proxmox News - CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

April 9, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Maiyunda M1 Alder Lake-N mini PC comes with four quick-release M.2 NVMe SSD slots, four 2.5GbE ports

Maiyunda M1 is an unusual Intel N100 or Core i3-N305 Alder Lake-N mini PC and soft router equipped with four M.2 NVMe SSD slots so users can replace storage devices without having to open the enclosure, as well as four 2.5GbE ports for networking applications. The mini PC also supports up to 32GB DDR5 memory, wireless connectivity through an internal M.2 socket (that can also be used as a fifth NVMe SSD socket), dual 4K display setups through HDMI and DisplayPort connectors, and offers five USB Type-A ports for expansion. Maiyunda M1 specifications: Alder Lake-N SoC Intel Processor N100 quad-core processor @ up to 3.4 GHz (Turbo) with 6MB cache, 24EU Intel UHD graphics; TDP: 6W Intel Core i3-N305 octa-core processor @ up to 3.8 GHz (Turbo) with 6MB cache, 32EU Intel UHD Graphics; TDP: 15W System Memory – 16GB LPDDR5 4800 MHz upgradeable to 32GB Storage 4x M.2 M-key […]

April 3, 2024 by Debashis Das - 5 Comments

$101+ CWWK X86-P1 fanless SBC and mini PC is powered by Intel N3050, N3160, or N3700 Braswell SoC

X86-P1 Development Board Version and Standard Edition

In a previous post, we wrote about the CWWK X86-P5, a $219 fanless mini PC powered by the Alder Lake N-series N100 SoC. However, during a recent search on AliExpress, I stumbled upon the CWWK X86-P1 fanless mini PC and SBC. This compact device offers three variants (N3050, N3160, and N3700) with a TDP of only 6W. It features dual GbE Ethernet, dual USB 3.0, HDMI, and a GPIO header. Additionally, it includes a built-in fan header for improved cooling. It supports Windows 11, Ubuntu 22.04, and networking OS options like pfSense or OpenWrt along with all major x86-based operating systems. CWWK X86-P1 Fanless Mini PC Specification SoC options Intel Celeron N3050 – Dual core Braswell processor @ up to 2.16 GHz with Intel HD Graphics Gen8 – 6W TDP Intel Celeron N3160 – Quad-core Braswell processor @ up to 2.24 GHz with 12EU Intel HD graphics 400 – 4W […]

January 3, 2024January 2, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Fanless Intel N100 mini PC supports PoE power input, provides four 2.5GbE ports

‎NEOSMAY is selling a fanless Intel Processor N100 mini PC with support for PoE power input, four 2.5GbE ports, HDMI and DisplayPort video outputs, and a choice of USB ports for $249 (after ticking the $150 coupon code) on Amazon with 8GB RAM and a 128GB SATA SSD. The mini PC also supports 12V DC power input if you don’t use PoE power input, and comes with an additional RJ45 port acting as an RS232 console. There’s no built-in wireless, but the mini PC can take a WiFi and Bluetooth module, as well as a 4G LTE or 5G module, and features a SIM card slot for the latter. Specifications: SoC – Intel Processor N100 quad-core Alder Lake-N processor @ up to 3.4 GHz (Turbo) with 6MB cache, 24EU Intel HD graphics @ 750 MHz; TDP: 6W System Memory – 8GB DDDR4-3200, upgradable to 32GB Storage 128GB M.2 SATA SSD, […]

December 19, 2023December 20, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

iKOOLCORE R2 (Core i3-N300) system review – Part2: Proxmox VE, Ubuntu 22.04, pfSense

iKOOLCORE R2 Ubuntu Promox VE dual display

In the first part of iKOOLCORE R2 mini PC & router review, I had a look at the hardware with an unboxing and a teardown of the Intel Core i3-N300 Alder Lake-N computer and also noticed the device booted to a UEFI shell. So for the second part of the review, I will report my experience installing Proxmox VE on the iKOOLCORE R2 and setting up and using Ubuntu 22.04, pfSense 2.7.2, and OpenWrt 23.05 virtual machines, making sure I can still use a physical display, keyboard, and mouse with Ubuntu while pfSense firewall is running. As a side note, the previous generation iKOOLCORE R1 mini PC that was sent to Ian for review with Proxmox VE and various virtual machines preinstalled OpenWrt, Debian 11, and Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC set to Chinese language by default. As I understand it, iKOOLCORE still does that for the Chinese market, but not […]

December 17, 2023December 17, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

How to use a monitor and USB mouse/keyboard in Promox VE on an Intel Alder Lake-N mini PC

Intel Core i3-N300 Alder Lake-N Ubuntu 22.04 Promox VE passthrough

We’ve started to see several Alder Lake-N platforms acting both as a mini PC and a router or network appliance with products such as iKOOLCORE R2 or CWWK x86-P5 which features not only the usual HDMI, USB, and single Ethernet port, but come with multiple Ethernet ports making them ideal to run Proxmox VE to simultaneous run a desktop OS such as Ubuntu 22.04 or Windows 11 and a headless network OS such as pfSense or OpenWrt. I’m currently reviewing iKOOLCORE R2 mini PC that comes with four 2.5GbE ports and I could install Ubuntu 22.04 Desktop, pfSense 2.7.1, and OpenWrt 23.05 relatively easily, but the Ubuntu desktop is only visible in the Proxmox VE dashboard and the HDMI display physically connected to the mini PC only shows Proxmox VE login prompt. So at this point, I learned that I had to enable PCIe passthrough for the GPU in Proxmox […]

December 11, 2023December 11, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

CWWK x86-P5 fanless mini PC with two 2.5GbE ports ships with up to Intel Core i3-N305 CPU

CWWK x86-P5 is a fanless mini PC powered by an Intel Alder Lake N-series N100 (quad-core) or Core i3-N305 (octa-core) and equipped with two 2.5GbE ports using Intel i226V controllers making it suitable for networking applications such as a firewall or a soft router. But it’s also a standard mini PC with two HDMI 2.0 ports, two USB 3.2 ports, and up to four USB 2.0 ports making it a candidate to run Promox with both a desktop OS like Windows 11 or Ubuntu 22.04 and a networking OS such as pfSense or OpenWrt. CWWK x86-P5 specifications: Alder Lake-N SoC(one or the other) Intel Processor N100 quad-core processor @ up to 3.4 GHz (Turbo) with 6MB cache, 24EU Intel UHD graphics; TDP: 6W Intel Core i3-N305 octa-core processor @ up to 3.8 GHz (Turbo) with 6MB cache, 32EU Intel UHD Graphics; TDP: 15W System Memory – Up to 32GB DDR5 […]

August 9, 2023August 9, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Tiny mini PC with four 2.5Gbps Ethernet ports ships with Intel Processor N100/N200 or Core i3-N305 CPU

The “M1 Pocket Mini Soft Router” is a tiny Intel Alder Lake-N OEM mini PC with four 2.5Gbps Ethernet ports that is powered by a Processor N100, Processor N200, or Core i3-N305 CPU and sold by various brands such as Kingnovy or Tuofudun Topton. The pocket-sized computer comes with up to 16GB DDR5 memory, up to 1TB NVMe SSD, and features HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort USB-C video outputs, two USB 3.0 ports, as well as a microSD card slot and a 3.5mm audio jack. M1 mini PC specifications: Alder Lake-N SoC Intel Processor N100 quad-core processor @ up to 3.4 GHz (Turbo) with 6MB cache, 24EU Intel UHD graphics; TDP: 6W Intel Processor N200 quad-core processor @ up to 3.7 GHz (Turbo) with 6MB cache, 32EU Intel HD graphics; TDP: 6W Intel Core i3-N305 octa-core processor @ up to 3.8 GHz (Turbo) with 6MB cache, 32EU Intel UHD Graphics; TDP: 15W […]

June 26, 2023June 26, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Intel soft router offers up to eight 2.5GbE ports, Comet Lake or Whiskey Lake Core processor

Topton is offering a soft router powered by an Intel Whiskey Lake or Comet Lake processor up to the Core i7-10510U quad-core/octa-thread processor with either eight 2.5GbE RJ45 ports or four 2.5GbE RJ45 ports and two 10GbE SFP+ cages. We’ve previously written about the low-cost InuoMicro G4305L8-S2 fanless industrial PC box with eight 2.5GbE interfaces, but it is powered by an Intel Celeron 4305UE dual-core Whiskey Lake processor, and the Topton model should offer more performance with a choice of 8th or 10th generation Intel Core i3/i5/i7 Whiskey Lake or Comet Lake SoC. Specifications: SoC (one or the other) Intel Core i3-8145UE dual-core Whiskey Lake processor up to 3.90 GHz with Intel UHD Graphics 620; 15W TDP Intel Core i5-10210U quad-core/eight-thread Comet Lake processor @ 1.6 GHz / 3.9 GHz (turbo all cores) / 4.2 GHz (turbo one core), 24EU Intel UHD graphics; 6MB Cache; 15W TDP Intel Core i7-10510U […]