I received my CW-ALDN-NAS-K (the purple N305) last week. I'm using it mainly for my Unraid NAS to replace a 10-year-old i3-3340 due to its lack of hardware decoding ability and high power consumption.
After two full days of tuning, Googling, and reading tech articles, I still think it's a good MOBO. If you're interested in diving in, here are some things you need to know:
- RAM Compatibility: This MOBO is very picky about RAM. Micron Crucial, Samsung, and SK Hynix are good choices. Don't buy RAM with a frequency higher than 4800MHz;
it's not supported by the CPU. update: it will be automatically downclocked to 4800MHz.
- USB Ports: According to comments from beta testers on the official page, the bottom port of the onboard USB (update: beside the PCIe slot) is unavailable due to the lack of a USB 2.0 port from the CPU. Only the upper one is working.
- M.2 Slot Spacing: The two M.2 slots are too close to each other, so the heatsink cannot be wider than your NVMe drive. Don't buy M.2 coolers, as most of them are wider than the M.2 itself and even larger than the M.2 heatsink.
- CPU Contact Issue: The CPU doesn't make good contact with the copper plate. Prepare a 0.5mm thermal pad to fix it.
Here's my setup:
View attachment 39628
Code:
MOBO: CW-ALDN-NAS-K
RAM: Crucial CT32G48C40S5 32GB 4800MHz
M.2: KLEVV CRAS CV710 512GB x2
HDD: 10TB x1, 3TB x1, 1TB x1
OS: unRAID 6.12.13
BIOS Configuration (Press Ctrl+F1 to open hidden options):
Markdown (GitHub flavored):
Advanced
- RC ACPI Settings
- Native PCIE Enable: Enabled
- Native ASPM: Enabled
- Power & Performance
- CPU
- C states
- Package C State Limit: C10
Chipset
- System Agent (SA) Configuration
- Graphics Configuration
- RC1p Support: Enabled
- DMI/OPI Configuration
- DMI Gen3 ASPM: ASPM L1
- DMI ASPM: ASPM L1
- PCH-IO Configuration
- PCI Express Configuration
- DMI Link ASPM Control: L1
- C10 Dynamic threshold adjustment: Enabled
> ============= READ NOTE =============
- PCI Express Root Port {1,2,3,4,7,9}
- ASPM: L1
- L1 Substates: L1.1 & L1.2
- L1 Low: Enabled
Note:
Note2: If NVMe is unrecognized, try keeping ASPM disabled on ports 1 and 2.
BIOS Optional Configuration
Markdown (GitHub flavored):
> In-Band ECC: (part of the normal RAM is used for ECC)
- System Agent (SA) Configuration
- Memory Configuration
- In-Band ECC Support: Enabled
> Speed up boot:
- System Agent (SA) Configuration
- Graphics Configuration
- Skip Scaning of External Gfx Card: Enabled
> Suppress linux error log for usb3:
- System Agent (SA) Configuration
- TCSS setup menu
- D3 Cold Enable/Disable: Disabled
- D3Hot: Disabled
> Disable unnecessary devices:
- System Agent (SA) Configuration
- SATA Configuration
- SATA Controller(s): Disabled # this mobo use ASM1166, not native one
- HD Audio Subsystem Configuration Settings
- HD Audio: Disabled
- SCS Configuration
- eMMC 5.1 Controller: Disabled
> Beep sounds indicating a healthy boot and to use a safe resolution during boot
Boot
- Quiet Boot: Disabled
Startup Script:
Bash:
# -------------------------------------------------
# Set power-efficient CPU governor
# -------------------------------------------------
/etc/rc.d/rc.cpufreq powersave
# -------------------------------------------------
# Disable CPU Turbo
# -------------------------------------------------
# update: optional, uncomment this part if you don't need CPU Boost
#[[ -f /sys/devices/system/cpu/intel_pstate/no_turbo ]] && echo "1" > /sys/devices/system/cpu/intel_pstate/no_turbo
#[[ -f /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/boost ]] && echo "0" > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/boost
# -------------------------------------------------
# Powertop Tweaks
# -------------------------------------------------
# Enable SATA link power management
echo med_power_with_dipm | tee /sys/class/scsi_host/host*/link_power_management_policy
# Runtime PM for I2C Adapter (i915 gmbus dpb)
echo auto | tee /sys/bus/i2c/devices/i2c-*/device/power/control
# Autosuspend for USB devices
echo auto | tee /sys/bus/usb/devices/*/power/control
# Runtime PM for disk
echo auto | tee /sys/block/sd*/device/power/control
# Host bridge
echo auto | tee /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:00.0/power/control
# RAM memory: Intel Corporation Alder Lake-N PCH Shared SRAM
echo auto | tee /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:14.2/power/control
# Serial bus controller: Intel Corporation Device 54c5
echo auto | tee /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:19.0/power/control
# Serial bus controller: Intel Corporation Device 54c6
echo auto | tee /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:19.1/power/control
# ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Alder Lake-N PCH eSPI Controller
echo auto | tee /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:1f.0/power/control
# Serial bus controller: Intel Corporation Alder Lake-N SPI (flash) Controller
echo auto | tee /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:1f.5/power/control
# -------------------------------------------------
# execute `lspci -tv` to fit your build
# -------------------------------------------------
# NVME
echo auto | tee /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:01:00.0/power/control
# NVME
echo auto | tee /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:02:00.0/power/control
# SATA controller: ASMedia Technology Inc. ASM1166 Serial ATA Controller (rev 02)
echo auto | tee /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:03:00.0/power/control
# Runtime PM for ATA devices
echo auto | tee /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:03:00.0/ata*/power/control
# Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Controller I226-V (rev 04)
# DO NOT uncomment; it may cause serious OS hangs, especially when opening powertop
#echo auto | tee /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:04:00.0/power/control
#echo auto | tee /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:05:00.0/power/control
With these configurations, the CPU can enter C8 state:
Code:
Pkg(HW) | Core(HW) | CPU(OS) 0
| | C0 active 4.6%
| | POLL 0.0% 0.0 ms
| | C1E 4.7% 0.1 ms
C2 (pc2) 14.7% | |
C3 (pc3) 0.8% | C3 (cc3) 0.0% |
C6 (pc6) 17.3% | C6 (cc6) 85.7% | C6 7.0% 0.9 ms
C7 (pc7) 0.0% | C7 (cc7) 79.7% |
C8 (pc8) 13.3% | | C8 3.6% 1.1 ms
C9 (pc9) 0.0% | |
C10 (pc10) 0.0% | |
| | C10 78.6% 6.2 ms
Powertop Output:
Code:
>> Bad VM writeback timeout
Bad Runtime PM for PCI Device Intel Corporation Ethernet Controller I226-V
Bad Runtime PM for PCI Device Intel Corporation Ethernet Controller I226-V
There are still some "BAD"s:
SATA Link Power Management: Not supported by the ASM1166 controller.- Intel I226-V Ethernet Controller: Has a power management issue. Enabling it causes serious OS hangs (though there's no issue if running on Arch Linux with the latest Linux kernel).
- VM writeback timeout: Can be ignored if you have UPS.
This configuration has been running for 24 hours without problems, even under full usage scenarios:
- Jellyfin: Software decoding of high-bitrate H.264 High 10 video (no hardware decoding available) combined with HEVC hardware encoding. This results in full CPU and GPU loading.
update: Special thanks to
@Outbound0918 for the valuable suggestions and guidance, which helped me resolve many issues.
ref:
- Reduce power consumption with powertop - unRAD
- The Curse of ASPM
