FANLESS 7W Homelab Fantasy Mini PC

We take a look at an awesome fanless project PC from CWWK. At around $200 for the barebones, it has a lot of expansion options.

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Timestamps
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00:00 Introduction
01:22 External Hardware Overview
03:54 The PCIe Slot
07:25 Internal Hardware Overview
09:40 SATA Ports for SSDs and HDDs
11:13 Performance
14:19 Power Consumption
15:30 Key Lessons Learned

[Devills_hill]

I'm going to be honest here. 80% of the reason i'm still subbed is your energy.

Nothing negative about the content. But i just really always love your vibe!

[stuartcastle]

I'm loving devices like this. I've set up a homelab myself. I don't have room for the rack mounted servers most homelab youtubers seem to have, but I don't need one. I don't have a network of CCTV cameras, a fully automated home or a need to edit terabytes of video on multiple workstations. I don't have multiple workstations to edit the video on, even if I needed to edit video. As for my routing needs, they are more than adequately fulfilled by my Orbi system,

My needs for a "homelab" are essentially a host for loads of VMs I use to experiment with different things, like Active Directory domain management.

That's not to say I wouldn't like a rackmounted server, with hundreds of gigs of RAM and hundreds of terabytes of storage. I would love that, but don't have the money to buy one or, or space to host one. Even if I did, my house is not air conditioned, so heat would be an issue, in the summer at least, it would be quite nice in winter.

So, a couple of weeks ago, I bought myself a NUC style PC. It came with a fast 1TB nvme SSD, and 32 gig RAM, as well as space for a 2.5inch SATA drive.

Thankfully, last year, I upgraded. my main PC with a new 2TB NVME SSD, replacing the 1TB SATA SSD I had been using, so the 1TB SATA SSD is now in the NUC. I've installed Proxmox on the NUC, with the NVME being used for a boot drive, and main storage, and the SATA SSD being used for periodic backups.

Yes, I know that these should be hosted elsewhere (preferably off site), and I am looking into that, but, TBH, the machine isn't hosting anything really important, and the backups are there in case I mess something up while working on a VM, and I haven't updated the snapshots..

I have a Trigkey S5 Ryzen 7 5800H. In fact, the only real fault I can find is there isn't an option to enable Wake On LAN in the firmware.

[rmcdudmk]

This looks like a really cool system. Im glad more companies are producing boards like this and Zemablade. 👍

[dtaggartofRTD]

This looks like a marvelous edge node for slightly higher performance applications. This doesn't look like the sort of system that you fuss with all that often. You build it and put it in the larger unit it'll be part of and that protects and secures all the bits that hang off in a desk configuration. I like it.

Looks like the rubber foot assembly can be removed and replaced with something custom. This is a nice little machine.

[JamieStuff]

A short PCIe v3 x4 riser cable (cheap; they were used by miners) and a 3D printed bracket that bolts to the fan mounts, and you're good to go.

[witalijlewandowski]

And few days after overview price jumps +50%. Great board but 300$ is over the edge of sanity...
Thanks for video btw, quality overviews as always and positive attitude.

[zyghom]

I am seriously "done" with my home lab equipment (buhahaha - till when?) but watching your channel is like subscribing to the best NEWS around these topics ;-)
Thank you for your energetic, happy and deep dive work! All the best in 2024!

[maxhammick]

7015 fans are an odd choice, given that this system has the width for it I'd prefer to see a single mounting point for an 80mm fan. Those are a lot easier to find in PC parts stores, and the 15W N305 isn't going to be *that* hard to cool - a single fan would have plenty of airflow

[churinvideo]

This is the perfect setup for testing components. It would be great for a shop that deals with used hardware or just an enthusiast that swaps out hard drives and PCI-E devices regularly. I can't imagine wanting to use something like this for any kind of a permanent setup. It would simply defeat the purpose of having everything so easily accessible.

[MattHudsonAtx]

I already like the chassis pre-fit for added cooling

[mixedd]

Was eyeing this little thing for a month now. Seems like nice little low power box for DIY NAS build or Pmox cluster node if you need PCIe capability. Plan on ordering one, pairing with LSI HBA and prinring a case for it

[DBTechYT]

This looks really cool!! I love the aesthetic of it!

[adrianTNT]

I could use something like that for "off site" backup, put it in a closet or somewhere in another office and backup everything on it.
But it was nicer if it had power by USB-C, would not heve to carry it's own brick with you when moving it (since is small and mobile / movable).

[qw-]

Thanks for the review! I found another interesting cwwk machine with a ryzen 5600u. Looks perfect for my mini home server

[capability-snob]

Hanging out for a form factor which is "ITX with north-mounted PCIe slot edge connector" for the return of the pizza box.

[JasonsLabVideos]

And after a year, im still watching every one of these videos AND wearing my Red jacket too !! Good work guys !

[confusedbeard]

As it has dual 2.5 Gbit it would be a pretty neat low powered pfsense/opnsense box.

[georgelza]

... that case and a ABS printer can make up a nice little home server, get that upgraded to a N305 and bonus.

[jeremybarber]

This! This right here is so cool! I’ve been lurking around the ZimaBoard & this thrashes it on many levels. I was thinking that you could probably 3D print a carrier/hot-swap tray to screw onto the top of the chassis for the dual 2.5” drives. Super fun!

[JamesMyatt]

It's definitely interesting but I think a second NVMe slot is more interesting for more people than the pcie socket. You can use an NVMe to pcie adapter cable if you really need pcie and you have flexibility when mounting the pcie card.
But from a general purpose server/router/nas point of view, it's a shame to waste half the pcie lanes on that pcie socket.
But it seems more aimed at the open air test bench application that you have in front of you here than serious use.