Power Consumption and Noise
Many folks prefer internal power supplies, but this one uses an external brick that adds considerable size to the overall package.
It is a Dajing ADP-90H12, which is a 12V 7A adapter.
In terms of power consumption, the Intel X710 adds 5-8W of power. Even with a 15W TDP CPU, adding a SODIMM, a NVMe SSD, a fan, and then six 2.5GbE NICs means that we ended up well into the 13-16W range at idle. Maximum power was 45-55W, though, and there is probably a bit more headroom. Going over 100W seems unlikely.
On the power, one other note is that you get a few seconds at a 25W power cap in this machine.
Then it drops down to 15W, which is why we get such low power and relatively cool operation.
At the same time, the fan is just too loud in the 39-41dba range. This needs to be a much lower-noise fan.
Final Words
What an interesting little box. On the one hand, if you just need a lot of network interfaces, then something like this can make sense. With 6x 2.5GbE ports and two 10G SFP+ ports, it offers plenty of connectivity. There may even be a use case for the system to do more with the integrated GPU, USB, and display outputs. Still, there are some serious limitations.
The Intel Core i5-8260U is not the fastest CPU. It has more single-core performance than many of the lower-power E-cores we have seen in most networking boxes. At the same time, it only has four cores and eight threads. For example, it brings 16 PCIe Gen3 lanes instead of just 9, so you can build a box like this without some of the trade-offs you would need with lower-power options. Also, Intel’s Atom line has been integrating 25GbE and 100GbE recently, which means that the cost of those parts has been increasing, and it now uses DDR5. As a result, this is a lower-cost way to make a box like this. With that said, it needs a quieter fan.
Overall, I am not sure what to say about this one. Making a system like this is full of trade-offs. To me, the big trade-offs are the CPU’s age, the BIOS’s age, and the fan noise. Still, I can see folks taking this and turning it into their ideal networking appliance.
Where to Buy
If you want to purchase this, here is an AliExpress affiliate link.
