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Earlier this year Chinese PC maker CWWK launched the X86-P5 Dev Board with support for up to an Intel Core i3-N305 Alder Lake-N processor, support for up to 32GB of DDR5-4800 memory, and an M.2 slot for a PCIe 3.0 SSD. But what really makes the this little computer interesting is that there’s an optional add-on board that lets you use up to four M.2 2280 SSDs.
Now CWWK has launched a mini PC that combines the X86-P5 Dev Board and its storage expansion board to create “Pocket NAS” that’s packed into a compact aluminum chassis measuring 100 x 100 x 59mm (3.9″ x 3.9″ x 2.3″). The new CWWK x86-P5 mini PC is available from the CWWK website (or AliExpress) with prices starting at around $170 for a barebones model with an Intel N100 processor, or just under $260 for a barebones system with an Intel Core i3-N305 chip.
Inside that small chassis is a mainboard with an Intel Alder Lake-N low-power processor, a single SODIMM slot for DDR5 memory, and the expansion board which allows you to connect up to four M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSDs.
One thing to keep in mind is that there Alder Lake-N chips don’t support as many PCIe lanes as higher-priced, higher-performance processors. So in order to enable support for up to four SSDs, the x86-P5 mini PC limits each to a single-lane connection, and that means read/write speeds will top out at about 1 GB/s.
But if you’re willing to get by with a single SSD, you can remove the storage expansion board and just use the single PCIe 4.0 x4 slot on the mainboard, which should support speeds up to 4 GB/s.
The computer’s ports include:
- 2 x HDMI 2.0
- 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A
- 2 x 2.5 GbE LAN (Intel i226-V)
- 1 x DC power input (12V)
The Ethernet ports support Wake on LAN and Auto Power On functionality.
There’s no wireless card included, but there’s an M.2 socket that you can use to add one: CWWK says the system should support WiFi 6, WiFi 7, and Bluetooth 5.4 cards.
In order to keep the system running smoothly, there’s an aluminum heat sink and a 7010 cooling fan positioned below the motherboard. Users can also install an optional 7015 USB fan on top of the computer by mounting it to the four holes in the top cover of the PC.