NanoPi R5s vs N5105 Mini Pc for OpenWrt

Hardware Questions and Recommendations
1

Hello, since my server is causing a lot of traffic on my modem, I want to buy a powerful router. During my research, I came across OpenWRT. My question to you is whether I should buy a mini PC with J4125 or N5105 processor and 4x 2.5 gbit ports for OpenWRT installation, or would Nanopi R5S be sufficient? As far as I understand, Nanopi R5S comes with OpenWRT pre-installed, whereas I would need to perform the installation myself on the mini PC. Do all mini PCs support OpenWRT?

I think buy this PC:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004905826390.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.5.1151742aC2HQek&algo_pvid=f53b37e1-be09-45f6-8d49-20b31fb71f37&aem_p4p_detail=2023030414335810835349412280510018258114&algo_exp_id=f53b37e1-be09-45f6-8d49-20b31fb71f37-2&pdp_ext_f={"sku_id"%3A"12000030983054696"}&pdp_npi=3%40dis!TRY!2973.81!2893.59!!!!!%40212279b716779692386141875d06c1!12000030983054696!sea!TR!0&curPageLogUid=RIbYSs0SkxLd&ad_pvid=2023030414335810835349412280510018258114_3&ad_pvid=2023030414335810835349412280510018258114_3

or NanoPi R5S

2

What internet speed are we talking about ?

3

@frollic 1gbit. But there are too many requests for small packages.

4

If you are looking at NanoPi's for 1 Gigabit, get the R4S 4GB (no unique mac) and add a managed switch for more ports. The R4S is ~50% (multi-core) to ~79% (single core) faster than the R5S. The R5S is not supported by OpenWrt and FriendlyWrt is reported to have security issues.

5

@eginnc
I've seen many R5S videos on youtube with openwrt installed. Yesterday I ordered R5S from China. It came with the coupon. OpenWRT also says it supports R5s on its site. In what way did you say it does not support? it seems to support R5S in 190th place in this link:

[OpenWrt Wiki] Table of Hardware: Ideal for OpenWrt (16/128MB or more)

6

There is a Table of Hardware Entry in anticipation of possible future support. But notice there is only a link to the OEM firmware (FriendlyWrT) on the device page. FriendlyWrt is based on OpenWrt, but it is not OpenWrt and as I linked above, there are security concerns with FriendlyWrt. Also note there are no OpenWrt R5S firmware images even in snapshot here: https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/targets/rockchip/armv8/.

To answer your original question, if you want 2.5G capability some day, I would have gone the mini PC route with an N5105 processor, not the J4125. The N5105 has quite a bit more CPU capability than the J4125, and both are 10W TDP CPU's. The J4125 is not much faster than the rk3399 (7W max TDP) in the R4S.

All is not lost if you have already ordered the R5S. It is probable the R5S will eventually be supported by OpenWrt and if it has enough ports for you, the R5S will save you having to buy a managed switch. The downside, other than no current OpenWrt support, is that the R5S CPU will probably not be strong enough to do things like shape full Gbps with CAKE SQM/QoS and VPN support will be a bit slower too. But it should get you close enough to full Gbps. To be clear, if you are just routing, the R5S has plenty of CPU to route Gbps.

1 Like
7

@eginnc
You explained it very well, thank you. I'm not doing VPN routing, just request routing. As I said, I got it at a very cheap price. I even bought it for almost one third the price of a mini PC with N5105 processor. I will install it by watching installation videos, and I will write the result to you from here. Thank you very much again.

8

An used, gigabit capable x86, would have been another 50%-60% cheaper than the r5s.

1 Like
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