CWWK i5-1235U 6 port i226 report

[phil-2024]

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

Thanks for the info. I tried my N100 network box with Linux and that was down to 6 watt when idle and monitor off (with keyboard and mouse and a SATA drive) so similar to what you found. In FreeBSD (pfSense) I think there is some issue or incompatibility between the BIOS and FreeBSD support of hardware P-states, this means despite the CPU spending a great deal of time in C3 or even lower, it reports as low as C8, it makes absolutely no difference to power consumption with C-States on or off. I've mentioned to @fta for some info on the HWP issue in the BIOS of these types of boxes so hopefully that may get a solution.

It just annoying that an older box with 6 network ports and older less efficient CPU, with SATA drive and 3 network cables attached idles at 4 watt and runs lovely and cool, and that just happened, I didn't need to do anymore than enable C3 states in pfSense, and then newer more efficient processors from Intel can't get anywhere near that and run like a handwarmer. Not sure what Intel has done, but they seem to be going backwards, or its a problem with how these boards are designed .

 

[beisser]

guys i stumbled upon a bit of a snag here.
im not sure if that has been the case from the start, but i noticed that my processor doesnt enter any package c-states.
the cures go to c-states just fine, but the package doesnt.

the bios shows in the advanced settings as packe c state limit c0/c1 which cannot be set to anything else. due to that the cpu burns more power than necessary.

maybe one of you could have a look at their bios (or powertop) and see if the cpu package also doesnt enter any c-states.

 

[beisser]

found it. i had the newer bios on. installed the one from february and the package c-states are back on the menu

 

[JTech]

I'm from the US and considering ordering from AliExpress before the tariffs take place. Does anyone know if tariffs are imposed based on purchase date or shipped date? In my experience it takes topton a few months to ship