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March 28, 2026March 28, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

TerraMaster F2-425 Plus NAS review – Part 2: Configuration, benchmarks, and AI-enhanced media storage

I received the TerraMaster F2-425 Plus 3+2 Hybrid NAS for review last month, and after checking out the hardware in the first part of the review, I’ve finally had time to test the Intel N150 NAS. After installing two 4TB SATA drives and an M.2 NVMe SSD, I’ll report my experience setting up the system with the TNAS Android app, before running some benchmarks, and testing features like photo backup with AI search capabilities. Hard drive installation I already had an old, but little-used, 4TB HGST SATA drive, and I bought a “new” 4TB SATA drive online for a pretty good deal (2979 THB or a little over $90 US). It turns out the HPE MB4000GVY2K drive I got was refurbished, having been manufactured in 2017. However, it’s an enterprise-grade drive, and the TNAS app reports it has been used “only” for 2,517 hours, so I don’t feel too bad […]

March 10, 2026March 9, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Intel Arrow Lake-S ATX motherboard supports up to 256GB CU-DIMM DDR5 RAM, features W880 chipset

Jetway ATX-ARS1-W880 is an ATX motherboard taking socketed Intel Arrow Lake-S SoCs with up to 24 cores, 36 TOPS of AI performance, and featuring four CU-DIMM (Clocked Unbuffered DIMM) sockets for up to 256GB DDR5 ECC memory, and a W880 chipset. Targeting Smart Factory applications, the industrial-grade motherboard also features four SATA III ports and two M.2 M-Key PCIe Gen5/4 sockets for storage, seven PCIe slots, three 2.5GbE ports, M.2 E-Key and B-Key sockets for WiFi, Bluetooth, and cellular (4G/5G) connectivity, sixteen USB interfaces (Type-A and headers), and a few serial interfaces. The ATX-ARS1-W880 also supports up to four independent displays through DP, HDMI, and VGA ports, and features a combo audio block with Line-in, Line-out, and MIC-out jacks. Jetway ATX-ARS1-W880 specifications: SoC – Intel LGA1851 socket for Intel Core Ultra 200S “Arrow Lake-S” processor up to 125W TDP Chipset – Intel W880 “workstation” chipset System Memory – 4x DDR5 […]

February 26, 2026February 26, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Raspberry Pi CM5 mini-ITX-compatible carrier board features up to nine Ethernet ports for NVR, Smart Home, and Edge AI applications

EXAVIZ Cruiser is a mini-ITX-compatible carrier board for the Raspberry Pi CM5 featuring up to nine Ethernet ports (one 2.5GbE port, and up to eight GbE PoE+ ports) designed for Network Video Recorders (NVRs), Smart Home gateways, and edge AI applications. The board also features two 4K-capable HDMI 2.0 video outputs, two SATA ports, an M.2 PCIe Gen2/3 x1 socket for an NVMe SSD, an AI accelerator, or a SATA expansion module, three USB 3.0 ports, and four USB 2.0 interfaces. It also supports 2.4 GHz WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.4 LE, and Zigbee connectivity through an ESP32-C6 module, and you can also add eight extra 10/100Mbps PoE+ RJ45 interfaces through an additional expansion board for up to sixteen PoE-capable Ethernet ports in total. EXAVIZ Cruiser specifications: Supported SoM – Raspberry Pi CM5 and CM5 Lite. note: Raspberry Pi CM4 and Banana Pi CM4 are explitly not supported Storage M.2 Key-M […]

February 19, 2026March 28, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

TerraMaster F2-425 Plus 3+2-bay hybrid NAS review – Part 1: unboxing, teardown, drives installation, and first boot

TerrasMaster F2-425 Plus Review TOS initialization

TerraMaster has sent us a sample of the F2-425 Plus 3+2-bay NAS for review. It’s powered by an Intel Processor N150 CPU paired with 8GB of RAM, with two 3.5-inch SATA bays and three M.2 NVMe sockets for storage, as well as two 5GbE RJ45 jacks, and a few USB ports. Since we’ve already written the specifications in the previous article, we’ll focus the first part of the review on an unboxing and a teardown to check out the hardware design, before showing how to install the drives, and giving it a quick first try. TerraMaster F2-425 Plus NAS unboxing We received the F2-425 Plus “All new 2-Bay Hybrid NAS” in its retail package. UPS took nearly two months to deliver it from Hong Kong to Thailand, mostly due to customs issues, but I digress. The package includes an accessories box with a Quick Installation Guide, a Limited Warranty brochure, […]

February 10, 2026March 24, 2026 by Debashis Das - 8 Comments

Beelink ME Pro 2-bay Intel N95/N150 NAS and mini PC supports 5GbE networking, up to 3x M.2 MVMe SSDs

Beelink ME Pro is a compact 2-bay hybrid NAS and Windows 11 mini PC built around Intel N95 (Alder Lake-N) or N150 (Twin Lake) SoC, and equipped with two 3.5-/2.5-inch SATA bays and three M.2 2280 NVMe slots for storage. It also features a “DIY drawer” design that lets users swap the motherboard for upgrades. The system also features up to 16 GB of LPDDR5 memory, 5 GbE and 2.5 GbE networking, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, and various I/Os, including USB-C (10 Gbps), USB-A, HDMI 2.0, and a 3.5 mm audio jack. An internal blower-based cooling system, an aluminum chassis with thermal pads, and anti-vibration drive mounts help with improved thermals and noise control. Target applications include home NAS, media server, Proxmox/TrueNAS host, small office file server, lightweight virtualization, backup appliance, and compact desktop PC. Beelink ME Pro specifications: SoC(one or the other) Intel Processor N95 quad-core “Alder Lake-N” processor […]

January 28, 2026 by Debashis Das - No Comments

Congatec conga-TCRP1 COM Express Type 6 module features AMD Ryzen AI Embedded P100 SoC with 50 TOPS NPU

conga TCRP1 COM Express Compact (Type 6) module with AMD Ryzen AI Embedded P100 Series SoCs

Congatec conga-TCRP1 is a COM Express 3.1 Type 6 Compact module powered by the newly announced AMD Ryzen AI Embedded P100 Series processors, which feature AMD’s latest Zen 5 architecture, RDNA 3.5 graphics, and an XDNA 2 NPU for 59 TOPS of combined AI performance, including up to 50 TOPS from the NPU. The module supports up to 96 GB of DDR5-5600 memory and is available in 4-core and 6-core variants with a configurable 15 W to 54 W TDP, allowing both passive and active cooling designs. It supports up to four independent displays, offers PCIe Gen4 and PEG x4 expansion, and includes 2.5 GbE, USB 3.2 Gen 2, and USB 2.0 ports, along with SATA or optional onboard NVMe storage options. Additional features include TPM 2.0, UEFI firmware, and hardware monitoring. The module is available in both commercial and industrial variants with operating temperatures down to -40 °C, which […]

October 29, 2025December 17, 2025 by Debashis Das - 6 Comments

TerraMaster launches Intel N150 NAS systems with 5GbE networking, AI photo recognition

TerraMaster F4 425 Plus and F2 425 Plus Intel N150 Hybrid NAS

TerraMaster F4-425 Plus (4-bay) and F2-425 Plus (2-bay) hybrid AI NAS systems are upgrades to the earlier Intel N95-based F4-424 and F2-424 NAS systems with an Intel N150 processor, dual 5GbE ports (up from 2.5GbE), and up to three M.2 SSD slots for up to 144TB of hybrid storage. Both models feature DDR5 memory (up to 16GB), 4K/8K video transcoding, and support TerraMaster’s TRAID technology for improved performance and data redundancy. They also offer USB expansion options and quiet cooling, making them NAS solutions suitable for home and business use. TerraMaster F4-425 Plus and F2-425 Plus specifications: SoC – Intel Processor N150 CPU – Quad-core “Twin Lake” processor @ up to 3.6 GHz (Turbo) with 6MB cache GPU – 24EU Intel UHD graphics @ 1000 MHz Hardware transcoding F4-425 Plus – H.264, H.265, MPEG-4, VC-1 up to 8K@60fps F2-425 Plus – H.264, H.265, MPEG-4, VC-1 up to 4K@60fps TDP – 6W to […]

July 21, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Pico-ITX SBC features Intel Processor N150 or Core 3 N355 Twin Lake CPU, DDR5 SO-DIMM memory slot

Want a Twin Lake Pico-ITX SBC? That’s what AAEON offers with the PICO-TWL4 single board computer equipped with either an Intel Processor N150 quad-core CPU or an Intel Core 3 N355 octa-core SoC, and available in either commercial or industrial temperature grade. The board features a SO-DIMM socket for DDR5 memory, a SATA and mSATA storage, two display interfaces (HDMI and eDP/LVDS), 2.5GbE and GbE RJ45 ports, USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, and M.2 and mPCIe sockets for expansion. By default, the board supports 12V DC power, but AAEON offers a 9V to 36V DC input option. AAEON PICO-TWL4 specifications: Twin Lake SoC (one or the other) Intel Processor N150 quad-core processor @ 800 MHz / 3.6 GHz (Turbo) with 6MB cache, 24EU Intel UHD graphics @ 1.0 GHz; TDP: 6W Intel Core 3 N355 octa-core processor @ 1.9 GHz / 3.9 GHz (Turbo) with 6MB cache, 32EU Intel UHD […]