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January 29, 2023January 30, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

GL.iNet Beryl AX OpenWrt router review – WiFi 6 performance, repeater, NAS, and 4G hotspot modes

Power bank GL.iNet GL-MT3000 Beryl AX router

In the first part of the review of GL.iNet GL-MT3000 “Beryl AX” pocket-size WiFi 6 OpenWrt router we had a look at the specifications, the package content, and the hardware design with a teardown of the little. I’ve now had more time to play with the router focusing the review on WiFi 6 performance, and some of its functions such as repeater, NAS, and 4G hotspot. The router also supports VPN client and server modes, the Tor network, and Adguard Home, but I’ll invite readers to check out the GL.iNet Brume 2 security gateway review since I went through all these, and the hardware is very similar minus wireless connectivity. Initial setup of the Beryl AX router If you connect an Ethernet cable to the router you can switch to step two. If you only rely on WiFi for the setup that works too as the Beryl AX router will […]

January 23, 2023January 26, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 29 Comments

Storaxa is a 3-in-1 5-bay NAS, WiFi 6 router, and 4K media center (Crowdfunding)

The Storaxa is a multi-purpose device powered by an Intel Celeron N6005 Jasper Lake processor which works as a 5-bay SATA NAS, which also happens to take up to four NVMe SSDs, a 4K media center with HDMI and DisplayPort interfaces, and a WiFi 6 router equipped with four 2.5GbE ports. The solution is fitted with 16GB RAM, comes with four 10 Gbps USB 3.2 ports and two USB 2.0 ports, and runs Proxmox VE to handle both TrueNAS SCALE and OpenWrt for the NAS and router functions respectively. Storaxa specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron N6005 quad-core Jasper Lake processor @ 2.0GHz / 3.3GHz (Turbo) with 32EU Intel UHD graphics @ 450 / 900 MHz (Turbo); 10W TDP System Memory – 16GB (2x 8GB) DDR4-3200 SO-DIMM memory Storage 128 GB SATA SSD for OS 5x 3.5-inch SATA bays 4x M.2 2280 sockets for NVMe SSDs (connected via ASMedia ASM2812X PCIe […]

January 8, 2023January 29, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 18 Comments

GL.iNet GL-MT3000 pocket-sized Wi-Fi 6 Router review – Part 1: Specs, unboxing, and teardown

GL.iNet Beryl AX (GL-MT3000) is a pocket-sized Wi-Fi 6 router running OpenWrt on a MediaTek MT7981B (Filogic 820) dual-core processor @ 1.3 GHz and equipped with a 2.5GbE port, a Gigabit Ethernet port, and a USB 3.0 port. The hardware is basically the same as the Brume 2 (GL-MT2500A) security gateway, except it adds support for WiFi 6 connectivity and as an AX3000 router more than doubles the bandwidth compared to the earlier Beryl (GL-MT1300) AC1300 router. The company has sent me a sample so I’ll start the two-part review by checking the specifications, doing an unboxing, and tearing it down to have a closer look at the hardware design, before trying out OpenWrt and testing WiFi 6 and 2.5GbE performance in the second part of the review. GL.iNet GL-MT3000 specifications Beryl AX specifications: SoC – MediaTek MT7981B (Filogic 820) dual-core processor @ 1.3 GHz System Memory – 512MB DDR4 […]

December 27, 2022December 29, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments

Lichee Pi 4A RISC-V SBC takes on Raspberry Pi 4 with TH1520 processor

Lichee Pi 4A is a single board computer (SBC) powered by Alibaba T-Head TH1520 quad-core RISC-V Xuantie C910 processor @ 1.8 GHz with an Imagination GPU and a 4 TOPS NPU for AI that can compete against the Raspberry Pi 4 in terms of performance and features. We previously mentioned the Lichee Pi 4A (LPi4A) in our article about the Sipeed LM4A RISC-V system-on-module, but at the time we only had some benchmarks for the board and no photos and specifications about the SBC. Sipeed has now released photos and more detailed specifications and is taking “pre-orders”. So let’s have a look. Lichee Pi 4A specifications against the ones for Raspberry Pi 4. The TH1520 used to be advertised at up to 2.5 GHz, but it seems to have now come down to 1.8 GHz. Software support will include Debian, OpenWrt, and Android in Q1 2023, and more operating […]

December 19, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

TopTon TP-X4F mini PC with four 2.5GbE ports features up to AMD Ryzen 7 5825U processor

TopTon TP-X4F is a mini PC and network appliance equipped with four 2.5GbE ports and powered by a choice of processors from the AMD Ryzen 5000U series up to the Ryzen 7 5825U octa-core-16-thread processor. The system supports up to 64GB RAM and up to five high-speed internal SATA or NVMe storage devices through M.2 sockets and SATA connectors and comes with three 4K display interfaces: HDMI, DisplayPort, and USB-C, as well as four USB ports. TopTon TP-X4F specifications: SoC (one or the other) Ryzen 5 5600U hexa-core/12-thread processor @ 2.3 GHz / 4.2 GHz with Radeon Vega 7 graphics @ 1.8 GHz; TDP: 10-25W (default: 15W) Ryzen 7 5800U octa-core/16-thread processor @ 1.9 GHz / 4.4 GHz with Radeon Vega 8 graphics @ 2.0 GHz; TDP: 10-25W (default: 15W) Ryzen 7 5825U octa-core/16-thread processor @ 2.0 GHz / 4.5 GHz with Radeon Vega 8 graphics @ 2.0 GHz; TDP: […]

December 8, 2022January 23, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 18 Comments

Gowin R86S mini PC offers 2.5GbE and 10GbE networking for $310 and up

Gowin R86S (aka GW-R86S) is an affordable Intel Celeron N5100 or Pentium N6005 Jasper Lake mini PC, router, and firewall appliance with 2.5GbE and 10GbE networking that sells for $310 and up on Aliexpress. 10GbE used to be reserved for the enterprise market due to the cost of hardware, but costs have gone down a lot as illustrated by the Gowin R86S system with up to three 2.5GbE ports, two 10GbE SFP+ cages, as well as ports that you would typically find a mini PC such as HDMI 2.0 video output, M.2 socket for NVMe SSD, two USB 3.0 ports, and a WiFi module. Gowin R86S specifications: SoC (one or the other) Intel Celeron N5105 quad-core Jasper Lake processor @ 2.0GHz / 2.9GHz (Turbo) with Intel UHD graphics 605; 10W TDP Intel Pentium N6005 quad-core Jasper Lake processor @ 2.0GHz / 3.3GHz (Turbo) with Intel UHD graphics @ up to […]

December 1, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

NanoPi R5C mini router features two 2.5GbE ports, supports M.2 wireless modules

FriendlyElec NanoPi R5C is a smaller version of the NanoPi R5S router with the same Rockchip RK3568 processor, but only two 2.5GbE ports and support for an internal M.2 WiFi and Bluetooth module, instead of just USB dongles for the earlier NanoPi R-series routers. The mini router can also be used as a mini PC thanks to a built-in HDMI 2.0 video output port and two USB 3.2 ports and is offered in two versions with either 1GB RAM and 8GB eMMC flash, or 4GB RAM and 32GB storage for just $10 more. NanoPi R5C specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3568B2 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor @ up to 2.0 GHz with Arm Mali-G52 MP2 GPU, 0.8 TOPS AI accelerator, 4Kp60 H.265/H.264/VP9 video decoder, 1080p60 H.264/H.265 video encoder System Memory & Storage 1GB LPDDR4X and 8GB eMMC flash or 4GB LPDDR4X and 32GB eMMC flash MicroSD card socket Video Output – 1x HDMI […]

November 27, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 21 Comments

Brume 2 router review with WireGuard, OpenVPN, Tor, and Adguard Home

We started the review of GL.inet GL-MT2500A security gateway, aka Brume 2, with an unboxing and teardown, and I’ve now had time to test the router in more detail so I’ll report my experience using the router with OpenVPN and WireGuard VPN, Tor, Adguard Home, and more. In a nutshell, it’s super easy to use, unless your ISP causes troubles, which it did in this case. Brume 2 connection and initial setup I connected the WAN port of the Brume 2 router to 3BB’s modem router (3BB is an ISP in Thailand), the LAN port to my laptop, and finally the USB-C power supply (power draws is 2.3 Watts at idle). Let’s now go to the dashboard using the default IP (192.168.8.1). This will take us through the configuration wizard to select the language and set up the admin password. I was then immediately greeted by an “Upgrade Reminder” and […]