8-port 2.5GbE Intel Core Virtualization and Firewall Appliance Mini-Review

8-Port Intel Core Firewall and Virtualization Appliance Internal Hardware Overview

Taking off the main chassis, we can see the eight ports arranged together on two different PCBs.

One big feature is the CPU heatsink that we can see on the bottom of the main motherboard. In the last review, we saw how this has thermal paste that helps interface the heatsink to the chassis.

The key in the system is the riser to give that second level of four 2.5GbE ports.

In that riser is a card with four Intel i226-V NICs onboard. What is strange about this is that this is a custom form factor where the ports are in-line with the connector.

We had to see what was under those heatsinks. Here we can see the four Intel i226-V NICs as well as an ASMedia PCIe switch.

The ASMedia ASM1812 is a PCIe Gen2 switch. What is fascinating about this design is that this is a custom card with an extra component. It seems strange that this could have been done at a lower power and cost by just using PCIe bifurcation.

Here is the other side of the inside of the chassis with the riser and card installed.

Taking the riser out we can see the barebones motherboard the CW-NAS-6. This is the same motherboard model number, despite having a different CPU, as the SFP+ system we reviewed earlier.

We ordered a configured unit, so we got a 256GB Fanxiang S500 Pro SSD and Yue Tiger 16GB DDR4-3200 SODIMM installed.

Here is what the configured unit looks like.

The other strange aspect of this motherboard is that it is the CW-NAS-6 motherboard clearly designed for a NAS with six SATA III ports onboard.

The PICe slot where the riser installs is in the middle of the motherboard seemingly for another application as well.

Next, let us get to the performance.