CWWK/Topton/... Nxxx quad NIC router

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GreenTechzone

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Sep 2, 2023
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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.
The one I have has an external fan already attached ..maybe the best is use a cheap USB to 9V DC-DC boost converter cable. The SSD can be attached to the base using screws (came with mine)
 

Beanhead

New Member
Jun 14, 2023
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Hey,

I Got the CWWK 4 port i3 N305 recently (the tall straight fin version). Took 9 days to arrive to the UK, so pretty good.

Installed 32GB Crucial RAM and a 1TB Crucial P3 NVME in it.

Currently running Proxmox VE with OPNsense and UniFi Network App VM's on it.

Have it standing on its side and CPU's are averaging 48-50C with the NVME averaging 53-55C, haven't done anything to it regarding thermal paste, though there does appear to be quite a gap between the CPU and heatsink.

I have a couple of questions.

1. Do you think these temps are ok? Should I bother trying to reduce the gap and repasting?
2. Other than running the "sensors" command from PVE shell, I cannot see the CPU temps from PVE GUI or OPN GUI.

I have played with the thermal sensors setting in OPN with no joy. And also tried commands such as " sysctl -a | grep temperature " from PVE and OPN shell's with no output whatsoever.

Is there a BIOS setting I am missing so that PVE or OPN can see the CPU temps?

Thanks in advance.
 

terencelzw

New Member
Aug 23, 2023
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Hey,

I Got the CWWK 4 port i3 N305 recently (the tall straight fin version). Took 9 days to arrive to the UK, so pretty good.

Installed 32GB Crucial RAM and a 1TB Crucial P3 NVME in it.

Currently running Proxmox VE with OPNsense and UniFi Network App VM's on it.

Have it standing on its side and CPU's are averaging 48-50C with the NVME averaging 53-55C, haven't done anything to it regarding thermal paste, though there does appear to be quite a gap between the CPU and heatsink.

I have a couple of questions.

1. Do you think these temps are ok? Should I bother trying to reduce the gap and repasting?
2. Other than running the "sensors" command from PVE shell, I cannot see the CPU temps from PVE GUI or OPN GUI.

I have played with the thermal sensors setting in OPN with no joy. And also tried commands such as " sysctl -a | grep temperature " from PVE and OPN shell's with no output whatsoever.

Is there a BIOS setting I am missing so that PVE or OPN can see the CPU temps?

Thanks in advance.
1. I'm using 6 port n305 and my idle without fan was averaging around 50s-60s with some services installed (opnsense, adguard, vaultwarden, omada, nginx, uptime kuma, homepage). I repasted with arctic mx-6 but temperatures didn't change much. Adding a USB fan helped though. With fan idle temps are around 35-42. I think others here have tried adding copper shims and all to close the gap, that's something I have not tried yet.

2. I don't think you can passthrough the sensors into opnsense from the host machine. But you can try referencing this reddit post (Reddit - Dive into anything) to add temps into your pve summary page which is what I have done.
 

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pigr8

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Jul 13, 2017
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to quote myself cwwk just notified me that the order has been shipped, lets see when it will show up from CN to EU.
yesterday arrived the x86-p5 from cwwk, that was fast, 14 days is really good.

gonna post some pictures and initial impressions tomorrow when i have time.
 
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wallysimmonds

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Mar 7, 2016
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Got mine very quickly - about a week I think.
For PCI-E passthrough for Proxmox/opnsense, is there anything I need to enable? VT-D/IOMMU is on, so I'm guessing there's something in the proxmox config I also need to do..
Edit: followed the STH guide but getting some errors about d3cold to d0.. will have a bit more of a play around tomorrow. Worst case I'll go baremetal as I don't really need this to be a hypervisor for hosting vms
 
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terencelzw

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Aug 23, 2023
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Beanhead

New Member
Jun 14, 2023
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Thought this was worth a shot for a fan. 140mm USB fan

MULTIFAN S4, Quiet USB Cooling Fan, 140mm - AC Infinity

Managed to get one off ebay for £14.99.

Not the highest RPM or Airflow, but I need it to be nice and quiet as it will be in my office. Figured I can just stand the fan behind the unit to push air past it and that should be enough to bring the temps down a fair amount.

Will feedback here once I have it.
 
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MBehr

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Sep 4, 2023
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For the 6L version, I suspect the 2 NVMEs are configurable. There's this jumper on my board that seemingly disables one of the slots, so it might give an extra lane to the other slot, not sure.

Also shown is the internal USB 2.0 header, which I am planning to use for the Bluetooth portion of the wireless card I am putting in, just need the pinout for it.

Asking the seller for a clarification right now.
I tried enabling the 2-3 jumper position, but it had no effect (I have both NVME slots occupied), BIOS still showed both, and PVE still booted up with both. I didn't test with only one NVME slot populated, to see whether the lane width was now x2, instead of the default x1. Another time, as it's in production now.

Still hoping to see a BIOS update to enable the various P1 P2 power settings. With a fan running, and the N305-6L on it's side, my temps are around 37ºC-39ºC - I did apply new paste when I first got the unit.
 

terencelzw

New Member
Aug 23, 2023
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I tried enabling the 2-3 jumper position, but it had no effect (I have both NVME slots occupied), BIOS still showed both, and PVE still booted up with both. I didn't test with only one NVME slot populated, to see whether the lane width was now x2, instead of the default x1. Another time, as it's in production now.

Still hoping to see a BIOS update to enable the various P1 P2 power settings. With a fan running, and the N305-6L on it's side, my temps are around 37ºC-39ºC - I did apply new paste when I first got the unit.
Yeah the BIOS for the 6L version seems pretty limited compared to the 4L models. I've tried asking the seller about a BIOS update but he mentioned none at the moment

Anw what were your temps before adding the fan? and what's your power usage like?

Mine was 50-60ºC before fan and 38-42ºC with fan. And power usage at idle generally around 12-14W.
 
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Sasse

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Aug 2, 2023
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Has somebody tried to put a thermal pad between the heatsink and CPU to close the gap? I reapplied the thermal paste (but not between the copper block and heatsink). Temps are about 54ºC in idle.

I added a fan and it dropped only couple of degrees, still 50ºC. I tried to change the fan speed in BIOS, but it does not do anything, so the fan is spinning pretty low RPM. (I installed the fan in to the fan header with the adapter)

Edit. And for reference CWWK 6-port model
 
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Rene2322

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Sep 18, 2023
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Has somebody tried to put a thermal pad between the heatsink and CPU to close the gap? I reapplied the thermal paste (but not between the copper block and heatsink). Temps are about 54ºC in idle.
So I wondered that too. If after measuring (with a feeler gauge) the opening appears to be significant. Is it wise to fill the gap with a copper shim and two-sided thermal paste or with a suitable thermal pad? The latter has fewer transition resistances.
 

AnthonyUK

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May 9, 2023
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So I wondered that too. If after measuring (with a feeler gauge) the opening appears to be significant. Is it wise to fill the gap with a copper shim and two-sided thermal paste or with a suitable thermal pad? The latter has fewer transition resistances.
Or file down the standoffs. I prefer to keep things simple with a close fit between CPU and whatever cooling solution is employed.
 
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ToniCipriani

Member
Sep 6, 2023
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Has somebody tried to put a thermal pad between the heatsink and CPU to close the gap? I reapplied the thermal paste (but not between the copper block and heatsink). Temps are about 54ºC in idle.

I added a fan and it dropped only couple of degrees, still 50ºC. I tried to change the fan speed in BIOS, but it does not do anything, so the fan is spinning pretty low RPM. (I installed the fan in to the fan header with the adapter)

Edit. And for reference CWWK 6-port model
I drilled a Noctua NF-F12 5V externally to the fins (like how old CPU coolers are mounted) and the sensors are reporting under 40C temperatures, sometimes as low as 30 if I leave my closet open. Waiting for the adapter cable so I can try to make it controlled via PWM.
 

pigr8

Member
Jul 13, 2017
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So the little fellah arrived and had time to test it a bit. It came with the psu, a 5v usb fan with dust cover, a non-standard sata cable and a fan cable. Bonus, a little screwdriver with 4 tipes of heads.

PXL_20230927_111004760.jpg

It's really compact, i like it, it's marked as CW-X86-P5-N100 (cwwk just released the n305 variant for 100$ more, unnecessary imho) and came with 8gb ddr5 made by Samsung and a 128gb pcie 3 nvme ssd branded cwwk.

PXL_20230927_151723293.jpg

In the bios the model is reported as CW-ADLNT-1C2L with bios dated 19 July, seems complete with everything needed.

Surprisingly Intel ME can be completly nuked (there is a jumper on the mainboard named "brush ME").. on first boot ME was enabled and cannot be disabled, powering off and bridging the jumper on the next reboot it clears it and sais unknow, powering off and repositioning the jumper on on the next boot it sais enabled but in can be toggled disabled, on the final reboot it sais ME disabled and stays so permanently until enabled again.
That's great! Screen below shows ME without FW.

PXL_20230927_150432536.jpg

Had really no time to play with the settings, what i did is disable everything i dont need like vt-d sata hdaudio and serial, set bios to poweron on powerloss and disabled acpi hibernation and suspend. Regarding power i only enabled PL1 and PL2 (8000/25000) and CStates, and that's it.

Installed pfSense CE baremetal without any issue and everything works, i now have to restore my config but so far seems wo be running smooth. Temp report 36°C in idle but i will remove the stock thermal paste and apply some Kryonaut that i have somewhere, the fan will be installed on the rear of the enclosure (cooling ram nvme and the board itself) instead of the top, and the unit will be wall mounted.

1695830454517.png
 

Beanhead

New Member
Jun 14, 2023
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Hadn't considered Intel ME on my i305 4 port model. Should this be something we should disable if we can?
Any drawbacks to disabling it?
 
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MBehr

New Member
Sep 4, 2023
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Yeah the BIOS for the 6L version seems pretty limited compared to the 4L models. I've tried asking the seller about a BIOS update but he mentioned none at the moment

Anw what were your temps before adding the fan? and what's your power usage like?

Mine was 50-60ºC before fan and 38-42ºC with fan. And power usage at idle generally around 12-14W.
I took mine apart when I first got it and put paste on the case and copper block and on the copper block and CPU. With out the fan I was seeing around 47ºC-51ºC - its now stabilized between 37ºC-39ºC for the various components measured:

root@pve:~# sensors
nvme-pci-0700
Adapter: PCI adapter
Composite: +37.9°C (low = -5.2°C, high = +79.8°C)
(crit = +84.8°C)

acpitz-acpi-0
Adapter: ACPI interface
temp1: +27.8°C (crit = +110.0°C)

coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Package id 0: +38.0°C (high = +105.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)
Core 0: +33.0°C (high = +105.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)
Core 1: +33.0°C (high = +105.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)
Core 2: +33.0°C (high = +105.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)
Core 3: +33.0°C (high = +105.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)
Core 4: +38.0°C (high = +105.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)
Core 5: +39.0°C (high = +105.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)
Core 6: +39.0°C (high = +105.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)
Core 7: +39.0°C (high = +105.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)

nvme-pci-0600
Adapter: PCI adapter
Composite: +36.9°C (low = -5.2°C, high = +79.8°C)
(crit = +84.8°C)

root@pve:~#
 
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