Thank you for reviewing something that isn't enterprise gear out of the reach of normal consumers. Looking forward to the long term reliability report!

For those that want a newfangled Gracemont-only solution like this but with ATX power connector, Asrock also offers a board that is simply named "N100M". This one's micro-ATX though, but it does have an additional PCI-E slot. Might be a a godsend if you want to add both an HBA and a NIC, say, for home server shenanigans. And if the different form factor is a deal breaker, ASUS has the "PRIME N100I-D D4". It's mini-ITX that wants regular 24-pin power. Have fun.

@OlindoPindaro

5 ай бұрын

Do you know what means pcie 3.0 4x (mode 2x) in the manual?

@diotough

5 ай бұрын

@@OlindoPindaro it's physically a 4x slot but only connected to 2x electrically. So the bandwith is 2x but 4x fits physically - just with lower bandwith.

@si4632

4 ай бұрын

micro atx ewwwwwww

Thanks for still talking about ECC, most of the other KZreadrs don’t bother. Really interesting stuff, I’m looking for a low power itx board that has a cpu included and Ecc support. Ideally cheap too!

Please come back on this one Wendell, i want in a couple of months to setup a small pihole/media server and i am looking for something low power, cheap as possible and adequate for these tasks. Keep it up!

This is the type of thing I always keep around as a testing platform (to test changes to my NAS or router or hypervisor config before rolling it out to the actual system). My current testing system is aging and I've been considering an N100 replacement.

wow, max 1 DDR4 DIMM. I can feel the gentle breeze blasting through my hair. 😊

Pro tip for UPS shipments: If it's something you don't want to have damaged, insure it for $1000+. Anything over $1000 should get the kid gloves treatment. Also, make sure the item is packed and braced with cushioning.

Love this thank you Wendell. I've been looking for a low power board to set up as a little as and Dns/dhcp mini web server box for projects etc. Good stuff.

I recently picked up three N100 mini PCs to run as a Kubernetes cluster (k3s). Aside from the all-too-common issues with NFS backed storage that I've had, it's been a solid little setup.

I've been looking at some of the Ali Express version of these thanks for the video so we can compare.

I recently made a 1.5U opnSense box out of an old switch chassis and regular ITX components. My rule of thumb for homelab stuff is to always use standard hardware, since that allows it to be easily upgraded when needed.

@F0XH0UND007

6 ай бұрын

In most cases I agree, but in reality most consumers aren't going to upgrade the same old mobo unit running an opnsense or pfsense router. It's more energy efficient to run a mobile chipset similar to this one. You're not going to see the performance benefit of running a non mobile desktop or workstation chipset in opnsense. In 3-5 years you will want to replace the mobile set with something even more energy efficient if needed since it's going to be running 24/7.

@TheJensss

6 ай бұрын

@@F0XH0UND007 I agree that power efficiency is important, but when the itx system is using only 20w I don't see that there is a large benefit of more expensive non upgradable hardware that also is more costly for a few more watts of efficiency. After all, I have servers and other equipment running 24/7 that uses up to 100-150w constantly. So there will be more power to save by turning of services when I dont use them. My point of view is save power where you can, but at the same time knowing that 80-90% of the power used in my home is for heating, water heating and charging the EV. So the money to save electricity is better spent on such things rather than hardware.

Cool N100-ITX build 👍 11:31 -- HDMI audio toggle in BIOS for Windows 10/11 is badassery 😎

The best use of this mobo I could think is using it as cheap server for redundancy in 3-5 numbers. But the cost actually adds up if you add case, power supply, fans and other stuff so I think using a CWWK firewall application could be of better use and cheaper but with spooky support.

I have an N100 mini-pc running as my NVR 24/7. It pulls around 25-30w. For a 24/7 use case, it's perfect for me

@glenbush2008

6 ай бұрын

What software are you running?

@victorcano7832

6 ай бұрын

@@glenbush2008 I'm using i-spy with 4 1080p cameras

@djvincon

5 ай бұрын

How many drives do you have attached?

@victorcano7832

5 ай бұрын

@@djvincon I have one drive on a usb enclosure for the video files. I don't store very old footage so that is enough for me.

@Dmitryzakharov

12 күн бұрын

25-30w ? isn't it a bit too high ?

Those N100 boards are amazing. 7W TDP and about as fast as most of the Celeron or Pentium options. Just perfect for a NAS at home. I wish it had 2-4 more PCIe lanes. However, there's also an ASRock N100M board with 2 PCIe slots: 1x PCIe 3.0 16x (2x electrical) and 1x PCIe 3.0 1x (but open at the back?). Throw in a Broadcom SAS 9300 HBA into the PCIe 1x slot and a Mellanox 10G SFP+ adapter into the 1x slot and you have a NAS with up to 8 SAS drives, 1x NVMe for OS and 2x SATA on board (maybe for Cache?). Yes, it won't go 10G in the PCIe 1x slot but you should be able to get up to ~6Gbps out of it. Is it ideal? No! Is it good enough for home use? Hell yeah and it's efficient af. ECC would be nice but I guess we have to swallow that pill unfortunately.

When these barely launched, these did cost 100 Euros but over time these got more and more expensive. I’ve already built 4 Intel N100 systems(2 for me) and I absolutely love this board, especially when you need x86_64 virtualization, like environments in Eve-NG. All my systems run 96-98% in C10 state even when running Proxmox with a bunch of servers, sipping on power.

What would be an acceptable drop it replacement board for that server? I have a similar setup running PFSense and would really like to upgrade it.

I was looking at these a few days ago. It's actually closer to $150 than "under $100"

we still have this supermicro machine running in production at some sites as routers/gateways.. from the 15 we installed 11 years ago, 7 are still running (1 died, the rest changed due to other reasons) maybe it just needed the mod to keep going ? We just replaced it..

A china box topton n100+ with 4+ 2.5gbe lan ports is a better value?

Can you also test a 32gb memory module? Does it hurt the performance? I read that once you go over 16gb memory the memory gets slow due to limitations in the processor...

That issue with the PCIe slot not fitting near the audio port at 4:30, is that cause the stand off has more space above it? Or is that blocking even a standard height PCIe slot?

Do they make a n300/305 version of that? 8 threads would be rediculous compaired to the old cherry trail.

Do you think a MB like this would be a good idea for a small home NAS? You know, hook a SATA controller onto the thing, 4 HDDs, two small SSDs for booting TrueNAS scale on the thing?

love ya wen!! i hope you make more drupl content!

What a sneaky surprise right before bed in EU :D

I need to Connect 3 mechanical hdd and a sata SSD. Sata power socket is capable to suppert the load?

Well i just wonder what HP is going to do with the ELITE desktop now.

I already built 3 small 24/7 mediastations with this board. Sadly there is no N300 version for VMs.

I have the exact same board and unfortunately it crashes immediately under win10 when two screens are connected (over HDMI+VGA). Asrock support told me it should work just fine but it doesn't. Could you test if it works for you?

I wish they had some sort of internal power option as well on this. The PCIe layout is better on this than the Asus variant IMO.

Speaking of Cherry Trail, I have a question about E cores, why don't people call them atom cores? E cores are based on atom architecture to a point where some bios will label them as atom cores. It''s a strong brand that still has cpus released as atom, it confuses me.

@noname-gp6hk

6 ай бұрын

Intel calls them E cores. Just using the names the manufacturer uses.

@RyTrapp0

6 ай бұрын

I'm sure Intel realizes that that may have a negative connotation... even if they would never admit it of course

@Knirin

5 ай бұрын

They are Atom chips with Skylake level IPC.

Were you able to test the A+E key NIC? I've read somewhere that the wifi m.2 doesn't support PCIe, so the only things you can use on this board are CNVio wireless adapters

@Vhalikuporamee447

6 ай бұрын

Most A+E key ports have 2x PCIe 2.0 lanes and a USB 2.0 lane.

@Vedeyn

6 ай бұрын

I’d be interested to know this as well. I’ve got one of these motherboards and could not get an m.2 NIC to work in the wifi slot.

@Vhalikuporamee447

6 ай бұрын

@@Vedeyn For what it's worth, I got an M.2 A+E Google Coral TPU to work in one of mine, which requires 1x PCIe 2.0 lane. I guess they are not all created equally.

@Vedeyn

6 ай бұрын

@@Vhalikuporamee447 maybe I’ll try a different model NIC. It was a cheap EBay no brand model.

@eddhick

6 ай бұрын

Also interested in this since I heard normal PCIe cards won't function in the m.2 WiFi port due to CNVio as mentioned above. For my use case I would need the m.2 WiFi port for a second PCIe NIC card since all other lanes would be busy with other jobs. TIA

im running proxmox on a 4 core for side storage for my laptop just to dump off without sorting then sort and put in Vault Storage Server

Although it's more or less the same CPU cores, C2578 is a Rangeley processor rather than Cherry Trail.

I can't get over how he keeps setting it back down onto that cable 😂

Where are the embedded AMD boards? Consoles have Ryzen, Steam Deck has Ryzen, Mini PCs, notebooks, but not a single cheap ITX motherboard. Not even a frankenstein board from aliexpress.

I'm curious how much power the N100 system draws in idle, equipped with 10G Ethernet in idle, since idle power is one of the more important factors in a 24/7 usage.

@Level1Techs

6 ай бұрын

For me about 28 watts but much of that is the ancient 10g card

@LeminskiTankscor

6 ай бұрын

Got my board to about 6W idle with some tuning. That's with a USB boot drive, single NVME ssd, a fan, and spundown usb drive. Onboard gigabit.

@torgrimt

6 ай бұрын

@@Level1Techs does it handle 10g?

Why not virtualize opnsense so you can do snapshots before making changes and easily restore if you screw something up.

I'm running proxmox on a AMD X2 3250e with 4gb ram. It's a great backup unbound server, it was running home assistant just fine for my uses, really really basic config. It worked as a test playground for things like learning how to setup a basic DHCP server (kea) and Authoritative DNS server (NSD) by using a separate bridge. A N100 based machine have better performance, and use less power, but for many of our homeprod type loads is plenty. Honestly i'd love a N100, N305, or I3-1x100 with at least 48 or 56 pcie lanes. that could be some or all of OCuLink, M.2, or SF8643 connectors, there are adaptors for all of those so i can do whatever with them. Ideally with bios support for really silly things like running a 16x slot via 4 SFF8643 ports.

@jamesbuckwas6575

6 ай бұрын

Pray for low end threadripper CPUs to somewhat fill that role I guess. I'm really hoping for an 8 or 12 core threadripper 7000 CPU for a separate purpose than that, but I agree that more varieties of CPUs should be made for the excellent platforms that already exist from AMD. If Ryzen CPUs can have lots of cores and (relatively) low connectivity, then Threadripper CPUs can have the opposite.

The two main considerations for my next home file server are low idle power, and a full 1/2.5/5/10Gb ethernet port. 2.5 is fine for most needs(really 1Gb is fine), but I can't justify upgrading my network Just to go from 1->2.5. 16port 1G switches are dirt cheap, 2.5/5/10 not so much. And since I get 10-15 years from a file server... (The house wiring is all full cat6a) My current NAS idles between 5 and 10w depending on the storage drive(one), peak power is around 25w, 12v wall-wart powersupply. Uses a single core Atom around 1Ghz with 512MB RAM. Just enough to keep up with a 1Gb network connection and single spinning sata disk.

Considering this to replace my 3740T based opnsense router. Mostly because of noise and heat. How much power does this sip?

@LeminskiTankscor

6 ай бұрын

I got mine to 6w idle.

@torgrimt

6 ай бұрын

@@LeminskiTankscor sweet. the 3740T with intel 10gig idles at 50ish watts, so that is an major upgrade. Thanks!

@LeminskiTankscor

6 ай бұрын

@@torgrimt sorry, need to clarify I'm not using 10G,just the onboard gigabit. But if you have an effecient 10G card, that'll give you an idea.

@torgrimt

6 ай бұрын

@@LeminskiTankscor Jeh, it wont take it up that much, it is indeed an super upgrade. And without the atx powersupply it will be great for noise aswell.

@LeminskiTankscor

6 ай бұрын

@@torgrimt yeah. I'm running an old laptop charger. It also seems OK with 20V, some tricks like 20V usb-c is possible

USD $130 is cheap? Since when does any motherboard have to be specd for 24/7?

reckon it can do opnSense with a 2 dozen clients and 1gb WAN?

@aliancemd

2 ай бұрын

If you want to put OPNSense or pfSense, search for Intel Atom systems, those are faster for networking

❤ more forbidden router content

I would be all over it if it has PCIe x8 and has ATX power option.

@MurkyOne

6 ай бұрын

There is I believe, asrock n100m but it's matx.

*Stares at Avoton based super micro model sitting directly behind me*. Honestly it's not really had a single hiccup as a pfsense system on a gigabit ISP but you might be shaming me sufficiently enough to upgrade it.

@TheBaldOne

6 ай бұрын

you and me both, I have that case and would like a drop in replacement for my pfsense box, but can't seem to find anything that would fit and more importantly is available at a decent price.

Does anyone know of a network appliance case that takes standard motherboards ?

3:24 - resistor mod? To boot? This isn't shorting out the two pins on the power supply connector trick, is it? I have a PC that stopped booting, the power supply turns on if I short out the two pins, I have been considering installing a momentary switch to short out the pins to force the power supply to turn on while it is connected to the system.

Looks like it could make a decent pfSense box for a home lab.

@ketapillar

6 ай бұрын

hope you have $399 a year.... OPNsense is still free

@elminster8149

6 ай бұрын

@@ketapillar ??? I run CE at home, which was the point. 🙄 Why on earth would I run Plus on this hardware.

im looking for a board like this for a long now, but they all ways too expensive for me xd

I would take the whole chassis with that old board, put OpnSense on it, shove it on my HomeLab Rack and all it a day. Unfortunately, I do not live in the US... So whoever gets the board, please have fun with it.

Q: Would data center workers like RGB lighting on servers?

damn and i thought my 16 core atom super micro that uses like 20 watts was power efficient for file serving.

wow this thing is about as powerful as a 4690k while only sipping 7w that's insane.

can we get internal DC PSU at last? external bricks are annoying, routing the cable through some hole to plug it in the back of the board is also weird...

Wendell's pricing is way off here. He refers to it being under $100 a few times and I see it online @ $130. That's a pretty massive percentage price change that pushes it out of the "eh it's cheap who cares" zone and into more grey area. I really like this product, and I see there is also a mATX variant that includes a x16 slot running @ PCIe 3.0 x 2. That one is actually cheaper than the ITX one currently on Newegg.

@POVwithRC

6 ай бұрын

If 130 is a grey area hardship, you probably shouldnt be spending 100 either.

@FrenziedManbeast

6 ай бұрын

​@@POVwithRC I think it's fair to point out a more than 30% price difference between content creator listed and actual market price. It has nothing to do with my specific solution - my NAS is already built and running just fine on an ATX platform thanks to Wendell and others' great content on rolling your own ZFS solution. More accurate information is only a benefit to consumers and the larger creator community. I love Wendell and L1T, and feel my OP is constructive feedback to support their continued success.

@christopherjackson2157

6 ай бұрын

Prices fluctuate a fair bit. And vary by region and seller. Not much we can about that beyond checking local current prices.

@FrenziedManbeast

6 ай бұрын

@@christopherjackson2157I live in the same geographic region as Level1Techs, and my OP was posted at content launch. If 30% price fluctuation is normal for a product within 24hrs (it isn't at all, especially with motherboards), then my next bit of constructive feedback might be to talk about at which price points competitive options become worth consider for a consumer.

@jonathanconklin6351

6 ай бұрын

Taxes suck yeah? Paying that extra $30 will subsidize something else for someone else, no need to whine lololol

what I don't understand is why asrock keep making their N100 offerings work with DDR4 when even the Chinese miniPC have been using DDR5 for over a year now.

@si4632

4 ай бұрын

ddr5 makes little to no difference on this soc thats why, obviously it isnt starved of memory bandwidth

there is a micro atx of that motherboard

Please do a power consumption test

@LeminskiTankscor

6 ай бұрын

6W Idle, 20-25W under fair load. Source: have one.

@philipphellmich7644

6 ай бұрын

@@LeminskiTankscor 6w sounds good, I saw n100 review which said that the have 10w minimum at idle...

@LeminskiTankscor

6 ай бұрын

@@philipphellmich7644 might need a little tuning / be smart about it. I seen a review that claimed high idle, but the chap used a very high wattage PSU, so efficiency was low there.

@si4632

4 ай бұрын

no people have been reporting a rather disappointing idle of 15 watts on this mini itx board @@LeminskiTankscor

@si4632

4 ай бұрын

which is similar to my ancient athlon 5350 using a 60watt 12volt brick

Too bad it doesn't have an integrated Lan of 2.5g or 10g...

I wish the motherboard vendors would just get rid of the stupid audio ports. So so so many external solutions for audio these days - if you even need anything beyond the audio sent to your monitor over HDMI/DP. If that were my system I'd desolder that whole audio header to make the PCIe riser fit.

@PainterVierax

6 ай бұрын

Dude! This is a board with VGA and RS232… of course they will keep the analog audio ports and headers.

@si4632

4 ай бұрын

useful for cheap analogue surround sound ive connected 3 class d stereo amplifiers to each jack 5.1 lol@@PainterVierax

RGB on ram and mobos is just intended so that businesses don't buy cheap components and go for enterprise gear worth +++++ $

Asrock QC and support has burned me a few times. They are innovative, so the temptation is way to give in to. Unless it's a Taichi quality pcb, I'm likely to pass.

“Inexpensive” / “$100 or less” made me check Amazon in EU… €182 in France, €139 in Germany. Would not consider this “inexpensive” except, of course, if it's against Supermicro's pricing that you're referencing.

F

"4 e-cores for an office worker" Um ok.