Ordered the i3 N305 (no mem or ssd) from the topton store on ali express and it arrived yesterday. Just under 2 weeks from order to arrival in California.
...
Posting an update on my experience with the N305 based device.So far so good! I upgraded my other proxmox host to 8 and clustered them together for ease of use. This fanless system runs like a champ.
Recap: Ordered the unit with no mem or ssd. Added a 32 gig samsung DDR5 SODIMM and a 2tb Samsung 970 evo plus. Installed proxmox 8 the day it went gold.
Running OPNSense as VM as my router. Passed the 2nd and 3rd NICs to the VM for wan and lan. Nic 1 is the VM host network. All interfaces connected at 2.5gbit.
There is a CT running the Omeda controller for my Tplink AP and another VM running Ubuntu server as a Docker host for network-related containers. (Wiregaurd, Nginx reverse proxy server) - I may move wiregaurd to the OPNSense but it was trivial to migrate the container over without re-doing my existing setup.
Runs great. My internet tops out at 500mbit and at full tilt it bumps cpu usage up maybe 8 percent. I'll bet getting gigabit in a month but I don't think it will have any problems.
Temps are acceptable given the circumstance. In a closet in my currently-un-airconditioned-in-california-summer apartment (In the office rn) it's hovering 50c. Last night I added a heatsink to the SSD and that seems to have brought it's temps down a good 10C.
sensors
coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Package id 0: +53.0°C (high = +105.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)
Core 0: +53.0°C (high = +105.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)
Core 1: +53.0°C (high = +105.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)
Core 2: +53.0°C (high = +105.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)
Core 3: +53.0°C (high = +105.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)
Core 4: +51.0°C (high = +105.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)
Core 5: +51.0°C (high = +105.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)
Core 6: +51.0°C (high = +105.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)
Core 7: +51.0°C (high = +105.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)
acpitz-acpi-0
Adapter: ACPI interface
temp1: +27.8°C (crit = +110.0°C)
nvme-pci-0100
Adapter: PCI adapter
Composite: +70.8°C (low = -273.1°C, high = +84.8°C)
(crit = +84.8°C)
Sensor 1: +70.8°C (low = -273.1°C, high = +65261.8°C)
Sensor 2: +72.8°C (low = -273.1°C, high = +65261.8°C)
The case really is doing it's job! When I pulled the unit to add the SSD heatsink the case cooled off very quickly. It really dissipates the heat. The temperatures monitored track the ambient temp in my apartment degree-for-degree. Might add a fan, but probably not nessissary.