CWWK Firewall Mini PC Intel N Series N100, DDR5 N0 RAM N0 SSD,4 x 2.5GbE i226V LAN,Micro Router Appliance,AES-NI,OPNsense

Purchased the barebone kit with my own memory and NVMe drive (Silicon Power 256GB NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen3x4 2280 SSD and Crucial RAM 8GB DDR5 4800MHz CL40 Laptop Memory). The mini pc was packaged well and plastic wrapped. I have installed opnsense and am using it as a firewall/router. The memory and ssd were very easy to install, just unscrew the bottom cover. Installation of opnsense went smoothly. It detected the USB boot drive right away, I didn't even have to go into the bios. Everything has been running smoothly. It feels a little warm, but not hot. I would definitely recommend it.

Equipped mine with an AZW 512GB 2280 NVMe, 32GB of Crucial 4800 DDR5, no WiFi.OS: VyOS 1.4 (Linux 6.6.22)Pros:* Silent* Easy to open up and install WiFi/NVMe/RAM.* Has 2 NVMe M.2 M key ports. (But I've only used the one on the side.)* Easily saturates a gige connection.* Runs VyOS like a champ.* Has an 80mm fan mount with filter on bottom. Can probably fit a 10mm thick fan in there.Cons:* No console port (there is a header).* Runs quiet warm (not painfully hot) to the touch.* The RAM & NVMe ventilation is on the bottom of the case.* NVMes do not get attached to case heat sink, would be wise to add your own heatsink or fan.Misc:* Second NVMe M.2 slot is on an "H Board", which is daughter board that's pretty floppy and weird. You can get better H-Boards. I haven't used it. If you want to use this as a NAS there's a 4x single lane NVMe slot version that would offer a lot storage (no idea how you're meant to get the heat out though).There's a bank of internal ports including a SATA connector, HD Power, Comm port, a "Mini fan header" (JST MX 1.25 4 Pin Connector), and a 5 pin USB2 header. I've read there's an additional fan connector on the other side.With the case on a wire mesh rack, no cooling modifications and under a regular nerd household load I'm seeing CPU temps between 38°C-44°C, NMVe is usually around 42°C-50°C.As a soft router, I love this thing. For other purposes I'd want more cooling in the bottom half.

You will not get tech support if you order from CWWK. Their responses through Amazon will either ask for more information and then stop responding after you provide it or they will direct you to their corporate site to ask for help there and they won't help there either. There is no documentation on CWWK's corporate website and no section for downloads.I ordered the N100 unit with 8 GB RAM and a 128 GB SSD. The RAM included was Samsung and the SSD was P8 — no issues with either. The picture of the chassis on Amazon had straight fins, but my unit has "Y" shaped fins. Not a big deal, but the mini PCs with the straight fins are supposed to be the newer design and run cooler.The DisplayPort on my unit does not work which is why I am returning it. I would have tried to update the firmware if CWWK provided an update. My unit also runs hotter at idle and under stress (tested using stress/s-tui) than others have reported. I would have added thermal paste to the processor if the DisplayPort wasn't broken.I liked the idea of buying a mini PC to build my own router. PROXMOX and OPNsense were easy to install after reading install guides. An additional OPNsense guide for setting up traffic shaping eliminated buffer bloat. The N100-based unit was more than capable of running PROXMOX and the OPNsense virtual machine. If I can get a refund I'll likely look for a vendor with better support. A brand that rhymes with Directly has a good reputation, but they didn't have N100-based mini PCs at the time.I was originally was going to buy this mini PC from a famous Chinese based ecommerce website, but I thought it would be delivered faster through Amazon and I would get better customer service if I had an issue. I don't think I've been any better off buying from Amazon and I paid more.I've initiated the return process with Amazon. Amazon indicated CWWK will provide a shipping label and I'll be refunded after the unit is returned. It has been a few days and CWWK hasn't provided the shipping label.The unit shipped from China and was delivered earlier than estimated. I suspect the return will need to ship back to China, but I haven't gotten the return label yet so I'm not sure.

I bought this and also one of those little mini cubes with 4x 2.5g Intel nics as well at the same time, this one had the N100 (only avail at the time) and the mini cube I got with the N305 cpu. The BIOS in both are a "hot mess" so to speak but I was easily able to update the cube while this one was outdated and couldn't really find a "new" version.My plan was to run Proxmox on both with either pfSense or OPNsense (i'm running OPN now)... and the cube has 16gb of ram built on while I got ""Crucial RAM 16GB DDR5 4800MHz'' for this unit.It runs fine, don't get me wrong but there's a bug or glitch in the BIOS that throttles the CPU speed and you have to DIG.. and DIG, and reboot and test to get the CPU/ cores to boost to regular speed. Also, in Proxmox and other OS's there's ALOT of memory and IO latency while on the N305 its fast 0% issues.I tried it for weeks and tested under different enviroments plus the problem is, there's only 3 TRUE hardware NICs, while the 4th is USB tied...So in my opinion, go for something else or one of the many little mini cubes out there (they seem to draw less power too)..Also, i did do the removal/ heat sink compound on this one and it does make it run cooler, the junk they use is like a putty and useless so if you get one and plan to keep it, def take it apart and put something else on there.One thing I do like about it is the size and how you can stuff it full of drives and expansion, etc.. something you can't do on a mini cube.