GoWin 1U 25GbE Performance
The Intel Core i3-N305 is a CPU that we have seen a number of times at this point. Still, we wanted to confirm it was performing as expected in this system.
Python Linux 4.4.2 Kernel Compile Benchmark
This is one of the most requested benchmarks for STH over the past few years. The task was simple, we have a standard configuration file, the Linux 4.4.2 kernel from kernel.org, and make the standard auto-generated configuration utilizing every thread in the system. We are expressing results in terms of compiles per hour to make the results easier to read:
Overall no surprises here. The newer Alder Lake-N E-cores are competitive with higher-power P-cores from a few generations ago.
7-zip Compression Performance
7-zip is a widely used compression/ decompression program that works cross-platform. We started using the program during our early days with Windows testing. It is now part of Linux-Bench.
We also saw decent performance gains over some of the older platforms in our charts like the N6005.
OpenSSL Performance
OpenSSL is widely used to secure communications between servers. This is an important protocol in many server stacks. We first look at our sign tests:
Here are the verify results:
Overall, very good performance here.
Passing Traffic
Just as a quick note, we generally had no issue at wire speed running NAT/ firewall traffic over the 1GbE and 2.5GbE ports.
The 25GbE we were still getting closer to 20Gbps running NAT and a bit less than that (~17Gbps) as a firewall. Of course, things like IPSec VPN this will not have QuickAssist offloads for acceleration. Also adding packet inspection and so forth hurts performance. Perhaps the key here is that this is well over 10Gbps speeds for a basic firewall. At the same time, there is still a good reason to use Parker Ridge/ Snow Ridge Intel Atom C5000 series parts with QAT and onboard 25GbE if you want to go faster.
Next, let us get to the power consumption and noise of the system.
can it run fq_codel or cake or libreqos?
Great review! What firewall/OS were you running when you got 17Gbps throughput on the 24GbE SFP+ ports?
I was one of the first people to receive this one. The fan on the PSU is absolute garbage and made it impossible for me to sit next to the machine. I ordered a Noctua NF-A4x20 replacement, spliced it in. That fixed the noise issue immediately. I’m still thinking if it’s worth it (and possible) to replace it with something like a Seasonic.
Also worth mentioning that the onboard SATA ports are not really SATA, those are 2 USB-SATA adapters, which make them almost useless for any real data storage on a modern filesystem like ZFS or Btrfs.
Another quirk is that the board does NOT shut down. The CPU will and system will, but it keeps drawing around 15W when the board is “powered off”, and it screws with the SFP ports because of this, some modules could not come up without replugging them after shutdown (there is a workaround for this on the mellanox side of things). This is because the board does NOT unlatch the PS_ON# pin. Yes, this means that the PSU fan will keep spinning even when the board is “shut down”. And while we’re on the power consumption side, enabling power saving in linux for the i210/i226 NICs makes the whole system crash.
Overall I’m happy-ish with the system, made it work for me. But Gowin has this mentality of designing a new version of hardware right as the first customers get the current version, and if you have issues with it? Tough luck, you can buy the new version which is right around the corner. Caveat emptor
I prefer buying from the company that made an item I’m buying, and given a choice that’s exactly how I shop. At least then I know I’m buying the real thing. I have very little trust in Amazon.
You get these machines that are obviously network appliances and you tell us how many times they can compile the Linux kernel per hour. Yeah, I need to get a nox with a low spec CPU and a lot of fast NICs for my C++ work. It’s so obvious! Please, give these things to your network guy so he can run a proper router or firewall OS on them and do a proper network appliance review.
Any product link?
They will never achieve anything close to 25G on those interfaces. Probably the only thing those would be good for is electrical isolation using fiber transceivers.
The link for product link is https://www.gowinfanless.com/products/network-device/1u-2u-server/
For systems where we’ve seen the CPU a bunch of times before, it’s safe to say we know how it fits into the overall landscape against other chips.
It might be more informative to see its performance compared to other boxes based around the same chip, so we can see if maybe one particular box is hosing up the config, perhaps by a suboptimal memory layout, PCIe lane config, poor default BIOS settings, cooling solution, or whatever. Especially if there’s a reference Intel board (say a NUC or something, in this space?) that could presumably represent a bench mark against which the other integrators could be compared.
The headline is a 25Gb product and barely a paragraph about that. Not what was used, not how it was configured…nada.
Barely passable content for page hits. Nothing more.
Is this a first draft of a review? It does not matter to me how many kernel compiles you can do per day on a network appliance.
What Software did you run? What settings etc
Thank you for the professional review.We will keep upgrade for the next version with cost down and function on.
The article mentions: “At the same time, there is still a good reason to use Parker Ridge/ Snow Ridge Intel Atom C5000 series parts with QAT and onboard 25GbE if you want to go faster”. A link to such a product reviewed by you in this article (or even the comments here) would be tremendously helpful. Thanks!