CWWK/Topton/... Nxxx quad NIC router

[idle_user]

Update. I ran stress tests and it didn't even break past 50C. I thought it was a fluke, so I ran the same test on the other two nodes I have.

For reference:

• I have 3 of those boxes (i3-n305) - all running the same model NVMEs and RAM
• 2 CWWK, 1 TopTon
• I replaced the thermal paste and added a shim on one of the CWWK's; the one that was giving me the most heat issues. It would easily jump past 90C under load previously.

After running the same tests on the other 2 nodes:

• the other CWWK box quickly jumped from 42C to 72C and steadily climbed
• the TopTon box went from 34C to high 50s

It looks like it might be worth while to give those two nodes the same treatment. Especially the other CWWK box.
I will follow up when I can.

 

[jatesh]

Hi Guys, I bought the device N100 i226-V DDR5 (BK-1264NP Ver 1.5, Build Date 09/28/2023 17:23:35, Version 2.22.1287)
I'm having issues with the device the clock speed is stuck around 400 MHz in pfsense in Windows on idle it goes above 1 GHZ else it falls to 400 check the screenshots. I checked with throttle stop, and it says the CPU is power-limited.

Is this something that can be sorted out by reflashing the custom bios as described by thys
(https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/cwwk-topton-nxxx-quad-nic-router.39685/post-405132) or is this unit defective?

 

[idle_user]

My two port N100 unit will arrive today, so I'm curious about the gap too. It should be v2, so hopefully there will be none, but who knows.
I'll use liquid metal compound, hopefully it will improve temperatures at least a bit.

Liquid metal is not worth it. Just use regular thermal paste.
To ensure proper contact between the CPU die and the provided copper block, you can either apply a copper shim (like what I did) or file down the standoffs a bit.

 

[idle_user]

Hi Guys, I bought the device N100 i226-V DDR5 (BK-1264NP Ver 1.5, Build Date 09/28/2023 17:23:35, Version 2.22.1287)
I'm having issues with the device the clock speed is stuck around 400 MHz in pfsense in Windows on idle it goes above 1 GHZ else it falls to 400 check the screenshots. I checked with throttle stop, and it says the CPU is power-limited.

Is this something that can be sorted out by reflashing the custom bios as described by thys
(https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/cwwk-topton-nxxx-quad-nic-router.39685/post-405132) or is this unit defective?

I doubt its defective hardware and just compatibility with the BIOS.
You can live boot a small linux OS through USB and run a quick stress tests. You'll see the clocks run normally I bet.

 

[jgreyz]

What are people using to test their temperatures on these devices?

 

[idle_user]

What are people using to test their temperatures on these devices?

I use prometheus and grafana to track my node stats which includes temperature.
You can just install and use sensors on linux to keep it simple

$ apt install lm-sensors
$ sensors

 

[jgreyz]

I use prometheus and grafana to track my node stats which includes temperature.
You can just install and use sensors on linux to keep it simple

$ apt install lm-sensors
$ sensors

Any suggestions/recommendations for the *BSD users (pfSense, OPNsense, etc)?

 

[Becks0815]

Any suggestions/recommendations for the *BSD users (pfSense, OPNsense, etc)?

ESP32C3, a digital thermal sensor, INA219, a 12V -> 5V step down converter, a 12V PWM fan and some cables. Then you can measure the temperature, steer the fan speed based on the outcome, measure voltage and power consumption.

All data sent via MQTT to a machine running e.g. iobroker, where you can use the e-chart plugin to generate a web page showing the data...



Looks a bit strange because i played around with the machine and the thermal sensor wasn't placed back into position until some minutes ago. Still - nice.

 

[Becks0815]

... and as soon as I have some spare minutes, I will add the sensors data from proxmox into the graph. the data is already sent to Iobroker and visible.



Pretty simple stuff. All you need is to install the sensor package on proxmox and telegraf, which captures the data, transforms it and sends it via MQTT to a server - in my case the same one where iobroker already is running.

The hardest part was to find out how to set the data format to specifc values instead of the standard json format.

 

[Tzvia]

Hi Guys, I bought the device N100 i226-V DDR5 (BK-1264NP Ver 1.5, Build Date 09/28/2023 17:23:35, Version 2.22.1287)
I'm having issues with the device the clock speed is stuck around 400 MHz in pfsense in Windows on idle it goes above 1 GHZ else it falls to 400 check the screenshots. I checked with throttle stop, and it says the CPU is power-limited.

Is this something that can be sorted out by reflashing the custom bios as described by thys
(https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/cwwk-topton-nxxx-quad-nic-router.39685/post-405132) or is this unit defective?View attachment 34556View attachment 34557

I had bought the 6 port model with the tall straight fins and saw something similar in PFSense, showing something like '804MHz' in the PFSense GUI but a higher speed in the CLI... First suggestion I could make is to go into the BIOS and make sure that the C States are ENABLED. With the model I have, the BIOS was gimped and didn't expose the C States setting so I had no idea how it was set... so flashed the modded BIOS version provided by fta in the 6 port CWWK thread. I made sure what I had was the same model (open the case, get the board model) so I was good to go. It still shows a bogus max speed in the PFSense GUI as you can see it showed this just now "Current: 3192 MHz, Max: 2496 MHz" but at least it also shows when it drops below 500MHz so I know that SpeedShift is really working.

Remember, that you must make sure, before flashing any modded/updated bios, that it's for your model. There are more than a few different models and I am sure that you don't want to brick your router. So look in the BIOS first to see if you can see/set the C States ON. Then test in the CLI, lots of info here on that.

 

[jatesh]

I doubt its defective hardware and just compatibility with the BIOS.
You can live boot a small linux OS through USB and run a quick stress tests. You'll see the clocks run normally I bet.

thanks for the quick reply, did reset the device by removing the CMOS battery, and it is now hitting the advertised core clocks on idle but reverts to 400 MHz under load.

 

[jatesh]

I had bought the 6 port model with the tall straight fins and saw something similar in PFSense, showing something like '804MHz' in the PFSense GUI but a higher speed in the CLI... First suggestion I could make is to go into the BIOS and make sure that the C States are ENABLED. With the model I have, the BIOS was gimped and didn't expose the C States setting so I had no idea how it was set... so flashed the modded BIOS version provided by fta in the 6 port CWWK thread. I made sure what I had was the same model (open the case, get the board model) so I was good to go. It still shows a bogus max speed in the PFSense GUI as you can see it showed this just now "Current: 3192 MHz, Max: 2496 MHz" but at least it also shows when it drops below 500MHz so I know that SpeedShift is really working.

Remember, that you must make sure, before flashing any modded/updated bios, that it's for your model. There are more than a few different models and I am sure that you don't want to brick your router. So look in the BIOS first to see if you can see/set the C States ON. Then test in the CLI, lots of info here on that.

thanks for the reply, the BIOS is very restrictive, not many options there to play around with, I have not seen "C States" in BIOS.
I think I have to reflash the BIOS, will check the device for the model before proceeding.

 

[Octopuss]

Does it matter what SSD I use when I want to minimize power consumption?

 

[blunden]

Does it matter what SSD I use when I want to minimize power consumption?

Yes, it can matter quite a bit. Avoid all the latest top of the line SSDs and stick to more modest models. The performance doesn't matter in the router use case anyway (but I'd still avoid ones with QLC NAND) so you get to save some money in both upfront and long term cost. It will also generate less heat inside the case, which is another bonus.

You'll have to look up the power consumption of the ones you are interested in though, as I don't have specific recommendations.

 

[Oarman]

Btw does it matter what memory I put in the unit? I'll be fine with 8GB for my basic needs, but shall I bother with timings and brand, or can I just buy whatever that runs at 4800MHz?

I have one of the 2-port N100 units. When I got it, I tried two different 32GB Crucial DIMMs (two halves of a CT2K32G48C40S5 kit) and neither could pass MemTest86+ with any kind of consistency, albeit with strange errors that I suspect were config / tuning problems. I ended up swapping in the cheapest TEAMGROUP 16GB DIMM I could find and it worked fine. DDR5 isn't as plug and play yet as older standards, the BIOS has approximately one bazillion memory tuning parameters exposed and I didn't have the energy or the need to troubleshoot further.

For SSDs for these little boxes I like the Hynix P31 series for compatibility and low power draw, or Crucial MX500 2.5" SSDs for the units that take them. Or just whatever Chinesium comes in the non-barebones bundles for the minimum extra cost, if nothing meaningful is going to be stored locally.

 

[Octopuss]

I will only be using the unit for pfSense, so perhaps the reads/writes will be so small the power consumption and heat will be really low anyway?

 

[Octopuss]

Damn, the unit really does get hot! I repasted it, started Memtest86, and the case is so hot I can barely keep my hand on it.
edit: after 30+ minutes, memory temperature went to 63°C and the case is extremely hot.

Could someone compile a list of settings to change in the BIOS that affect temperatures maybe? I don't feel like going throuh every single post of 90 pages, heh.

 

[FrilledSharkBite]

At ~20°C ambient, my 2-port N100 running pfSense idles at 48°C passively cooled, and about 33°C with the included 80x10mm fan. A Noctua 80x25mm 5V fan brought it down to around 22°C.

For reference, I'm running with Crucial 16GB RAM (CT16G48C40S5) and Intel Optane 58GB SSD (SSDPEK1A058GA01). My setup writes ~135kB/s to disk constantly, so endurance was a factor in drive choice.

 

[Stovar]

Damn, the unit really does get hot! I repasted it, started Memtest86, and the case is so hot I can barely keep my hand on it.
edit: after 30+ minutes, memory temperature went to 63°C and the case is extremely hot.

Could someone compile a list of settings to change in the BIOS that affect temperatures maybe? I don't feel like going throuh every single post of 90 pages, heh.

Becks did a great job of mentioning some bios tweaks here, its always a good idea to search for his name and bios tweaks in general since it changes at times, also when searching check the times and find the newer ones.

Some more also
here
here
here
my own round up but from N5105/similar here

Oh and imo never hurts to slap on an 120mm silent fan onto the side to keep things cool sailing.

 

[Octopuss]

I can't find most of the settings anywhere. I wish he listed them exactly per name and location

P.S. Is there a clear CMOS button/jumper anywhere?