G30B Mini PC

November 29, 2022

    Today I want to cover a small pc used as a firewall. I wanted to get one of these for some time but just had not looked into them much as there are many different types. I wanted a fanless since this will be on all the time just like a router. In fact these can be configured as a router themselves. So I’ll go into a few things here. I have a nas that I was thinking of using as my promox box and virtualize everything from there. But before that I wanted to try it out in a virtual machine. Unfortunately I found out that promox did not like that so I could not use it in a virtual box vm. My nas is a bit large, 8 bays and I didn’t want that on all the time. So I decided to get this mini pc which is has an all metal body and it’s the smaller size. I figured I could run promox from it, and then add whatever else I wanted to test out. So I looked for the best priced version and decided to max out the memory and add a roughly 500 gb m.2 drive. One terabyte would have been nice but I just didn’t know how well these parts would be. I just wanted to run things out of the box and now have to purchase then separately.



Main Features:

  • Celeron N5100(6W TDP)

    • CPU: Intel Jasper Lake Celeron Processor N5100, 4 core 4 threads,64 bit, 10nm, 1.1GHz up to 2.8GHz, 4M cache

    • GPU: Intel UHD Graphics GPU, 24EU, 350MHz up to 800MHz

  • Celeron N5105(10W TDP)

    • CPU: Intel Jasper Lake Celeron Processor N5105, 4 core 4 threads,64 bit, 10nm, 2.0GHz up to 2.9GHz, 4M cache

    • GPU: Intel UHD Graphics GPU, 24EU, 450MHz up to 800MHz

  • RAM: 8GB or 2x8GB DDR4 2666MHz

  • SSD: 128GB/256GB/512GB/1TB M.2 2280 NVMe SSD

  • -4xIntel i225-V B3 2.5G RJ45 LANs, 2xUSB3.0.

  • -Support two storage: 1xM.2 2280 NVMe SSD+1x2.5''SATA SSD/HDD.

  • -Support 1xHDMI+1xDP dual display output synchronously and asynchronously.

  • -1xMPCIE wireless slot, support 4G/WiFi/Bluetooth connection.

  • -Support AES-NI, ESXI, Watchdog, Auto power on, RTC, PXE boot, Wake-on-LAN.

  • -Full Aluminum Alloy high quality solid-built shell with three-sided ice thorns, excellent cooling performance, Exquisite production craft on outside design.

  • -Fanless system without cooling fan, noiselessness and durability fit for industrial grade field, work as long as 7x24 hours.

  • -Low consumption TDP only 10W(N5105)/6W(N5100) and can be mounted back of monitor by VESA bracket(optional).


Note:

  • N5100 TDP is 6W, N5105 is 10W. If you need the CPU to run under high load for a long time, I recommend you to choose the N5100 CPU, which has less heat generation.







This comes with two memory slots. Since I maxed it out to the 16GB that they offered, they put in one 16gb dim and I can just add another one if I ever decide to update to 32gb. I'm not sure why they didn't have the option for 32gb.



Here you can see the cpu stuck to the top of the case which does get pretty toasty at around 60 degrees C. I added my own usb fan on the top until I can get a slightly larger one and this brought it down to about 30 degrees C, so it did make a huge difference. I don't want it that hot if it's going to be on all the time.


There are not too many holes on the bottom of this plate, but it stays cools as is. It's the top that gets hot.


Once you take all four screws out, it sort of falls apart like this.


This is all that's included in the box. Unfortunately there was no manual, so I don't have a website for where to get the update bios or drivers if I were to use windows.



Pf Sense came installed on this unit but it didn't look like it was working correctly but I haven't used it myself so I can't tell you anything about it. I will be checking it at a later time.


This is what is displayed at boot up. I don't speak Chinese so I don't know what that says.


And here's the bios information this comes with.






I went ahead and deleted Pf Sense and installed proxmox since I can installed Pf Sense later.


This is how I ended up cooling this unit. It's just a fan I added a usb plug to in order to use it to cool my modem. Now I'm using it on this and it needs it. So not exactly fanless but it keeps the temps low and you can barely hear it. I want to get a slightly bigger one so it's even more quiet.



These are the included Pf Sense screenshots.


My proxmox screenshot.





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