NAS/Home server build UK (Jonsbo N1?)

[CommonMan15]

Budget (including currency): £1000 max 

Country: UK

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: NAS for use with PLEX, video and photo storage, and potentially minor server duties down the line like home automation.

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): I have been thinking about it for a while but have been held up by my current living situation (single room for noise and not much space). Soon that will change. I have been eyeing the Jonsbo N1/N2 cases for their form factor and looks, but mainly their size. That said, I am fairly versed in PC stuff but have never actually built one myself so a case that small may prove difficult for a first-time builder?! Also, motherboard shopping confuses the f*** out of me.

I work in an office that has a lot of old spare PCs I could cannibalise but I've gone through most of them and it's real old stuff (2010/15, ddr3 or very slow drr4 ram) and some of it (motherboards/PSU) are weird B2B models which I doubt would fit any modern case, and (most importantly) they're all full-size ATX. Eventually, I also plan to build a desktop but my current storage situation will soon need adjusting (with a deadline <1 yr away now). That said, I'd also be open to waiting for a bit if it means a better deal (black Friday or new models making older ones cheaper).

 

Any help or pointers would be greatly appreciated, the localisation in the UK does make it more difficult given the price (and price/performance) disparity to most US-focused info.

Edit: I realised I didn't specify the storage size, I think as a start, something around 20 TB? 

[tkitch]

you can get some significant storage, if you shop refurb / used drives.

Plenty of reputable shops will sell refurb drives for well under half retail.
Or Used Enterprise drives on Ebay will show usage and be significantly discounted.   

You could easily setup a 40+ TB Array and have a spare drive left over.

 

As for hardware:
If it's *only* a NAS?  I3 12100 can be had super cheap anymore
And an ITX Board can be found for 100$  (do not get the F Variants, you want the iGPU)

 

On a 12100, DDR4 would be fine  (but honestly get 32GB of whatever the board supports)

 

If the board has at least 2 M.2 slots (You won't want less than 2) 
 

NVME 1:  512-1TB for a Cache Drive 
NVME 2:  Adapt to SATA so you have 6+ SATA Ports  (Since most boards only have 4 or fewer sata now)
 

SATA 1-5 = RAID (Software in your NAS OS, not in the BIOS)

SATA 6 = 2.5" SATA SSD For the OS  (Can be NVME if you have 3 M.2 slots, but it doesn't matter much)

 

You'll want some of these cables, as they're easier to route than fatter SATA:
https://www.amazon.com/ADCAUDX-SATA-III-Cable-90-Degree-Right-Angle/dp/B0CDQLJ4JS

 

N1 Case
650W SFX PSU

If you want, you can upgrade the case fan to a more powerful 140 x 30mm fan

And if you want extra flow, I added a slim 120 on the side, pointing at the CPU Heatsink (helping the top fan exhaust some extra air)