Intel N100: A Problem to ARM

The Intel N100 (and N200) appear to be Intel’s try at attempting to muscle into the market that high-end ARM SoCs look to have cornered. With the Rockchip RK3588 exploding in reputation, providing 8 CPU cores and as much as 32GB of RAM, it appeared to have lastly provided a compelling efficiency competitor to the low-power x86 choices.

That’s, nonetheless, till you issue within the software program difficulties at the moment related to the RK3558 SoC used on the present board choices. With the Intel different, does it fare higher? Are there any quirks we must always fear about? Do you have to be contemplating an Intel N100 mini PC as a viable different? Or how about this message, from our.. Nevermind.

Effectively, truly.. If I may ask for one thing, it’s that you simply observe me on Twitter/X, Mastodon, subscribe on YouTube, or join my e-newsletter (it’s within the sidebar, backside proper) as that’ll assist me out an incredible deal. Certain, the final 2 haven’t received any content material but however I’m engaged on it..

Right this moment’s Challenger: T9 Plus Intel N100 Mini PC

Anyway, after that non-public shill-fest, to check the N100 in opposition to the RK3588 we’ll want a mini PC geared up with one, naturally. For this, I’ve chosen the T9 Plus Mini PC with 16GB of RAM, sourced from AliExpress. On the value paid, I believe we have now a winner on our arms, although let’s take a deeper look earlier than leaping to any instant conclusions.

The Intel N100 CPU was launched in Q1 of 2023 so remains to be comparatively new. It helps as much as 16GB of RAM in a single-channel configuration together with PCIe 3.0. 2 of these lanes within the T9 Plus are given to the M.2 NVMe slot, that means that the theoretical most is round 1.9GB/s. 3 shows are attainable through the three HDMI ports and the T9 Plus has its personal heatsink and fan for cooling as we’re not fairly at ARM ranges of energy consumption and we do want it!

Intel N100 vs Rockchip RK3588: Head-to-Head

On this part, I’m going to be pitting the Intel N100 up in opposition to the RK3588 in some areas that may find yourself being vital in your decision-making progress when you’re contemplating whether or not to go ARM or x86 in your subsequent mini PC! I’ll add a disclaimer now although to say that I started scripting this when the Radxa ROCK 5B was the one RK3588 board I had. There are others now (together with the Orange Pi 5 Plus that I just lately reviewed) which have totally different I/O choices accessible however given the ROCK 5B was one of many first and hottest boards on the market, that’s what I’ll be evaluating it in opposition to.

Obtainable Working Techniques

Naturally, given the mainline standing of the {hardware} in use within the T9 Plus, your choices for working programs are countless and you should utilize the newest and best when it comes to Linux kernels. You too can set up Home windows and use it as a little bit desktop for lighter duties if you want and the whole lot will simply work. At most you could run into points with WiFi drivers relying on the particular card you get and the distribution chosen, nonetheless, the one within the T9 Plus I acquired is an RTL8821CE and works simply positive out of the field with Ubuntu and Home windows.

Included {Hardware}, Equipment & Worth

Utilizing the Radxa ROCK 5B for example right here (and the 16GB mannequin at that, although the whole lot is legitimate for the 8GB fashions too) while you purchase the board you’re going to get simply that, the board. In case you’re trying to boot it, use WiFi/BT and ensure it retains cool underneath load, you’ll then want so as to add in your storage ($50), energy ($25), an M.2 WiFi/BT card ($12.50), and a heatsink/fan mixture ($4.50). If you wish to not have it sit in your desk, you could need to take into consideration a case too ($15).

I’ve gone with an M.2 NVMe SSD because the storage choice for comparability right here as that’s what’s required within the T9, however you’ll see that because of this you’ll be paying $190 for the board and a further $107 (for a complete of $297) to have an equal, bootable system. With the Intel N100-based T9 Mini PC, you get all of that bar storage for $133.50. So $183.50 in complete if we use an equal NVMe drive.

In case you needed to go together with 8GB fashions the distinction can be $265 for the ROCK 5B and $166.50 for the T9 Mini PC. Has it piqued your curiosity but?

Testing Particulars

After latest opinions, I’ve been getting used to complaining about vendor kernels however allow us to rejoice! All I needed to do was head over to the Ubuntu web site, obtain the newest picture accessible, and away I went.

That signifies that for this testing we’ll be utilizing Ubuntu 23.04 (Lunar Lobster) on Linux kernel 6.2.0-26-generic and setting the whole lot up was easy crusing, it was actually an especially refreshing expertise (for as soon as!)

My Intel N100 T9 Plus Mini PC is provided with 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM, whereas the ROCK 5B we’re evaluating it to solely has 8GB however this shouldn’t have a serious bearing on the outcomes. It being LPDDR5 over LPDDR4 could also be a bit extra fascinating, albeit in single-channel mode.

I didn’t hassle with my typical fan setup for this testing both because the T9 Plus has its personal heatsink and fan mixture so I’m testing it precisely because it comes!

Compute Benchmarks

A fast notice earlier than we get into these comparisons is that the Intel N100 will increase to three.4GHz on a single core, whereas on all-core workloads it can high out at 2.9GHz so while scaling doesn’t fairly work in an “Oh, single core is 1000, all core needs to be 4000!” means, it’s one thing to keep in mind. The cooling managed to maintain the whole lot underneath management at that velocity with no throttling in anyway which is sweet.

UnixBench

7-Zip Benchmark

Crypto Benchmarks

It’s practically a clear sweep for the Intel N100 on the cryptographic facet of issues, with the Rockchip RK3588 solely edging out its blue competitor within the bigger OpenSSL assessments. In a WireGuard throughput check (the place it encrypts and decrypts visitors on the identical time) it’s greater than twice as quick and in cpuminer the Intel is over 40% quicker.

OpenSSL Benchmark

WireGuard Benchmark

cpuminer-multi Benchmark

Software program Benchmarks

The entire assessments on this part are single-core benchmarks, that means Intel’s 3.4GHz single-core increase clock permits it to stroll all around the ROCK 5B’s RK3588 SoC and stroll throughout it it does.

PHPBench

PyBench

WavPack Audio Encoding

Community Benchmarks

Ethernet

The T9 Plus comes with 2x1GbE RJ45 Ethernet ports, so it’s behind the ROCK 5B if you need a single, high-speed port (it has a 2.5GbE Ethernet port) but it surely does open itself as much as the choice of working as a router when you fancy it!

WiFi

With no exterior antennas, the T9 Plus was at all times going to be at a little bit of an obstacle when it comes to velocity. Nonetheless, do notice that the ROCK 5B was examined with no case so the two antennae on the 5B had been unhampered by any blocks of plastic or steel. Simply to throw it on the market, when examined, the T9 Plus registered a sign energy of -44.9, with the 5B rocking -34.6. These had been examined in the identical place and 2m away with a direct line of sight.

Storage Benchmarks

Our Intel N100 mini PC right here solely has a 2242 M.2 NVMe slot so we’re a little bit restricted on choices right here as I needed to buy a drive for the aim of this check and I couldn’t discover something apart from a “first rate” middle-ground of value to efficiency.

The drive I went with ultimately was the 512GB Transcend MTE400S and this lacks DRAM-cache so do bear that in thoughts. With the highest cowl off although, bigger drives can be utilized so I examined with a Essential’s 500GB P3 Plus and a 1TB Essential P5 Plus drive.

The P3 Plus is PCIe Gen 3 and doesn’t have a DRAM cache, although the PCIe Gen 4 P5 Plus does have a 1GB LPDDR4 DRAM cache. This could cowl a very good vary of NVMe drives and allow you to make a greater resolution must you need to take one on both board.

The tables under present the speeds as examined by iozone throughout a number of block sizes within the T9 Plus Mini PC. Do not forget that this solely has 2 PCIe Gen 3 lanes accessible to its M.2 slot, whereas the ROCK 5B will get 4. This received’t imply that the 5B gives double the efficiency, although if the NVMe drive has the headroom, it can doubtless push a little bit additional. I’ve included some fast numbers from the 5B under every graph that can assist you evaluate as storage could also be an enormous a part of your decision-making course of.

See Also

In The Sheriff We Belief

NVMe

Transcend MTE400S (512GB – Gen 3)

On the ROCK 5B, this drive maxed out at 1580MB/s on the random learn check with a 16MB block measurement and so far as the opposite assessments go, we’re neck and neck between the two programs so it seems just like the drive itself is hitting its ceiling. Not essentially the most thrilling efficiency numbers however for a disk that’s branded a worth choice, it’s to be anticipated.

Essential P3 Plus (500GB – Gen 3)

There wasn’t a substantial amount of enchancment on the ROCK 5B with this drive because it reached a peak velocity of 1468MB/s at 16MB block sizes and sequential reads. Every little thing else was considerably comparable so nothing to jot down residence about.

Essential P5 Plus (1TB – Gen 4)

The P5 Plus unsurprisingly reaches the best speeds (with a few anomalies on the 4KB block measurement check) however the system itself is the limiting issue attributable to its 2 PCIe Gen 3 lanes. When examined within the ROCK 5B nonetheless, issues are blended. When it comes to 4KB assessments, we see speeds which are both inside a couple of MB/s of one another or significantly decrease (random write for instance topped out at 77.9MB/s on the 5B). When you’re above 512KB block sizes although, the 5B runs away with it, peaking at 2756MB/s on the sequential write check.

Temperatures

Energy Consumption

Energy draw is the place the Intel falls closely behind the Rockchip SoC and that’s to be anticipated. While Intel is making good floor with these chips, they’re not going to the power-sipping ARM equivalents simply but. On this explicit check, we additionally must take into consideration that the T9 Plus has an M.2 WiFi card, NVMe SSD, a cooling fan, and final however not least, some RGB lighting across the backside.

If we had been to take away as a lot of the above as attainable (I’m reliably knowledgeable that I can rip off the underside of the chassis and unplug the lighting, or when you’re utilizing Home windows the vendor can present a really secure .exe to regulate the lights) then we’d be capable of trim a little bit extra off however I’m unsure it’s fully value it. Although saying that, if I wasn’t terrified of simply snapping the chassis into items I’d positively be unplugging these lights..

Total Ideas & Notes – Nice

• Intel platform means software program help is nothing to fret about
• Pretty complete BIOS
• M.2 WiFi/NVMe SSD drives are simply accessible underneath the highest cowl
• The heatsink/fan combo saved the CPU cool sufficient that it didn’t thermal throttle throughout testing
• Pricing is extraordinarily aggressive when you think about the complete package deal
• DDR5 Reminiscence/RAM (albeit single-channel)

Total Ideas & Notes – Not so nice

• The always-on, rainbow puke RGB lights that cycle round are a little bit an excessive amount of for me
• As a result of its design, connecting HDMI, Ethernet, and USB units will end in your system wanting like a sea creature with legs hanging out in all instructions.
• While the fan did a very good job, underneath full load the noise may be very noticeable inside 30-50cm

The place can I purchase a T9 Plus Mini PC?

The T9 Plus Mini that I purchased for this check was bought on AliExpress and it’s constantly been on provide since buying again in July (2023). The vendor doesn’t provide an affiliate choice so I’ve not included one, although I’ve nonetheless chosen to spotlight the vendor as they had been extremely responsive earlier than and after buying and answered all questions put to them.

There does appear to be a barely totally different mannequin accessible at another AliExpress store that features an SSD at a barely greater value but it surely additionally does away with the RGB lighting so possibly that’s a pleasant trade-off? It additionally seems like it might embody an activated copy of Home windows 11 if that’s your sort of factor.

Conclusion: Do you have to purchase Intel as an alternative of ARM?

There are a whole lot of Intel N100 units accessible available on the market, so while I’ve targeted closely on the T9 Plus machine that I ordered, there’s one thing with this processor on the market for everybody now. Want a router? There are boards with a number of (2.5GbE even!) RJ45 ports for you to take action. Desire a silent PC? Passive choices exist. I even noticed one with 2 3.5″ HDD bays earlier as we speak so if you need a little bit NAS, there’s one thing for you too.

Saying that, nonetheless, there are use instances for an ARM-based Single Board Laptop that the Intel N100 units merely can not cater to. If we have a look at the ROCK 5B right here particularly, you might have GPIO headers to attach further units which are extra “maker” oriented, you might have HDMI enter if you wish to seize video and based mostly on suggestions I received on Twitter beforehand, some individuals simply need to have an ARM board in order that they’re serving to to not pump more cash into the duopoly that’s Intel and AMD. Valiant? Certain, why not, I’ve actually purchased sufficient stuff over time “simply because” so I’ll permit it.

The “Simply purchase a used SFF PC on eBay!!!!” argument has been thrown round a hell of lots just lately, primarily exacerbated by the Raspberry Pi shortages, however I sort of hate it. Certain, they are often picked up for $75 or so however they’re going to attract significantly extra energy attributable to being older, much less environment friendly {hardware} they usually might require upgrades to be on function parity with what we’re taking a look at right here. Couple that with nonetheless being larger

In case you solely care about the perfect general efficiency attainable, you need the whole lot to “simply work”, and also you’re keen to take a little bit of successful on the ability draw, the Intel N100 is a good choice. It’s what I’d purchase if I simply wanted some compute at residence. If you wish to tinker with a unique kind of platform and take pleasure in the trials and tribulations that associate with it, otherwise you need first rate efficiency with an extremely low energy draw, the Rockchip RK3588 boards aren’t to be sniffed at. You may have a variety to select from and within the subsequent yr, I imagine we’re going to begin seeing its true potential because the software program matures.