12gen N-series Nas motherboard (topton, cwwk, ... )

[conr]

Hi all,

I am also on the N100 mobo train as I am needing to decouple my GPU Passthrough build, used for Gaming VM and a Home Server, to just a normal 24hr Home Server for NAS, Plex, BitTorrent, connected to my network. Got inspired by Wolfgang’s video on this Homer Server build, but with these mods.

- Replacing N5105 mobo with N100
- Using Carbon Thermal Pad for passive cooling
- Using 1 DDR5-4800 32GB Stick of RAM because only has 1 slot
- Using a Corsair CX 450M ATX Power Supply because nothing is in-stock
- Using 2x Seagate Exos x12 12TB SATA 6Gb/s 256MB Cache because I don’t have a use case for a caching layer… yet.

My Parts:
- 6-Bay Mini ITX Motherboard with Intel N100 CPU https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806122291530.html
- Thermal Grizzly Carbonaut Carbon Thermal Pad
- Fractal Design Node 304 Case
- Crucial 32GB DDR5-4800 PC5-38400 CL40 SO-DIMM
- Crucial P3 1TB PCIe Gen3 3D NAND NVMe M.2 SSD
- Corsair CX Series 450M Watt 80 Plus Bronze PCU
- 2x Seagate Exos x12 12TB SATA 6Gb/s 256MB Cache
-- Optional
- SATA Cables for Servers
- Noctua NF-A20 PWM chromax.Black.swap, Premium Quiet Fan
- XMSJSIY Chassis Switch Host Metal Button

Tell me what you think?

 

[pimposh]

What's the point of replacing N5105 with N100. To spend all that budget to get.. 25% of performance, which still be sucking big time ?

 

[conr]

What's the point of replacing N5105 with N100. To spend all that budget to get.. 25% of performance, which still be sucking big time ?

At the time of ordering, the Topton N5105 was $180 and the N100 was $189 but yeah, it’s down to $150 so I guess I am paying for FOMO.

 

[mikecsmith]

I just finished the Prime95 run after 23.5 hours and had no errors at all So I guess either the board is really picky with RAM sticks in general or some of you (@heyelly @m11k @mikecsmith) had really bad luck with faulty boards. Fingers crossed that you all find good solutions to your problems!

Edit: I also successfully did a full parity rebuild on my Unraid array (4x12TB HDD) about two days ago, which again took about 20 hours. No problems at all.

Quick update Chirpo - mine has been rock steady since moving to the Crucial SODIMM so think it’s a manufacturer specific issue rather than a faulty board.

The issues I was having have all resolved and I’ve now got enough RAM to comfortably run ZFS and a few services.

 

[conr]

Has anyone seen a manual for this board? Specifically I’m struggling to find out what headers it has - I can see the front panel and TPM from the images, but there is another in the corner next to the 24 pin power connector. I’m wondering whether it’s a NIC or SATA activity header.

I was also looking for something like a manual (online or printed), but couldn't find anything. My mainboard box with the N305 CPU only included a small note in Chinese (presumably information on registration or support).

The KingNovyPC Computer Store just sent me the PDF setup manual for the CW-N100-NAS-DC V1.0! Though it's in Chinese, it still gives plenty of good screenshots and guides.

*Note to Admins: It's not letting me attach to the thread a 2MB pdf. Error says it's too big. So here's the direct link. Hope it doesn't expire.

N7 CW-N100-N305 NAS-DC manual.pdf

drive.google.com

 

[chripo]

The KingNovyPC Computer Store just sent me the PDF setup manual for the CW-N100-NAS-DC V1.0! Though it's in Chinese, it still gives plenty of good screenshots and guides.

N7 CW-N100-N305 NAS-DC manual.pdf

drive.google.com

Thanks for the link, but unfortunately the manual is not for the CW-ADLN-NAS board that I (and probably the majority of other thread participants) have. Anyway, any information we can get on these Chinese N100/N305 boards is very welcome and I bet there are people here on the forum who will be very happy to get a manual for their boards! Thanks again for sharing!

 

[kingp0dd]

So I'm thinking if I'm going to get this or an 11th Gen (for transcoding, since both has the Gen12 Intel GPU).

• For those who were successful in running this board stable, may I ask for your idle power consumptions?
• Based on this spreadsheet, the 10th/11th Gen CPUs can idle at 6W-9W (maybe because it can reach C8 states?).

 

[chripo]

• For those who were successful in running this board stable, may I ask for your idle power consumptions?

My complete system (CWWK board with N305 CPU, 48GB RAM, 4 HDDs, 2 SSDs, 1 NVMe, 4 fans, Corsair SF600 PSU) draws about 20W from the wall at idle (HDDs not spinning). I haven't found a way to get much lower than that yet. But the 20W include the power loss of the PSU, which is about 7W. So the CPU, RAM, fans and drives should consume around 13W in idle.

 

[heyelly]

• For those who were successful in running this board stable, may I ask for your idle power consumptions?

My system idles at 16/17W with picoPSU, 2x22TB HDD (not active), 2TB NVME and 32GB RAM. Single VM + a couple of dockers, three Ethernet ports plugged in all with 2.5gbit connections.

 

[conr]

My system idles at 16/17W with picoPSU, 2x22TB HDD (not active), 2TB NVME and 32GB RAM. Single VM + a couple of dockers, three Ethernet ports plugged in all with 2.5gbit connections.

I have practically the same parts except the picoPSU (ATX PCU). Did you modify any of the BIOS settings?

 

[heyelly]

I have practically the same parts except the picoPSU (ATX PCU). Did you modify any of the BIOS settings?

Nope. What is your power consumption?

 

[conr]

Nope. What is your power consumption?

I haven't set it up yet. My friend told me to use a thermal grizzly carbon thermal pad, but now I am questioning if I have to even use it? Is the bronze heat sink plate already glued down?

 

[heyelly]

You can simply put any radiator on the top of the copper plate with some thermal paste as you would do on a standard CPU

 

[dwdpieterse]

Hi, I am wondering which vendor of these motherboard is the best to buy? CWWK, BKHD?
I am particularly interested in a N100 NAS motherboard like this one: BKHD-1264-NAS
The BKHD version at least has comes with an appropriate heatsink and fan.

 

[araines]

Just finished my build, and I'm extremely pleased with it. Rock solid on memtest86, no problems under full CPU stress etc. Able to transcode multiple 4k streams simultaneously on a nice low power platform. Posting here to help inform others as I found it really useful to see everyone's builds here and on other threads before I embarked on my own!

I'm measuring 17W at the wall when idle (HDDs spun down), 31W idle (HDDs spun up). Had it as low as 11W without the HDDs. Seems to hit a peak of 72W on boot, where as far as I can tell all drives are spinning up together. I've tried setting staggered spin in the BIOS, but for some reason I can only find options for 3 SATA ports, not 6, and I'm not entirely convinced its working.

My build:

• CW-ADLN-NAS (N100) combo with Jonsbo HP-400S White (fan removed)
• Kingston Server Premier 16GB 4800MT/s DDR5 - KSM48T40BS8KM-16HM
• Kioxia Exceria G2 1TB M.2
• 200W RGEEK NAS PicoPSU
• 90W 12V AC-DC Power Supply
• 2x WD Elements 14TB (shucked)
• 1x WD Elements 18TB (shucked)
• 1x Corsair AF120 Slim White Fan

Then I designed and 3d printed a super small case capable of holding 5x drives.

From my testing, you can just about get away with running the CPU with the Jonsbo HP-400S without a fan (so passive) as long as you don't mind the temps hitting 82C after ten minutes or so and up to 90C+ after a few hours of stress testing. Even a tiny bit of airflow seems to keep it completely under control though, and in my case with the case exhaust fan pulling cool air through I've not seen it get above 45C.

Hope that helps someone!

 

[LaunderedShirt]

Can someone with an N100 post your Geekbench results? I have a different N100 system that I don't think is running properly and considering buying this one to replace it.
My results Gowin Solution Co.,Ltd GW-MB-U01 - Geekbench

 

[heyelly]

Then I designed and 3d printed a super small case capable of holding 5x drives.

Post some pictures please

 

[araines]

Pictures

I designed the case in Onshape

And I ran Geekbench too

Edit: Now on Printables too

 

[audelair]

From my testing, you can just about get away with running the CPU with the Jonsbo HP-400S without a fan (so passive) as long as you don't mind the temps hitting 82C after ten minutes or so and up to 90C+ after a few hours of stress testing. Even a tiny bit of airflow seems to keep it completely under control though, and in my case with the case exhaust fan pulling cool air through I've not seen it get above 45C.

Hope that helps someone!

Thanks a lot for sharing your experiences! I was thinking of getting the Jonsbo version myself and removing the fan. I have a case with a 140mm fan that is super quiet, and it's great to know that I can likely get away with just that case fan.

 

[heyelly]

So guys, just a quick update. I managed to get it rock solid disabling all C-states and everything related to power efficiency - basically I reset everything.
The whole thing is now consuming about 17W on idle with unRAID (a couple of dockers and a HA VM) inside a Node 304 with just the rear fan on. As @araines suggested, I am running it with a Jonsbo radiator without the fan and during these days I hit 85-90°C after few hours of CPU stress.