CWWK/Topton/... Nxxx quad NIC router

[dunoster]

Any of you running these boxes on vmware? Mine seems to show only 0.81ghz on a Windows VM and it seems pretty slow. It does not increase / move according to the load.
While some of the CPU stats on Vmware can hit above 100%
or am I not enabling something correctly on the BIOS / Vmware?

 

[devast]

or am I not enabling something correctly on the BIOS / Vmware?

Good thing about esxi is that it is well documented. Like: this.

 

[hiks]

A linux bridge in proxmox and then adding the network device to the opnsense VM.

did you work this out ? i'm having the same issue. did you try the Multiqueue setting ?

 

[TvdH]

I would buy this instead: PRIME N100I-D D4 - Tech Specs｜Motherboards｜ASUS Global

I have been looking in the N100 series from Asrock as well. This Asus one is new to me, but it seems to have only 1x M.2 NVME (2 lanes) and only a single lane PCIE slot

 

[GreenTechzone]

I have ordered the KingnovyPC 8505 version with 4x 2.5G will post here once I receive it.. My reason for chossing 8505 over the N100/N300 is that I need m.2 with x4 PCIe lanes ... the 8505 has 20 PCIe lanes vs. the 9 PCIe lanes of the N100/N300

I received the item and have installed Proxmox on it ...the motherboard PCB mentions BKHD-1744NP which is actually targeted for use as an industrial PC G31F 12Gen
The inside of the unit has the following :
dual channel DDR4 SODIMM slots (works with 16GB x 2 sticks at 3200Mhz).
1 SATA with power (cables included with unit)
1 M.2 NVMe (I think it is 4x lanes please suggest how I can check)
1 mini-PCIe (I think it is 1x lane only and I plan to convert it into a regular M.2 NVMe slot with an adapter.) After fitting the adapter it is possible to fit in a 2280 size NVMe drive but it is a tight fit against the back of the RJ45 block. I plan to use a 2280 NVMe drive that has no components in the top section that may get damaged from any bending / flexing
1 SIM slot
connector to the external fan is wierdly located
The unit shipped with a generic 12v 10A power supply brick

The BIOS seems to be quite complete with a lot of options to configure the TDP. I was able to get it to run empty Proxmox at about 11-12w at idle with barely any CPU usage.
The one thing I could not figure out was my Optane H20 1TB +32GB drive is detected only as a 1TB drive. The 32GB Optane drive is not getting detected at all in regular NVMe slot (4x PCIe)

Found more images of the mainboard here 倍控酷睿12代 8505四核15-1235U 17-1265U十核心嵌入式軟路由主板 | 露天市集

Please let me know if you want any additional infomation or have any tips on reducing the power consumption

 

[spiffinite]

Well, just looking at Amazon... it appears that the RJ36 has 4 USB-2 ports and the RJ44 has 2-USB 2 and 2 USB-3 ports... I would always get USB-3 if given the choice over USB-2.. even if only for faster program/OS installs from USB...

Yep thats why I paid extra to get the usb 3 ports with RJ44. The RJ42, RJ43 and RJ44 all seem to be identical except the chassis style. If you message HUNSN on amazon they will send you spec sheets if you ask. I believe the RJ36 is part of the older board series and they have no USB 3, no type c USB and are cheaper. The RJ44 hss a larger housing than the tall fin and y fin versions (RJ42/ Rj43 ), and I thought the extra chassis space might help with cooling and thought it looks better. The RJ44 has 2 usb-2 ports on the network port side, 2 usb 2 ports and 2 usb-3 ports on the front where the power switch is. The spec sheet says its 5 usb 2 ports and 1 usb 3 port so maybe I need to test them (2 have the blue color). The RJ44 also has a type C connection and not sure what speed it is.

HUNSN also sent me a bios hotfix for Proxmox. Something about port 4 not being able to bridge since I told them i wanted to use thatover esxi. I have flashed the fix and will be testing proxmox and opnsense in a vm, having just installed both. They seem very responsive to issues and will patch firmware to help you. Personally I think the support, 1 week shipping out of hong kong over mainland china and amazon guarantee make the small markup worth it over aliexpress. 30 days return with amazon under their policy and HUNSN told me they will do free shipping labels back for 3 months and 3 years total warranty but you would pay shipping after 3 months period back to china.

 

[Becks0815]

I have been looking in the N100 series from Asrock as well. This Asus one is new to me, but it seems to have only 1x M.2 NVME (2 lanes) and only a single lane PCIE slot

The Asrock N100M might be better. Sure, there is a speed limit due to the PCIe lane restrictions, but with two PCIe slots, you can e.g. add a SATA card and attach 4 more ssd drives and build pretty bigh NAS

 

[devast]

Topton has a new variant: link
By the looks of it, it is not made by cwwk, but another oem, probably the same as the G30W-N100. Cooling seems to be okayish on this one. If anyone does buy one, i'm interested in the bios options.

 

[cheesyandy]

I have the HUNSN N100 device ordered from amazon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BZJDNB4P?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1

Bought barebone and added 32GB crucial RAM and 2TB Crucial P3 SSD.

Like several others in this thread I have been running into overheating issues, the case does a great job of keeping the CPU cool and memtest86 runs ok. I'm assuming that problem I have is with the SDD overheating and causing the system to die, although it haven't been able to conclusively prove this. By the way if you are looking for a good stress test for SSD's I would recommend performing the initial block sync for a bitcoin node. A few hours of that on a hot day seemed to kill the system pretty reliably unless I directed an external fan at the underside of the case. I have tried a heatsink on the SSD which seemed to help a bit but din't fix the problem.

The way that the memory and SSD are mounted underneath the board seems like a design flaw to me as the heat is just trapped. I suspect that it is a design flaw that HUNSN are well aware of hence their apparent eagerness to send out free fan kits to anyone that is having overheating issues. Mine is on its way.

I was reluctant to add a fan since my main reason for buying this device was that it was fanless, but I'm hoping that I'll be able to set the fan speed very low, hopefully just having that little bit of airflow over the SSD will make all the difference. I will update when the fan arrives. By the way HUNSN support assure me that the issues with the BIOS fan control reported earlier in this thread do not apply to this particular model. It would be nice if the fan speed could be tied to the SSD temp, but I'm guessing I will have to link to the CPU temp and hope for the best.

Just in case anyone is interested, the fan arrived and I have been doing lots experimentation to try and get a quiet and stable system. This was much harder than it should have been because I couldn't find anyway to adjust fan settings without going back into the BIOS or even to view the fan speed in anywhere but the BIOS. The 'sensors' and 'fancontrol' packages dont pick up the fan. I can see cpu and nvme temps with node_exporter and grafana but it would be really useful to get fan speed too.

The fan can only be installed blowing air downwards out of the case otherwise the blades hit the case. This seems the wrong way round to me as its working against physics by trying to force hot air downwards, I found I needed the fan on near max to get a stable system. I ended up standing the case on its side which made a big difference to nvme temps and didn't seem to negatively impact the CPU temps at all. I also tried switching out the fan for this one: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00HWGZT3I?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1 , and also getting some rubber case fan mounts https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003N7YZLC?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details . I honestly can't say if the Alaska fan was any quieter, it sounded less 'rattly' than the one supplied by HUNSN, but that could have been down to the rubber fan mounts, hard to tell.

The other issue I has was the BIOS fan control seems very 'twitchy' there seems to be no damping or smoothing of fan speeds, the fan speed fluctuated wildly and constantly which is obviously more noticeable than a constant speed.

Anyway even though I didn't think the CPU temp was too bad and it looked like the copper block was making good contact, but I thought I'd try re-applying thermal compound anyway to see if I could reduce the CPU temp fluctuations which seemed quite large. I cleaned off the existing compund from both sides of the copper block and applied some Arctic MX-6 not really expecting much, but wow, what a huge difference. CPU temps went from fluctuating between 37.5C to 60C to fluctuating between 32C and 42C !

Still experimenting with the fan speed but I have now put it in manual mode at slow speed and its barely audible.

TLDR:

1) Stand the case on its side.
2) Reapply thermal paste to both sides of the copper block.

Hope this helps someone.

 

[cheesyandy]

Just in case anyone is interested, the fan arrived and I have been doing lots experimentation to try and get a quiet and stable system. This was much harder than it should have been because I couldn't find anyway to adjust fan settings without going back into the BIOS or even to view the fan speed in anywhere but the BIOS. The 'sensors' and 'fancontrol' packages dont pick up the fan. I can see cpu and nvme temps with node_exporter and grafana but it would be really useful to get fan speed too.

The fan can only be installed blowing air downwards out of the case otherwise the blades hit the case. This seems the wrong way round to me as its working against physics by trying to force hot air downwards, I found I needed the fan on near max to get a stable system. I ended up standing the case on its side which made a big difference to nvme temps and didn't seem to negatively impact the CPU temps at all. I also tried switching out the fan for this one: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00HWGZT3I?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1 , and also getting some rubber case fan mounts https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003N7YZLC?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details . I honestly can't say if the Alaska fan was any quieter, it sounded less 'rattly' than the one supplied by HUNSN, but that could have been down to the rubber fan mounts, hard to tell.

The other issue I has was the BIOS fan control seems very 'twitchy' there seems to be no damping or smoothing of fan speeds, the fan speed fluctuated wildly and constantly which is obviously more noticeable than a constant speed.

Anyway even though I didn't think the CPU temp was too bad and it looked like the copper block was making good contact, but I thought I'd try re-applying thermal compound anyway to see if I could reduce the CPU temp fluctuations which seemed quite large. I cleaned off the existing compund from both sides of the copper block and applied some Arctic MX-6 not really expecting much, but wow, what a huge difference. CPU temps went from fluctuating between 37.5C to 60C to fluctuating between 32C and 42C !

Still experimenting with the fan speed but I have now put it in manual mode at slow speed and its barely audible.

TLDR:

1) Stand the case on its side.
2) Reapply thermal paste to both sides of the copper block.

Hope this helps someone.

Forgot one other thing which also seemed to help. I removed the dust filter gauze covering the central fan exhaust holes in the case. A filter here when the fan is blowing outwards makes no sense anyway and it seemed to improve the airflow.

 

[lukasz18dg]

Hi, I'm still considering buying the Topton N100 i226-V DDR5. Does anyone have knowledge of whether and how 5G is implemented in this microcomputer?
If I understood the description correctly, do I need to purchase something additionally to insert a SIM card?

 

[ToniCipriani]

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004655914711.html?spm=a2g0o.cart.0.0.118e38dakNh1nB&mp=1

Looking at this one. It has an extra cable to feed out the USB for the Bluetooth, which coincidentally the motherboard has an internal USB header for this.

So I ended up ordering a slightly different one because it was cheaper (https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/1005005872611013.html?gatewayAdapt=glo2vnm add it to your cart and play around with the mobile app's "pick 3 for free shipping" deal, got this for like $2), but it is working very well. Plugged it in and shows right up in lspci in Proxmox. Passed it through to my OPNsense, and now I have backup WAN via my phone's hotspot.




Even the Bluetooth works, but I decided to disconnect it, mainly because I don't need it, and the pins on the internal USB header is smaller than the plug so it's not very secure, don't want to risk anything shorting out.



And in case anyone wondering, this is the pinout of the USB header on the CW-ADLN-6L:

 

[keithm]

Forgot one other thing which also seemed to help. I removed the dust filter gauze covering the central fan exhaust holes in the case. A filter here when the fan is blowing outwards makes no sense anyway and it seemed to improve the airflow.

I have the HUNSUN RJ35 with the n305. I have also found that it has lower CPU and memory temps when standing on its edge and replacing the base plate with a perforated aluminium one that has less restrictions (I see about 5 degrees lower cpu temps - it is 42 degrees idle in bare metal opnsense). The air under the dimm and NVME appears to have a better exhaust path when standing the chassis on edge and with the new bottom plate.

Keith

 

[MajorPayneDOF]

Just wanted to say i couldnt fit a shim but i changed my thermal paste to mx6 and my device dropped 11 degrees

 

[natedawg]

I received the item and have installed Proxmox on it ...the motherboard PCB mentions BKHD-1744NP which is actually targeted for use as an industrial PC G31F 12Gen
The inside of the unit has the following :
dual channel DDR4 SODIMM slots (works with 16GB x 2 sticks at 3200Mhz).
1 SATA with power (cables included with unit)
1 M.2 NVMe (I think it is 4x lanes please suggest how I can check)
1 mini-PCIe (I think it is 1x lane only and I plan to convert it into a regular M.2 NVMe slot with an adapter.) After fitting the adapter it is possible to fit in a 2280 size NVMe drive but it is a tight fit against the back of the RJ45 block. I plan to use a 2280 NVMe drive that has no components in the top section that may get damaged from any bending / flexing
1 SIM slot
connector to the external fan is wierdly located
The unit shipped with a generic 12v 10A power supply brick

The BIOS seems to be quite complete with a lot of options to configure the TDP. I was able to get it to run empty Proxmox at about 11-12w at idle with barely any CPU usage.
The one thing I could not figure out was my Optane H20 1TB +32GB drive is detected only as a 1TB drive. The 32GB Optane drive is not getting detected at all in regular NVMe slot (4x PCIe)

Found more images of the mainboard here 倍控酷睿12代 8505四核15-1235U 17-1265U十核心嵌入式軟路由主板 | 露天市集

Please let me know if you want any additional infomation or have any tips on reducing the power consumption

I ordered a very similar one from WooYi, seems to be the exact same thing.

Do you know how an external fan could be hooked up to this? I'm not seeing anywhere to power it, unless the power for the SATA drive is split somehow. I was hoping to throw a 120mm Noctua fan on it to keep it cooler.

Mine runs pretty cool right now, idles around 30C, and it didn't seem to have any gaps on the heat sinks either.

Also for the 2.5" SSD, are there brackets to mount these inside? Mine is pretty much just laying on the bottom right now.

 

[ToniCipriani]

Also for the 2.5" SSD, are there brackets to mount these inside? Mine is pretty much just laying on the bottom right now.

Use a Philips head and punch the mesh on these holes, then mount it there. You can only either mount a 2.5" drive or the fan.

 

[dimi3]

if someone is using baremetal pfsense or opnsense on n100 or n200, can you please post the output of this 2 commands;

dmesg | grep CPU
sysctl dev.cpu | grep freq

Thanks for the help.

 

[terencelzw]

Temperatures on my CWWK 6 port n305 generally hovered around 55-60 degrees celcius at idle. Decided that it was too high for my liking and got a USB fan which helped to reduced the temperatures by around 20 degrees celcius. Now my machine idles around 40 degrees celcius.

 

[Devedse]

Any of you running these boxes on vmware? Mine seems to show only 0.81ghz on a Windows VM and it seems pretty slow. It does not increase / move according to the load.
While some of the CPU stats on Vmware can hit above 100%
or am I not enabling something correctly on the BIOS / Vmware?

Same thing here, curious if you managed to find out what causes this.

 

[Devedse]

Hey all, someone else here created a stand which you can 3d print to use for the 4x nvme board. I also created another version which doesn't have to be screwed down but fits exactly in place: