Chinese Company Revives AMD Vega GPU in a Unique NAS Motherboard

[AleksandarK]

A Chinese Topton company has brought new life to the AMD Vega graphics architecture by integrating it into a Network Attached Storage (NAS) motherboard. The Topton N9 NAS motherboard features the Intel Core i7-8705G processor, a unique chip that combines Intel CPU cores with AMD's RX Vega M GL graphics. The Intel Core i7-8705G, initially released in 2018, is an unusual choice for a NAS system. This 14 nm processor features four cores, eight threads, and a boost clock of up to 4.1 GHz. What sets it apart is the integrated AMD RX Vega M GL GPU with 20 Compute Units and 4 GB of HBM2 memory.

The Topton N9 NAS motherboard is designed for the 17×17 cm ITX form factor and offers a range of features like maximum support for 64 GB of DDR4 RAM, M.2 NVMe/SATA and SATA 3.0, eight Intel i226-V controllers for 2.5 Gbit networking, USB 3.0, USB Type-C, and HDMI 2.0 connectivity. While the Intel Core i7-8705G may not be the most obvious choice for a NAS system, the Topton N9 motherboard demonstrates how this unique processor can be repurposed to provide affordable computing power. The integrated AMD RX Vega graphics offer capabilities beyond typical NAS requirements, making this motherboard suitable for various applications, such as home firewalls and routers. The collaboration between Intel and AMD in creating the Kaby Lake-G processors was a rare occurrence in the industry. The Topton N9 starts at $288.56 without a fan/cooler, and adding another $20 bumps the price to $308.46.



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[Chaitanya]

Given the number of RJ45 ports, that will make a good router rather than NAS.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Given the number of RJ45 ports, that will make a good router rather than NAS.

Yeah, I don't think the xinese company understands what a NAS is, considering the board has a single SATA port...

 

[Chaitanya]

Yeah, I don't think the xinese company understands what a NAS is, considering the board has a single SATA port...

Also single M.2 slot means users cannot even add sata controllers and have fast M.2 drive at the same time. Overall storage is quite compromised along use of Intel 2.5Gbps NICs(known buggy controllers) kind of makes this offering a bit dicey for 2.5Gbps operation(apparently 1Gbps mode works fine).

 

[Ferrum Master]

Yeah, I don't think the xinese company understands what a NAS is, considering the board has a single SATA port...

Copy pasting Aliexpress naming and thinking it is what it is and make an article out of it... is pretty adventurous...

 

[Wirko]

Yeah, I don't think the xinese company understands what a NAS is, considering the board has a single SATA port...

But you can connect seven NAS expanders to it, the same big shop has them for sale (with some very appealing promotional slogans):

 

[InVasMani]

Given the number of RJ45 ports, that will make a good router rather than NAS.

It 100% looks like something more geared for a compact Pfsense router/firewall/proxy cache system and/or even a small home LAN server setup. The CPU itself seems practically antique though by tech standards.

 

[Chaitanya]

It 100% looks like something more geared for a compact Pfsense router/firewall/proxy cache system and/or even a small home LAN server setup. The CPU itself seems practically antique though by tech standards.

Looking at their aliexpress store front they have a board geared towards NAS with 11th gen CPU and 6 x Sata ports + 2 x M.2 slots. So calling this one a NAS board is a stretch.

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/1005006385120608.html?spm=a2g0n.detail.1000014.2.6cbe294eLXviVv&gps-id=platformRecommendH5&scm=1007.18499.332340.0&scm_id=1007.18499.332340.0&scm-url=1007.18499.332340.0&pvid=bd7d541a-7b90-4e97-bb46-bd8fec938693&_t=gps-id:platformRecommendH5,scm-url:1007.18499.332340.0,pvid:bd7d541a-7b90-4e97-bb46-bd8fec938693,tpp_buckets:668%232846%238115%232000&pdp_npi=4%40dis%21INR%2127329.52%2127329.52%21%21%212300.00%212300.00%21%40210308a717115370355771847edfe0%2112000036979293180%21rec%21IN%21%21AB

 

[CosmicWanderer]

I still have my Hades Canyon NUC with an i7-8809G. It's so compact for the level of performance it offers. Still use it, though as an Ubuntu machine now.

 

[InVasMani]

I hear you I didn't really call it NAS it doesn't offer enough storage connectivity to be a more proper NAS honestly. To be fair it has M.2 and you can get a ton of storage out of just one of those, but depends entirely on needs and demands.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Yeah, I don't think the xinese company understands what a NAS is, considering the board has a single SATA port...

There is an app hardware for that...

(M2 KEY-M NVME PCI-E To SATA3.0)

 

[Haile Selassie]

This is a 6-year+ old CPU at this point.

Ryzen embedded or Intel N100/N300 is the way to go for SOHO router or NAS.

 

[efikkan]

This is a 6-year+ old CPU at this point.

Not to mention this CPU was discontinued one year ago, and volume shipments probably stopped 3+ years ago.

Given this comes from a Chinese company selling on Aliexpress, this is very likely a mashup of either used or old-stock parts, combined into a shoddy product with questionable build quality and BIOS support. This is not newsworthy at all. There are several youtubers creating videos about all these obscure products Chinese companies are making from E-waste, like desktop motherboards with embedded laptop CPUs, or combinations of server chipsets and consumer sockets. This may be entertaining, but it's not worth spending your money on.

Those who want to build a proper router+switch or file server should get proper server-grade hardware instead (even used quality hardware is better than this). But I would not combine a file server and a switch, that latency will be horrible.

 

[GhostRyder]

I completely forgot that processor existed.

 

[Wirko]

Not to mention this CPU was discontinued one year ago, and volume shipments probably stopped 3+ years ago.

Given this comes from a Chinese company selling on Aliexpress, this is very likely a mashup of either used or old-stock parts, combined into a shoddy product with questionable build quality and BIOS support. This is not newsworthy at all. There are several youtubers creating videos about all these obscure products Chinese companies are making from E-waste, like desktop motherboards with embedded laptop CPUs, or combinations of server chipsets and consumer sockets. This may be entertaining, but it's not worth spending your money on.

Those who want to build a proper router+switch or file server should get proper server-grade hardware instead (even used quality hardware is better than this). But I would not combine a file server and a switch, that latency will be horrible.

One commenter at Tom's Hardware had a theory that to me seems plausible. The mobo was designed and made to specification for a known customer. The manufacturer or the customer is selling the excess stock ... now and never again.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

One commenter at Tom's Hardware had a theory that to me seems plausible. The mobo was designed and made to specification for a known customer. The manufacturer or the customer is selling the excess stock ... now and never again.

Yup. This has happened before and not totally unheard of or beyond the realm of possibility.

 

[efikkan]

One commenter at Tom's Hardware had a theory that to me seems plausible. The mobo was designed and made to specification for a known customer. The manufacturer or the customer is selling the excess stock ... now and never again.

This design may very well be based on a previous one for a specific customers. The companies who designs these are creating all kinds of semi-custom and white label products, and they probably are even designing some of the "no-brand" crap we see in the West too. But as you can see if you look around in review videos; they are using "wrong" combinations of chipsets etc. I didn't find the video right now, but another similar board were using server chipsets for consumer CPUs, so this is clearly sourced from recycled server hardware.

 

[Ferrum Master]

This design may very well be based on a previous one for a specific customers. The companies who designs these are creating all kinds of semi-custom and white label products, and they probably are even designing some of the "no-brand" crap we see in the West too. But as you can see if you look around in review videos; they are using "wrong" combinations of chipsets etc. I didn't find the video right now, but another similar board were using server chipsets for consumer CPUs, so this is clearly sourced from recycled server hardware.

There are no wrong chipsets. Most intel chipsets are the same and pin to pin compatible. It is all market segregation.

The thing that differs are enabled software features and fused I/O, SATA ports that most boards, especially this one does not use.

It even could be not recycled, you buy chips in bulk and reels. There are loads of leftovers. It is enough for limited run for them.

 

[Kogije]

First off, this unit technically has 2 M.2 slots although 1 is for WiFi.
Second, I'm not sure what everyone else is running, but I only need 1 E-Sata to attach my 56TB storage so it'll work for that.
My main concern is there is no mention of a compatible OS. Will it run Linux and if so What flavor? Ideally I would like to setup something like this with Aria2, Adblock, VPN, SSH, VNC and Python with some custom software.

 

[Geofrancis]

If i had to guess I think this has originally been for digital signage. With Ethernet used to send video rather than HDMI, that's why it had the GPU and all the network controllers, since you need the full capacity of each controller for the video stream to each monitor and a half decent GPU to handle all those pixels.