Minisforum N5 Max hard-drive compatibility
Minisforum publishes official product specs — bay count, SATA/NVMe interface, maximum capacity — rather than a per-drive compatibility list. This page mirrors the official specs for the N5 Max (5-bay, AMD platform per CES 2026 reveal (higher SATA ceiling than N5 Pro)) and cross-references the drives that five major vendors officially list.
Official specs
| Item | Official spec (N5 Max) |
|---|---|
| Storage bays / slots | 5× 3.5"/2.5" SATA 3.0 bays, up to 30TB per drive (raised ceiling over the N5 Pro's 22TB) |
| CPU | AMD platform per CES 2026 reveal (higher SATA ceiling than N5 Pro) |
| Memory | Up to 96GB DDR5 |
| SSD / system slots | NVMe/U.2 slots per official spec |
| Networking | Dual 2.5GbE RJ45 (per official spec) |
| I/O | USB per official page |
| Video | HDMI/DP per official page |
| Maximum capacity | 150–160 TB (5× 30TB per reveal coverage; official store lists 32TB per bay) |
Drive rules for this model
- Newest of the N5 line (CES 2026): the only model with a 30-32TB-per-bay ceiling — reveal coverage says 30TB/150TB, the official store JSON says 32TB/160TB; we list both rather than pick.
- Specs are still rolling out at reveal — treat CPU/RAM details as 'per official spec' until the full page publishes.
- Drive rules unchanged from the N5 Pro: CMR NAS-class for RAID, and the SMR check still applies.
- For RAID / backup arrays, prefer CMR, NAS-class drives — check any drive's CMR/SMR status in our SMR/CMR checker, and size the pool with the RAID capacity calculator.
Source: Minisforum N5 Max (official) ↗NASCompares N5 Max / N5 Air reveal ↗
fnOS / FygoOS on this machine
Same 5-bay platform as the N5 Pro with a higher per-bay capacity ceiling — x86-64, installs any Linux NAS OS.
Licensing for the international edition (free 3-user/4-drive tier, $49 Plus, $199 Lifetime) is covered in the FygoOS pricing guide; drive selection under ZFS/RAIDZ is covered in the FygoOS hard-drive guide.
Drives the other vendors officially list
Minisforum's official specs name no drive brands; the standard answer for any drive in the box is major-brand NAS-class (CMR) drives. These are the exact part numbers five vendors officially list, ranked by how many machines across Synology, QNAP, Asustor, TerraMaster and UGREEN certify them.
| Drive | Class | Officially listed by |
|---|---|---|
| Western Digital WD4003FFBX | Enterprise NAS | 390 machines/series across 5 vendors |
| Seagate ST4000NE0015 | Enterprise NAS | 379 machines/series across 5 vendors |
| Seagate ST2000NE0015 | Enterprise NAS | 372 machines/series across 5 vendors |
| Western Digital WD141KFGX | Enterprise NAS | 355 machines/series across 5 vendors |
| Toshiba MN06ACA800 | NAS | 347 machines/series across 5 vendors |
| Seagate ST4000NE0025 | NAS | 344 machines/series across 5 vendors |
| Seagate ST6000NE0023 | NAS | 344 machines/series across 5 vendors |
| Toshiba MN06ACA10T | NAS | 343 machines/series across 5 vendors |