Performance
We have both the N100 version:
And the N305 version of this system.
Both the Intel Core i3-N305 and N100 we have tested many times before.
Python Linux 4.4.2 Kernel Compile Benchmark
This is one of the most requested benchmarks for STH over the past few years. The task was simple: we had a standard configuration file, the Linux 4.4.2 kernel from kernel.org, and made the standard auto-generated configuration utilizing every thread in the system. We are expressing results in terms of compiles per hour to make the results easier to read:
The Intel Core i3-N305 adds power consumption and heat, but it also adds a lot of performance.
7-zip Compression Performance
7-zip is a widely used compression/ decompression program that works cross-platform. We started using the program during our early days with Windows testing. It is now part of Linux-Bench.
These are nowhere near modern high-end mini PC CPUs, but they are certainly a huge jump over older generations.
OpenSSL Performance
OpenSSL is widely used to secure communications between servers. This is an important protocol in many server stacks. We first look at our sign tests:
Here are the verify results.
If you are still in the older Xeon E5 V1/V2 days, these cores are extremely competitive while sipping power.
iKoolCore R2 Max OpenWRT
A question we always get is whether the mini PC can drive the ports. We just used the N100 version to see if it could do iperf3 over the 10GbE ports.
We also tried the 2.5GbE ports and in both cases that worked without issue.
iKoolCore has a OpenWRT version with the drivers you need to make this work and we just ran a simple 10G stream across a WAN and a LAN port.
That worked reasonably well even on the N100. If you want a higher-end firewall then the next step up to the Core i3-N305 might make sense. Then again, if you are doing a lot of deep packet inspection and so forth, then remember you still have 4-8 E-cores.
Next, let us get to the power consumption and noise.
