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

[Nobb1]

Hi everyone,

I’d like to share my experience with the Topton BKHD-1264-NAS N150 board,
....
To my surprise, idle power never dropped below 20W, which I consider high for a small NAS system. Using powertop, I saw that the CPU package C-state was stuck at C3. After some research, I discovered the well-known issue with JMB58x controllers not supporting ASPM, which blocks deeper power states.

My plan was to disable the onboard controller and, if needed, later add a more efficient one via the PCIe slot. I tried removing the device in Linux (echo 1 > /sys/bus/pci/devices/<device>/remove) and forcing ASPM with the “enable-aspm” script, but the package still wouldn’t go beyond C3.

Digging deeper, I learned about hidden BIOS settings:
Chipset → System Agent (SA) Configuration → Graphic Configuration → Yellow Screen Workaround → ENABLED

Once enabled, I was able to:

• Force ASPM mode on all PCIe root ports
• Disable the PCIe bus connected to the JMB58x controller, preventing it from interfering with ASPM

This worked! Powertop now shows the package spending 80–85% of the time in C8 (with cores 99% in C6 or higher).
...

Just wondering if you can elaborate on your settings? To my surprise, enabling the Yellow Screen Workaround opened up ALOT more new options within the BIOS. Here's what I've experimented with so far:

Chipset > DMI/OPI configuration: Change ASPM to L1 for deepest power savings
Chipset > TCSS configuration: TC cold power saving factor = enabled
PCI Express Configuration: Disable PCIe root ports 1/2/3

There is also a PCI Express Configuration section which lists a whole bunch of PCI Express Root Ports. The default ASPM setting is disabled, but when I tried to enable it, it caused instability in my OpenMediaVault server, likely due to the fact that L1 causes too much latency so my OS drive was dropping out.

Wondering what other tips in terms of BIOS settings that can be used to save power.

 

[zr0dfx]

Anyone know if there is a way to control the second PWM fan in TrueNAS CE?

 

[zr0dfx]

Hi! My TrueNAS, running on a purple CWWK N150, freezes sporadically — no network access, and the only way to fix it is to power it off and back on using the button. Has anyone else experienced this and found an optimal solution? Thanks!

I had to turn off C-States to get mine stable under TN

 

[Lerk]

I had to turn off C-States to get mine stable under TN

Good morning.

My server actually becomes more unstable when C-states are disabled — it stays up for only about 2–3 hours. When C-states are enabled, it can remain stable for several days.

The issue is that I can’t identify the root cause in Unraid’s syslog; there are no clear error messages or events pointing to the failure, so at this point I’m essentially troubleshooting blindly.

 

[Steffe]

Do anyone have the following bios laying around for the CW-NAS-ADLN-V10?

CW-ADLN-NAS(N100-N305).2024.11.12_NoLogo.iso
CW-ADLN-NAS(N100-N305).2024.03.05

Thanks...

 

[chiribe]

Hello everyone. After reading your messages, I ordered the purple N100 version motherboard. It came with the latest BIOS from April 25.

I'm trying to configure the PCI ports so that the system can enter Cstates. I can't save the PCI states, nor can I find the Yellow Screen Workaround.

The pkg(HW) statistics show 0.0% in all states. The power consumption with a poor ATX power supply is 20W.

 

[Mike Test]

Hello,
Is anyone using a PCIe graphics card on a CWWK N100/N150 purple mobo? I have the impression that any card plug into the PICe port will interfere with the SATA connectors. I am curious to hear about your experience, thank you.

 

[GoodOmens83]

Hi everyone,

I'm encountering an issue with Unraid where the system fails to boot if CPU C-states are enabled in the BIOS. When this happens, I get USB-related errors during boot, and Unraid doesn't start properly.

After some testing and research, I discovered that the system only boots correctly when a USB keyboard is physically connected. With a USB keyboard plugged in, everything works fine—even with C-states enabled.

I came across a suggestion on the Unraid forum that switching the BIOS from UEFI mode to Legacy (i.e., selecting USB:device instead of UEFI:device) can solve this problem.

Has anyone with a CWWK motherboard tried this? Do these boards support legacy boot mode in the BIOS?

You figure this out? Also finding out my machine won't boot unless I have a keyboard connected....

 

[feli.ciscar]

hola a todos, tengo una Topton N17 AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS
pero tengo un cuello de botella que esta mal configurado pero, por motivos de poco conocimiento, no se resolverlo.

me explico: en la parte principal de la bios no me sale el pcei speed, donde puedo poner la generación 4.0, por ende se da a entender que es la ya mencionada, sin embargo, el gpu z me arroja la siguiente información, que el pcie de la tarjeta dedicada es de x8 y no x16 generando un cuello de botella imposible de regular, necesito ayuda a configurar este detalle o será que la placa viene asi de fabrica?

 

[KevinR]

You figure this out? Also finding out my machine won't boot unless I have a keyboard connected....

Traditionally there used to be a setting in the bios to allow booting without a keyboard. Though I can't guarantee that Chinese bioses and/or every os supports it.

If you can't find a software fix I've found several situations where people solved it using an old school PS/2 keyboard -> usb adapter. They seem to appear as a keyboard even without a board plugged in.

 

[Hardlife]

THANK YOU for this. I was stuck with USB 3.0 devices running at USB 2.0 speed for the longest time. Could not figure out what was wrong.

You solution works like a charm on my CW-NAS-ADLN-K N100 "purple" mobo. I set the USB legacy to "auto" and then "D3 cold" to disabled and this fixed the problem. Btw in my BIOS the D3 cold setting is not in the TCSS submenu but directly under SA configuration.

Bus 002 Device 002: ID 1058:2621 Western Digital Technologies, Inc. Elements 262
1
Negotiated speed: SuperSpeed (5Gbps)

Also for some reason the front USB port of my Jonsbo N2 refuses to negotiate speeds higher than USB 2.0 (480 Mbps). I have no idea if I am the only one having that issue but that pretty annoying. All in all I only have one functional USB 3.0 port :-/

Hi Mike,

Dont Connect the Jonsbo N2 Front-USB-A to the 19 pin header. For some inexplicable reason, the port only delivers USB-2 speed...

You neet this:

ieron USB 3.1 Typ-C Adapter Frontpanel A-Key 180 °, Erweiterung Ports USB Typ E auf PC: Amazon.de: Computer & Zubehör

ieron USB 3.1 Typ-C Adapter Frontpanel A-Key 180 °, Erweiterung Ports USB Typ E auf PC: Amazon.de: Computer & Zubehör

www.amazon.de

(19 pin USB 3 to Key-e Adapter)

With this adapter you can connect the front USB-C => and yes=> It´s USB-3 then
(also needed: USB legacy to "auto" and then "D3 cold" to disabled)

Note: Insert it the right way around. Despite being USB-C, it offers either USB 3.0 speed or USB 2.0 speed, depending on whether it's plugged in correctly or incorrectly. I suspect that the 19-pin header on the motherboard supports one USB 3.0 and one USB 2.0 port, and not two USB 3.0 ports.

Greetings

 

[chiribe]

I bought the board without a heat sink and, seeing that the copper board didn't dissipate anything, I adopted an “overkill” solution.

I have configured the ventilation curves so that at idle or low load it is completely passive.

 

[Yahtzee94]

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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

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):

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

> 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:

# -------------------------------------------------
# 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:

           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:

>> 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:

1. SATA Link Power Management: Not supported by the ASM1166 controller.
2. 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).
3. 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:

1. Reduce power consumption with powertop - unRAD
2. The Curse of ASPM

I'm just running unraid for the first time and have followed this along, I'm getting these showup in powertop still. Does anyone know how to resolve them or are they benign issues. Running the N305 motherboard in a Jonsbo N3 case.

 

[Poubelle_qui_chante]

Hello everyone,

I have the NAS-N150-8P motherboard and I am experiencing some issues with it.

Each time I try to install TrueNas (I tried versions 25.04, 24.10 and 23.10) I have the same problem: the installation is interrupted before I can even select the disk on which to install Truenas
As shown in the attached image:


The problem persists when connecting only the installation USB key (without an Ethernet cable and other USB devices) and with other monitors.
I tried to create a bootable USB drive using both Rufus and Ventoy: same issue.
Installing other Linux distributions works, I tried Ubuntu and FreeBSD. I was also able to run CPU stress tests on these installations, which did not cause any problems.

So I decided to try installing Truenas on the NVMe SSD from another PC, then I put the SSD back into the NAS, which was able to start up normally.

The system seems to work when subjected to a low load, it could stay on for 20 hours.
However, the system stops responding rather randomly between a few minutes and two hours when subjected to a medium/heavy workload (during file transfers to the NAS or when synchronizing pictures from my phone using Immich). I am forced to shut it down using the power button because I can't access the TrueNas admin panel and the display connected to the board with an HDMI cable says "no signal" when the system becomes unresponsive.

I didn't find any suspicous TrueNas log when it crashes.

The CPU temperature don't exceed 70°C when under 100% load.
I tried reinstalling TrueNas.
I tried running memtest86+ 7.20, it detected no RAM error through all 3 passes.
I tried all 3 ethernet ports on the board, but I still have the same issue.
The only change I made into the bios was enabling Wake on lan.

Here is my full setup:
- CW-AT-10G-8P with stock bios
- PSU: be quiet! SFX Power 3 450W (same issue with the Be quiet! TFX Power 3 300w)
- RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance SODIMM DDR5 RAM 16Go 4800MHz
- Two 16TB Seagate ironwolf pro hard drives
- TrueNas 25.10.0 installed on Kingston NV3 NVMe
- There is no display connected to the board when the system becomes unresponsive
- Jonsbo n2 case
- One ethernet cable wired into the 2.5gb port (also tried the 10gbe port)
- No device connected to the board through usb ports

Here is a picture of the setup:


Has anyone else had similar problems or have any ideas about what to do?

Edit 1: I managed to go through the whole truenas installation successfully directly on the NAS (without putting the nvme SSD in another pc) by disabling "C states" in the bios. But Truenas ended up crashing as before a few minutes after starting up:


Edit 2: I fixed all my problems by changing the ram, I am now using Crucial CT32G48C40S5

 

[KevinR]

I bought the board without a heat sink and, seeing that the copper board didn't dissipate anything, I adopted an “overkill” solution.

I have configured the ventilation curves so that at idle or low load it is completely passive.

Ahh yeah, the copper slug is just to adapt the surface mount cpu to the standard footprint. It also stops the normal cooler from crushing the chip.

You really went big with that cooler though it is really good at missing the capacitors which some lower profile coolers clash with. At the other extreme I've read of the stock intel cooler working adequately.

 

[jerryman]

Hello everyone - thanks for the fascinating read. I do kinda wish I'd trawled this thread before I ordered though. I'm sitting here with a N355 Purple CW-NAS-ADLN-K that refuses to post with the Integral 32Gb DDR5 48000 RAM that I ordered. (brand new msi A550BN 24+4pins connected - tried HDMI and/or DP, with/without the 2Tb Crucial P310 NVME in M.2)
Gonna see if I can get a cheap stick of Hynix 8Gb to test before I totally blame the Integral.
Shame - I was looking forward to seeing what this thing was capable of.

 

[HaoSs]

how long did you wait? first post took ages for me also.

Also side not for coolers, I upgraded my stock intel to a ID-Cooling SE-802-SD V3, fits perfectly, I suspect any cooler with this mount sistem will clear capacitors just fine

 

[jerryman]

had it running for 20mins before I finally gave up. reset cmos, tried again .. another 15mins and still nothing.

<update> boots fine with the 8Gb SK-Hynix that just turned up. So - either the Integral RAM was dao or - it is a very picky board!
Will attempt firmware update and one more try before I return the RAM for some Crucial or Samsung (or whatever else is recommended/confirmed working).

 

[HaoSs]

others did report problems with some ram venders, search the older posts, I use a 32G Crucial stick, no problem

 

[grantland]

Sharing my experience in case anyone else runs into similar issues. My system has the following components:

N305 Purple CW-NAS-ADLN-K (BIOS is CWWK 5.27 CW-NAS-ADLN-K V10 06/12/2024)
Crucial 32GB DDR5 RAM, 4800MHz CL40 Laptop Memory

I have unRAID installed on a USB drive and had been experiencing frequent system hangs. To diagnose and fix the issue, I tried the following with no avail:

1. Running MemTest86 on the current RAM and new sticks of RAM, all with single failures in later iterations (5th, 10th, etc.)
2. Migrated my cache from BTRFS to ZFS

I considered updating the BIOS but couldn't figure out which version was supported/latest and CWWK themselves recommended against updating it. FWIW these were the potential BIOS files I found:

• CW-NAS-ADLN-KV10_BootSATA_20240624.iso
• CW-NAS-ADLN-KV10_noBootSATA_20240624.iso
• CW-NAS-ADLN-K(2025-04-15).iso
• 紫色-N355-CW-NAS-ADLN-K-20250425.iso

What finally helped was down-clocking my RAM to 4600MHz which I had seen mentioned in this forum and have been running a full month without any system hangs. Super weird since I've also seen folks mention that Crucial 32GB is favored for this board.