CWWK/Topton/... Nxxx quad NIC router

[Stovar]

a temporary bench waiting to design and 3d print a stand/enclosure.



View attachment 36733

Looking good, just curious are there stand off/3d print to allow these mini pc boards to be outside of the case and standing upright?

I am trying to do another type of mod with a mini pc with one of those noisy laptop blower fans so need to remove the mini pc mobo and have it standing up its almost like I need some screws/sticks of stand offs to wedge inbetween where the mobo 4 holes are or just use the last 2.

Need to come up with some sort of diy/mod or stand off for that I think.

 

[Stovar]

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!

View attachment 36779

Nice job done a similar mod and the noctuas have some of the nicely flows with the least motor whine and noise at least.

But that topton fan adaptor is $30 is very overpriced, contact cwwk via live chat on aliexpress or email the store, cwwk sell similar ones for £10 for 2 of them delivered. There not as neat but have the advantage you can re-pin the leads (red,black,blue,yellow) using a pin or laptop screwdriver flathead and re-pinning it for your fan order since Cwwk and other mini pcs will have different wiring set up.

 

[Stovar]

I have the N305-6L and measured the pinouts here 2-pages back. They are standard PWM 4-pin pinout. Should work with any 12v fan.

If bought from CWWK it should have included an an Micro JST 1.25 to DuPont PWM adapter.

Mine was wired incorrectly (red/blue wires were reversed). Correct order is BLK(gnd)-RED(12v)-YELLOW(tach)-BLUE(pwm)

Lucky I checked. If yours is also the wrong order swap it around like in this video.

My two cents for the CWWK i3-N305 version.
I've tried CT24G56C46S5 24GB @4800MTs module and works fine after +48h of memtest on the N305 v2.

Now I'm trying at 5600MTs (16,8GB/s aparently) and see how it works.

About the FAN.
The PWM cable came with a weird configuration and fan didn't work. I had to check out everty signal because connecting a fan reseted the device. The reason is how the dongle is cabled (dongle on the right, signal on the left!), which is wrong!
View attachment 36341

The proper order should be, from top to bottom:
1 GND (dongle black)
2 12V (dongle red)
3 TACHO (dongle yellow)
4 PWM (dongle blue)
you can repin the connector as needed with needle or similar. Check out if you have the same problem.

BTW I'm trying to find the IOMMU options to separate the groups to passthrough two NICs do you know where are those options in the bios menu?
Aparently after updating grub and setting it up my IOMMU grups appeared correclty, first all hadrware appeared as being at same group (-1).

thanks to these great post, I did ask a few weeks ago regarding how to get that cable and name it was not easy to find this 4 pin micro adaptor at all though, ended up getting a wrong one which was a mini 4 pin but labelled micro they look very similar in the picture but the micro one is much smaller.

Even searching on ali or amazon for "Micro 4-Pin" OR "4 pin jst 1.25" threw up different adaptors not like the one pre-made from cwwk.

Ended up talking to cwwk and they sell them for $10, its called an Fan temperature control cable same one as this picture here:




When I attached my noctuas or any several fans none of them worked, so rather then scratching my head for any longer I just looked at the original noisy evil little fan that came with my mini pc and you can re-pin the wires to match the same orientation as the existing fan.

Here is an example:



So for GMKtek mini pcs there 4 pin micro fans are in this order: Red, blue, black, yellow so I just re-wired my cwwk fan adaptor in the same exact order to make it work, now all my fans spin up and I can try to mod this mini PC to get rid of that terrible noisy fan.

 

[Rics]

Hi all, great forum...

I'm looking to buy one of those fanless N100 2-NIC computers mostly for Nextcloud server and maybe will try using it on other things like pi-hole and jellyfish. Planning to attach a big 3.5 HDD via SATA (or could do USB too).

I see three options on the cwwk site:

CWWK Magic Computer N100 small host PCIe x8 slot 4NVme supports expansion of 2x10G network card DIY players’ new favorite 3D printing

Features 1.Based on intel 8/10th generation Core 4-core 8-thread TDP15W low-power platfiorm 2.Supports 2 Intel 82599ES dual 10G optical port expansion cards 3. Supports 4 Intel® I226-V expansion cards 4.Supports 6 SATA3.0 interfaces (ASM1064 adapter chip) 5.Support SO-DDR5 4800/5200/5600mhz...

cwwk.net

CWWK X86 P5 Super Mini Router Twelfth generation Intel N100 DDR5 4800MHz Firewall PC 2x i226-V 2.5G LAN Send two SATA cables

Parameters/Model Model: CW-X86-P5(N100)/CW-X86-P5(i3-N305) CPU: Intel N100/Intel i3-N305 Main frequency: 6M Cache, Up to 3.40GHz Cores: 4 (Threads: 4) Network card: Intel* i226-V Memory: SO-DIMM DDR5 Storage: M.2 NVMe 2242/2280 Graphics card: Intel UHD Graphics 24EU Display: HDMI2.0 4K @60Hz...

cwwk.net

X86 P5 Development Board Super Mini Router 12th Generation Intel N100 N200 i3-N305 DDR5 4800MHz Firewall PC 2x i226-V 2.5G LAN Send Two SATA Cables

Parameters/Model Model: CW-X86-P5(N100)/CW-X86-P5(i3-N305) CPU: Intel N100/Intel i3-N305 Main frequency: 6M Cache, Up to 3.40GHz Cores: 4 (Threads: 4) Network card: Intel* i226-V Memory: SO-DIMM DDR5 Storage: M.2 NVMe 2242/2280 Graphics card: Intel UHD Graphics 24EU Display: HDMI2.0 4K @60Hz...

cwwk.net

They seem to have the same specs but very different casings.

Could anyone shine some light on the pro/cons among these options?

Thank you!

 

[pigr8]

Looking good, just curious are there stand off/3d print to allow these mini pc boards to be outside of the case and standing upright?

I am trying to do another type of mod with a mini pc with one of those noisy laptop blower fans so need to remove the mini pc mobo and have it standing up its almost like I need some screws/sticks of stand offs to wedge inbetween where the mobo 4 holes are or just use the last 2.

Need to come up with some sort of diy/mod or stand off for that I think.

No those standoff are provided by cwwk with the board when ordered with the nvme expansion, it's supposed to be mounted upside down with the fan you see on the bottom pushing air up.

I'm still testing nvme drives (i will install 5) to see how the temps are and then think on how to enclose everything in a clean way.. for now the 2 nvme that i have installed are passively cooled but they stay really cool (the 4Tb is at 37° in use, the 500Gb at 31°), probably because they are Gen4 downgraded to Gen3 so not really pushing the limits.

 

[Stovar]

No those standoff are provided by cwwk with the board when ordered with the nvme expansion, it's supposed to be mounted upside down with the fan you see on the bottom pushing air up.

I'm still testing nvme drives (i will install 5) to see how the temps are and then think on how to enclose everything in a clean way.. for now the 2 nvme that i have installed are passively cooled but they stay really cool (the 4Tb is at 37° in use, the 500Gb at 31°), probably because they are Gen4 downgraded to Gen3 so not really pushing the limits.

No those standoff are provided by cwwk with the board when ordered with the nvme expansion, it's supposed to be mounted upside down with the fan you see on the bottom pushing air up.

I'm still testing nvme drives (i will install 5) to see how the temps are and then think on how to enclose everything in a clean way.. for now the 2 nvme that i have installed are passively cooled but they stay really cool (the 4Tb is at 37° in use, the 500Gb at 31°), probably because they are Gen4 downgraded to Gen3 so not really pushing the limits.

Yup spotted that x86 P5 development boards



Would like to have something separate like but don't think cwwk sell them on its own but will ask just in case, could do some modding.

That is a decent temp for a 4tb with 37c, I put my 4tb gen3 reds in an JEYI Heat Sink 7mm Ultra-thin M2 heatsink which is nice and thin and double sided with a noctua silent 120mm fan on top for now, both are roughly 33c in use but we have some summer heat coming this end main thing is its much better then seeing the 47c I saw earlier.

 

[Becks0815]

Maybe someone has time for testing and can confirm what I have found:

I failed to run Opnsense on the N100 as VM, with NICs set to pass through, and hardware offload functions turned on on Opnsense. I got error logged in Opnsense, and my network became unstable, including timeouts on MS Teams, leading to disconnects during calls. Switched to virtual drivers, and the errors disappeared.

Now I moved Opnsense to a VM on an I3-12100 and replaced the I226 NICs with a dual port Supermicro card. 1Gbit only, but enterprise level gear. Passthrough and hardware load off is working without errors, disconnects or problems until now.

And to my surprise, I get a higher transfer speed, which is only noticeable when running many concurrent connections. I spotted it when looking up the network monitor of my main machine, while Backblaze was pushing data, using 100 data streams at the same time. With the N100 I got 42MB/sec max with big files, and hit that limit all the time. With the i3 I can max out my network and push data to Backblaze at 100MB/sec.

So there might be something to look at if you use a higher speed internet connection and push data with more than one/some data streams at the same time.

 

[gerardlu]

Hello

I am interested in buying a fanless CWWK/Topton N100 Mini PC for running Home Assistant and Frigate with 6 cameras. I have narrowed it down to the following choices:

1. Motherboard

• Features: N100, USB3.0; NIC2.5
• Key Aspect: 1 PCIe Gen 3.0 x4 slot for high-speed read/write (4 Gb/s)

2. Case/Housing Choice/Seller

I will go with Type C despite the higher cost, as it is widely known for superior cooling. I excluded Type A,B due to its inferior cooling performance.

• Topton Type C: €155 shipping, VAT included
• CWWK Type C: €185 shipping VAT included
  • Query: I will go with CWWK despite the higher cost, as it is a better seller. Is the 1xM.2 2230 to 2280 PCB adapter board included in the price? CWWK didn’t answer my question about it. (Update 25/06/2024: Yes it is included)

3. NVMe Disk

• Maximum Bandwidth of PCIe Gen 3.0 x4: 4 Gb/s
• Options:
  • Samsung 980 PRO 1TB: R/W speeds of 7.0/5.0 Gb/s
  • SK Hynix Gold P31 1TB: R/W speeds of 3.5/3.2 Gb/s
  • Consideration: The Hynix is known to run cooler but slightly below the PCIe 3.0 x4 specs (3.5/3.2 Gb/s vs 4 Gb/s). Will I notice a speed difference compared to the Samsung 980 PRO, which might run hotter?

4. RAM

• Best Choice: Crucial RAM 16GB DDR5 4800MHz (CT16G48C40S5)

5. Small Accessories

• Shims: 20x20x0.3/0.5
• Thermal Paste: Arctic MX6
• Heatsinks: For NVMe SSD and RAM
  • Query: In a fanless case, do these heatsinks significantly impact temperature?

Would appreciate any feedback or suggestions on these choices.



Kind Regards

Top of Form

 

[thepsyborg]

The Hynix is also one of the most power-efficient SSDs in existence, which for a Frigate+cameras setup (that will run 24/7 and spend a substantial amount of that time doing disk I/O) is worth considering. I would be surprised if you noticed a speed difference, but even if you did I would still probably call it worth.

 

[TheKareem]

Fixed, now the expansion board works.

It was indeed a bios problem, i talked with cwwk support and explained what was up, they sent me a bios revision 20240515 (stock came with 20231110), and now disk installed into any slot of the board are detected in bios and in proxmox. Here the main difference in the two bios:

STOCK 20231110, marked as F1 CW-ADLNTB-1C2L

View attachment 36908

View attachment 36909

NEW BIOS 20240515, marked as F3 CW-ADLNTBX-1C2L

View attachment 36910

View attachment 36911

This is the only difference that i can see for now, port 2-3-4 are not shadowed anymore. In the Advanced Options is not needed to switch to M.2 to CEMx4.

Another minor difference is the boot spash logo that is not AMI anymore but sais CWWK.

Here the link provided by CWWK with the new bios X86-P5 最新4*m.2 bios.iso

i recieved my board today and only the first ssd showed up. I updated the bios as you wrote, the ports are still shadowed.... i have a V3 board.
i also tried the bios file direct from the cwwk bios site, no luck

any suggestion?

 

[buz]

Somehow my CWWK n305 only outputs a signal on HDMI, with DP to HDMI nothing seems to happen (Dell screen just goes to standby).

Bad DP to HDMI adapter or do I need to change something in BIOS?

 

[splifingate]

Somehow my CWWK n305 only outputs a signal on HDMI, with DP to HDMI nothing seems to happen (Dell screen just goes to standby).

Bad DP to HDMI adapter or do I need to change something in BIOS?

You just need to try a few variations until you get Screen.

I normally have three Dell P2715Q's on the Desk, and it took a few ports/tries to get things right.

I find this to be a common theme.

exempli gratia (e.g.):

I could only get my CW-AL-4L to Screen via HDMI during my initial initialization.

Aditionally . . . I've been in the process of Frankenstein'ing the bastrd child of a union between an Optiplex 7010, and a c.'16 Inspiron Desktop.

Each to their own, but the Optiplex gave me the most trouble . . . only when connected to one, specific 1080P Dell LCD (one of which I had, here (the details of which escape me, now)) via HDMI could I get Screen *shrug*

Just keep trying!

 

[buz]

I have two Dell S2722qc on my desk, tried both HDMI inputs to DisplayPort on the CWWK, did not work. So I guess another DP adapter is the next step...

 

[pigr8]

i recieved my board today and only the first ssd showed up. I updated the bios as you wrote, the ports are still shadowed.... i have a V3 board.
i also tried the bios file direct from the cwwk bios site, no luck

any suggestion?

uhm that is wierd, with the F3 bios i did nothing except flash it, config was reset to default after flash so everything came up as per screen.. did you check that you are on the correct revision? F3 5/15/2024?

 

[Octopuss]

So if I understand it correctly, CWWK doesn't bother with BIOS updates on their weird ass website, but they will send you the files if they have something newer for your particular unit?

 

[Stovar]

Somehow my CWWK n305 only outputs a signal on HDMI, with DP to HDMI nothing seems to happen (Dell screen just goes to standby).

Bad DP to HDMI adapter or do I need to change something in BIOS?

Sometimes those dp to hdmi leads don't work, I have one that has never worked it has a blue tip colour both ends. Had to get a dp to hdmi separate dongle and then that one worked ok.

Sometimes its worth also reducing resolution and refresh rate and see if that kicks in a display, it it does then you know its gpu bandwidth issue or just weak or too long of a cable.

 

[pigr8]

So if I understand it correctly, CWWK doesn't bother with BIOS updates on their weird ass website, but they will send you the files if they have something newer for your particular unit?

they will always send you the latest one available, and if you have specific problem they will look into it and try to fix it and give you the new bios (also beta versions if you ask).

 

[buz]

Alright getting another cable to try...

 

[DerFred]

Someone with expereince on potentially bricked CWWK boards? When started the board comes up with a blank screen and "3 consecutive beeps + pause" in a loop .... aaaargh

The Background: After following this thread and gettting excitet here, about a new family-homeserver here, I've ordered the following board from CWWK including the 4x NVME Adapter: X86 P5 development board 4*M2 NVMe expansion board 12th generation Intel N100 i3-N305 DDR5 4800MHz firewall PC 2x i226-V 2.5G network card

Because it had a BIOS version from early this year I decided to go for the latest version that CWWK has linked on their webpage which their support also mentioned to me ("CW-AL-2L_V2-V3(X86 N100-N200-I3-N305_V2-V3 4M.2)2024.05.15.iso").

Any ideas if I might be able to fix this myself? Obviously also asked CWWK for help, but keen on the community expereince regarding such an issue ...

 

[randycat]

Someone with expereince on potentially bricked CWWK boards? When started the board comes up with a blank screen and "3 consecutive beeps + pause" in a loop .... aaaargh

The Background: After following this thread and gettting excitet here, about a new family-homeserver here, I've ordered the following board from CWWK including the 4x NVME Adapter: X86 P5 development board 4*M2 NVMe expansion board 12th generation Intel N100 i3-N305 DDR5 4800MHz firewall PC 2x i226-V 2.5G network card

Because it had a BIOS version from early this year I decided to go for the latest version that CWWK has linked on their webpage which their support also mentioned to me ("CW-AL-2L_V2-V3(X86 N100-N200-I3-N305_V2-V3 4M.2)2024.05.15.iso").

Any ideas if I might be able to fix this myself? Obviously also asked CWWK for help, but keen on the community expereince regarding such an issue ...

jumper?

https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/cwwk-topton-n95-n100-n200-n305-quad-nic-router-5-bios-error-beeps-and-black-screen-error.40333/page-3#post-391252