CWWK/Topton/... Nxxx quad NIC router

[idle_user]

2nd update: Repasted and added a shim on another n305 box I had

Results below:




I also tried the NVMe heatsink fix (the one for 970 EVO PLUS or similar in a video posted previously), but I am not seeing any difference with the heatsinks I'm using.
It's either because the heatsink I'm using are trash or the location of the NVMes being at the bottom is the issue.

 

[AnthonyUK]

It's either because the heatsink I'm using are trash or the location of the NVMes being at the bottom is the issue.

Without airflow a heatsink will do very little. At the very least ensure the cover is removed if there is one otherwise a fan is required.

 

[Octopuss]

What thermal sensor should I choose in pfSense? ACPI or Intel Core something?

And shall I enable PowerD? Oh nevermind, it's mutually exclusive with Speed Shift.

I'm pretty confused about the CPU load though.
pfSense is hardly doing anything, and temperatures are a touch above 50°C, and the dashboard says


Why so much?....
I even set the Speed Shift slider all the way to Energy Efficiency, and it's still running at 1700-1900MHz with CPU load at 1% (or less).

 

[Octopuss]

Was anyone able to figure out where to get the latest BIOS btw? The "support" site is a chinese mess, it's indecipherable. The files in the archives are from 2022 too, so there must be other source, considering the BIOS in my V2 N100 two port unit has 11/10/2023 date.

 

[idle_user]

Without airflow a heatsink will do very little. At the very least ensure the cover is removed if there is one otherwise a fan is required.

Yep, that's probably the issue.

I have some small fans I can put under the cases. Not sure if I should put it as exhaust or intake.

 

[MinixMark]

In my BK-1264NP-4L-5G is a JST 1.25 4-pin connector (marked as SYSFAN1), compatible with standard pwm fan pinout (GND-12V-TACH-PWM)
View attachment 33837

I can confirm this works
For anyone making their own cooling fan cabling, see attached pictures.
This box had the right connectors https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B08RMQP6YP

 

[Octopuss]

What thermal sensor should I choose in pfSense? ACPI or Intel Core something?

And shall I enable PowerD? Oh nevermind, it's mutually exclusive with Speed Shift.

I'm pretty confused about the CPU load though.
pfSense is hardly doing anything, and temperatures are a touch above 50°C, and the dashboard says
View attachment 34749

Why so much?....
I even set the Speed Shift slider all the way to Energy Efficiency, and it's still running at 1700-1900MHz with CPU load at 1% (or less).

I disabled Speed Shift, enabled PowerD, and now CPU speed fluctuates between 700-800MHz, which seem just as wrong. The max speed is reported as 801MHz.
I guess the BIOS is just bugged in some way.

 

[WardenCommander]

In my BK-1264NP-4L-5G is a JST 1.25 4-pin connector (marked as SYSFAN1), compatible with standard pwm fan pinout (GND-12V-TACH-PWM)
View attachment 33837

I can confirm this works
For anyone making their own cooling fan cabling, see attached pictures.
This box had the right connectors https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B08RMQP6YP

Anyone know some existing seller on AliExpress that sells fan with this micro JST 1.25 4pin fan?

 

[Becks0815]

Anyone know some existing seller on AliExpress that sells fan with this micro JST 1.25 4pin fan?

buy an Noctua fan instead and some jst 1.25mm adapters ir plugs from ali, and solder everything together, then you have a much more solid solution.

 

[johny_mnemonic]

Yes this is something not always mentioned, these mini routers sometimes you can switch it on and get no display sometimes, had to wait a good 1-2 minutes once, but oddly afterwards it boots up fine after like 5-10 secs. This happen on both a cwwk replacement mobo and an topton N100 brand new unit.

This is not specific for these mini routers. It is DDR5 thing. These memories need a training cycle where the motherboard tries different timings and other settings to find which works best and once it is satisfied it stores this profile in the BIOS. So unless you or some event forces the re-training (i.e. failed overclock) this happens only once you insert new memory into the motherboard and following starts are fast.

 

[Octopuss]

I am already regretting buying the device a little bit.
I've just gotten a response from CWWK support in a completely broken english. They basically said there was no BIOS update. I guess we're stuck with what we got at the time of purchase.

 

[johny_mnemonic]

I'm no hardware expert but my gut tells me loading a bios for a different motherboard and cpu may not work in my favour when it comes to avoiding a brick

Where in the following sentence do you see the advice to flash a bios for different motherboard or cpu?

try it after verifying it's for your model (always verify the motherboard model vs any bios update)

Always make sure you flash only the one for your HW and if you are not lucky enough to find the modded one for your HW, you can try to mod your own.

 

[AnonymousRetard]

So I bought this unit: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100...der_detail.order_detail_item.4.2425f19cVS34L6 with 16GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage.

It came with a licensed Windows 11 Pro preinstalled. I decided to fully update it, make an image of the result and then install pfSense instead to replace my older firewall. During the Windows 11 update procedure I got a BSOD once, DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. Made me a bit worried about it not being fully stable but I ignored it, who knows could've been something wrong with the update process. After a reboot the updates proceeded normally.

Now I've been running it with pfSense 2.7.2 for a couple of days and I have gotten one more crash "general protection fault". Now I'm even more worried something isn't stable. Most likely it's the RAM I think. On initial setup the CPU temps where around 50 C in pfSense but after some tweaking with speed shift and C-states in pfSense I got it down to ~45C when idling. After the latest crash I decided to cool the heatspreader on the top of the case with an USB desk fan to see if that makes it more stable. 50C should be fine for the CPU but if the ambient temp inside is the same I guess that could be a bit too hot for the RAM...? CPU temps are now a cool 26-27 C. If it doesn't crash and reboot when cooled like this I'll probably just buy a slightly better fan for this purpose and run it like that. If not I'm not sure what I'll try next, probably I'll try running memtest86 and if it fails I might try buying another RAM stick, or try flashing the custom BIOS from this thread and see if it unlocks some setting that can help with stability... According to dmidecode the original stick is from Crucial Technology with part number CT16G48C40S5.C8A1.

Other than these two crashes so far I'm very happy with the device. Only other issues I've found is that the Zone 0 temperature reported in pfSense is incorrect, always stuck at 27.9C, but the individual CPU core temps work. The reported CPU speed in the pfSense GUI is also a bit strange: "Current: 1813 MHz, Max: 806 MHz". I don't think I've ever seen it lower than ~1700 but I'm pretty sure it does clock lower or at least I know from the console that all cores enter C1/C2/C3 states a lot which means there's no clock sometimes which is not shown in the pfSense GUI.

The device is currently used as my firewall for my 1Gbps internet connection and I run a FQ_CODEL limiter on it to ensure my latency doesn't increase when I saturate my uplink. On top of that I run Suricata in inline IPS mode and pfBlockerNG with long blocklists of IP/DNS and nothing I can do really stresses this device. My old firewall was just barely able to saturate my 1Gbps connection after a lot of tuning and tweaking without IPS and limiters. Adding either of those would drop my speed considerably, but with this device that doesn't make a difference at all.

 

[m8kbv]

So I bought this unit: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100...der_detail.order_detail_item.4.2425f19cVS34L6 with 16GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage.

It came with a licensed Windows 11 Pro preinstalled. I decided to fully update it, make an image of the result and then install pfSense instead to replace my older firewall. During the Windows 11 update procedure I got a BSOD once, DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. Made me a bit worried about it not being fully stable but I ignored it, who knows could've been something wrong with the update process. After a reboot the updates proceeded normally.

Now I've been running it with pfSense 2.7.2 for a couple of days and I have gotten one more crash "general protection fault". Now I'm even more worried something isn't stable. Most likely it's the RAM I think. On initial setup the CPU temps where around 50 C in pfSense but after some tweaking with speed shift and C-states in pfSense I got it down to ~45C when idling. After the latest crash I decided to cool the heatspreader on the top of the case with an USB desk fan to see if that makes it more stable. 50C should be fine for the CPU but if the ambient temp inside is the same I guess that could be a bit too hot for the RAM...? CPU temps are now a cool 26-27 C. If it doesn't crash and reboot when cooled like this I'll probably just buy a slightly better fan for this purpose and run it like that. If not I'm not sure what I'll try next, probably I'll try running memtest86 and if it fails I might try buying another RAM stick, or try flashing the custom BIOS from this thread and see if it unlocks some setting that can help with stability... According to dmidecode the original stick is from Crucial Technology with part number CT16G48C40S5.C8A1.

Other than these two crashes so far I'm very happy with the device. Only other issues I've found is that the Zone 0 temperature reported in pfSense is incorrect, always stuck at 27.9C, but the individual CPU core temps work. The reported CPU speed in the pfSense GUI is also a bit strange: "Current: 1813 MHz, Max: 806 MHz". I don't think I've ever seen it lower than ~1700 but I'm pretty sure it does clock lower or at least I know from the console that all cores enter C1/C2/C3 states a lot which means there's no clock sometimes which is not shown in the pfSense GUI.

The device is currently used as my firewall for my 1Gbps internet connection and I run a FQ_CODEL limiter on it to ensure my latency doesn't increase when I saturate my uplink. On top of that I run Suricata in inline IPS mode and pfBlockerNG with long blocklists of IP/DNS and nothing I can do really stresses this device. My old firewall was just barely able to saturate my 1Gbps connection after a lot of tuning and tweaking without IPS and limiters. Adding either of those would drop my speed considerably, but with this device that doesn't make a difference at all.

What speed does your fan have? Change the thermal paste between the case and the aluminum block and between the aluminum block and the CPU. I have my fan set to about 700 rpm, it sits on the case and the temperature is 40-45" when running with proxmox and in it opnsense + qnap vm.

 

[johny_mnemonic]

So I bought this unit: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100...der_detail.order_detail_item.4.2425f19cVS34L6 with 16GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage.

I have the same unit and I also had few random crashes till I noticed my SSD reported a temperature above 80°C before the crash
The trouble is this box in it's default configuration consumes around 15W idle and the case is simply unable to dissipate that heat, so CPU idle temps were above 50°C and SSD above 60°C.
As the RAM is sharing the same "oven" with the SSD you can probably bet on either of these starting to produce errors due to overheating unless you tune the unit to be way more power efficient (or till you improve cooling).

After flashing a custom modded bios and some tuning mine is running Proxmox with HA and few other VMs with consumption oscillating around 8.5W and temps around 40°C on both CPU and SSD without any additional cooling.

 

[Tzvia]

So I bought this unit: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100...der_detail.order_detail_item.4.2425f19cVS34L6 with 16GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage.

It came with a licensed Windows 11 Pro preinstalled. I decided to fully update it, make an image of the result and then install pfSense instead to replace my older firewall. During the Windows 11 update procedure I got a BSOD once, DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. Made me a bit worried about it not being fully stable but I ignored it, who knows could've been something wrong with the update process. After a reboot the updates proceeded normally.

Now I've been running it with pfSense 2.7.2 for a couple of days and I have gotten one more crash "general protection fault". Now I'm even more worried something isn't stable. Most likely it's the RAM I think. On initial setup the CPU temps where around 50 C in pfSense but after some tweaking with speed shift and C-states in pfSense I got it down to ~45C when idling. After the latest crash I decided to cool the heatspreader on the top of the case with an USB desk fan to see if that makes it more stable. 50C should be fine for the CPU but if the ambient temp inside is the same I guess that could be a bit too hot for the RAM...? CPU temps are now a cool 26-27 C. If it doesn't crash and reboot when cooled like this I'll probably just buy a slightly better fan for this purpose and run it like that. If not I'm not sure what I'll try next, probably I'll try running memtest86 and if it fails I might try buying another RAM stick, or try flashing the custom BIOS from this thread and see if it unlocks some setting that can help with stability... According to dmidecode the original stick is from Crucial Technology with part number CT16G48C40S5.C8A1.

Other than these two crashes so far I'm very happy with the device. Only other issues I've found is that the Zone 0 temperature reported in pfSense is incorrect, always stuck at 27.9C, but the individual CPU core temps work. The reported CPU speed in the pfSense GUI is also a bit strange: "Current: 1813 MHz, Max: 806 MHz". I don't think I've ever seen it lower than ~1700 but I'm pretty sure it does clock lower or at least I know from the console that all cores enter C1/C2/C3 states a lot which means there's no clock sometimes which is not shown in the pfSense GUI.

The device is currently used as my firewall for my 1Gbps internet connection and I run a FQ_CODEL limiter on it to ensure my latency doesn't increase when I saturate my uplink. On top of that I run Suricata in inline IPS mode and pfBlockerNG with long blocklists of IP/DNS and nothing I can do really stresses this device. My old firewall was just barely able to saturate my 1Gbps connection after a lot of tuning and tweaking without IPS and limiters. Adding either of those would drop my speed considerably, but with this device that doesn't make a difference at all.

I wonder if the fins on that case actually _do_ anything to dissipate heat... but if I had that model, and there were some kind of capacity to install a fan on the underside and has vents for that or for passive cooling I would elevate it maybe with taller rubber 'feet' to provide better airflow. Mine sits on a metal wire shelf so it gets good air flow- I am trying to avoid a fan blowing in, as that will end up blowing dust into there... And I put a low height NVME HS on the drive.

That IRQ message in Windows is typically software, something stepped on a memory space it should not have accessed - bad driver(s) maybe, and not likely hardware defect caused... (I like to call them 'Windows moments'...)

And yea PFSense is kinda odd with the CPU speed readout... before getting CStates enabled and BIOS settings tweaked it reported that it was 'stuck' at like 806 mhz. Now when the CPU is under load it shows this... whatever, as long as it can get there and drop below 500 mhz at idle (with lower temps) I am good... SpeedShift enabled at 60%, PFSense on bare metal.

 

[Octopuss]

So I bought this unit: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100...der_detail.order_detail_item.4.2425f19cVS34L6 with 16GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage.

It came with a licensed Windows 11 Pro preinstalled. I decided to fully update it, make an image of the result and then install pfSense instead to replace my older firewall. During the Windows 11 update procedure I got a BSOD once, DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. Made me a bit worried about it not being fully stable but I ignored it, who knows could've been something wrong with the update process. After a reboot the updates proceeded normally.

Now I've been running it with pfSense 2.7.2 for a couple of days and I have gotten one more crash "general protection fault". Now I'm even more worried something isn't stable. Most likely it's the RAM I think. On initial setup the CPU temps where around 50 C in pfSense but after some tweaking with speed shift and C-states in pfSense I got it down to ~45C when idling. After the latest crash I decided to cool the heatspreader on the top of the case with an USB desk fan to see if that makes it more stable. 50C should be fine for the CPU but if the ambient temp inside is the same I guess that could be a bit too hot for the RAM...? CPU temps are now a cool 26-27 C. If it doesn't crash and reboot when cooled like this I'll probably just buy a slightly better fan for this purpose and run it like that. If not I'm not sure what I'll try next, probably I'll try running memtest86 and if it fails I might try buying another RAM stick, or try flashing the custom BIOS from this thread and see if it unlocks some setting that can help with stability... According to dmidecode the original stick is from Crucial Technology with part number CT16G48C40S5.C8A1.

Other than these two crashes so far I'm very happy with the device. Only other issues I've found is that the Zone 0 temperature reported in pfSense is incorrect, always stuck at 27.9C, but the individual CPU core temps work. The reported CPU speed in the pfSense GUI is also a bit strange: "Current: 1813 MHz, Max: 806 MHz". I don't think I've ever seen it lower than ~1700 but I'm pretty sure it does clock lower or at least I know from the console that all cores enter C1/C2/C3 states a lot which means there's no clock sometimes which is not shown in the pfSense GUI.

The device is currently used as my firewall for my 1Gbps internet connection and I run a FQ_CODEL limiter on it to ensure my latency doesn't increase when I saturate my uplink. On top of that I run Suricata in inline IPS mode and pfBlockerNG with long blocklists of IP/DNS and nothing I can do really stresses this device. My old firewall was just barely able to saturate my 1Gbps connection after a lot of tuning and tweaking without IPS and limiters. Adding either of those would drop my speed considerably, but with this device that doesn't make a difference at all.

I have the same problem with reported speeds and platform temperature. Couldn't figure it out.
I don't have another SSD to install Windows on it and check speeds on a different platform unfortunately.
I wonder if it's a bug in pfSense or in the BIOS.

 

[AnonymousRetard]

What speed does your fan have? Change the thermal paste between the case and the aluminum block and between the aluminum block and the CPU. I have my fan set to about 700 rpm, it sits on the case and the temperature is 40-45" when running with proxmox and in it opnsense + qnap vm.

The unit doesn't have any fan by default and currently I'm stability testing with a very simple usb desk fan intended for cooling humans during hot weather. I have no idea what RPMs it runs at. The thermal coupling between the CPU and the case seems to be quite good already in my case since this fan is able to lower the CPU temperatures by 20C almost down to ambient room temps when the CPU is idling.

I think the larger problem is that without any fans the other components(RAM & NVMe drive) don't have any heatsinks or thermal coupling to the outside and the case has no openings at all for airflow so the ambient temperature inside the case is likely to end up very close to the CPU temps.

I would like to run the unit fanless if possible and once I've ran memtest86 to rule out faulty ram or incompatible RAM I'll likely do further experiments with removing the back-cover of the case and/or perhaps installing heatsinks on the RAM and/or NVMe drive as well...

 

[m8kbv]

I have a heatsink on nvme, ram without heatsink, disconnected bottom cover, 12cm fan. For now I want to upload a modified bios I'm waiting for from our forum friend (to make the computer draw less power)

 

[Octopuss]

I have the same problem with reported speeds and platform temperature. Couldn't figure it out.
I don't have another SSD to install Windows on it and check speeds on a different platform unfortunately.
I wonder if it's a bug in pfSense or in the BIOS.

I found something:

[2.7.2-RELEASE][admin@rozcestnik.lan]/root: dmidecode -t processor
# dmidecode 3.5
# SMBIOS entry point at 0x75bb0000
Found SMBIOS entry point in EFI, reading table from /dev/mem.
SMBIOS 3.6 present.
# SMBIOS implementations newer than version 3.5.0 are not
# fully supported by this version of dmidecode.

Handle 0x0036, DMI type 4, 48 bytes
Processor Information
Socket Designation: U3E1
Type: Central Processor
Family: Other
Manufacturer: Intel(R) Corporation
ID: E0 06 0B 00 FF FB EB BF
Version: Intel(R) N100
Voltage: 0.7 V
External Clock: 100 MHz
Max Speed: 3400 MHz
Current Speed: 891 MHz
Status: Populated, Enabled
Upgrade: Other
L1 Cache Handle: 0x0033
L2 Cache Handle: 0x0034
L3 Cache Handle: 0x0035
Serial Number: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
Asset Tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
Part Number: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
Core Count: 4
Core Enabled: 4
Thread Count: 4
Characteristics:
64-bit capable
Multi-Core
Execute Protection
Enhanced Virtualization
Power/Performance Control

So there's something wrong about the reported speed in pfSense (1700-2000MHz, 806MHz fixed max), but I can't tell what the root of the problem is. The BIOS or pfSense software itself?