terrible choice for a motherboard,

you could have gone with one of those aliexpress n5101 nas motherboards, that have the standard atx psu plug,

i just dont get you sometimes brother, :D


hey at least your videos are interesting to watch, if only to see incredibly bad decision making in progress. they are entretaining

lololol

:P

keep up the good work! I'll keep watching and sharing xD

[razpeitiamx]

This may be a fire hazard but it's pretty common on this channel _inmediatly subs_

[jumpmaster]

Behind the scenes, hardware haven style,
We can still use the nas, until it becomes a bonfire

[famitory]

time to get in on that PCBway sponsor money and create a new front panel that slots in where the old one was with all the same LED/button placements, maybe with RGB leds for the meme

[JohnADoe-pgqk]

With this 6 port M.2 SATA adapter you could squeeze in an additional SATA SSD (zip tie, tape, velcro) as an OS drive, power would need an adiitional Y-adapter.

[jburnash]

I really appreciate your enthusiasm and drive when it comes to projects like these. There is something nice and calm about your presentation and explanation - which means this is one of the very few YouTube channels that I *do not* run at 1.25 speed. Thanks!

[user]

Nice video, love reusing stuff like this myself.
On the front PCB, come across this sort of thing often. What I've found works more often than not.... Find the traces to those LEDs you want to use. Cut them somewhere convenient and just solder on your own wires to power them.... do similar for the USB if you got some old headers.
For power.... wall wart with molex ends always served my needs for 120VAC to 12/5vdc. Crack them open and take the PCB(s). Wire the 120VAC lines together and add all that safely into the shell of the original powersupply or 3D print an enclosure.
Could add a 19 volt supply internally and pass a cable for the MOBO out the back so your only plugging in one 120volt end.
Also add an internal SSD for OS since that M.2 has room.

[davidg]

Nicely done!
I didn't know that little backplane header also had a +5V rail. I'm going to re-do mine to be more like yours now. I janked up mine so long ago there wasn't much DIY posting about it yet, so I had to decode the pinouts myself and missed that -- I ran jumper wires from the MB's USB header +5V, but your way is better since it doesn't need wires in the system.

Some of my panel decoding that might help you...
- HDD LED: On the longer front panel connector, the green wire between blue and yellow is +3.3V for HDD LED, and orange and red at far end of connector (not orange and red pair in middle) are both ground.
- Power LED: Blue wire next to above mentioned green lights up the power LED, but the original MB feeds +5V on that lead so it must be meant to power more than just the LED. Connect at your own risk as the circuit might be trying to draw more than 3V3 and could burn out the MB's LED header.
- Front USB: On the shorter front panel connector, find the side with all 5 wires populated, they are standard USB2 connections, in order: black = s-ground, black = ground, green = data+, white = data-, red = +5V. S-gnd is not necessary to connect, but can be more stable connection with higher speed devices (USB2 "high speeds", that is).

[Czapowski]

when you upload the day instantly gets even better

[soundspark]

It's quite amazing the server power of 4 E-cores. I have Windows Server 2025 Insider Preview running on a cheap mini-PC. It has two gigabit Ethernet connections; one is used for the domain controller and the other for the Hyper-V network bridge.

[RazeacBroksnaerOfficial]

i feel like the purpose of the proprietary connector to the motherboard is if it detects that moment within the past 5 mins is to Cut off power when its idle and save power when not in use and enables it when there is background network access

[cpn]

The N100 is a great choice for a home server. Low power and surprisingly performant. It'll run the usual home server stack without breaking a sweat. The lack of PCI lanes is a problem though.