Compulab fitlet-XA10-LAN Review: A Fanless AMD UCFF PC for Networking Applications
by Ganesh T S on April 19, 2016 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Systems
- Networking
- AMD
- Fanless
- Industrial PC
- Passive Cooling
- CompuLab
Passively cooled computing systems carry many advantages. Most of these turn out to be very important for industrial and embedded applications. In recent years, both AMD and Intel have been paying extra attention to the peformance per watt aspect of their computing platforms. This has led to ultra-compact form factor (UCFF) PCs emerging as ideal candidates for passive industrial computing platforms. We have already reviewed a number of industrial PCs before. Today, we will be taking a look at the Compulab fitlet-XA10-LAN, a unique passively-cooled UCFF PC that doesn't sacrifice on I/O capabilities.
Introduction and Setup Impressions
Compulab is one of the major players in the passively-cooled embedded and industrial PC market space. They have different product lines catering to different requirements. One of the first Intense PC models was reviewed by us back in 2013. Since then, Compulab has introduced the uSVR micro-server for high-end applications and a range of more affordable small-footprint PCs such as the IPC2, fit-PC3 & fit-PC3i, fit-PC4 and the fitlet. The fitlet-XA10-LAN, powered by an AMD Mullins SoC, obviously belongs to the last category.
The dimensions of the PC come in at 10.8cm x 8.3cm x 2.4cm, making it smaller than the NUCs. Compulab has been making improvements to the chassis even after the introduction of the product into the market. The original thermal design allowed for the internal SoCs to operate at their rated TDPs. However, Compulab also started to offer a finned top panel last year. It is a slot-in replacement for the existing top panel and allows the TDP limitations to be safely bypassed. Starting this quarter, they will be replacing the original top panel with something similarly sized, but having a different coating based on the knowledge gained during the development of the Compulab Airtop. For the prupose of this review, Compulab sent us two units of the fitlet-XA10-LAN (one with the original chassis and another with the newly improved top panel). In addition, the fit-Uptime (a UPS for the fitlet series and NUCs with a 18 Whr battery) was also bundled with the review kit.
The fitlet-XA10-LAN comes with a host of additional items to improve I/O capabilities (including a HDMI to DVI adapter and an external USB 2.0 WLAN adapter). A 36W (12V @ 3A) AC adapter is also bundled with the unit. We will cover the hardware aspects in detail in a later section.
The most striking aspect of the fitlet-XA10-LAN is the presence of four gigabit LAN ports. Most fanless UCFF PCs sacrifice I/O capabilities in order to achieve good thermal performance in a compact size. Compulab's innovative FACE modules bring a unique solution to this interesting problem. They allow a compatible PC to sport different 'add-on cards' that provide I/O suitable for the desired application. These FACE (Function And Connectivity Extension) modules have well-documented specifications, enabling third-party designs also. FACE modules, however, are too big for the fitlet series. In its place, Compulab has developed FACET (Function And Connectivity Extension T-Cards) to provide extended peripheral and I/O connectivity for the dimunitive fitlet PCs. FACET cards interface with the main SoC / CPU using three PCIe 2.0 lanes. They also support routing of USB 2.0, SMBus and LPC signals while using the industry-standard mini-PCIe interface. The fitlet-XA10-LAN comes with a FACET LAN card that has three Intel I211 GbE controllers, each of which connect to one PCIe 2.0 lane on the FACET interface.
The specifications of our CompuLab fitlet-XA10-LAN review configuration are summarized in the table below.
CompuLab fitlet-XA10-LAN Specifications | |
Processor | AMD A10 Micro-6700T Puma+ x86 (Mullins) 4C/4T, 1.2 GHz (Turbo to 2.2 GHz), 28nm, 2MB L2, 4.5W TDP |
Memory | A-Data ADDS1600W8G11-B 9-9-9-24 @ 1333 MHz 1x8 GB |
Graphics | AMD Radeon R6 |
Disk Drive(s) | Micron RealSSD C400v Series C400-MTFDDAT064MAM (64 GB; mSATA 6Gb/s; 25nm; MLC) |
Networking | Mediatek (Ralink) RT5370 Wireless LAN 802.11n USB 2.0 Adapter (1x1 802.11n - 150 Mbps) 4x RJ-45 Intel i211 Gigabit LAN |
Audio | 3.5mm Audio Jack (headphones / microphone) Capable of 5.1/7.1 digital output with HD audio bitstreaming (HDMI) |
Miscellaneous I/O Ports | 3x USB 2.0 2x USB 3.0 1x micro-SDXC 1x Serial Port |
Operating System | fitlet-XA10-LAN comes with Linux Mint pre-installed Benchmarking was done with a Windows 10 To Go installation from a USB 3.0 flash drive |
Pricing (As configured) | $379 |
Full Specifications | fitlet-XA10-LAN Barebones Specifications |
The CompuLab fitlet-XA10-LAN review kit came with Linux Mint pre-installed on both units. However, our evaluation workflow involves Windows. We prepared a Windows 10 Pro x64 installation 'to go' on a Corsair Voyager GTX 256GB USB 3.0 flash drive. We also instrumented it with all our standard benchmarks. On the main mSATA drive with the Linux Mint installation, we created a NTFS partition. This partition was used as the target drive for our storage benchmarking. The system operated flawlessly with our Windows To Go installation once the appropriate drivers were installed.
In the rest of the review, we first take a look at the internal hardware organization, as well as the platform and the BIOS features. This is followed by a look at the various performance benchmarks under Windows. Usually, we talk about the HTPC capabilities of various PCs that we review, but, it is obvious that the target market for the fitlet-XA10-LAN is quite different. Instead of the HTPC aspects, we will discuss some networking performance benchmarks. After that, we move on to the thermal design and its efficiency. In particular, we will compare the thermal performance of the two different configurations. In the final section, we look at some miscellaneous aspects and provide some concluding remarks.
The table below has an overview of the various systems that we are comparing the CompuLab fitlet-XA10-LAN against. Note that they may not belong to the same market segment. The relevant configuration details of the machines are provided so that readers have an understanding of why some benchmark numbers are skewed for or against the CompuLab fitlet-XA10-LAN when we come to those sections.
Comparative PC Configurations | ||
Aspect | CompuLab fitlet-XA10-LAN | |
CPU | AMD A10 Micro-6700T | AMD A10 Micro-6700T |
GPU | AMD Radeon R6 Graphics | AMD Radeon R6 Graphics |
RAM | A-Data ADDS1600W8G11-B 9-9-9-24 @ 1333 MHz 1x8 GB |
A-Data ADDS1600W8G11-B 9-9-9-24 @ 1333 MHz 1x8 GB |
Storage | Micron RealSSD C400v Series C400-MTFDDAT064MAM (64 GB; mSATA 6Gb/s; 25nm; MLC) |
Micron RealSSD C400v Series C400-MTFDDAT064MAM (64 GB; mSATA 6Gb/s; 25nm; MLC) |
Wi-Fi | Mediatek (Ralink) RT5370 Wireless LAN 802.11n USB 2.0 Adapter (1x1 802.11n - 150 Mbps) |
Mediatek (Ralink) RT5370 Wireless LAN 802.11n USB 2.0 Adapter (1x1 802.11n - 150 Mbps) |
Price (in USD, when built) | $379 | $379 |
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Pissedoffyouth - Tuesday, April 19, 2016 - link
Why such an old CPUBurntMyBacon - Tuesday, April 19, 2016 - link
Does AMD have something newer in this category? J/KSeemed to compare pretty well against its newer counterparts, though.
Qwertilot - Tuesday, April 19, 2016 - link
Why not? It hardly seems to be holding it back for its intended uses.Flunk - Tuesday, April 19, 2016 - link
Cost, obviously.jardows2 - Tuesday, April 19, 2016 - link
Looks very attractive for a router. The throughput is adequate for pretty much anything but gigabit connections (lucky dogs who have that available!). Can use the microSD slot for the OS, and not mess with mSATA for most use cases. Do they have a "less featured" package - say without the wireless card or battery backup?freeskier93 - Tuesday, April 19, 2016 - link
With a different/better configuration I'd bet you could break 900 Mbps with this box. Ars just did a homebrew router and they were breaking 900 Mbps with iperf. The box Ars used was a Celeron with Intel NICs. The Intel NICs are comparable which is why I'd bet you could break 900 Mbps with this AMD box.The problem is price, makes no sense. It's even harder to justify these homebrews when you can buy a Ubiquity EdgeRouter for less than $100 and it will handle gigabit very well. There's a lot of other things to consider with a gigabit connection to get full speed. We used to have a gigabit connection (with the Ubiquity EdgeRouter) and would speed test at about 970 Mbps up/down. Real world test downloading a Steam game I'd top out at about 800 Mbps, but the limit appeared to be disk IO related (even with a Samsung 850 EVO). Honestly gigabit connection is a waste for 99% of internet usage, we only had it because we were living in Longmont, CO, who rolled out their own fiber network and it was dirt cheap (cheaper than Comcast).
Gray05 - Thursday, April 21, 2016 - link
What is the OpenVPN performance like on a Ubiquity EdgeRouter? Can it match what these x86 builds do?For me, the whole purpose of a homebrew router/firewall is for the OpenVPN performance. The advanced features made available by using pfSense is a nice bonus, but that's just icing.
WorBlux - Thursday, March 9, 2017 - link
I'm not sure if the Ubiquity EdgeRouter has hardware acceleration for AES. It has a dual core 500 MHz MIPS router, with packet acceleration hardware.The Compulab Fitlet on the other hand definitely does the sort of AES acceleration that can easily saturate it's network controller with OpenVPN encrypted traffic (assuming you using an AES tunnel)
However where theFitlet falls short is in processing a lot of packets. Where it shines is that it's and x86 system with excellent support for Linux distributions, letting you do a little more that just routing.
Stuka87 - Tuesday, April 19, 2016 - link
Fore purely networking use cases, I prefer the PCEngines APU2c4. It doesnt have all the video and extra ports that you will never ever use. It also cost a lot less.jardows2 - Tuesday, April 19, 2016 - link
I see those are now released. I hadn't checked for a while, and last time I looked they were still in testing phase. On the price side, I reckon that without the "extras" the price would be dropped a fair bit. PCEngines would still be cheaper, but how does the GX-412TC processor in it compare to the A10 Micro-6700T for networking tasks?