A couple of years ago, I bought a Qotom mini PC from ALI Express. It has i5 CPU, 4 GB RAM, 64 GB SSD and 4 Intel 1 Gb Ethernet ports and I run pfSense on it. I just did a speedtest and got about 920 Mb down, with the CPU at 7%, memory at 14% and no swap used. I'm quite happy with it. Unfortunately the 2.5 Gb NICs didn't appear until a while after I bought it.
The N100s PCs are marginally more expensive (like 10-15%) but way faster (like 100%), which should allow you to install Proxmox and do much more than a firewall with your mini PC.
N100 also comes with newer Intel I226-V instead of I225-V. There were big stability issues with I225-V below B3 stepping. Since it's always a lottery which stepping you will get, better to go for N100. And you get an NVMe slot instead of mSATA. Although putting normal SATA SSD is recommended, as NVMe gets a lot hotter, and this is not the best in passively cooled case. I should get mine in a couple of days and can't wait to get rid of my ISP crappy router which started to lag and disconnect from time to time.
i5-5300U is what my 4 port unit came with, one of the 1gb is damaged and only connects at 100mb, but other than that 3x 1gb ports as pfsense firewall, speedtests within 900mb/s for gigabit fiber. For my home usage and lab, the cpu is more than enough for my needs. I've been considering getting a 2.5gbe version with the new intel chipset to upgrade my internet speed to 2gb. Curious to see how it performs with additional loads as I've not added any packages, VPN for travelling will be a good use case over the holidays.
Did you manage to get the idle power draw below 4W ? I have one with the N5100 CPU but can't get here. In comparison, I have two Hp elitedesk 800 G4 mini that draws 2-2.5W on idle with proxmox despite being 8th gen.
to be clear: there's a huge bunch of these units with varying nic controllers, numbers of ports, cpus, ram (i.e. 1 or 2 sodimm slots), storage/connectivity expansion options (m.2 slots, sata, cellular modem slots, etc). also adding things like ids/ips rules, firewalls and vpns slams those cpus quite hard
I'm looking into this one and have a question. Is it able to fit THICK 2.5" (15mm height) drive in it? I cannot find measurement about HDD thickness anywhere.
I have a mini PC with the J4105, Intel also says it only supports 8GB of RAM but this machine has 12. I just got in something like what you have but it has the N5100. I'm just starting testing, might be able to do a video on mine but might wait until next year. Good video, and glad to see your CPU usage with the network saturated. How much power does yours pull at idle? With mine in Windows and Linux it is around 10 w but I've seen it go up to 27 or so.
@@oneeyedtechguyis not strange, this is common with many products. PCs, notebooks, synology nas, they often don't update their compatibility lists/datasheets
This is true but depends on what you will do with it or price differences. For something like this those specs are plenty. If you want to run more on the machine absolutely get higher specs
...? And why exactly are you afraid to use it for your home LAN? Do you think it's secretly a Decepticon hiding in disguise that's gonna transform into a killing robot if you use it at home? It's a router with very good specs.. Of course you would use it for your home LAN. Pfsense or OpenWRT, your choice. I myself prefer OpenWRT.
If they're based on the Intel i225 or i226, NO! they do not make good routers. I have one based on the i226 chip and it's pretty much worthless as a router. These chip sets (as I understand it) have a flaw where they randomly go into low power/sleep mode, this makes the device disappear from your network. Intel has been trying to identify the problem for the last 2 years and come up with a fix and as of Jan/2024, still not. If you want a reliable router, don't choose one based on either of these chip sets (or do your homework first, You've been warned)
I'm looking at similar devices, but I just can't get over the risks. Let's face it, these are generic no-name devices coming from a place with a rather shady history. If the use case is to use it as a firewall it needs to be secure from things like back doors. I wish someone would do a deep dive security analysis of these, especially on the BIOS.
My thoughts exactly! First, ordering from Alixxx makes returns, replacements and support almost impossible. Rather buy local or reputable dealer. Second: If these units are used as Firewall, how secure is the hardware?
@@communicationiskey- I'm not expecting someone to check every single model out there, but at least dig into a couple of them. If issues are found with one of them, there's a pretty good chance that we'd find the same issues on all of them.
@@dockettome Yes, I agree. When you rewind the Ukraine’s war, every time Ukraine use a Chinese made drone, they get their location known by Russia. I just do not understand how we can trust such hardware companies. I am not saying to buy only US made 100% of the time but at least reputable manufacturers and resellers. Otherwise why call it a “firewall” 😁
@@JohnPMiller I was thinking the exact same thing. :) There's obviously a market. There's a company in the US called protectli that I've come across. The hardware is "similar" to the no-name stuff but the price tag is significantly higher compared to what we've been discussing here. No clue if it's worth it.
Topton laptop low quality product, no warranty and no technical support, I bought it on Aliexpress and it was money thrown away. Advice from a friend, look for another brand
Topon is not a trustable supplier in terms of delivery time and customer support. Delivery takes weeks more than advertised and the only answer i got is ASAP. Personally I would not recommend this supplier
I got it from aliexpress not direct from topton website. Shipping is the normal for me with anything from there. About 3 weeks and never expect good customer service from aliexpress
A couple of years ago, I bought a Qotom mini PC from ALI Express. It has i5 CPU, 4 GB RAM, 64 GB SSD and 4 Intel 1 Gb Ethernet ports and I run pfSense on it. I just did a speedtest and got about 920 Mb down, with the CPU at 7%, memory at 14% and no swap used. I'm quite happy with it. Unfortunately the 2.5 Gb NICs didn't appear until a while after I bought it.
The N100s PCs are marginally more expensive (like 10-15%) but way faster (like 100%), which should allow you to install Proxmox and do much more than a firewall with your mini PC.
N100 also comes with newer Intel I226-V instead of I225-V. There were big stability issues with I225-V below B3 stepping. Since it's always a lottery which stepping you will get, better to go for N100. And you get an NVMe slot instead of mSATA. Although putting normal SATA SSD is recommended, as NVMe gets a lot hotter, and this is not the best in passively cooled case.
I should get mine in a couple of days and can't wait to get rid of my ISP crappy router which started to lag and disconnect from time to time.
Does the Sim card support 5G in this device?
which router would you recommend for home use? What is a good authorized seller in the USA? My ER-X stopped working
i5-5300U is what my 4 port unit came with, one of the 1gb is damaged and only connects at 100mb, but other than that 3x 1gb ports as pfsense firewall, speedtests within 900mb/s for gigabit fiber. For my home usage and lab, the cpu is more than enough for my needs. I've been considering getting a 2.5gbe version with the new intel chipset to upgrade my internet speed to 2gb.
Curious to see how it performs with additional loads as I've not added any packages, VPN for travelling will be a good use case over the holidays.
Did you manage to get the idle power draw below 4W ? I have one with the N5100 CPU but can't get here. In comparison, I have two Hp elitedesk 800 G4 mini that draws 2-2.5W on idle with proxmox despite being 8th gen.
to be clear: there's a huge bunch of these units with varying nic controllers, numbers of ports, cpus, ram (i.e. 1 or 2 sodimm slots), storage/connectivity expansion options (m.2 slots, sata, cellular modem slots, etc). also adding things like ids/ips rules, firewalls and vpns slams those cpus quite hard
I'm looking into this one and have a question.
Is it able to fit THICK 2.5" (15mm height) drive in it?
I cannot find measurement about HDD thickness anywhere.
Got a 2008 Celeron and it works perfectly with Untangle NG and pfsense. Thou it's not power friendly like this celeron.
I have a mini PC with the J4105, Intel also says it only supports 8GB of RAM but this machine has 12. I just got in something like what you have but it has the N5100. I'm just starting testing, might be able to do a video on mine but might wait until next year. Good video, and glad to see your CPU usage with the network saturated. How much power does yours pull at idle? With mine in Windows and Linux it is around 10 w but I've seen it go up to 27 or so.
Yeah it is strange that Intel states max 8GB but there are systems with higher. I also see mine sit around 10W most of the time.
10w is too much for 24/7 torrent box, nas, server. I need probably stick to gigabyte brix GB-BACE-3000 or GB-BACE-4000. 😁
@@oneeyedtechguyis not strange, this is common with many products. PCs, notebooks, synology nas, they often don't update their compatibility lists/datasheets
Can I install VyOS on it?
Will this support Sophos Home ?
Looking at the system requirements it should be just fine
@@oneeyedtechguy Thanks a lot mate
@@oneeyedtechguy and would you test it on sophos xg ? with basic features ON.. would love to see how it perform
@@zoomerbemen Were you able to install sophos home ISO on it? If so can you share how do you do it?
@@123455866201Aaron Unfortunately no. The Intel NIC i225v on the mini PC I bought is not supported by Sophos Home v19 yet. Bummer for now
N5105 set is better, nvme x 2, usb-typec, hdmi+dp
This is true but depends on what you will do with it or price differences. For something like this those specs are plenty. If you want to run more on the machine absolutely get higher specs
Question - Do people use these for home Labs or their home LAN. I would be afraid to use it for my home LAN
I use my n6005 as my primary router/ firewall
...? And why exactly are you afraid to use it for your home LAN? Do you think it's secretly a Decepticon hiding in disguise that's gonna transform into a killing robot if you use it at home? It's a router with very good specs.. Of course you would use it for your home LAN. Pfsense or OpenWRT, your choice. I myself prefer OpenWRT.
Nice video. Thanks, Howie.
If they're based on the Intel i225 or i226, NO! they do not make good routers. I have one based on the i226 chip and it's pretty much worthless as a router. These chip sets (as I understand it) have a flaw where they randomly go into low power/sleep mode, this makes the device disappear from your network. Intel has been trying to identify the problem for the last 2 years and come up with a fix and as of Jan/2024, still not. If you want a reliable router, don't choose one based on either of these chip sets (or do your homework first, You've been warned)
I have bought one 😢
I'll keep my fingers crossed yours works better than mine did.
I'm looking at similar devices, but I just can't get over the risks. Let's face it, these are generic no-name devices coming from a place with a rather shady history. If the use case is to use it as a firewall it needs to be secure from things like back doors. I wish someone would do a deep dive security analysis of these, especially on the BIOS.
My thoughts exactly! First, ordering from Alixxx makes returns, replacements and support almost impossible. Rather buy local or reputable dealer.
Second: If these units are used as Firewall, how secure is the hardware?
@@communicationiskey- I'm not expecting someone to check every single model out there, but at least dig into a couple of them. If issues are found with one of them, there's a pretty good chance that we'd find the same issues on all of them.
@@dockettome Yes, I agree. When you rewind the Ukraine’s war, every time Ukraine use a Chinese made drone, they get their location known by Russia. I just do not understand how we can trust such hardware companies. I am not saying to buy only US made 100% of the time but at least reputable manufacturers and resellers. Otherwise why call it a “firewall” 😁
I wish Intel made a low-end NUC with multiple Intel NICs to be used as routers.
@@JohnPMiller I was thinking the exact same thing. :) There's obviously a market. There's a company in the US called protectli that I've come across. The hardware is "similar" to the no-name stuff but the price tag is significantly higher compared to what we've been discussing here. No clue if it's worth it.
Topton laptop low quality product, no warranty and no technical support, I bought it on Aliexpress and it was money thrown away. Advice from a friend, look for another brand
Yeah not a high end company, so you get what you pay for. Low cost with no warranty is a gamble. Some work great some are lemons.
Topon is not a trustable supplier in terms of delivery time and customer support. Delivery takes weeks more than advertised and the only answer i got is ASAP. Personally I would not recommend this supplier
I got it from aliexpress not direct from topton website. Shipping is the normal for me with anything from there. About 3 weeks and never expect good customer service from aliexpress