CWWK/Topton/... Nxxx quad NIC router

[Ayugai Michiko]

So, my conclusion is this: The memory issues mentioned by many people here are most likely due to overheating. DDR5 runs very hot and cannot withstand constant memtest load.

As a solution, I placed a 7mm(5mm+2mm) thermal pad between the motherboard and the RAM. I have seen a similar solution in laptops from MSI, where they place thermal pads between the SSD and the motherboard. This cooled the RAM by 15-20°C (!) and works great.

Not always heat related. People here had issues with weaker power supply from Topton failing memtest.

I didn't have heat issues but installed this ram copper heatsink fins for extra cooling. Although, I think the 8010 PWM fan was enough to cool things.

Here are other extras I bought.

 

[Stereodude]

what is the problem of cwwk 305 nas moster motherboard for that idle power consumition?

look at this motherboard consumition... odroid h4 ultra

odroid-h4:hardware [ODROID Wiki]

wiki.odroid.com

Power consumption
We used our SmartPower3 (see SmartPower 3 – ODROID) to test and measure the ODROID-H4 Ultra power consumption while performing specific activities.
We used an M.2 NVMe storage device, 4K HDMI monitor, Ethernet cable and USB combo keyboard + mouse while measuring the power consumption.
Note that Headless-Idle power was measured with all peripherals removed.
The table shown below and its corresponding chart detail the power consumption we witnessed:

Activity	Power Consumption in Watt
Ubuntu Desktop Booting	15.66
Desktop Idle	5.9
Headless Idle	4.4
CPU stress	20.49
4K YouTube play on Chrome Browser	15.33
WebGL aquarium demo on Chrome Browser	16.33
WebGL + CPU Stress	21.03
Power Off	0.20
Sleep (Suspend to RAM)	1.38

They cared and spent the time to optimize their platform. My i3-1315U 6 port CWWK system uses ~6W when turned off (and it's doesn't seem to be due to the included 12V supply).

 

[MaZy]

Not always heat related. People here had issues with weaker power supply from Topton failing memtest.

Thank you for your response.

I took the temperature, and the DDR5 memory sticks get very hot. I'm concerned that someone might mistakenly blame the power supply. However, in reality, the memory is operating at borderline temperatures and only occasionally produces errors.

If it is indeed related to the power supply, then that's good. Regardless, I recommend replacing the power supplies with proven ones, such as MeanWell.

Here are other extras I bought.

Be careful with this type of SSD heatsink. Some time ago, I applied a similar heatsink to my mother's PC and forgot about it for a year or two. Upon the next PC upgrade, I noticed that the rubber bands had decomposed and the heatsink was hanging on by a thermal pad. If it had come loose, it could have fallen straight into the processor cooler, especially since it was mounted vertically on a MicroATX motherboard.

 

[MaZy]

Guys,

Has anyone tested enabling ASPM on 4xI226-V on C board? Are there any downsides?

 

[Cheburashka]

Hello everyone,

Based on this thread, I've purchased and received my CWWK N100 4-port mini-pc.

I have some DDR5 SODIMM that I installed that is 16GB in size and 5600mhz speed. I noticed when I was in the bios is that the system sees the memory at 4800mhz and not 5600mhz. The memory I believe is Crucial or Kingston Fury branded.

Although it was stated that 5600mhz is compatible, is anybody else here using 5600mhz? or will the memory clock down to 4800mhz and this is normal?

I tried to find this answer in the thread as I'm sure somebody has mentioned this already but I haven't been able to find a post about it.

 

[ToniCipriani]

Hello everyone,

Based on this thread, I've purchased and received my CWWK N100 4-port mini-pc.

I have some DDR5 SODIMM that I installed that is 16GB in size and 5600mhz speed. I noticed when I was in the bios is that the system sees the memory at 4800mhz and not 5600mhz. The memory I believe is Crucial or Kingston Fury branded.

Although it was stated that 5600mhz is compatible, is anybody else here using 5600mhz? or will the memory clock down to 4800mhz and this is normal?

I tried to find this answer in the thread as I'm sure somebody has mentioned this already but I haven't been able to find a post about it.

That's normal I think, officially N100 only supports DDR5-4800, so by "compatible" it means it'll downclock. Unless there is a BIOS for you to configure it to overclock the memory.

Intel® Processor N100 (6M Cache, up to 3.40 GHz) Product Specifications

Intel® Processor N100 (6M Cache, up to 3.40 GHz) quick reference guide including specifications, features, pricing, compatibility, design documentation, ordering codes, spec codes and more.

ark.intel.com

 

[Cheburashka]

Thank you, I figured that it would downclock to 4800. I'm not looking to overlock or push the bios in any way to generate more heat or reduce stability. I was just curious if the 5600mhz memory would operate at 5600mhz.

Oh well. Good to know.

 

[MaZy]

Thank you, I figured that it would downclock to 4800. I'm not looking to overlock or push the bios in any way to generate more heat or reduce stability. I was just curious if the 5600mhz memory would operate at 5600mhz.

Oh well. Good to know.

Be careful with overheating. I tested Kingston Fury at 4800 MHz and Crucial at 5600 MHz, both with 32GB. The Crucial produces significantly more heat, perhaps twice as much, or something to that effect.

I'm not sure if this is related to the frequency or not

 

[Becks0815]

Just in case anyone is interested in an alternative solution. I am now building a machine which should be able to combine Router and NAS into a single machine:

https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/a-mattgadient-server-router.44303/

I haven't finished yet, still playing with the hard- and software, but I now have a I3-12100 (Passmark: 13550, comparison: N100 - 5560), a motherboard with 6 SATA and 2 NVME ports, plus the possibility to use up to 5 PCI-E cards for expansion, and with a dual Intel GBit card and the onboard Realtek card activated, and 64GB RAM it draws 8 W idle under Proxmox, measured at the wall. Whoever plans to build a NAS based on a Pi4 or 5 must be crazy.

 

[pigr8]

So the CWWK x86-p5 v3 with the 4x nvme board arrived, it's really a compact and clever design.. a temporary bench waiting to design and 3d print a stand/enclosure.

I have not yet tested the daughter board but it should split the pcie x4 slot in 4x x1, i will probably test it with 4 nvme disk in a raidz5 pool in proxmox.. for now just the 2 ssd are connected to the 2 onboard sata ports.

The N305 seems really good so far, Proxmox works great and according to powertop it reaches c8/c10 state and boost up to 3.6ghz, i have to look if it goes 3.8 as specs say it should.

Splitting the iGPU into 7 vGPU works also great, in kernel 6.5 i've tested simultaneos plex hw transcoding in a ubuntu lxc and w10 vm both perfect.

 

[Becks0815]

Guys,

Has anyone tested enabling ASPM on 4xI226-V on C board? Are there any downsides?

Tried it, didn't boot. But for more details, you have to wait until next week. Then I have the dual NIC card I am waiting for, can exchange the router and start playing with the N100 box again.

From what I now know from playing with an I3-12100, L1 ASPM on NIC and other hardware parts is essential for power saving. The 12100 is able to go down to C10 on the CPU und C8 on the hardware package with the correct hardware and settings, and then it draws 7-8W, measured at the wall, with a full sized 550W PSU, 64 GB RAM, 1TB NVME and 3x NIC enabled.

If you mess up something, like not disabling ASPM on one of the NICs, the hardware package stays at C3, resulting in 15W power consumption with the same hardware combination like before.

So ASPM and C-states really matter.

 

[l3g0r]

best power saving settings for CWWK uefi?

 

[SunSh4dow]

Quick question, I could use one of these USB Type C 3.1 PD to 5.5mm Barrel Jack Cable - 12V 5A Output [1.2m long with E-Mark] : ID 5450 : Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits and for example some ugreen PD 3.1 GaN charger, right? Nothing will explode?

 

[kazh]

Hi everyone. Thanks for the great content on this thread. Want to share that I've got my Topton N100 mini-PC/router up and running with a Noctua fan to keep it nice and cool. I ran an adaptor from the CPU fan header to the Noctua which is keeping my system very cool between 28-30C

The next job is wall mounting the unit next to my ONT!

 

[tkost]

my Topton N100 mini-PC/router

Hello. Did you connect your fan on the socket on the motherboard? I see that the fan has 4pin PWM. Can you control speed of your fan with BIOS settings or Linux? Which type of motherboard in your mini-pc? I have mini-pc in the same case, but from XCY, and I cannot control speed of my fan. I just see speed of my FAN. My motherboard is MW-N100-4L

 

[kazh]

Hello. Did you connect your fan on the socket on the motherboard? I see that the fan has 4pin PWM. Can you control speed of your fan with BIOS settings or Linux? Which type of motherboard in your mini-pc? I have mini-pc in the same case, but from XCY, and I cannot control speed of my fan. I just see speed of my FAN. My motherboard is MW-N100-4L

Hi. I connected the fan to the socket on the motherboard. Yes, I can control the fan speed based on temps through the bios. I have not had to change the default settings as I am happy with the operating speed/noise/temps.

How have you connected your fan to the PC? Do you have the settings visible in the BIOS? Is the problem to do with the cable?

 

[Octopuss]

So the CWWK x86-p5 v3 with the 4x nvme board arrived, it's really a compact and clever design.. a temporary bench waiting to design and 3d print a stand/enclosure.

I have not yet tested the daughter board but it should split the pcie x4 slot in 4x x1, i will probably test it with 4 nvme disk in a raidz5 pool in proxmox.. for now just the 2 ssd are connected to the 2 onboard sata ports.

The N305 seems really good so far, Proxmox works great and according to powertop it reaches c8/c10 state and boost up to 3.6ghz, i have to look if it goes 3.8 as specs say it should.

Splitting the iGPU into 7 vGPU works also great, in kernel 6.5 i've tested simultaneos plex hw transcoding in a ubuntu lxc and w10 vm both perfect.

View attachment 36733

Wait, there is V3 of the unit already? I bought V2 a few months ago and it was relatively new (I think mostly it just didn't have the gap at the copper heatsink) as far as I could tell.

 

[Octopuss]

Btw does anyone have any contact for CWWK? Their website is not working because of a certificate problem and it's been like that for weeks, and I have no idea how to let them know.

 

[pigr8]

Wait, there is V3 of the unit already? I bought V2 a few months ago and it was relatively new (I think mostly it just didn't have the gap at the copper heatsink) as far as I could tell.

yes, i have two v3, one is my router based on n100 (full enclosure) and the other is my server/nas based on n305 (dev board case).. i previosly had a v1, dunno whats the difference between v2 and v3.

 

[pigr8]

Btw does anyone have any contact for CWWK? Their website is not working because of a certificate problem and it's been like that for weeks, and I have no idea how to let them know.

uhm it works here..