Has anyone used this: Iwill Technology ITX Fanless Server PC J1900 N10A 4LAN
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Hi All
Just about ready for my first pfSense build, but before I make
my final hardware decision I was wondering if anyone has any
experience with these little boxes?Will pfSense run?
Are they half decent quality or just low priced junk?
Any input would be appreciated.
Features/Web Link:
Popular Nano ITX Fanless Server PC J1900 N10A 4LAN
Features:
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Intel J1900 Quad Core 2.0GHz;
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Intel HD Graphics;
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1*VGA
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4*USB2.0;
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Support 2G,4G,or 8G DDR3 RAM and MSATA SSD
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DC 12V Power Supply
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4*LAN Intel WG82583 10/100/1000M Ethernet
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Realtek ALC662 HD Audio CODEC
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High-quality aluminum alloy case, size:13412636mm
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Fanless design,more durable in application
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I'm running pfSense 2.3 64bit on that exact box right now and it runs perfectly.
I put in 8gb of ram and a 256gb mSata (a little overkill on both) and it runs just fine. I have a 150mb internet connection and it barely breaks a sweat under full load, I have no doubt it could support a much higher connection speed without issue. I was also running Snort and pfBlocker, although I haven't bothered reinstalling those yet after upgrading to pfSense 2.3
I did find it ran a little warm, since the whole case serves as a heatsink, it's in a closet and the processor temp sensor was reporting 62C, so I bought an 5Lx5Wx1H finned aluminum heatsink from heatsinkusa.com for $8 & shipping and just sat it on top, it's the same dimensions as the case and works perfectly, lowered the temp by 5C.
Been running it a few months now with no problems, I only ordered the heatdsink last week (and just got it today.) I'm not sure it was even necessary, I just did it for the hell of it.
The build quality is very high, it's a solid well put together unit. Also a plus is that you're getting intel ethernet ports as opposed to realtek.
I have no regrets, very happy with it.
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I have installed 6 of them and they work Great. Perfect for small offices. :)
And you dont need to add a heat sync to it.
And dstacey147 you should let it come out of the closet….. ;) -
The heatsink also serves to keep the cat off it :-)
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I'm running pfSense 2.3 64bit on that exact box right now and it runs perfectly.
I put in 8gb of ram and a 256gb mSata (a little overkill on both) and it runs just fine. I have a 150mb internet connection and it barely breaks a sweat under full load, I have no doubt it could support a much higher connection speed without issue. I was also running Snort and pfBlocker, although I haven't bothered reinstalling those yet after upgrading to pfSense 2.3
I did find it ran a little warm, since the whole case serves as a heatsink, it's in a closet and the processor temp sensor was reporting 62C, so I bought an 5Lx5Wx1H finned aluminum heatsink from heatsinkusa.com for $8 & shipping and just sat it on top, it's the same dimensions as the case and works perfectly, lowered the temp by 5C.
Been running it a few months now with no problems, I only ordered the heatdsink last week (and just got it today.) I'm not sure it was even necessary, I just did it for the hell of it.
The build quality is very high, it's a solid well put together unit. Also a plus is that you're getting intel ethernet ports as opposed to realtek.
I have no regrets, very happy with it.Thanks very much for the reply… a couple of follow up questions...
1. How long have you had it running?
2. How long did it take to get it?
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I've had it running for a few months now.
I didn't get mine from Iwill, but ordered it on ebay from Hamsing PC (just do an eBay search for Hamsing PC, currently this unit shows up as the very first item listed). It's exactly the same unit, it's called the N10 and comes in a generic box, it's offered by multiple vendors.
I've order mini PCs units twice from Hamsing PC, their service is excellent ("Robin" is quick to answer questions via email) both shipped from China and arrived within 3 to 5 days, i.e. I ordered it on a Sunday and had it by the following Thursday or Friday. I live in LA, if you're more inland I imagine it may take you a little longer to get it.
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I've had it running for a few months now.
I didn't get mine from Iwill, but ordered it on ebay from Hamsing PC (just do an eBay search for Hamsing PC, currently this unit shows up as the very first item listed). It's exactly the same unit, it's called the N10 and comes in a generic box, it's offered by multiple vendors.
I've order mini PCs units twice from Hamsing PC, their service is excellent ("Robin" is quick to answer questions via email) both shipped from China and arrived within 3 to 5 days, i.e. I ordered it on a Sunday and had it by the following Thursday or Friday. I live in LA, if you're more inland I imagine it may take you a little longer to get it.
Can you please tell me is this the store that you bought from and the correct machine?
Thanks
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I've had it running for a few months now.
I didn't get mine from Iwill, but ordered it on ebay from Hamsing PC (just do an eBay search for Hamsing PC, currently this unit shows up as the very first item listed). It's exactly the same unit, it's called the N10 and comes in a generic box, it's offered by multiple vendors.
I've order mini PCs units twice from Hamsing PC, their service is excellent ("Robin" is quick to answer questions via email) both shipped from China and arrived within 3 to 5 days, i.e. I ordered it on a Sunday and had it by the following Thursday or Friday. I live in LA, if you're more inland I imagine it may take you a little longer to get it.
Can you please tell me is this the store that you bought from and the correct machine?
Thanks
Hi All
Just wanted to report back to the forum as it might be helpful to people looking for affordable hardware- especially for the Canadians that this was a very workable option.
I got it in a week - Costs: $165US + $25USD Shipping ($256CDN) + $24CDN Brokerage and fees - Total $280CDN (Circa June 30/2016)
Was going to do a Supermicro X11SBZ-LF4F-O, but the board alone was $360 + $50 for the micro PS + over $100 for a MiniBox …
To add insult to injury, Newegg (cheapest source in Canada on the day ordered) supplied v1.01 of the board, and I was going to have to pay to ship it back to the US to have a field upgrade to V1.0, so I sent it back to Newegg. I likely would have kept it if it was the right version, but with shipping and taxes and a price tag significantly above $500CDN I wasn't willing to go though the hassle, so I decided to the N10 instead for $200+ less.I had more problems with DHL than anything else - 4 days to get from China and clear Canada customs, and 3 days to get from DHL - I paid the duty and brokerage fees online and 24 hours later the driver DIDN'T have confirmation. Since I use a mail handling service for my delivery they didn't have the physical receipt. The driver asked for an 8 digit confirmation number by phone (there were NO 8 digit numbers on the receipt). When I called customer service, the rep that answered the phone couldn't even find record of the payment. I guess the D in DHL stands for Dumpkoff ... In short their payment system sucks, but I finally got my package.
Nice solid little case, runs a bit warm... can reach almost 60C (28C ambient), but given Tj for the chip is 105C, that's a long way off of the design spec and close to the 56C that my old consumer grade router modded with dd-wrt runs at.
My internet connection is spec'd at 250/20 and under full load running repeated speed tests which are over (300/20), I get to about 25% CPU and 58C.
I installed a bunch of packages, but I don't really have them set up properly due to the steep learning curve.
One gotcha was that it only has one DIMM slot, so I could only use one of the 4GBx2 modules that I had, but so far 4GB is more than enough. I might have to upgrade once I get all the packages configured and running.
Once I get the system all tricked up with firewall/IDS/reporting etc, I'll post another performance report here.
Thanks to all in the forum that answered my questions and helped me get this far... now off to other sections of forum to scale the setup learning curve.
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It's made by Qoton. I posted a review here: https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=114202.0
You also purchase here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019Z8T9J0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Ordering from Amazon, it was here in 4 days. Well built, very easy to add an mSATA drive and 8gb of RAM.
I have two in service..they work great. Both run at 40C or so, no active cooling. I added an aluminum extrusion (just sits on top) at the heavy load site, to reduce temps a bit passively.
The pics below are pretty much self explanatory :-)
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It's made by Qoton. I posted a review here: https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=114202.0
You also purchase here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019Z8T9J0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Ordering from Amazon, it was here in 4 days. Well built, very easy to add an mSATA drive and 8gb of RAM.
I have two in service..they work great. Both run at 40C or so, no active cooling. I added an aluminum extrusion (just sits on top) at the heavy load site, to reduce temps a bit passively.
Nice review…. I wish it had been available about the 1st of June when I started planning... it would have saved me about 2 weeks of research and about $75.
A few questions:
I'm wondering how you get the temp down to 40C... what's your ambient (Air Conditioned Server room?)
Can you post a picture of the aluminum extrusion? (or is that those little aluminum brackets screwed to the bottom of the case? What are they for?)
BTW what is the USB for? KB? Serial Link?
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We have two locations..one is a basement LAN closet (always cool) and the other is a server room (no AC), that ranges from 65 to 80F.
The extrusions to add some cooling in the server room are left over from one of our product manufacturing processes..they just add mass and surface area for a bit more cooling. I've seen a few folks use a USB powered fan, just sitting on the case.
The brackets on the bottom of the case (they're hidden inside normally) are there to mount an SSD drive to in case you're not using an mSATA drive like I did.
The USB is going to an APC UPS that protects the pfsense box and our network switches. I'm using NUT on the pfsense box to ensure an orderly shut down in case of power issues.
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Great review, but can it route gigabit? 8)
Do I have to unscrew anything to attach a SATA 3 SSD?
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How do you have it tuned to get 40C? What CPU load? Is the room temp 68F or below?
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Based on hardware specs from pfsense, yes it should be fine with gigabit, particularly with 8GB RAM.
To install an SSD, or mSATA drive. Remove four screws on the bottom of the box. Everything you need is there, including the 2.5" mount brackets.
All we're using is PowerD, set to "hiadaptive". At 29C in the server room (as warm as it ever gets) the pfsense is at 46C, no fans installed. At 20C ambient, box is at 40C. Load is 12-20 users, 50/25 fibre connection, box is running 3 NICS, guest network, SNORt, SqUId, squidguard, openVPN, light squid, NUT and clamAv.
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Brilliant 8) ;D
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All we're using is PowerD, set to "hiadaptive". At 29C in the server room (as warm as it ever gets) the pfsense is at 46C, no fans installed. At 20C ambient, box is at 40C. Load is 12-20 users, 50/25 fibre connection, box is running 3 NICS, guest network, SNORt, SqUId, squidguard, openVPN, light squid, NUT and clamAv.
I'm trying to figure out why your setup is so much cooler - I have almost no load, most of the pacages are turned off, the room temp is about the same, I have the same settings and my temp is running about 54. I'm wondering if the open wire shelf is facilitating air flow and possibly adding additional heat sinking.
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I'm trying to figure out why your setup is so much cooler - I have almost no load, most of the pacages are turned off, the room temp is about the same, I have the same settings and my temp is running about 54. I'm wondering if the open wire shelf is facilitating air flow and possibly adding additional heat sinking.
Mine is sitting on the top of a tall, wooden book case in a small room at about 80F. CPU reported bemp is anywhere from 50C to 54C.
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Have a look in bios under CPU power management…pretty sure there were some defaults there that were off.
I'm also using an mSATA drive..so may generate less heat than a 2.5" SSD.
I do prefer the wire shelving at both office and business site..definitely better for cooling.
During a vpn session, another user on site working late:
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I've used these several times, great boxes for light-duty work.
One was used at a trade-show with 100/100 and another is at a retail location running a 30/30.
Got mine off of Amazon because I needed it next-day.
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Have a look in bios under CPU power management…pretty sure there were some defaults there that were off.
I'm also using an mSATA drive..so may generate less heat than a 2.5" SSD.
I do prefer the wire shelving at both office and business site..definitely better for cooling.
During a vpn session, another user on site working late:
It's got me beat… maybe manufacturing tolerances.
I'm using an SSD, and have a lot less stuff than you, and I'm running hotter.
Thanks for the info and taking time to post the pix.