Chuwie LarkBox X 2023 N100 Quick review, 3.5W idle power master reddit / selfhosted ---------------------------------------------------------------------- benjiro3000 · 2023-10-16 12:41 For the people who are wondering about a simply but power efficient self hosting system. The Chuwie LarkBox X 2023 N100 is a incredible efficient system. https://www.chuwi.com/de/product/items/chuwi-larkbox-x-2023.html Going over the Intel N100 systems reviews tend to show a 10 to 11W idle for most of the mini-pc and itx boards with this CPU combination. One of the outliers has been the LarkBox X 2023 that had a reported 7W idle power consumption. Ordered one a few weeks ago (took a while to get here). Well, that 7W ended up being slightly off... Measuring the power in Windows Idle, we got 6 to 7W. What was close to the reported 7W. But we need no Windows for a nice little self hosted mini-nas. Installing Linux, around the same idle power usage, ok, so no issues there and the ethernet ports gets detected correctly. Next step was removing the default 512GB NVME and installing a Crucial P3 4TB and removing the Intel 101 Wifi card. Boots up system connected to the 2.5gbit ethernet port. ... **3.5W!** with fluctuation in the 4 a 4.5W Verified using my old Unraid and a fresh installed Ubuntu. My old system with a 4650G + 64GB was idling at 20W with fluctuation into the 30W+ range. Yes, i lost ECC but the 64GB was overkill as all my containers/lxd barely used 3GB. The Chuwie costs 169 Euro (inc transport/import tax for Europe). That give you: * N100 * 12GB memory * 512GB NVME (what you can recycle). It has only one NVME slot! * Intel Wifi 101 card (again, recycle) * Basic 35W DC power adaptor (with CORRECT EU plugs, no Chinese + travel adaptor like so many companies do). * 4 USB 3.2 ports, so you can always expand * Box / fan / ... So its a very cost efficient little mini server for running docker and lxd containers. One sneaky thing you can do, is install a NVME to 6 SATA and then run 5 HDD and 1 SSD (note: need their own 12v/5v power). Issues: Bios is very bare. Think laptop bios but Vm-d etc seems to be active, you can enable power on boot / netwerk boot, ... Really did not see any need to change much as the basics are active and the rest that you may need, is accessible. Runs without keyboard, and i used a dummy HDMI but think it does not need it. So all the cables to it are basic power and ethernet. Note: this is my own system, not paid or other crap like that. Just wanted to tell people, that the N100 can run very efficient and frankly, beats a Pi in my eyes. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SwissOS · 2023-10-16 15:28 Interesting, I had never even heard about this box. Seems really power efficient. [Specs](https://www.chuwi.com/product/items/chuwi- larkbox-x-2023/specs.html) are a bit sparse though.... I mean: "LAN: 2pcs" ... what speed are they? I was wondering if this box could be used as a router with pfsense? And how loud is the fan? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thekrautboy · 2023-10-16 15:52 N100 is a great little thing, no doubt. But 12GB RAM wouldnt last me very long and for that price i could get some NUC or NUC-like also with a quadcore CPU but with up to 64GB of RAM possible. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- benjiro3000 · 2023-10-16 16:03 > Btw that site lists a 512GB SATA SSD as included, not a NVMe drive. Yep, its a SATA SSD, just checked the drive and the pin layout is m.2 SSD (two cuts) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- benjiro3000 · 2023-10-16 16:08 > I mean: "LAN: 2pcs" ... what speed are they? Two Realtek with the following: * 1Gbit * 2.5Gbit > Seems really power efficient. Got it down to 2.5W idle, using Debian (server) *lol* ... And 3.5/4W with activity. > And how loud is the fan? Currently, extreme hard to hear. Take in account, my room is super silent. I can hear a slight rrrrrr sound, because the fan is, well, barely bigger then a chipset fan. For the most part the fan is simply not working and from time to time it spins up, runs for 5 seconds and stops. With a more perma load, i assume the fan will work more and louder. Lets just say its leagues more quiet (in idle) then the AMD stock cooler that was on my 4650g, and that i tuned to run at as low rpm as possible. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thekrautboy · 2023-10-16 16:12 > This unit has 12GB soldered ram! So no replacing it. Yeah thats a absolute no-go for me then. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thekrautboy · 2023-10-16 16:17 I agree, the documentation on this is a bit terrible. Even more so in german with obvious AI translation they have used. But on the plus side, you can barely buy any N100 or similar units here, almost all of them are either Amazon Marketplace only or from Aliexpress, neither of which i want to use.