the CPU (the SoC) has an integrated USB 3.0 controller so pcie isn't used for that anyway. I suspect that it is using dual-purpose pins in the BGA though because 14 usb 3.0 is a pretty damn lot of contacts. So to expose the pcie they could not use the same pins to do USB 3.0
You can see the extra pins for USB3 in each port and the number of passives next to the connector on the PCB suggest the ports are wired for USB3. If the other replys are correct and the CPU shares USB3 pins on the package with PCIE pins for the NVME, then there should be a BIOS setting to set the M.2 slot for PCIE x2 instead of x4 and the USB ports should work as USB3. That's assuming the manufacturer did everything right.
@@blazini They used the similar PCB for higher end model that uses 11/12th gen mobile CPU. The presence of USB3 pins and miss-printed chassis label could just be recycled design across different models. I agree that the n305/n100 SoC have built-in USB3 controller, it is left for manufacturer to configure to expose the trace of either PCIE lanes or USB3 to the motherboard, in a similar fashion that M.2 slot electrically support either nvme or sata-protocol SSD.
Most of these units that have the N305/N100 in them have a x3 M.2 and the second M.2 running off the "h" adapter is actually PCIE x1 ( OUCH ). You are correct in that it is not enough lanes... It is what it is. The second M.2 is arguably only usable for a wifi adapter; a waste for a NVME drive.
I picked up one of these N305 guys when saw the other video about its smaller sibblings. Proxmox 8, opnsense with nic passthrough, a docker host and some LXC containers and it runs my network with capacity to spare! It's got enough muscle to route more than a gigabit of wiregaurd VPN traffic without a problem. Big thanks to everyone in the forums who dug in deep to how these fanless badboys work
In China, we usually buy this type of console to install Openwrt to traverse the GFW. Of course, it should be fanless, and it should also have multiple net ports, because it is designed to be used as a router.
Great to see low power appliances like this. I recently purchased an inexpensive Beelink S12 Pro (N100) which comes with an empty SSD slot. Combining this with an 8TB Samsung SSD made it the perfect Proxmox Backup Server for home use. 7W power use from the wall with the SSD + 16GB RAM.
I was looking at the same one the entire pc is something like £170 and just the n100m asrock motherboard is £150 way too expensive for only the motherboard
USB 2 is still VERY useful, the signalling speed of USB 3.x causes some interference with low power 2.4GHz signals, like Thread, Zigbee and Bluetooth, but I do agree, some USB 3 ports on a box like this would be a very good idea too. We need BOTH.
IPU 456A uses an Ryzen 5600U, which got the lanes. But it misses the smart 4x NVME switch. 2x USB 3.1, 1x USB-C all with 10GB and 2x USB 2, 4x 2.5GBNic. In a Package which is nearly identical. But costs more.
@@vuhuy8952 I see that on the N100/N200/N305 boxes with USB 3 or USB C, the speed of the NMVE is only x1. This means that NMVE SSD operate at lower speed (I found that 1x means 1GB/s). Only USB 2 boxes has NMVE x4 (according to CWWK website).
I have the N100 topton and it’s amazing. Opnsense, home assistant and about 5 containers from tteck and a 3-5% CPU load. I put a 12CM pc fan op top powered by it’s own usb port at 5v super silent and cool. Great little home lab system that runs proxmox like a dream and super stable.
I have to agree with you on USB unlike the other comments. Not only is USB 3 interference a solvable issue but also the QoL improvements it brings is worth it.
I would agree with the one exception being.. what does it bring other than using it to watch a movie or something from the USB stick? With a 2.5gig network, you're going to get on par speeds copying from any other 2.5gig capable network device (ok.. 1/2 the speed.. but most USB drives don't have read speeds fast enough to keep up with USB3 bandwidth).
4 ssd in a firewall box like this could be interesting for caching..... Or for container storage or storing logs without eating up network bandwidth. Nice to have data storage on a separate drive than os
@@ServeTheHomeVideodefinitely interested in seeing this. I can think of so many configurations I'd like to test. Cooling could definitely become an issue depending on use case and environment. In the server rack in the past ive had some success putting small devices like this by an exhaust fan for more airflow - wiring can get messy tho.
@@blahblahblahblah2933 . Two sided tape on top of a rackmount chassis in a pinch. If you have a space tied down to a rackshelf can be pretty secure tho. in my homelab I have a shelf with slits in it and I use zip ties to secure smaller devices to it. I'd be interested in hearing if anyone else has a better solution.... Not entirely satisfied with anything I've come up with yet.
Oh my God.. here we go again, This is the best firewall..etc !! That's enough man because I've bought 3 minipc's so far because of you :) thank you for the video
Hi, nice piece of hardware, especially the PCIe Lanes splitter that fits ferpectly in such a machine, very well seen. ~36 W is logic with this kinda CPU, it stays quite low for an 8 core (and very useful for a HTTP server written in Erlang:). Very good ratio quality/price, at this price for an 8 core it will be difficult to beat.
One thing I'm really curious about is the NICs. I have a CWWK N4000. It has two i226-V NICs (all I need for a firewall). I have been running OPNsense on it since it has supported those NICs for a while. An issue I keep running into with this CWWK unit is that the system doesn't seem to respond to multicast messages used for uPnP. I have configured all the correct services and rules on the firewall to allow uPnP functionality. I also verified my config on an old Intel PC I had lying around so I know it works. I use uPnP for some games I play as well as my Plex server. I know I can manually create the NAT rules myself but this issue has me very curious if anyone else who has used CWWK devices has run into this issue. If so, do all their products with i226-V NICs have this problem? Have you tested this at all?
Have you guys ever made guides for people just starting to get into this kind of stuff? For example, what kinds of projects you can use a box like this for and how to actually set up things? I know there's probably a lot of tutorials out there but I always find more to be better, some people think of different info to include or explain things in different ways which makes learning overall much more thorough when you watch multiple videos like that.
Nice review as always! I do really struggle to understand your super-fast southern English, but after almost 4 years that I shhe your reels, I get at least 80%... 😀
The pysical toggle switches on that newer H board thing sitching the PCIe 3.0 lanes is absolutely cursed! I love it. Next I want a mainboard with pysical radio buttons on the front to switch through PCIe slots lol
What about bios updates? And I hear a lot of people fearing for bringing this kind of devices in their network... scared for backdoors etc... Did someone ever checked/tested this?
One year later, and still all the reviews are like "yeah cheap, efficient, can run this and that!" But still no one is talking about that detail. Really shows that they are not using the systems they review 🤷🏻♂️
Hi, I request for a video on the new multi nvme SSD card, whether this could serve to replace IP camera NVR and discussion about other NAS use cases. Also some thing about modifying these boxes to obtain better cooling. Also the link to Topton N305 in description needs to be corrected.
Definitely a great NAS computer. Could you tell me what the power-consumption is when you optimise the bios, IE disable the GPU, use conservative memory clocks etc?
It's amazing what they can cram into these tiny baby low power systems these days... And that quad M.2 card would definitely be great for a cache. Maybe have network bootable images in there
With virtualization, memory is king. I'd love a unit like this with dual memory slots. Trading a bit of memory bandwidth against memory capacity would be no problem for me.
Agreed about the memory! Just a couple of points for others to reference: - All Intel 'N' chips are limited (crippled?) to single channel memory (so you'll never see a board with 2 slots) - Intel officially say 16GB is the Max memory, but I've seen a few UA-camrs get it to work with 32GB
@@DerekGreen123 Tell you what.. I have a Topton N5105 NAS board that supports only 16GB but it has 2 SO-DIMM slots. I'm now running ESXi 7.0 with 64GB (2x Crucial 32GB SO-DIMM) on it. Works a treat. The 16GB limit is purely marketing, I think Intel uses the same memory controller as on other CPU dies that support more.
@@DerekGreen123 Well ... I threw a 32GB DDR5 SO-DIMM from Crucial into my N100 and that worked out of the box. No idea what special tasks you would need to do to get it to work - I did nothing ;-) I think I have read that it might work with 48GB as well.
Love this it’s perfect: Passively cooled, silent, with adapter for 4 nvme drives, n305 processor BUT the power consumption is too high. Like you said in your Beelink EQ12 Pro review the level of engineering here is not on par with HP/Dell The idle power consumption should be approximately 5 watt Does anyone have tried to undervolt it?
Just wanted to chime in about the RAM... I got mine a couple of days and and paired it with a 32GB crucial sodimm and it has been fine so far, running proxmox ve. Just one pfsense vm running on it so far with no issues.
Great review. Covered everything except one question... Does this come back up after a power glitch unattended? This is probably a really stupid question, sorry. I bought a fanless mini-PC to use as a home server but it did not reboot on a power glitch. The hardware required a human to cycle the power button! This makes it extremely unreliable on my glitchy power grid. I don't need a UPS, just need the thing to come back up after a power outage. Does this come back up unattended? I see on Amazon the it has "Auto power on" nuff said?
I really want to build a small NAS out of one of these. Just a simple mirror RAID nas, but 8tb nvme is still quite expensive. Hopefully soon they will be more affordable.
CWWK is advertising a lot of the n100 and n200 as 8 cores. I can't seem to find any on Amazon for the n305. Thank you for covering it. I am looking to buy one and was looking for your insight!
Great video thank you. What device do you recommend for a PfSense firewall with intrusion detection and prevention on? My internet is 1gb up and down? Thanks.
@@JB-fh1bb Apparently the newest Intel Desktop processors 12th and 13th gen support ECC again. However only if you buy the W-series motherboard that Intel wants you to buy. Which sucks. And laptop, und SBC ECC is completely missing in action.
Why do people always complain in these reviews? It should have dual DDR5, USB3, etc. It's a value PC; if you want better specs, buy a premium PC. I specifically love that this manufacturer transfers hardware savings to the consumer (me).
Synology is forcing me with security updates to use CLI just to look at SMART data. Going to switch to this with TrueNAS and have control over features and simplicity I want as apposed to being under the thumb of corporate whims.
During the crypto crash, I was buying Helium Miners (that contain Pi’s), taking them apart, and selling the Raspberry Pi’s out of them and using them for projects or selling them. I ended up with one “FreedomFi Miner” with an Intel J1900 with 4 Ethernet ports. I am hoping that I can make my own firewall or travel router.
Is this a good option for setting up a Minecraft server, or would there be something you could get that eschewed the additional ethernet ports to be a bit cheaper?
Take my advice and don't buy anything from this company. I bought two--one of them works ok, the other is missing pci devices. Seems to be a bios enumeration bug or something, but the CWWK website is really bad. The BIOS/UEFI implementation seems sketchy at best--it often fails to apply or save settings completely. Really bad quality overall.
So I picked up one of these, bought direct from CWWK via Amazon, and I did not get some of the additional accessories or the newer daughter board. That said, I have Proxmox installed and updated, installed OPNsense into a VM and OPNsense can get an IP from my ISP modem/router but it isn't passing any internet through to the LAN connection and I'm having a heck of a time trying to figure out why. The LAN interface does give my PC an IP via DHCP but no internet access. I feel I'm missing something simple but for the life of me cannot figure it out.
@@WOWIMEXCITED Apparently was a bug/issue with Proxmox 8 and how it was handling networking. Installed Proxmox 7.4, got everything working, did an in place update to Proxmox 8 and everything is working great.
This series of boxes are quite good. I'm using CWWK N95 one for Proxmox and run OpenWRT as a guest. But it seems there's high IO delay with N series CPU, as we can see at 16:30. I don't know the root cause and cannot find the solution so far.
Hello. I've watched your previous video "HUGE UPGRADE! New Firewall Router Virtualization Host" which covers N100 and N200 CPUs. That enclosure has N305 version too. There are also versions for N100 and N200 using enclosure present in this video. It seems that motherboard design is the same. Which enclosure is better for cooling? There is also one important aspect you didn't highlight in any video. Can this device enter S3 power state mode i.e suspend to ram? I've seen some of Intel N100 Mini PCs, which support only "Modern Standby" S0idle state. It means they will still consume those ~6W even in sleep mode.
OK I am super glad the MSP for the i3 N305 was not firm because this whole computer is under the MSP of just the processor. I'm probably going to pick one up I had a shitfit when i saw that the i3-N305, and i3-1215U/1315U had the same exact $309 MSP Despite the N305 being less than 1/2 the processor -No P cores vs 2 P cores -1/2 the GPU cores at a lower clock speed -Single channel memory vs dual channel(also limited to 4800 instead of 5600) -an effecitve firmware limit of 16GB of RAM where as the other i3 in theory supported anywhere between 128GB and 512GB depending on if they will support 4 of the future 128GB SODIMMs that should be part of the DDR5 standard -9 lanes of PCIe 3.0 as opposed to what appears to be 20 lanes of PCIE 4.0(or more likely 20 lanes of mixed 4.0 and 3.0)
new N series is about power effect...Aso I think n100 is better than n305 about price. N305 is overkill for nas and router but not strong enough for heavy task...
@@vuhuy8952 The difference between N100 and N305 is 4 E cores, clock speeds, and 3x the MSP The 1215U has a TDP 6w higher than the N305, and with the extra P cores, you can just downclock the 1215U to be similar performance to the N305 at the same power usage, but then you get the same or FAR better performance and features. I literally cannot see the use case for an N305 over a 1215U/1315U with both of them costing $309 Now the N305 clearly is not $309, because this whole computer is only $299, but when the N305 was first announced i was super upset, almost as bad as Nvidia taking the replacement for the 12GB 3060, calling it the 12GB 4080, and setting the MSRP at $899 instead of $329
Awesome but when I read about Intel i226-v, users literally talk nothing but the issues with this chipset. So how is it now? Is it a issue with the chipset or the drivers?
have one in same form factor with N100 CPU, running OpenWRT today getting home, ambient ~27c, CPU was reading 59c, but NVME SSD was reading 71c, and those metal fins were hot to the touch. Wonder if SSD can sustain to run at 71c for long period of time?
It would be really cool if you”d get your hands on CWWK M1. It should be very similar hardware but in much nicer looking package. One thing I wonder about it is whether its fan is quiet or not?
You'd effectively get ~1GB/s per drive, which is fine considering the fastest you can get data in and out of it is 1.25GB/s. That's with all the NICs going all at once.
LOL : Haven't really seen much in the way of support for most of these chinese mini-pc's, especially in the form of drivers let alone bios updates.. I did chuckle though; so thanks.
What happens when the battery fails, and it reboots? Will it hang on boot? Also, how good is watching UA-cam videos in Firefox running on this, views from this acrossvia a Windows Remote Desktop or VNC connection?
Wish CWWK or Topton (or both) made a mobo with the i3-N305 with the 4 2.5 nics but more sata ports. A real nas board, that in a node 304 would be awesome.
@@kevincheng4739 Hey Kevin, awesome of you taking the time to respond to my comment. What would be the best way to be notified when this board arrives? Thanks a lot!
Our company does not have a channel on youtube, thank you for reminding me. We will create a channel to post our company's product updates.@@JelleRevyn
9:56 This chip is a clock buffer, that only clones clock signal to additional drives, so only way that they could implement 4 NVMe is probably via bifurcation x4 slot to four x1 sub-slots. And that's going to be very limited and below usual 2 PCIe lanes that even older low-end NVMe drives have. Unclear, why even bother with NVMe then, unless you require some very niche use case with SFF build for low-throughput high-IOPS very expensive high-end SSDs, which would be very costly and highly inefficient.
This looks great. I love the size and power usage. However, a max memory of 16 GB really kills it for virtualization usage. I run a lot of VMs and need at least 64 GB.
Hi Patrick! what is your view on pentium gold 8505 based mini pc? similar in price, power, features, and same shell, even. having 6 threads instead of 8, but that 1 big core can help with some jobs.
Also a good option. For a desktop, I would probably take the 8505. For a firewall or virtualization appliance I probably prefer the N305 since it is all E-core and has more physical cores.
Here is the question. This one or the or one with the Intel Pentium Gold 8505? What I really like with the second one, is that it supports 64GB memory instead of just 32GB. But is it possible to reduce the PL2 from 55W to e.g. 30W to use less energy?
Hi, I got one of these at a garage sale and I'm trying to determine the specifications. I only have the unit. I was able to open the back but I'm not sure how much ram or ssd is in here...?? Any advice? Thank you
Nice little machine. I wish it had dual 10 Gig ports. With TNSR, it might even route at close to 10 Gig speeds. @ServeTheHome Any chance you could test TNSR performance on a device with dual 10 Gig ports with one of these new processors? Ideally both virtualized (bridged and passthrough) in Proxmox and bare metal. 🙂
Can just custom design your own micro mother board with insane upgrades that you mentioned in this video. And even 3D print a cool transparent case for it too.
10:00 there has to be another chip near/on that clock chip. just seems like what there doing is adapting that 1 m.2 slot to 4 more m.2 slots via a pcie switch chip. maybe thats what the bios update is for (bifurcation)? can you peel back the black plastic to see whats underneath that???
The reason of USB 2.0 is not enough PCIe lanes from the CPU. total of 9 lanes, i226 takes one lane each, the x4 m.2, the m.2 wifi.
the CPU (the SoC) has an integrated USB 3.0 controller so pcie isn't used for that anyway. I suspect that it is using dual-purpose pins in the BGA though because 14 usb 3.0 is a pretty damn lot of contacts. So to expose the pcie they could not use the same pins to do USB 3.0
USB10 is shared with PCIe 3.0 x4 for NVMe - so yes - if the NVMe slot is 4x then there are no pins left for USB 3.0
You can see the extra pins for USB3 in each port and the number of passives next to the connector on the PCB suggest the ports are wired for USB3. If the other replys are correct and the CPU shares USB3 pins on the package with PCIE pins for the NVME, then there should be a BIOS setting to set the M.2 slot for PCIE x2 instead of x4 and the USB ports should work as USB3. That's assuming the manufacturer did everything right.
@@blazini They used the similar PCB for higher end model that uses 11/12th gen mobile CPU. The presence of USB3 pins and miss-printed chassis label could just be recycled design across different models. I agree that the n305/n100 SoC have built-in USB3 controller, it is left for manufacturer to configure to expose the trace of either PCIE lanes or USB3 to the motherboard, in a similar fashion that M.2 slot electrically support either nvme or sata-protocol SSD.
Most of these units that have the N305/N100 in them have a x3 M.2 and the second M.2 running off the "h" adapter is actually PCIE x1 ( OUCH ). You are correct in that it is not enough lanes... It is what it is. The second M.2 is arguably only usable for a wifi adapter; a waste for a NVME drive.
I picked up one of these N305 guys when saw the other video about its smaller sibblings. Proxmox 8, opnsense with nic passthrough, a docker host and some LXC containers and it runs my network with capacity to spare! It's got enough muscle to route more than a gigabit of wiregaurd VPN traffic without a problem.
Big thanks to everyone in the forums who dug in deep to how these fanless badboys work
my 4105 is still chewing along very happily.. about to switch it out for a dual ssd'd 5105 unit with 226's and 64gb ram
Hi. And the temps are good?
@porklaser are you running docker as a VM?
@@gittin_funky Yeah the docker host is a vm running Ubuntu server
Are you connecting your NICs LAN port to a switch?
Every time you drop a video, I think, "Yep, I need one!" Love the channel, love the energy.
Ha thanks!
Oooh this is why n6000 barebone units are going for $120 nowadays.
Link please :p
Need a few more micro systems with that 4x m.2 board! Even 4x SATA would make a fairly nice little NAS for a homelab. 😊
Unfortunately, it does not seem to ship with that 4x m.2 board
@@RoycoNL was that an option or a not released yet board in the video?
@@minigpracing3068 according to their Aliexpress page it's still under development.
Every one that I've laid my hands on or seen specs for suggest that the M.2 is a 3 lane The second is a 1 lane M.2 that runs off the "h" adapter.
In China, we usually buy this type of console to install Openwrt to traverse the GFW. Of course, it should be fanless, and it should also have multiple net ports, because it is designed to be used as a router.
Great to see low power appliances like this. I recently purchased an inexpensive Beelink S12 Pro (N100) which comes with an empty SSD slot. Combining this with an 8TB Samsung SSD made it the perfect Proxmox Backup Server for home use. 7W power use from the wall with the SSD + 16GB RAM.
I was looking at the same one the entire pc is something like £170 and just the n100m asrock motherboard is £150 way too expensive for only the motherboard
@@HHX_H you mean, "... way too inexpensive for an entire pc."
you probably meant it comes with an empty 2.5" SATA bay.
USB 2 is still VERY useful, the signalling speed of USB 3.x causes some interference with low power 2.4GHz signals, like Thread, Zigbee and Bluetooth, but I do agree, some USB 3 ports on a box like this would be a very good idea too. We need BOTH.
IPU 456A uses an Ryzen 5600U, which got the lanes. But it misses the smart 4x NVME switch. 2x USB 3.1, 1x USB-C all with 10GB and 2x USB 2, 4x 2.5GBNic. In a Package which is nearly identical. But costs more.
they have N100 version which same but have 2 usb 3.0 and 2 2.0. On taobao it"s around 110-140$ for barebone - 8/128 .
@@Elkarlo77 Do you have a model number and the place you bought it, I cant find an AMD based system with that name on AliExpress, thanks.
@@vuhuy8952 I see that on the N100/N200/N305 boxes with USB 3 or USB C, the speed of the NMVE is only x1. This means that NMVE SSD operate at lower speed (I found that 1x means 1GB/s). Only USB 2 boxes has NMVE x4 (according to CWWK website).
@@vuhuy8952link please!
I have the N100 topton and it’s amazing. Opnsense, home assistant and about 5 containers from tteck and a 3-5% CPU load. I put a 12CM pc fan op top powered by it’s own usb port at 5v super silent and cool. Great little home lab system that runs proxmox like a dream and super stable.
I totally agree. We just wanted to also show the bigger one since folks have been asking about it since we did the N100 / N200 review.
I have to agree with you on USB unlike the other comments. Not only is USB 3 interference a solvable issue but also the QoL improvements it brings is worth it.
I would agree with the one exception being.. what does it bring other than using it to watch a movie or something from the USB stick? With a 2.5gig network, you're going to get on par speeds copying from any other 2.5gig capable network device (ok.. 1/2 the speed.. but most USB drives don't have read speeds fast enough to keep up with USB3 bandwidth).
I just love these Netgate killers, they are getting better and better over time.
I like what you called them lol. Netgate HW was always too expensive for the performance.
4 ssd in a firewall box like this could be interesting for caching.....
Or for container storage or storing logs without eating up network bandwidth. Nice to have data storage on a separate drive than os
We are planning to do a new video if we can get the cooling under control for it
@@ServeTheHomeVideodefinitely interested in seeing this. I can think of so many configurations I'd like to test. Cooling could definitely become an issue depending on use case and environment. In the server rack in the past ive had some success putting small devices like this by an exhaust fan for more airflow - wiring can get messy tho.
@@christopherjackson2157 Slightly off-topic: How are you handling AC adapters for these sorts of devices in racks?
@@blahblahblahblah2933 . Two sided tape on top of a rackmount chassis in a pinch. If you have a space tied down to a rackshelf can be pretty secure tho. in my homelab I have a shelf with slits in it and I use zip ties to secure smaller devices to it. I'd be interested in hearing if anyone else has a better solution.... Not entirely satisfied with anything I've come up with yet.
Run alpine from ram, use 4 4tb SSDs in raidz1, easy 12tb mini flash nas… likely major heat issues though.
Oh my God.. here we go again, This is the best firewall..etc !! That's enough man because I've bought 3 minipc's so far because of you :) thank you for the video
Hi, nice piece of hardware, especially the PCIe Lanes splitter that fits ferpectly in such a machine, very well seen. ~36 W is logic with this kinda CPU, it stays quite low for an 8 core (and very useful for a HTTP server written in Erlang:). Very good ratio quality/price, at this price for an 8 core it will be difficult to beat.
I wish I could find more of these systems in a 1u half depth form factor
Amen
One thing I'm really curious about is the NICs. I have a CWWK N4000. It has two i226-V NICs (all I need for a firewall). I have been running OPNsense on it since it has supported those NICs for a while. An issue I keep running into with this CWWK unit is that the system doesn't seem to respond to multicast messages used for uPnP. I have configured all the correct services and rules on the firewall to allow uPnP functionality. I also verified my config on an old Intel PC I had lying around so I know it works.
I use uPnP for some games I play as well as my Plex server. I know I can manually create the NAT rules myself but this issue has me very curious if anyone else who has used CWWK devices has run into this issue. If so, do all their products with i226-V NICs have this problem? Have you tested this at all?
Have you solved this ?
@@Andrew_Thrift Unfortunately. no. This seems to be a limitation in the hardware. I ended up building a new firewall with more reputable hardware.
Have you guys ever made guides for people just starting to get into this kind of stuff? For example, what kinds of projects you can use a box like this for and how to actually set up things? I know there's probably a lot of tutorials out there but I always find more to be better, some people think of different info to include or explain things in different ways which makes learning overall much more thorough when you watch multiple videos like that.
Nice review as always!
I do really struggle to understand your super-fast southern English, but after almost 4 years that I shhe your reels, I get at least 80%... 😀
The pysical toggle switches on that newer H board thing sitching the PCIe 3.0 lanes is absolutely cursed! I love it. Next I want a mainboard with pysical radio buttons on the front to switch through PCIe slots lol
What about bios updates? And I hear a lot of people fearing for bringing this kind of devices in their network... scared for backdoors etc... Did someone ever checked/tested this?
what do you need bios updates for, the CPU is soldered. Nobody checked these for backdoors so it's probably not great for high security environments
@@marcogenovesi8570 You would want updated bios for new microcode in the future.
One year later, and still all the reviews are like "yeah cheap, efficient, can run this and that!" But still no one is talking about that detail.
Really shows that they are not using the systems they review 🤷🏻♂️
Holy crap, 2.5G box with expandible quad SSD...? Sign me up!!
Hi, I request for a video on the new multi nvme SSD card, whether this could serve to replace IP camera NVR and discussion about other NAS use cases. Also some thing about modifying these boxes to obtain better cooling.
Also the link to Topton N305 in description needs to be corrected.
These look a lot like the Protectli Vault series. I've been running a Protectli router with PFSense for close to 4 years now and love it.
Protectli rebrands Yanling boxes another vendor similar to CWWK.
Definitely a great NAS computer. Could you tell me what the power-consumption is when you optimise the bios, IE disable the GPU, use conservative memory clocks etc?
Folks in the forums have been doing this
It's amazing what they can cram into these tiny baby low power systems these days... And that quad M.2 card would definitely be great for a cache. Maybe have network bootable images in there
With virtualization, memory is king. I'd love a unit like this with dual memory slots. Trading a bit of memory bandwidth against memory capacity would be no problem for me.
Agreed about the memory!
Just a couple of points for others to reference:
- All Intel 'N' chips are limited (crippled?) to single channel memory (so you'll never see a board with 2 slots)
- Intel officially say 16GB is the Max memory, but I've seen a few UA-camrs get it to work with 32GB
@@DerekGreen123 Tell you what.. I have a Topton N5105 NAS board that supports only 16GB but it has 2 SO-DIMM slots. I'm now running ESXi 7.0 with 64GB (2x Crucial 32GB SO-DIMM) on it. Works a treat. The 16GB limit is purely marketing, I think Intel uses the same memory controller as on other CPU dies that support more.
@@DerekGreen123 Well ... I threw a 32GB DDR5 SO-DIMM from Crucial into my N100 and that worked out of the box. No idea what special tasks you would need to do to get it to work - I did nothing ;-) I think I have read that it might work with 48GB as well.
Love this it’s perfect: Passively cooled, silent, with adapter for 4 nvme drives, n305 processor
BUT the power consumption is too high. Like you said in your Beelink EQ12 Pro review the level of engineering here is not on par with HP/Dell
The idle power consumption should be approximately 5 watt
Does anyone have tried to undervolt it?
N305 is a beast of a chip in this low power category. Congrats on the video, great video quality too.
Thank you!
@ServeTheHomeVideo Any idea where i can buy the 4x M.2 card? I just can find the doc files but no shop to order that thing.
Just wanted to chime in about the RAM... I got mine a couple of days and and paired it with a 32GB crucial sodimm and it has been fine so far, running proxmox ve. Just one pfsense vm running on it so far with no issues.
Awesome feedback.
2 weeks after, any problems yet?
Patrick, calm down! I just got the N100 you recommended a few days ago. I can't keep up :-D (very happy with it, though)
I think a LOT of people are going to be more than happy with the N100. Some just want more power and this is exciting from a technology perspective
Great review. Covered everything except one question... Does this come back up after a power glitch unattended?
This is probably a really stupid question, sorry. I bought a fanless mini-PC to use as a home server but it did not reboot on a power glitch. The hardware required a human to cycle the power button! This makes it extremely unreliable on my glitchy power grid. I don't need a UPS, just need the thing to come back up after a power outage.
Does this come back up unattended?
I see on Amazon the it has "Auto power on" nuff said?
The 4 SSD H-board is certainly interesting.
I subbed. Great review. I Recently started looking into getting a firewall router👍
Wow. Thanks!
I really want to build a small NAS out of one of these. Just a simple mirror RAID nas, but 8tb nvme is still quite expensive. Hopefully soon they will be more affordable.
Is the 4x ssd board already on sale?
I support you because you supported me :) you Rock Patrick !!
What's the max amount of memory that works in this system? Can you use a 48GB SODIMM, or is 16GB the actual max as Intel lists?
I ordered one with 32GB
@@michieldejager6819 Please report back if it works and, if so, exact make and model ?
32GB works fine, no idea on the new 48GB SODIMM's though.
CWWK is advertising a lot of the n100 and n200 as 8 cores. I can't seem to find any on Amazon for the n305. Thank you for covering it. I am looking to buy one and was looking for your insight!
Great video thank you. What device do you recommend for a PfSense firewall with intrusion detection and prevention on? My internet is 1gb up and down? Thanks.
The best EVER Fanless Mini PCs will be the one that supports ECC memory ;-)
ECC fans assemble!
I wish Intel had taken low-cost ECC seriously after Ryzen showed them how it’s done.
@@JB-fh1bb Apparently the newest Intel Desktop processors 12th and 13th gen support ECC again. However only if you buy the W-series motherboard that Intel wants you to buy. Which sucks.
And laptop, und SBC ECC is completely missing in action.
Nice that you mentioned potential setup issues :) great informative videos, thanks!
Are these AliExpress miniPCs safe? I’m worried about BIOS malware
Why do people always complain in these reviews? It should have dual DDR5, USB3, etc. It's a value PC; if you want better specs, buy a premium PC. I specifically love that this manufacturer transfers hardware savings to the consumer (me).
It was because the previous generation was dual channel.
Synology is forcing me with security updates to use CLI just to look at SMART data. Going to switch to this with TrueNAS and have control over features and simplicity I want as apposed to being under the thumb of corporate whims.
During the crypto crash, I was buying Helium Miners (that contain Pi’s), taking them apart, and selling the Raspberry Pi’s out of them and using them for projects or selling them. I ended up with one “FreedomFi Miner” with an Intel J1900 with 4 Ethernet ports. I am hoping that I can make my own firewall or travel router.
Proxmox working good in it? Does it have virtualization problem?
The NAS potential is amazing. Worth carrying around even if moving lol
Is this a good option for setting up a Minecraft server, or would there be something you could get that eschewed the additional ethernet ports to be a bit cheaper?
Take my advice and don't buy anything from this company. I bought two--one of them works ok, the other is missing pci devices. Seems to be a bios enumeration bug or something, but the CWWK website is really bad. The BIOS/UEFI implementation seems sketchy at best--it often fails to apply or save settings completely. Really bad quality overall.
So I picked up one of these, bought direct from CWWK via Amazon, and I did not get some of the additional accessories or the newer daughter board.
That said, I have Proxmox installed and updated, installed OPNsense into a VM and OPNsense can get an IP from my ISP modem/router but it isn't passing any internet through to the LAN connection and I'm having a heck of a time trying to figure out why. The LAN interface does give my PC an IP via DHCP but no internet access. I feel I'm missing something simple but for the life of me cannot figure it out.
Sounds like a firewall issue??? Not sure.
@@WOWIMEXCITED Apparently was a bug/issue with Proxmox 8 and how it was handling networking. Installed Proxmox 7.4, got everything working, did an in place update to Proxmox 8 and everything is working great.
I'm still in the honeymoon phase with proxmox and am pondering if there are certain limitations I should be looking out for.
This series of boxes are quite good. I'm using CWWK N95 one for Proxmox and run OpenWRT as a guest.
But it seems there's high IO delay with N series CPU, as we can see at 16:30.
I don't know the root cause and cannot find the solution so far.
I solved the issue disabling EMMC in BIOS and delete unnecessary device file.
26 2/3 °C gave me a chuckle
Hello. I've watched your previous video "HUGE UPGRADE! New Firewall Router Virtualization Host" which covers N100 and N200 CPUs. That enclosure has N305 version too. There are also versions for N100 and N200 using enclosure present in this video. It seems that motherboard design is the same.
Which enclosure is better for cooling?
There is also one important aspect you didn't highlight in any video. Can this device enter S3 power state mode i.e suspend to ram?
I've seen some of Intel N100 Mini PCs, which support only "Modern Standby" S0idle state. It means they will still consume those ~6W even in sleep mode.
where to find that M.2 to 4x M.2 board?
OK I am super glad the MSP for the i3 N305 was not firm because this whole computer is under the MSP of just the processor.
I'm probably going to pick one up
I had a shitfit when i saw that the i3-N305, and i3-1215U/1315U had the same exact $309 MSP
Despite the N305 being less than 1/2 the processor
-No P cores vs 2 P cores
-1/2 the GPU cores at a lower clock speed
-Single channel memory vs dual channel(also limited to 4800 instead of 5600)
-an effecitve firmware limit of 16GB of RAM where as the other i3 in theory supported anywhere between 128GB and 512GB depending on if they will support 4 of the future 128GB SODIMMs that should be part of the DDR5 standard
-9 lanes of PCIe 3.0 as opposed to what appears to be 20 lanes of PCIE 4.0(or more likely 20 lanes of mixed 4.0 and 3.0)
new N series is about power effect...Aso I think n100 is better than n305 about price. N305 is overkill for nas and router but not strong enough for heavy task...
@@vuhuy8952 The difference between N100 and N305 is 4 E cores, clock speeds, and 3x the MSP
The 1215U has a TDP 6w higher than the N305, and with the extra P cores, you can just downclock the 1215U to be similar performance to the N305 at the same power usage, but then you get the same or FAR better performance and features.
I literally cannot see the use case for an N305 over a 1215U/1315U with both of them costing $309
Now the N305 clearly is not $309, because this whole computer is only $299, but when the N305 was first announced i was super upset, almost as bad as Nvidia taking the replacement for the 12GB 3060, calling it the 12GB 4080, and setting the MSRP at $899 instead of $329
I love the conversion from Farenheit to Celcius but still using fractions 😅
Locks like they needed the Lanes usually used by USB3 for that 4x nvme board.
Yes. 9 Lanes total. 4x for 2.5GbE ports. So they only had 5 remaining.
Where is the quad SSD board sold? And did you ever getting the cooling under control?
Awesome but when I read about Intel i226-v, users literally talk nothing but the issues with this chipset.
So how is it now? Is it a issue with the chipset or the drivers?
have one in same form factor with N100 CPU, running OpenWRT today getting home, ambient ~27c, CPU was reading 59c, but NVME SSD was reading 71c, and those metal fins were hot to the touch. Wonder if SSD can sustain to run at 71c for long period of time?
Most will throttle to stay OK. Usually using a lower-power DRAM-less SSD helps with heat.
It would be really cool if you”d get your hands on CWWK M1. It should be very similar hardware but in much nicer looking package. One thing I wonder about it is whether its fan is quiet or not?
Mac Mini should have this case
We need coreboot for this...
Patrick, your Amazon opens up an N100 version, but claims it's 8 cores. I'm not sure which version this is, it's not very clear (big surprise)
Hold up what is the throughput of the device with 4 drive add-in card?
it uses pcie bifurcation so it's still using the same pcie x4 connection in the M.2. It's more for capacity and redundancy than performance.
You'd effectively get ~1GB/s per drive, which is fine considering the fastest you can get data in and out of it is 1.25GB/s. That's with all the NICs going all at once.
Does this thing have a switch chip for those four 2.5 ports or any switching acceleration in the NIC?
No, these are direct PCIe from each NIC to the CPU.
it's not that much of a load to do bridging 2.5gbit for modern CPU
@@marcogenovesi8570 you don't do bringing, you buy a switch...
It's intended as a router, so you want them separate, not switched. 🙂
@@ServeTheHomeVideo thanks, and @blunden2 also makes a great point re router
Interesting expansion board)
Can you please retest the power consumption without the giant coiled up power cord inductor?
Do firmware updates exist for these? Apparently that's important for security.
LOL : Haven't really seen much in the way of support for most of these chinese mini-pc's, especially in the form of drivers let alone bios updates.. I did chuckle though; so thanks.
single channel is a dealbreaker with that pricetag
What happens when the battery fails, and it reboots? Will it hang on boot?
Also, how good is watching UA-cam videos in Firefox running on this, views from this acrossvia a Windows Remote Desktop or VNC connection?
Can you do a review for a mini computer that would fit under the seat of a truck for lite gaming?
The Beelink GTR7 we reviewed could be great for that, albeit maybe too high-power.
Wish CWWK or Topton (or both) made a mobo with the i3-N305 with the 4 2.5 nics but more sata ports. A real nas board, that in a node 304 would be awesome.
I am an official employee of CWWK, and the requirements you mentioned will be available for this product in October
@@kevincheng4739 Hey Kevin, awesome of you taking the time to respond to my comment. What would be the best way to be notified when this board arrives? Thanks a lot!
Our company does not have a channel on youtube, thank you for reminding me.
We will create a channel to post our company's product updates.@@JelleRevyn
@@kevincheng4739 Hi Kevin, we are 6 days in Oktober. Any news about this? Thanks!
@@kevincheng4739Hey Kevin, any news on this? We're almost December now. Thanks!
Any chance you know what the power consumption difference is between this and N100/200?
It is the same power meter we used for the N100/N200 here ua-cam.com/video/58nVTNYrJ3E/v-deo.html
I've seen 8th/10th gen intel versions with 6 2.5gb ports (w/sim for cellular and management port) on amazon .... almost ready to pull the trigger
You, you, power hog! #ThinkGreen
@@Chris.Brisson I'll admit it, I ran an x299 workstation
@Chris.Brisson
Better than perfectly usable chips ending up in the landfill
Sold out on AliExpress already?
9:56 This chip is a clock buffer, that only clones clock signal to additional drives, so only way that they could implement 4 NVMe is probably via bifurcation x4 slot to four x1 sub-slots.
And that's going to be very limited and below usual 2 PCIe lanes that even older low-end NVMe drives have.
Unclear, why even bother with NVMe then, unless you require some very niche use case with SFF build for low-throughput high-IOPS very expensive high-end SSDs, which would be very costly and highly inefficient.
Where can I get the m2 expansion board. It looks interesting to me
@servethehome Do you have any insight as too whether Intel will ever release (to manufacturers) the N300 chip?
Where is the ssd Board available? Would really be Interessed in!
Regards
Oliver
This looks great. I love the size and power usage. However, a max memory of 16 GB really kills it for virtualization usage. I run a lot of VMs and need at least 64 GB.
If you need 64 GB then maybe your CPU requirements exceed the N305 anyway?
i wish there was one of those with a free fullsize PCIe slot so i can put a SFP+ Card in there... been looking for that wor ages.
Have you come across a device similar to this that has PoE on the ports?
Does it work with ESXi? Can idle power be reduced by some BIOS configuration?
Hi Patrick! what is your view on pentium gold 8505 based mini pc? similar in price, power, features, and same shell, even. having 6 threads instead of 8, but that 1 big core can help with some jobs.
Also a good option. For a desktop, I would probably take the 8505. For a firewall or virtualization appliance I probably prefer the N305 since it is all E-core and has more physical cores.
what i really want...something like this but with the power of at least 5800H. anything like that?
Really wish they'd chuck a couple SFP+ ports.. or even better, make the 4 ports as a PCIe card, that can be replaced.
Here is the question. This one or the or one with the Intel Pentium Gold 8505? What I really like with the second one, is that it supports 64GB memory instead of just 32GB. But is it possible to reduce the PL2 from 55W to e.g. 30W to use less energy?
very cool...I couldn't find the max memory...would it support a 32GB sodim, I see the 16GB one you show on amazon....
I've been using the old 2 core 4 thread for a very long time and they have worked great.
Hi, Patrick, is there any chance you test Mikrotik RouterOS on these things?
Hi, I got one of these at a garage sale and I'm trying to determine the specifications. I only have the unit. I was able to open the back but I'm not sure how much ram or ssd is in here...?? Any advice? Thank you
Nice little machine. I wish it had dual 10 Gig ports. With TNSR, it might even route at close to 10 Gig speeds.
@ServeTheHome Any chance you could test TNSR performance on a device with dual 10 Gig ports with one of these new processors? Ideally both virtualized (bridged and passthrough) in Proxmox and bare metal. 🙂
Are you planing to review model with Intel Pentium Gold 8505?
Do you know if these things use Coreboot or Libreboot?
Can just custom design your own micro mother board with insane upgrades that you mentioned in this video.
And even 3D print a cool transparent case for it too.
i think you underestimate the challange of "just design your own motherboard" ...
What stress tool is that?
We just used stress-ng for 24 hours. It is not perfect, but it is more stressful than 99%+ of these systems will actually experience.
10:00 there has to be another chip near/on that clock chip. just seems like what there doing is adapting that 1 m.2 slot to 4 more m.2 slots via a pcie switch chip. maybe thats what the bios update is for (bifurcation)? can you peel back the black plastic to see whats underneath that???
Can I install Windows on this and use it as a simple office PC?