AOOSTAR WTR Max vs Minisforum N5 Pro

Hardware Hub
,
1

After seeing Wendell’s video I was about to click buy on the AOOSTAR WTR Max, but then I discovered the Minisforum N5 Pro. Both support ECC, Oculink, have a 10GB nic, and a few M.2 slots. The N5 has one fewer 3.5" bay but adds a PCIe slot. For me, the most significant differences are the CPU and NICs.

Here’s what I’m trying to figure out: How should I expect the idle power draw of the two to compare?

The N5 Pro has a more powerful CPU with more cores (Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 370), but AMD lists its default TDP as much lower (28W) than the AOOSTAR’s CPU (45W Ryzen 7 PRO 8845HS). The N5 Pro has a single Marvell AQC113 copper 10GB Ethernet port (and a Realtek 5GB) instead of the dual Intel X710 SFP+ cages (and dual Intel 2…5GB) on the AOOSTAR–surely skipping the SFP+ saves a lot of power at idle.

NASCompares did a video and writeup about the two, but the power draw comparison is not particularly helpful (he compared idle spinning drives in one machine to no drives in the other or maybe I’m missing something). A comparison with the same M.2 and 3.5" drives in both would be more definitive.

I also like that the N5 Pro doesn’t put the M.2 in a hotswap bay. My homelab isn’t in a closet so someone could theoretically walk up and say “ooh what does this eject” and crash the OS (less of an issue for the SATA drives).

The NASCompares video implies that the screen on the AOOSTAR is accessible via an internal network switch or something and it has its own fixed IP. Maybe it shows up as a USB NIC in the best case, but if it really is somehow switched I don’t like the idea of adding a mostly unknown IoT device into the mix.

I would be interested to see Wendell’s take on the two of these head to head. Of course the Minisforum is more expensive but it might be the best compact-homelab-in-a-box (when you need both compute and storage) I have yet to find.

2

the display is USB in fact. the x710 wasn’t designed to idle quietly but it’s the high tier option for 10gb vs aqc IMHO.

I like the ai max CPU more even at slightly lower power but they’re pretty close real world. the aoostar might have a slight edge in all core heavy workloads tbh.

3

by default the tips for using indicates that the software control interface can be accessed by a fixed IP but until I installed the sub-screen monitoring software app and ran it I was unable to access the control interface.

Here is the instructions for it if you want to read it.

Operating instructions are currently being further refined…txt (2.0 KB)

4

Here are the instructions in the file… translated

Linux Usage Instructions

  1. Unzip the file, navigate to the AOOSTAR-X-linux folder, right-click in an empty area, open a terminal or cd to the AOOSTAR-X-linux directory. Note that the path cannot contain special characters or Chinese characters.

  2. Install and start the service. In the terminal, type the following (root privileges and password required):

pve requires additional commands:

sudo apt update
apt install sudo

Start the secondary screen service

chmod +x ./create_service.sh
sudo ./create_service.sh

  1. Uninstall the secondary screen service. In the terminal, type the following (root privileges and password required):
    chmod +x ./remove_service.sh
    sudo ./remove_service.sh

  2. Install lm-sensors + it87 driver (displays fan speed and other sensor information, optional)

Install lm-sensors

sudo apt update
sudo apt install lm-sensors

Install dependencies

apt update && apt install -y pve-headers proxmox-headers-$(uname -r) dkms flex bison

Install it87

dpkg -i it87-dkms_1.0.63-1_all.deb

Note: If errors occur, you need to resolve dependency or conflict issues.

Uninstall lm-sensors

sudo apt remove lm-sensors

Windows Usage

Double-click AOOSTAR-X-Setup.exe to install. Windows or Windows Server must have all drivers installed; otherwise, errors will occur and the program will fail to start.

General Instructions:

Import the theme from the compressed package; no decompression is required. Windows themes use different sensors than Linux themes, so you need to modify the sensor settings yourself.

The admin port is 5123. The default username and password are admin 123456. Please change the password promptly to avoid security risks.

Display Home Assistant Data:

Open the Monitor3.json file and modify

“ha_url”: “192.168.1.1:8123”,

“ha_token”: “eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpc3MiOiI5ODRmYzJlOTliNzE0MzI4OTA4ZjhlMmZkZTdkY2Y0MSIsImlhdCI6MTc0OTM1NzU2OSwiZXhwIjoyMDY0NzE3NTY5fQ._rAaiSRhUKQx2X7U7KrdlxYkD0VBx2t6tcPfEQLoeTo”

Save this, and rerun AOOSTAR-X. You should then find data starting with HA_ in the sensors.

ha_url is the Home Assistant’s external address, and ha_token is the token.

To display AIDA64 data: File → Settings → Hardware Monitoring Tools → External Programs → Check “Allow Shared Memory” → Select all data at the bottom → Save

5

Don’t confuse x710 da2/4 (sfp+) with x710 t2/t4( copper).
sfp+ will run full speed at <4W
copper will run at ~15W just keeping link up
both should and do idle(no sfp+ adapter nor cabble plugged in) at ~1W.

aqc113 is exceptionaly efficient but still draws ~8w with 10G link up and approx 10-11W at full speed.
and yes x710 da2 is tier above aqc113, for being fiber :wink:

on a side note:
JMB585 (sata controler usen on n5 pro is infamous for failures under heavy load. Bizzare choice if you ask me, asm1166 costs $2 more and is much more reliable. deal breaker for me.
I would love to see n5 pro tested with 16TB HDD resilvering in full raid10 or even raidz2 array.
my 2 cards based on that chip failed during resilver. in normal low usage used to throw crc/dma errors once a week.

1 Like
6

this is good input – I too have had failures with that chipset but also successes in some long-running boxes. I should set that up and test it

@GigaBusterEXE gab some 16tb drives, fully populate and install proxnox on the n5 please

so far the Minisforum n5 pro seems solid:

image
image755×345 9.07 KB

this is resilvering onto a blank drive after the pool being filled to about 13tb/37tb:

 zfs list
NAME   USED  AVAIL  REFER  MOUNTPOINT
tank  13.1T  37.6T  13.1T  /tank

c1:00.0 SATA controller: JMicron Technology Corp. JMB58x AHCI SATA controller

This sata controller does run hot, and will go sideways if it gets too hot, and is not as good as other JMicron controllers, but so far knock on wood hasn’t done anything untoward. This is the second back-to-back resilver with a fresh drive in a z1 pool. @Sasquatch1

3 Likes