N305 Intel i3 Alder Lake router review and OPNsense install
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- Опубликовано: 11 сен 2024
- Anticipating a future fibre connection at my office I have decided to upgrade my router. Key attributes I am looking for are small form factor, silent and powerful with 2.5 Gb LAN to enable as an upgrade path for my network in the future.
Here are a few links :
I ordered direct from cwwk.net/
I am using opnsense which is available here opnsense.org/d...
In installed the following :
Crucial RAM 16GB DDR5 4800MHz CL40 Laptop Memory CT16G48C40S5
Samsung 980 250 GB PCIe 3.0 (up to 2,900 MB/s) NVMe M.2 Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (MZ-V8V250BW)
I have no commercial relationships with any of the suppliers and bought them with my own money, my opinions are my own!
Let me know your thoughts!
AM
![MISSING: SLIM SHADY [Expanded Mourner’s Edition Trailer]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/xh8qgHrOO1g/mqdefault.jpg)
It's funny it's been a year and everyone is talking about the core i3-n305, but no one is talking about the core i3-n300. It's less expensive and works well in a Proxmox cluster.
I've previously had a protectli box and had loads trouble with it, put me off trying again but this looks tempting
As long as you are comfortable creating and using an install USB stick, booting and configuring your own router in OPNsense then if my experience is anything to go by its straightforward. You could always practice by using an old PC if you have one before committing any money .... AM
Seems overkill for bare metal router.
Run proxmox and passthrough nics. Then you can run anything in parallel!
Anyway nice device and review!
Your right tbh, the N100 would have been more than adequate, but the price difference is minimal and I couldn't resist!
@@AmoebaMan i understand. Actually your video just got me in doubt.
Just ordered 2 homeservers based on ryzen 5650g pro with ECC memory.
The initial plan was an N305 system but i couldnt find decent a-brand stuff at that moment.
Quite sure my build will eat way more power (will try undervolt)... But i need stability and certain virtualization features (passthrough). Dont know what the quality and stability of the nwwk is let alone bios quality and support..
I think i will stay with my choice but i am abit reluctant now 🤣
Can you verify that OPNSense was able to access the TMP2.0 module? I've had issues, which is especially concerning for a firewall device
Hi, TPM not a major consideration for me, secure boot, encryption etc. I don’t see any reference to it in the WebUI, of course the CPU supports and I guess it might be important to others using virtualisation? My OPNsense is still running FreeBSD 13.2, my understanding is that many improvements are made in FreeBSD 14.0 including support for passthrough etc. If there is a simple way to check TPM status I couldn’t find it! AM
Did you get your TPM module working?Personally wouldn't run a Chinese router without one.
No, did not find a fix. Yes, I agree that this seriously makes one think of what goodies could be on this board to make things less secure than one thinks. Another thing I found was that their latest available firmware us running very old ME microcode. I really think these should go through more security diligence before we pitch them as something to use for securing people's networks. IOPS and MPPS throughput are not all that an influential reviewer should measure when enthusiastically positioning a product. Does anyone know if these reviews are sponsored by the manufacturer or truly unbiased reviews?
I purchased the N100 version and run open WRT. Loving it
Electricity must be obscenely expensive in Britain.
is the 15W locked in BIOS?
Did you test power consumption under load?
If so, did the device get hot after being maxed for a long time?
I tested it in service but not at full CPU, in service the CPU rarely spikes over 20% other than on start up. I am more concerned with long term power consumption due to energy costs than peak load and cooling. AM
Okay, thanks :)
Since I've got mine, I can do an update on that.
From my power consumption tests:
Idle is around 10W
Under full load with turbo: 46W
Under full load without turbo: 36W
Turbo mode kicks in for like 30 seconds since load starts and then drops the frequency.
The CPU power consumption limits can be adjusted in bios and it works very well. The default limits are 35W for turbo and 20W overall.
I would recommend anyone planning to use this i3-N305 device for processor demanding tasks getting a fan to pump out the hot air. It really helps I've noted 65°C without and around 50 with fan running under maximum load.
@@olokelo Would you have any recommendations of a fan to get for this unit? And thanks for the added info you have posted regards to the power consumption limits
I don't have any specific recommendations however for an external fan, 5v one would be preferable. It can be powered from USB and put at the top of heatsink. I have a small 5v fan blowing air into the heatsink and it cools decently well (40-50°C on the CPU depending on the usage).
If you were to use a 12v fan, you would need to get the power from the motherboard somehow (either not close the unit or route cables via the antenna holes outside).
I also have a 60mm silentiumpc fan inside blowing the hot air off, it is connected to fan header on the motherboard but it only makes a difference only for the internal components (RAM, M.2 SSD, coral TPU). I can't put a SATA SSD with the fan inside since there's so little space it barely fits by itself.
I think the external fan is the most important since the radiator (the entire case) can get really hot.
I was considering something similar as a firewall, is this fast enough for 1gb internet without slowing it down? Cheers
Yes it should be, but obviously depends what OS you use, what else (services etc) you are running and what kind of connection you have. I have not yet tested this myself but hope to in the future :) AM
@@AmoebaManI am going to use Opnsense, and have virgin 1gig. It will run through their super hub in modem mode, then onto an ASUS ac rt5300 in a mesh network. There are a total of four users two of which are gaming so hopefully should be perfect. Cheers Gary.
FWIW, the N100 is more than sufficient for 1Gbps internet.
For those that are watching, this hardware is literally way overkill for what it is; and it's going to result in a slightly higher power bill. However, this type of hardware typically can take a single stick of DDR ram ( usually DDR5 ) up to 32G. Internally, most of these have one or two NVME slots, depending upon configuration, and an option to run a single SSD. There is truly not enough room in the case for all of that however. Also be aware that while most models like this can take two NVME drives, one will be running PCIEx3 speeds, and the other is PCIEx1. I believe the drives are limited to 2TB per physical drive; Ram- although Intel says 16G, well, I have 32G in almost every N100 and N305 that I own, and that's more than a few. The only exception is my N100 firewall, which is at 16G ram which uses literally only 8% of the 16G that it has. Many of the limitations are indeed Intel limitations: mainly stemming from the number of limited PCIE lanes on the N100/N305/Alder Lake platforms.
Overall this device would be better as a host for a virtual firewall. A N100 by itself would be sufficient for most, and would draw less power. There is a little advantage to having 8 Cores as a virtual host, you could easily delegate 4 cores to the Opnsense firewall, and perhaps dedicate two NIC's to Opnsense. Note that you would end up with faster clock speeds to boot; so technically, you'd still be faster than the N100; mind you that a N100 version typically runs at 0% to 1% utilization for a more normal house experience. At highest, while running a speedtest to maximize traffic, the poor little N100 never gets over 40% utilization even with IDP/IDS running & a VPN running. Personally, I prefer a physical firewall, so I chose the N100 over the N305. Yes, I do have a N305 that is similar to this CWWK version; but it's overkill for my purposes for a firewall. However, one can configure Opnsense in a number of ways, so maybe the N305 is not as much overkill if configuring many options on it.
Reality is this N305 is a better virtualization host, especially with 2TB disk and 32G ram that it can be equipped with.
Note on the hardware. Being fanless, the internals get warmer than a fan based unit. There is a fan header inside, but it's a very small header, and you'd have to contact the manufacturer for the correct header cable, or make your own. The NVME is the main painpoint- as it will get very warm. The best orientation is to mount it vertically with a gap on a wall or rack. Putting more than one drive in this unit is just going to exacerbate heat issues. Use a good heatsink on the NVME if you run such a unit without a fan. Don't plan on using a second drive in this type of unit.
Now, would I say that the N305 is a waste - if the speeds get significantly higher than 1 Gbps ? I don't know. The N100 at 1Gbps works well. I can certainly understand someone with the "buy once, cry once" mentality; I often take this stance !!! Nothing wrong with that tact. I considered virtualizing the firewall, but for some things like the firewall, I just prefer a dedicated unit.
Seems like a good host for a Ceph cluster. One 10G SFP+ for cluster backhaul and another for clients. Won’t be blazing fast, but if that’s what you wanted why are you running Ceph rather than a ZFS NAS?
Was looking at an n100 or n305 for a 10g fiber connection.... Although, my 3 year old N5105 pfsense box is handling things well enough with our existing 2 g connection.
do you really need a 16 gig ram for a firewall?
Mine would run fine with 8Gb without virtualisation or VPN, with an upgrade cost of an extra £20 and only a single SODIMM slot in the device I decided to get 16Gb for future use. AM
Do you have the dimensions of this one by any chance?
Its 16w x 14d x 7h cm. AM
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If you want something in the 10 watt range, an intel board isn't gonna cut it.
AMD is the king of power and if ur gonna be running a glorified mini-pc with too many ethernet ports then you should really be running proxmox and putting the 98% of unused cpu power to work doing something.
I understand your point, its certainly over the top, but as I explain in the video the cpu load will increase significantly with future changes to my connection and VPN. If I shave 2W off the power consumption it will only save me about £5/year in electricity so I made the judgement that I would rather have the extra power! AM
@@AmoebaMan Thank you. Using common sense nowadays is not all that common. IF I have a machine that draws 20 Watts typically, and I can manage to cut it down to say half - or 10 Watts, how much would I save ? It should always be a question worth answering; Same thing for saving 5W or whatever.
Electricity here is cheap at about 10 cents per KWh. I realize you're in the UK with a higher cost; say 48 cents. To some degree, the lower electrical rate encourages recycle and re-use, whereas higher rates encourage choosing something energy efficient at the cost of tossing more power hungry devices into the recycle bin or landfill.
I'm glad you took the time to figure out the true cost savings; most don't.. On a personal note, I'd never even look at 2W as that's literally less than $2 a year. I'd save more by turning off a light in a room that is not needed, or switching to smaller monitors, etc. BTW: My similar N100 firewall draws about 10 to 12 watts. I was using a RK3588 ARM for a while, and that draws about 1/2 using OpenWRT. I do think that Opnsense gets more updates, and is a better overall choice.