CWWK i5-1235U 6 port i226 report
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Hello everyone, can you confirm that the USB-C port is exclusively a video output and does not provide any kind of power supply? I have tested it with various storage peripherals/smartphones/etc., and nothing is recognized or powered. I tried both on Windows and Ubuntu Live. Thank you
It also works as usb 3 port, I have no problems with connecting external nvme drive through it
Thank you for the feedback @DougQuaid .
In my case, it seems the issue is related to the power supply of the USB-C port: if I connect an externally powered device, it works. I’ll perform further checks to determine whether it’s a hardware issue (e.g., a defective power circuit in the port) or a software issue (perhaps some USB port settings in the BIOS?).
In the meantime, an update for those who might be interested: I’ve personally installed 64GB of DDR4 3200MHz RAM, a 1TB WD NVMe SSD, and Intel BE200 Wi-Fi with the corresponding antennas, and everything is working perfectly. With all these components installed, I was still able to fit an 80x80x15mm PWM fan without any issues, which is undoubtedly better than the 10mm ones that practically generate no noticeable airflow for cooling.
That said, even with this setup (i5-1235u), temperatures rise under heavy loads (especially on the NVMe SSD), so I’ll likely install an additional external fan over the heatsink.
In my case, it seems the issue is related to the power supply of the USB-C port: if I connect an externally powered device, it works. I’ll perform further checks to determine whether it’s a hardware issue (e.g., a defective power circuit in the port) or a software issue (perhaps some USB port settings in the BIOS?).
In the meantime, an update for those who might be interested: I’ve personally installed 64GB of DDR4 3200MHz RAM, a 1TB WD NVMe SSD, and Intel BE200 Wi-Fi with the corresponding antennas, and everything is working perfectly. With all these components installed, I was still able to fit an 80x80x15mm PWM fan without any issues, which is undoubtedly better than the 10mm ones that practically generate no noticeable airflow for cooling.
That said, even with this setup (i5-1235u), temperatures rise under heavy loads (especially on the NVMe SSD), so I’ll likely install an additional external fan over the heatsink.
Hey guys!
I just picked up one of these units and to my surprise, it had a vasty revised motherboard. The changes are really good if anyone is looking to finally buy one now too, or to buy another.
I put up a review on amz that I'll include below that summeries the changes. Short story: DDR5, Gen4x4+Gen3x4 NVMe, and 40Gbps TB4/USB with DP-Alt
SATA ports aren't proprietary anymore either. Data is standard 7-pin, but power has to be adapted from a 4-pin JST.
There's an additional 4-pin 5V/12V JST alongside the two for SATA which can supposedly be used to power a breakout board that will split the Gen3x4 M.2 into four Gen3x1 M.2. If I order another unit, I'll hit up support about getting one sent with my order to play around with.
Feedback on the review or questions about the unit are welcome :^)
I just picked up one of these units and to my surprise, it had a vasty revised motherboard. The changes are really good if anyone is looking to finally buy one now too, or to buy another.
I put up a review on amz that I'll include below that summeries the changes. Short story: DDR5, Gen4x4+Gen3x4 NVMe, and 40Gbps TB4/USB with DP-Alt
SATA ports aren't proprietary anymore either. Data is standard 7-pin, but power has to be adapted from a 4-pin JST.
There's an additional 4-pin 5V/12V JST alongside the two for SATA which can supposedly be used to power a breakout board that will split the Gen3x4 M.2 into four Gen3x1 M.2. If I order another unit, I'll hit up support about getting one sent with my order to play around with.
Feedback on the review or questions about the unit are welcome :^)
Some quick and dirty testing shows about 12-15W idle for a default install of both Mint 22 and Ubuntu Server 24.04. That's with two DIMMs, one NVMe, and a basically default BIOS config
That's an interesting set of changes. Delving through the old specs that are still the only thing posted it seems like the 1235u/8505 series of 6 port boards were a very simple reworking of the previous J6312 series.
They might have added something but the basic architecture seems identical. However the 1235u has far more pcie lanes available (20 vs 8 I think), and it seems the new board revision has set out to use more of them.
畅网CW 官方 8505 HWP BIOS
CW-AL-6L-(8505-1215U-1265U-1220P-1240P-1260P-U300-1315U-1335U系列出厂）.2023.12.24_3.iso
CW-AL-6L-(8505-1215U-1265U-1220P-1240P-1260P-U300-1315U-1335U系列出厂）.2023.12.24_3.iso
This website seems to be locked now, previously I was able to check this folders especially the BIOS one.
I bought a Mini PC to use as a home router and the PC has CW-MBX-AD12 board in it (the BIOS Main page says it). It also has a mark on DRAM slots, stating CW-MBX-AD13.5 (not sure what it means) The board has i5 1335U installed.
So I found a BIOS update on their website which was seemed to be for this one:
pan.x86pi.cn
After installation, HDMI port stopped working. Then, I’ve got inconsistent number of network devices (6 ethernet ports) being listed in the BIOS screen. It ever changes when I insert a USB disk at the front, the number of network devices change.
I’ve also installed the BIOS that was mentioned in the earlier comments, but it didn’t change the situation.
Has anybody tried this BIOS on CW-MBX-AD12? If so, how was your experience?
So I found a BIOS update on their website which was seemed to be for this one:
畅网官方网盘
pan.x86pi.cn
After installation, HDMI port stopped working. Then, I’ve got inconsistent number of network devices (6 ethernet ports) being listed in the BIOS screen. It ever changes when I insert a USB disk at the front, the number of network devices change.
I’ve also installed the BIOS that was mentioned in the earlier comments, but it didn’t change the situation.
Has anybody tried this BIOS on CW-MBX-AD12? If so, how was your experience?
Hi, i have a CW-MBX-AD12 board with i5-1315 and DDR5(!) Ram, on the PCB is written "Rev2", but on the ram-slot is a small label that tells: CW-MBX-AD12-3#B. The board was bricked by the owner just with doing some bios-settings, and clear-bios etc etc dont work. I have tried some bios files from the Website and other forums, but it dont really boots up. Does someone knows if there is a working bio?
Hey Guys,
i recently bought from Ali the CWWK Firewall 2.5G Server i5-1235u 6port Lan.
Looks like it's a slightly newer revision as the one from 2023 as mine has DDR5 Ram.
From what i've seen the following revision is noted:
Motherboard Backside: CW-MBX-AD12-5
Label RAM: CW-MBX-AD 12-5#B
Mainboard Frontside: MBX-AD12 Rev 2.0
Is the modified Bios of FTA compatible with this Revision ?
With the stock bios and without cooler the power draw in idle is almost 23Watt with 2x Ram and 2x Nvme. And also mine didn't came with a fan so im hitting 70° to 81° easily under average load. Therefore i wanted to try to modified Bios in order to reduce the clocks, improve temps and power consumtion but i do not want to brick the device.
Hast anyone tested the modified bios with this revision ?
br
Schubdog
i recently bought from Ali the CWWK Firewall 2.5G Server i5-1235u 6port Lan.
Looks like it's a slightly newer revision as the one from 2023 as mine has DDR5 Ram.
From what i've seen the following revision is noted:
Motherboard Backside: CW-MBX-AD12-5
Label RAM: CW-MBX-AD 12-5#B
Mainboard Frontside: MBX-AD12 Rev 2.0
Is the modified Bios of FTA compatible with this Revision ?
With the stock bios and without cooler the power draw in idle is almost 23Watt with 2x Ram and 2x Nvme. And also mine didn't came with a fan so im hitting 70° to 81° easily under average load. Therefore i wanted to try to modified Bios in order to reduce the clocks, improve temps and power consumtion but i do not want to brick the device.
Hast anyone tested the modified bios with this revision ?
br
Schubdog
That is a huge power draw and an indicator things are not right with these Chinese network boxes. I've tried modifying the BIOS of a similar CWWK (using an N100) to expose ASPM settings, this saved about 2 watts (came down to about 8.5 watt at idle) although introduced an instability with the Ethernet ports which didn't seem to like the ASPM power saving been enabled, which is probably why they were not exposed by default in the BIOS.
As a comparison, an older 6 port box of a similar style with a much older and less power efficient i7 6500U, not sure who made the motherboard, is cold to the touch except for the warmest days with the CPU showing 25 degrees at the moment as it idles at around 4.4 watts. It had all the necessary settings in the BIOS exposed to turn on power management and took me a few minutes to do some years ago and its been rock solid ever since. I only wanted to upgrade to a new box to get 2.5G ports, but it doesn't seem right or reliable that these boxes burn through so much power when they simply shouldn't.
It seems rare to find an N100/300 series mini PC or motherboard that does well at idle power. The Chinese are the only ones pushing them out at sane prices, but they lack the R&D to get them exactly right. It might be hardware, or weak bios engineering, but it is what we lose for the features/price/performance. The few branded alternatives do better (probably) but but we are lucky to get one lan and a couple of sata.
I'm not sure how the i5 and ryzen boards compare.
An extra 20w 24/365 is about £44 per year at UK price cap. So if we guessed a three year lifespan then an N100 needs to be £132 cheaper of the alternative will idle 20w lower. If neither is ever above idle.
I'm not sure how the i5 and ryzen boards compare.
An extra 20w 24/365 is about £44 per year at UK price cap. So if we guessed a three year lifespan then an N100 needs to be £132 cheaper of the alternative will idle 20w lower. If neither is ever above idle.
I get what you are saying, however it isn't just the idle power consumption, it consumes considerably more when it does anything. For example my older i7 6500U runs at about 8 watts in pfSense pushing 1Gig from WAN to LAN, but the N100 box is at 15 watts sometimes peaking at 20 watts pushing 1Gig, which makes no sense, it should be less. So overall, the power consumption is much higher. It isn't just the actual cost of the power, its the electronics constantly baking at higher temperatures, a hotter and stressed PSU, and more issues in hot weather with cooling these things downs where they bake even hotter, it isn't good for the longevity of the electronics.
They can do it, the i7 6500U box is from China and idles sipping about 4 watts.
I actually have a Chinese miniPC with N100 and I was able to reduce idle power usage to 1.5W, but there are several limitations and constrains that must be adhered.
ASPM must be enabled in bios for all PCI-E root ports
package C-states must be enabled in bios
no SATA device must be connected, only NVME drive (also this heavily depends on the NVME drive that should correctly support ASPM and have very low idle power consumption)
no USB device must be connected, I'm using bluetooth keyboard/mouse combo
no lan cable must be connected, box is connected through WiFi
display must be disconnected or in sleep mode
if everything is fulfilled, then the cpu package goes to C10 state, while still accepting remote ssh connections and everything working
Unfortunately, there is some bug in the bios or something and after cca 30 minutes the package C-state start switching between C10 and C8 rapidly and increases the power consumption to 4W, happens both in windows and linux. Limiting the C-state to C8 in bios helps and in stable C8, the idle power consumption is 2W.
just connecting some USB device or LAN cable limits the package C-state to C6 and increases the power consumption to 5-6W
ASPM must be enabled in bios for all PCI-E root ports
package C-states must be enabled in bios
no SATA device must be connected, only NVME drive (also this heavily depends on the NVME drive that should correctly support ASPM and have very low idle power consumption)
no USB device must be connected, I'm using bluetooth keyboard/mouse combo
no lan cable must be connected, box is connected through WiFi
display must be disconnected or in sleep mode
if everything is fulfilled, then the cpu package goes to C10 state, while still accepting remote ssh connections and everything working
Unfortunately, there is some bug in the bios or something and after cca 30 minutes the package C-state start switching between C10 and C8 rapidly and increases the power consumption to 4W, happens both in windows and linux. Limiting the C-state to C8 in bios helps and in stable C8, the idle power consumption is 2W.
just connecting some USB device or LAN cable limits the package C-state to C6 and increases the power consumption to 5-6W
Interesting. This fits with the info linked elsewhere recently - that the later generation Intel package struggles to support hot plug, or even device triggered wakeup. Most of the package has to be fully powered to stay awake for external events. The opposite of what we'd all want. The example I read even included CPUs with an external chipset. Chipset connections worked as expected but the CPU ones were power hungry.