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Last year a Chinese PC maker began producing a small, cheap computer called the NAS N1 that could also function as a router, home server, or network-attached storage server.

This year the company introduced a higher-performance model called the N1 Pro, which features a significantly more powerful processor, plus a few other upgrades… and one change that some people may consider a downgrade. The N1 Pro is available now from Amazon or AliExpress for around $349 and up.

Like the original NAS N1, the new N1 Pro is a mini-tower with support for two 3.5 inch hard drives as well as PCIe NVMe solid state storage.

But the original is powered by an AMD Athlon 300U processor, which is a 15-watt, 2-core, 4-thread chip with support for CPU speeds up to 3.3 GHz, 1 GHz AMD Radeon Vega 3 integrated graphics, and support for DDR4-2400 memory.

The new N1 Pro has a Ryzen 5 5500U chip, which is a 15-watt processor with 6 Zen 2 CPU cores, 12 threads, speeds up to 4 GHz, 1.8 GHz Radeon Vega 7 graphics, and support for DDR4-3200 memory.

In other words, while the NAS N1 processor is fine for, well, a NAS (network-attached storage device), the N1 Pro has the power of a decent mid-range laptop from a year or two ago.

The manufacturer makes use if that DDR4-3200 RAM support, and equips the system with two SODIMM slots for memory. And while the original NAS N1 had just a single M.2 2280 slot for PCIe 3.0 NVMe storage, the N1 Pro has two, which means it actually supports up to four storage devices if you use both hard drive bays and both M.2 slots for storage.

That possible downgrade I was talking about though? The NAS N1 has four Ethernet ports, but the N1 Pro has just two, which could make it less suitable for networking applications (unless you plan to add an external network switch). But the Ethernet ports in the new model are faster, with support for 2.5 GbE speeds (up from 1 Gbps).

Other features include support for up to three displays (courtesy of HDMI, DisplayPort, and USB Type-C ports), an Intel AX200 wireless card with support for WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2, and other ports, including:

  • 1 x USB Type-C
  • 2 x USB 3.0 Type-A
  • 2 x USB 2.0 Type-A
  • 1 x microSD card reader
  • 1 x 3.5mm audio jack
  • 1 x DC power jack

The system measures 162 x 162 x 198mm (6.4″ x 6.4″ x 7.8″) and has easy access to the hard drives via pull-out HDD cages.

Starting prices are for barebones configurations with no memory or storage, which means you’ll need to supply your own. But you can also pay extra for a system with up to 32GB of RAM and 1TB of solid state storage (but you’ll need to provide your own hard drives if you plan to use this thing as a mass storage device… and I’m not sure why you’d buy one unless you planned to do that). If you provide your own memory, the system supports up to 64GB of RAM.

via /r/MiniPCs and Ian Morrison

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  1. neat form factor was thinking of using one of these as a small cctv nvr
    ideal with M2NVM + 2x 3.5 hdd
    issue would just be the amount of heat created in a recording enviroment.
    i was only looking at loading with 1x 10tb drive + MS for OS
    3x cameras running at 8mp 15-20fps using AI motion detection human/vehicle i know this puts more load on the cpu but only 3x cameras so i am sure this would be ok

  2. Article doesn’t say how much TB max the 3.5 supports and what system it uses as default to manage the NAS if there is any.

    1. The article mentions that this machine supports 2*16T hard drives, but in fact, it is because our company is not familiar with the hard drive market in Europe and America and does not know what capacity hard drives everyone is using. We have tested the 16T hard drive ourselves and found no issues.

      In reality, you can also add 2*20T hard drives to it, but it is important to note that before using hard drives larger than 16T, you should check what the maximum power consumption of the hard drive is as this machine comes with a 100W power supply.

    1. Not really. I don’t think you can shove 3.5″ hard drives into one of those (at least not so conveniently) and you can’t upgrade the RAM on the revo.

        1. I wonder if you are forgetting the heat load of the two 3.5″ hdds, the ssd’s and memory, all which add up to quite a bit

          1. Ehh. Not really supposed to use hothead ssds in a device like this so those make up maybe 5W each peak, and then only for short bursts (… Because who is running long write intensive tasks on this – really?). With efficiënt 5400RPM drives I don’t see this thing hitting more than 40-45W even semi continuously and that’s just not that hard to cool. Way more room and airflow in this form factor than a laptop and cooking 50ish watts in those is very much a solved problem as well ¯⁠\⁠⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠⁠/⁠¯

      1. This machine comes with two built-in fans, and the fan heat is completely fine when the machine is working normally. If you do not like our constant temperature fan at the bottom, you can also DIY it into a fan with a higher rotating speed.