iKoolCore R1 Pro and R1 Side-by-Side
One of the biggest changes is the label which has been upgraded significantly versus our early R1 sample.
Here we can see that we are getting the same ports, but the new chassis is taller.
Something else to notice is that the heatsink is considerably better with more copper fins than the older R1.
On the network side, things look largely the same. The R1 Pro seems to have lost labeling of the LAN ports and HDMI port which is a small regression.
We had two different SSDs installed, but this looks fairly similar with a few small changes.
The big change is really the top. Here we can see the new model with the contact plate for the SSD to the metal top on the R1 Pro. The R1 did not have this and used a plastic top.
Overall, while the PCB is the same, the big changes come down to the chassis and cooling.
R1 Pro Impact
The two big areas where this is impactful are noise and performance. We saw a pretty similar peak in the 21-24W range in terms of power consumption. Noise in our 34dba studio went from 40dba to 38dba which was a notable improvement, but this is still not a perfectly silent unit.
On the performance side, the difference was not in the maximum performance. Instead, it was in how long the system could run at 100% load before the cooling could not keep up. With the R1, we could generate a load to hit that soak point in around 11-17 minutes. With the new design, we stopped at two hours since it did not seem like we would get there. Being quieter and better at cooling is a solid upgrade.
At the same time, we just want to stress that for virtually all of these systems being used as a virtualization host or a router/ firewall box, seeing a sustained 100% load is unrealistic. If you use a R1 or R1 Pro as a home lab node, real CPU utilization is likely under 25%. For network appliances, we generally aim to stay under 80% CPU utilization on average because CPUs running at 100% utilization tend to run into issues with things like latency when utilization is that high.
Final Words
This was a system that had our team divided. Bryan, who did the upgrade, thought that it was not a difficult upgrade, but our team felt like the R1 Pro was such a big upgrade that it should have been the original version. The $79 upgrade kit also felt expensive, but the $289 for the Pro version was not too bad. We also know the R2 (Intel N95 and N300 update) is coming because we have one in the lab. We expect some will pick the R1 Pro over the R2 even when the R2 is out.
For those who are wondering, we are keeping the R1 that we upgraded as part of this in R1 Pro spec because it is better, but at $79 for the upgrade kit, it would only be something we would want to do if it was a major requirement.
One thing is for sure. These are awesome little boxes. We wish there were WiFi onboard, but having four 2.5GbE network ports or 10Gbps in aggregate bandwidth on such a tiny system is cool.
Where to Buy
Here are a few places that we have found these systems.
- AliExpress
- N6005, 16GB, 512GB on Amazon
Please note that we may earn a small commission if you purchase through our links as we participate in a number of affiliate progams.
shouldn’t that be a radial fan, with this kind of layout?
Would love to know the cost of the R1 vs R1 Pro vs R2. I am looking at the R2 right now bc it gives me the N300 CPU. I would run this as strictly an OPNsense firewall.