If you already know what you are doing, then 85% of your experience will be good because the case itself is very well built. While the metal is thinner than Fractal Design cases of the same price range, it is still sturdy enough and certainly better than budget cases.If this is your first build and you are looking for the manual to assist you, then keep looking because this is NOT the case for you. JONSBO needs to learn from Fractal Design when it comes to manuals. Even for advanced builders, the complete lack of electrical specifications for the 2 hard drive backplanes is infuriating. With all the space available inside, this case can be used for many, many different purposes and documenting everything thoroughly is mandatory.One build possibility is to dual boot with or without the hard drive array. However, JONSBO has not seen fit to provide an on/off switch for the backplanes and so a build like that will require specialized wiring. And, back to the manual, good luck doing that specialized wiring without any backplane documentation.The case's exterior is ridged (brushed?) and when you touch it the skin on your hand gets exfoliated a bit, leaving a trail of your skin on the case. Its not painful or anything like that, but after your build you will spend some time scraping your DNA off the case to get it looking good again. I'd recommend not touching it too much unless you like cleaning.Cases with 12 drive capability are sorely needed in this space and I don't want to criticize the N5 too much. But for $250+ USD I believe consumers have every right to expect the build quality of a Node Fractal Terra and an exhaustive manual complete with backplane schematics. This case needs a Mark 2 version with improvements.

I have the same complaints as others. Only the 1 backplane has LED status lights, case is big but tight in the cable pass through areas and there is no real cable management. But it holds my 2x120 AIO radiator, and I have my 4 ssd and 12 SATA drives in it and it has no issues. Case itself looks beautiful.

It can hold 11 case fans max and has alot of room to work with. Make sure you get a psu that is 160mm or smaller otherwise it won't fit with 4bay tray installed (which can be removed). Only con for this case is the handles for the hard drives they are a bit finicky. But besides that this is a great nas case that allowed me to reuse my old gaming build and make a true nas server that can scale with my needs.

It's big, true, but this case is replacing my trusted Fractal Design Node 804. It's only slightly bigger but offers tons more options. I was limited to eight drives in two cradles that were a pain to move. replacing drives was not easy. Now i have a different layout that affords me more options for motherboards, cooling, etc. It is the middle of winter so the ambient temperature is pretty cool, I will have to wait for summer to see how the cooling in the case holds up for the drives. I will say that I've replaced every fan with Noctua's. Two 120mm for the rear venting air for the HDD's, two 140mm pushing air into the mobo area, and one 120mm venting the mobo area. I'm pretty happy with the case.

I had never built my own system before, limiting myself to minor upgrades and fixes to components like memory, drives, etc., and was a little intimidated by the whole thing. However, when I finally "cut the cord" and decided to create a Plex server, I soon realized that I'd have a hard time finding an off-the-shelf system with the expansion capabilities I needed for my fairly substantial (and growing) library that I prefer not to run through HandBrake. After all, I bought mostly Blu-Ray (including some 4K/UHD) disks specifically for the image quality, and storage space is reasonably affordable, so why degrade the video quality? My research led me to conclude that the two most important components in this equation were the case and the motherboard (for SATA connections), and fortunately for me, all this happened just as the Jonsbo N5 was being released.To make a long story short, I bought this case and am glad I did. Despite my lack of experience, I think the ample room inside not only supports future expansion but made it easier for this novice to connect everything. My only complaint was that of the ten standoff screw holes I used to mount my motherboard, one was poorly drilled, and I used to use pliers to force the standoff into it. Otherwise, it was smooth sailing, and my system is now working fine with plenty of HDD upgrade potential.For reference, the other components I picked were:- Motherboard: ASRock Z790 Steel Legend WiFi ATX LGA1700 Motherboard- CPU: Intel Core i9-12900K- Cooler: Noctua NH-D15- Boot drive: WD_BLACK 2TB SN7100 NVMe Internal Gaming SSD- Memory: CORSAIR VENGEANCE DDR5 RAM 64GB (2x32GB) 6000MHz CL30- PSU: CORSAIR RM1000x Fully Modular Low-Noise ATX Power Supply- HDDs: Western Digital 20TB WD Red ProI skipped the GPU because the i9-12900K should be able to handle my transcoding needs and because, well, in my opinion, GPUs are overpriced. Also, I went with 12th-generation Intel after reading about the voltage issues in the newer ones, though the 12th has its own issues, which is a good segue into mentioning a couple of technically optional (but recommended) other components:- Thermalright CPU Contact Frame for LGA 1700- APC UPS Battery Backup and Surge Protector, 600VA/300 Watts Backup Battery Power Supply, BE600M1You can do the math: this isn't a cheap system, and some of the components (e.g., the cooler) may be overkill, but at least, for example, I don't have to worry my system isn't being cooled enough. A couple of other things I should mention are:1. The second (optional/external) fan on the Noctua NH-D15 can't be installed with this configuration, at least not if you have the fans blowing towards the rear, but that's a motherboard RAM placement issue unrelated to the Jonsbo N5 case.2. Another reviewer said using the RM1000x prevents you from also using the N5's removable four-drive cage, but that's only true of the older and deeper/longer (2021) RM1000x model. If you get the newer (2024) model, it's a shorter 160mm in depth/length, and I can confirm from personal experience doesn't prevent you from also having the 4-bay cage installed.As you can see, most of my comments here weren't about the Jonsbo N5 at all, and that's a good thing: it worked like it was supposed to and seems to be a good option for my needs. It isn't cheap, but as with most things, you get what you pay for.