Visiting the CWWK NAS Factory in China – Here is What I Saw

Last updated on 02 Apr 2025 📧 Subscribe

Visiting a NAS Production Facility in Shenzhen, China – The CWWK Factory and Office Tour

As part of a broader effort to explore the landscape of Chinese tech manufacturers, I recently visited the facilities of CWWK (ChangWang) in Shenzhen, China. CWWK is best known in enthusiast circles for producing NAS motherboards and compact computing solutions, often associated with budget-friendly, DIY network storage builds. My visit aimed to independently assess the scope and structure of their operations. What made this particular tour notable was the access I was granted: no NDAs were signed, there were no editorial restrictions placed on what I could film or ask, and I was permitted to record freely inside their production and R&D spaces.

This is uncommon, particularly in the tech hardware space, where many brands—especially in Asia—are typically guarded about internal processes, even when media are invited. The open format allowed for a more thorough and independent evaluation, without needing to speculate based on secondhand reports or promotional material.

It’s important to contextualize how the visit came about. CWWK did not arrange or sponsor my trip to China in any way. I was in the region for a series of self-funded visits to multiple tech companies, looking to gain a clearer understanding of how various hardware brands operate behind the scenes. The idea was to go beyond spec sheets and product listings and see what real infrastructure, if any, stood behind companies whose products are often marketed under many different brand names on platforms like AliExpress, Amazon, and Alibaba.

I reached out to CWWK on short notice—roughly 10 to 14 days prior—and they agreed to the visit. The fact that they were able to accommodate the tour with minimal lead time is worth noting. It doesn’t rule out the possibility of some presentation enhancements being made in preparation, but it does suggest that the company was not reliant on elaborate staging to present a working production environment.

The first location I visited was a mixed-use building that included administrative offices, logistics personnel, and access to part of the factory floor. Externally, the building bore no clear CWWK branding, which initially raised questions about ownership or exclusivity. Inside, however, the picture was more cohesive: staff wore uniforms bearing CWWK logos, and product runs on the factory floor featured motherboards that matched CWWK’s catalog.

While I wasn’t given lease documentation or corporate records, the volume of CWWK-branded activity suggested the company either occupies a substantial portion of the facility or has secured long-term, semi-exclusive use of the space. Several floors were accessible, and the presence of both production and support teams indicated that this was more than a satellite or temporary operation. Even so, it’s likely this building is part of a larger industrial complex shared with other tenants, which is common practice in Shenzhen’s manufacturing zones.

One of the key questions I brought to the visit concerned product design and IP ownership—specifically, whether CWWK truly engineers its own hardware or rebrands ODM (original design manufacturer) platforms that are available generically to other companies. In a formal meeting with several members of their team, facilitated by a translator, I was told that all motherboard designs are created in-house.

The company emphasized that while many of their designs do appear under other brand names, including through known resellers or system integrators, the core engineering and schematics originate from their internal teams. Some of these designs, they explained, are distributed under license or through contract manufacturing relationships.

While I wasn’t shown the full design pipeline or documentation for each SKU, I was given access to product schematics, test rigs, and development areas. Based on what I observed, it’s reasonable to conclude that CWWK controls the design process and that their platforms are later distributed—often without clear attribution—by partner companies.

Technical support and warranty policies are often ambiguous when it comes to imported tech from overseas sellers, so I took the opportunity to ask about their post-sales procedures. According to CWWK staff, customers who purchase through major e-commerce channels like AliExpress and Alibaba are serviced directly by the company’s internal support team. This contradicts the assumption that resellers handle all inquiries. They described a standard one-year warranty policy, during which defective products are repaired where feasible rather than replaced outright.

While this approach may not satisfy buyers expecting instant replacements, it aligns with broader industry trends aimed at reducing e-waste and extending hardware lifespans. I observed a dedicated support office where staff were responding to issues, many of which involved firmware or BIOS concerns. The responses to my questions were generally clear but did follow a templated structure, which made it difficult to determine how adaptable their support might be in complex cases.

Moving onto the factory floor, I was able to observe multiple stages of the production workflow. The environment combined automated processes—such as SMT (surface mount technology) component placement and soldering—with manual checkpoints, where staff would verify board integrity, inspect connector alignment, and move products between stations. The factory space showed signs of active use: floor scuffing, desk wear, and tooling marks suggested long-term operation rather than short-term setup.

Workers were equipped with anti-static wrist straps, and safety protocols appeared to be in place, though a few inconsistencies were observed. For instance, not all staff were wearing the full lab coats or coverings that I was required to wear as a visitor. While that’s not uncommon in similar facilities, it’s worth noting in the context of manufacturing discipline. Overall, the workflow followed a logical structure, and there were observable quality checks along the line, including one instance where a misaligned port was flagged and redirected for correction.

Direct interaction with factory personnel was limited, mainly due to language barriers and the guided nature of the tour. I attempted brief conversations, but most staff were focused on their tasks and understandably uninterested in lengthy exchanges with a foreign visitor.

I did not observe any signs of distress or visible overwork, but equally, I did not have enough time or context to draw firm conclusions about working conditions. The facility walls displayed motivational signage, some of which featured quite stern phrasing around responsibility and company reputation.

These types of messages—such as “Your mistakes are our mistakes”—may reflect common workplace culture in the region rather than specific managerial attitudes. In contrast, a separate building used for research and marketing featured more aspirational language. These environmental details may offer some insight into the tone and structure of the company, although they should be interpreted cautiously.

A portion of the facility was allocated to repairs and technical diagnostics. I observed several staff members actively responding to customer-reported issues and working on returned products. Desks were equipped with diagnostic tools and some BIOS interfaces were visible on screens.

In a nearby room, technicians were repairing or reworking boards—examples included reseating CPUs, correcting poorly soldered connectors, and inspecting DIMM slots.

Although the scale of this area was not massive (around six to eight desks), it indicated an operational RMA process. I did not assess how quickly repairs are processed or whether every return is examined manually, but the team appeared to be addressing real customer issues, not simply staging activity for the tour. Staff in this area were dressed more casually than the production line workers, likely due to the nature of their tasks involving pre-owned or defective components.

The second facility, located in the Beta Industrial Park, was clearly identified as a CWWK property. Unlike the first building, this one included prominent company branding, product showcases, and internal signage referencing CWWK’s development roadmap.

The upper floors were used by the R&D and marketing teams. In a dedicated product room, I was shown nearly every motherboard they’ve developed, including legacy models and upcoming releases. Several new boards were in early development, featuring high-density SATA fan-outs via SFF-8654 and NVMe expandability.

Designs ranged from micro-ITX to mATX, with plans to scale modularly using add-on cards for storage and connectivity. I also viewed design schematics and 3D renderings used to plan component layout and case compatibility. CWWK is working on 10GbE-capable models using newer Intel and AMD platforms, including boards with ECC memory support and USB4 integration. While I was not permitted to document everything in detail, the scope and clarity of the development process suggested an active, technically capable engineering team.

After spending a full day across both facilities, my overall impression of CWWK was that of a mid-sized but competent hardware developer with a growing international presence. While the first building’s exact ownership remains somewhat ambiguous, the second building was clearly operated and branded by CWWK, housing their product, development, and marketing teams. More significantly, based on my observations and the responses given, it is clear that CWWK designs and owns the intellectual property behind their motherboards.

There were also strong indications that they serve as an upstream supplier for other brands—likely including companies like Topton, MrRoute, and similar resellers often seen on Chinese e-commerce platforms. Whether these partners act as distributors, integrators, or white-label resellers wasn’t explicitly stated, but the relationship appears to exist.

CWWK is not a shell company or brand-only operation; it is a functioning developer and manufacturer of computing hardware with its own IP, infrastructure, and personnel. For buyers, this doesn’t automatically guarantee performance or support satisfaction, but it does lend some credibility and traceability to a product category often dominated by opaque supply chains and unbranded goods.

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      188 thoughts on “Visiting the CWWK NAS Factory in China – Here is What I Saw”

      3. CWWK ‘s product maybe cheap for abroad client, but it’s a bit expensive for domestic customers, plus their BIOS/firmware is rarely updated because lack of aggregate users bug report. i m chinese, i m please to see a electronic fab is up running well , yet i d support other brands for this short time being instead theirs.
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      4. It seems that the 12 Sata board with the new connector would pair perfectly with the Jonsbo case that supports 12 Sata drives for a NAS. I hope you build one when it is available.
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      5. Mate you sound bit disappointed not finding underage children working at a sweatshop with no air conditioning here.

        18:38 do you even hear yourself speaking here ? What are you watching in your free time mate ?
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      6. About a few weeks after you visited their factory I went one of their store in Shenzhen, and the guy said they were excited about your visit and showed me the group photo you took with them. Guess you were not the only one felt excited!!
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      9. Just built a NAS using a Topton N18 which, unsurprisingly, is a CWWK mITX board. Yes, I blame you fully for exposing me to both Topton and Jonsbo value products. Thanks, mate.
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      14. My concern is that these less known brands would churn a product quickly on the market, then move to the next one. I think it’s unlikely you are going to see a 1.4 board released a couple years later or BIOS updates.

        For instance one of the recurring comments about a similar company (Minisforum) is that their boards are unstable and the BIOS is buggy.

        Jeff G recently reviewed a mini NAS PC that would crash while transferring files due to the fact it was cooking itself.

        In the end, my practical concern is that I could be buying into the hype and end up with an immature product.
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      16. HERES A VIDEO SERIES WE ACTUALLY NEED:
        Disgruntled Synology turn key NAS users, at some point is going to need a new NAS. Which other manufacturers provides as close to easy to use software, and as set and forget as DSM? For this ‘not interested in DIY’ market … which is the best choice today? The key is = as easy to use and as flexible as DSM as possible. Pro’s and Con’s to all DSM’s competitive choices.
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      17. Thanks for doing this. This was very insightful. And I agree with your intuition and sentiments. I think they are a very legitimate company as well.
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      18. My family used to run factories like this in satellite cities around SZ for many decades.

        The messages/slogans on the walls is very typical Chinese. We like to slap slogans everywhere, rather annoying to be honest.

        What you have filmed, the manufacturing floors, green epoxy flooring, white lab coats style “work uniform” is also stereotypical electronics manufactureling affairs.

        Overal, i would say what you have been shown is 99% genuine.

        As to the original viait on Feb 10th; its just a week after Chinese new year and most likely the staff/workers hadn’t return from their home cities.
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      20. Chinese companies like CWWK should seriously think of publishing their firmware on “Linux Vendor Firmware Service”, aka fwupd. Also, they should focus on supporting that firmware for number of years (5 or more years).
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      21. CWWK is awesome. Their scale out design that is coming sounds brilliant and efficient. Imagine buying only what you need to build what you need. Now all we need is a little more innovation in the DIY NAS software side and the future is looking bright!
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      22. Very interesting. ❤ I have a Chinese wife and so I get to visit China. I have a Chinese step-daughter working in Shenzhen and so we will be there in mid-September. I will be following your Shenzhen videos with interest to see interesting IT places to visit. Thanks ????
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      25. My proxmox/pfSense box has a CWWK motherboard that was sold by HUNSN. Has been running great for two years and it only cost me $200. Cool to see their production line.
        I’m waiting till they release an Arrow Lake or Meteor Lake mini PC. Something with an NPU. Preferably one that’s ultra low power and uses passive cooling.
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      26. Why do we assume that Chinese companies make inferior products? None of the electronics from brands we all seem to trust are made anywhere else but China or another southeast Asian country. Apple iPhones are made in Chinese factories. But when Ford puts out a documentary about their production lines we all oooh and aaah, and never do we cast distrust on their production process. Yet we all know that they have TONS of recalls and issues that have to be fixed under warranty, especially in new model years. Our hate-on for China is absolutely manufactured. We should all do some reflection.
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      27. I am deeply disappointed to see a technology blogger of your stature visit a sweatshop in an authoritarian country; accordingly, I shall no longer subscribe to your YouTube channel.
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      28. While your there in Shenzen , tell Synology to reconsider their sticker lock-in. Won’t be buying their products or watching videos of their products.
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      29. Hello???? And what about security of chinese electronics products that can have back door and call home? Is their product are certfied NDAA compliance? For security purpose, isn’t something that would be an important things to verify in your NAS analysis and to consider when using products?
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      30. I noticed the other day that they’d slipped a couple of new devices onto their main website.

        There’s a P5/6 MAX that uses that new connector to do 6 lanes to that (6 sata, 2 M2) daughter board they showed you.

        And there was a NAS motherboard with 10Gbe, PCIe slot, and links to M2 and U2 daughter boards…

        They certainly keep cranking the “make new variation” handle.
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      31. These small IT factories actually bring many interesting products to the market and users. This was impossible in the previous era of giants (LENOVO, DELL…), they would only invest heavily in products they think are the most marketable. However, I would like to remind you that the product design of such factories may have defects, and they will not invest a lot of resources in design and verification to confirm that there will be no defecsts. For example, CWWK, I have bought many models of their miniPC, but one of them, the N100, has a problem with fan control, or it may be a problem with the power distribution strategy. When the load is high, the fan speed will decrease. I can only assume that they do not intend to provide enough power to the motherboard fan socket.
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      32. My wish list – Ecc ram (x2), 5+ M.2, 10g Nic (+1 <10), PCIEx8 &x4. internal USB all with sufficient cooling all under 50 watts. You know, nothing too extreme.
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      34. Amazing – Its nice to see them opening their doors.. It tells a few different stories, first it help to break the “CCCP boggie man”, and that these are just normal people doing some pretty amazing thing, that we all benefit from (even in the UK and US). It show they are confident in their products, yes you visit was managed, but I feel you got more from them, than you would any Western company.. and no company is going to let a visitor just aimless wonder round.
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      41. You sound overly suspicious. Just tell us what you saw. You were not there for an inspection. It’s normal in all factories of the world that they would try to show their best face. Very few factories allow that kind of access so kudos to them. And kudos to you for another interesting video!
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      45. Did ypu stop off at one of the massage parlours whilst you were there ? I’ve heard from a friend that they offer happy endings which i can only presume means you get a cuppa at the end of it.
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      47. I really like the direction they are going for these new Products, if they could get an AMD CPU with ECC RAM and lots of NVME slots, I would order that in a heart beat. Thank you CWWK for tour.
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      52. Hello! I hope you’re having a great day. I design custom YouTube thumbnails that make your content stand out and attract more viewers. I’d be happy to create a sample thumbnail for your channel to show you what I can do. Let me know if you’d like to discuss future opportunities after reviewing the sample.;’
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      54. I am really looking forward to seeing more of these single-cable backplanes available. I have wondered why I am routing 8 SATA connections through a case when we could have a solution that just runs 1 SFF to an SFF backplane that splits out to 4/6/8 hot-swap bays rather than using the breakout cables.
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      60. Shame I am not longer based in Guangdong, otherwise I could help you with translation, I am not professional translator but my english is good enough and love these stuffs.

        CWWK was OEM for many brands before but now it starts doing its own brand, more of a KOL style, that’s maybe why the 1st building you saw doesn’t have any CWWK logo, some of their stuffs feeling a bit gimmick and overpriced to me, maybe it’s because they also target oversea markets.
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      64. 6:40 did I just see windows 7???
        12:40 that was vista (round start)
        13:35 XP
        14:13 win 10 (OK that is still under support till fall)
        21:53 marketing has 11
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      68. My experince; I bought a cwwk device on Amazon; and i read: 4 NVMEs-place
        and u could order with ram and ssd/Win11. I did, and finaly the ssd was a NVME, blocking the fourth NVME-place.
        I contact the firm; they excuse (and i belived them) with translation KI from chines to german. i offer them, the german translation, so thats clear, when u order with ssd, only 3 NVME places are left. And (!!!!!!) during 48 hours the upddated the desc. on amazon, and, they offer me also, i could send back.
        Long Story short, we spoke about few things, and the contact is very good,
        and same,a s we have in the (other ways) i got it, same parts are made there, some parts made here and so on. Nothing unusal. So, as u said; i duno, what´s written in all the parts, making a pc running, but the devices with WIN11 was without any crap; even no Office 365..
        So, i wont put my hand in fire, if there is any part inside this device… colling home, and this i wont do for all firms, i have computer parts, but the things i got from this brand, was pricely very okay , as uh ad testet some MBs. and for me they are more than okay
        The only thing i found, and i knew this from other “brands”, that the latest device i bought, is now offer on amazon (PelliCelli, describ. in english) (same prize) with a other brand name too. I am still in contact with cwwk, this weekend i will write again, and i will ask them… hooo, what´s this.
        But till now, after Asrock N100 ITX-DC fail… a verry hot device….
        I am fine with this brand and their communication… more than “so called” U Tubers, which recomand a GMKtec-Device, another hot stuff, without (imho) real testing… jsu tadvertisment them… as a lot do in the past witht the ACE Stuff
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      69. Hi Thanks I am a new Subscriber, and I am Glad you have a Video about Topton Brand because I wanna know more before I buy a Mini PC from Topton , I hope you can have a Review of the Topton D12 soon.
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      70. I bought a Topton mini PC last year, I received it with badly soldered component, the Topton seller paid for the repair at a local PC repair shop and they also sent me the full drivers including the special graphics driver for the specific Nvidia GPU card. Nothing to complain about. ????
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      73. I performed a security analysis of the BIOS/UEFI on a CWWK board (the 7840HS 9 SATA port thing). The result: the BIOS has several security vulnerabilities known as PKFail, PixieFail, and a stack buffer overflow in the DXE driver. PixieFail can be mitigated by disabling PXE. However, the support team doesn’t care at all – I didn’t even receive a response to my emails. PKFail is a bit more cumbersome to work around. A BIOS update would help here. Currently, I’m looking into whether I can replace the entire certificate chain with my own, but that would mean manually signing bootloaders and kernels, which is especially annoying during updates.

        On Linux, at least, signing can be automated after installation by using dpkg hooks, which automatically sign the kernel and bootloader post-installation. I’ll see if I can successfully implement this. If there’s interest, I can update my comment once I manage to get it working.

        I’ve personally decided to continue using the board, but one should be aware that these Chinese brands cannot necessarily be considered high-security solutions. Whether the vulnerabilities are intentionally left unpatched… that’s something one can only speculate about.
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      74. I’ve got one of each brand. Happy with both. BIOS updates are almost non-existent, and I don’t think either had instructions, but I knew what I wanted so that was OK. I wonder how much more a known brand would charge for the same hardware?
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      76. I ask #nascompares to evaluate the publication of a video on hardware that mounts “coreboot” as BIOS, I have how to install it on motherboards that have tried previously.
        technically they should be identical to many products that use Protectli.
        I noticed that many motherboards have closed and non-upgradeable BIOS especially on copy and re-branded products and this is not a good thing for motherboards intended to be used as NAS or server with personal or business data.
        same observation / video request on TMP modules after the market and evaluation considerations to make at the time of purchase.
        regardless of the warranty in the end whether it is 1 month or 3 years if the product works after the first month theoretically it should work for years.
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      77. I also bought a TOPTON computer on Aliexpress and it arrived with an abnormal heating problem, after a short time it didn’t work anymore and I couldn’t return it, they didn’t accept it. I threw my money away.
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      79. Topton laptop low quality product, no warranty and no technical support, I bought it on Aliexpress and it was money thrown away. Advice from a friend, look for another brand
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      104. That was a really interesting video, cheers mate. I do have one of those Topton N100 router boxes and I’ve always been a bit uneasy, but truth be told it’s worked solid for ages now.
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      123. mate, they are all rebranding, so they are all the same. buying leftover contingents of OEM products or they jointed a parent OEM interest group, developing and manufacturing together to share the costs.
        for example, check out the ITX Board at 10:26 . you find that from so many brands.

        on the one hand, i like the idea. developing new stuff together, not against each other. better and cheaper for all not inventing the wheel multiple times, and learning from failures together.
        on the other hand, the only motivation is to sell. where can innovation come from without competition? only from the pressure to produce as cheaply as possible? is this enough to make good products, or do i have to fear cheap/poor workarounds or hidden malicious function, from someone who bought himself in and practically subsidizes the product.
        without a supervisory authority, the customer is the convenient victim. the fact, having so many interchangeable brands for one product, helps supporting this.
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      136. I had several problems inttalling OPNSense on a CWWK unit purchased from Amazon. Wasted more time than the unit was worth. Switched to a similar Protectli unit and was up and running in 30 minutes.
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      139. It’s been a while, over 20 years, since I built a PC but seeing mini itx motherboards fully loaded, like 7940HS 9-Bay NAS from cwwk, made me think of building a homelab/san server. I just ordered the board from cwwk website and hope there will be no regrets. My biggest worries are compatibility and support just like anything you buy from China.
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      140. FCC and CE certs are only for one product, and it could be a totally different product than you care about. RoHS is mostly just “we didn’t use lead solder”, which is easy enough. What you really want to look for is certification of a quality management system (typically ISO9001). This should be provided by an independent agency and it will have an expiration date on it.
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      141. HELP! Topton and CWWK have both blocked the Q&A sections on ali. I need to know if the BIOS on the 7840/8845HS ITX board supports bifurcation of the PCIe slot into x8/x4/x4. Can you check please? You’re the only one I know who has one 🙂
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      142. trust isn’t something that someone should have for a brand or corporate entity.

        i wouldnt hesitate to do business with topton based on their reputation and history. i would be surprised to get any warranty support from them

        i would also reiterate the comment about the expense of malware development. none of these oems will ever have malware as sophisticated as facebook, google, microsoft or even asus include in their products. tho they may i suppose be more happy to inflict damages upon western clients who lack any ability to hold them responsible.
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      143. thank you for this. I am curious about Yanling as well, as they appear to be an OEM, and unlike CWWK and Topton, their website is informative and even has photos of their booth last week at Computex 2024. I think I might spend the extra and buy from them rather than the Topton that I currently have in my AliExpress cart.
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      145. Don’t waste your money on any of Topton’s computers. I made that mistake.Two years in, the GPU died (Nvidia GTX 1650) died. It’s a laptop type GPU and can’t be replaced by user.
        They don’t even put they’re name or model number on the computers.
        You’ve been warned.
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      146. As a member of Topton，I feel many thanks to find our product showing on the NASCompares channel! And also appreciate for the recognition and support from every buyer.

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      148. I am very pleased to see the evaluation of our products on the NASCompares channel. We have a workshop for independently producing motherboards and computer testing, and each PC undergoes rigorous testing before shipment. Once again, I would like to thank NASCompares for their support of our products.
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      151. Then there are the delivery problems. I think they collect orders and payments before ordering to ship the products. Have tried a couple of times, but both attempts resulted in 8 weeks plus waiting times. Lots of fake tracking numbers issued and product only sent after raising credit card charge back claims. And yes, this was TopTon.
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      152. I think a lot of what you’re seeing here re: the websites reflects the fact that business in China is conducted *very differently* from what we’re used to in the West. (I’m not an expert on this — it’s just something I’ve read a fair amount about.) Personal relationships and physical offices are still hugely important. 

        As I understand it, one reason you’ll see a lot of companies with addresses in the same buildings is because they’re small sales offices in important districts for various types of products. E.g., a company might have a small office in a prestigious tower in Shenzhen, but their factory is in a much cheaper area of Guangdong.

        Internet conventions have also developed very differently in China — WeChat is by all accounts much more important than email or websites. You’ll note both companies have WeChat information prominently displayed on their websites.

        I’d recommend watching some of @StrangeParts factory and business videos (including the tour of the absolutely massive Yiwu market) for some context. @TheNextLayer also has some interesting videos visiting 3D printer manufacturers — different industry, but a lot of companies with similar profiles. Finally, the “Essential Guide to Electronics in Shenzhen” — originally by Bunnie Huang, and recently updated by Naomi Wu is a really great glimpse into how things work. The print version is sold out but there’s a PDF linked from the Crowd Supply page: https://www.crowdsupply.com/machinery-enchantress/the-new-essential-guide-to-electronics-in-shenzhen
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      153. This topic is very interesting. Even if the most important brands in the NAS field (Synology, Synology and 3 or 4 others) offer very effective solutions right away, they are closed systems that force users to make forced choices on important issues, in particular these two: the operating system that you cannot choose and cannot change and the limited selection of certified accessories (with Synology especially certified RAM and disks are very few and cost double). These solutions produced by the Chinese now have good construction quality, ease of supply and open up new, extremely interesting scenarios for configuring a NAS exactly as you need it without spending a fortune. Thank you!
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      154. i build a wifi6e router with one of the toptron products (wifi asiarf AW7916-NPD, os openwrt). for my private use i can trust them more than most other router products.
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      155. What I do like about many of the Chinese companies you see on aliexpress etc is the opportunity to try out features that brand companies often will not offer outside the enterprise, or for a significant markup. I got to try early 2.5Gb ethernet switches when 1Gb was the only thing generally available, now seeing more 10Gb and SFP+ stuff in much the same way.

        My “normal” homelab environment tends to still use brands like Synology, much in part because I think they offer a great out of the box experience. But it is annoying when they skimp on things like network connectivity (or offer it only through expensive proprietary addons).
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      157. One should separate various areas of this discussion:
        – are they a decent manufacturer (serious supply chain, a decent warehouse, production facilities crewed with people who know what goes where), do they have done sort of qc – in the end, pertaining to quality of the product
        – warranty? Irl, most products you buy from China are “as is” and even obtaining replacement for doa may be nigh impossible, less so the warranty for a product that dies say in a few months. Any claims they make can in most cases be considered lies. Even if it works, sending it there and spending time on managing this process may be more expensive than buying another one.
        – are their products made of safe materials (this I’m less worried about, since they make them out of parts/materials it’s hard to screw up), in any case such certificates are often bought even in better-managed jurisdictions, let alone China
        – is the os bundled with the product legitimate? In most cases, the answer will be “of course not”
        – are there any sw backdoors? If it’s a pc, best practice is too kill the install anyways. If it’s a NAS like ugreen, no way of knowing, really. Logic dictates there will be all sorts of backdoors there (I feel better about Synology nases but only in regard that the backdoors there are more likely to be American instead of Chinese, though could be both).
        – are there fw backdoors (e.g.bios/uefi)? No way to know, safe to assume yes
        – are there hw backdoors? Possibly. This topic is so complex it’s hard to rule them out. One night safely assume that there are ingenious ways to have for example a board that on receiving a certain command via network will start working in a slightly different fashion via a mechanism not easily identifiable without deep inspection by hardware security specialists who will never be paid to do this
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      159. 11:06 Image format is for two reasons: first, styling. See also just how prevalent it is for Japanese web too. Even fully online-available font and color text is many times done as an image. The second reason is because images have historically been very rarely been backed up or OCR’d. So plausible deniability. “There was no change, that was always there as such.”
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      161. Topton seems to be a brand of Dongguan Tuofuton Electronic Technology Co., Ltd.
        if they are not targeting end users, but b2b, then they may not providing warranty. Actual sellers can provide warranty, but usually the shipping cost is too high for individuals.
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      163. As most of anything coming from China, it’s always somewhere between brilliant and down right shocking, literally. Funny enough Topton has rather a good name, feels good, and I have a motherboard (J6413 NAS board for unraid) mainly because of the power usage on its way from them ????, so this article scared me a bit, but I feel lucky today and I know it’s hopefully going to be ok. ????????
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      164. Good luck sending stuff back to china. It’s probably not worth it and they count on it. Long time ago there used to be local distributors in almost every country or region who provided at least basic warranties.
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      168. When I bought my N6005 a few years ago, it was listed as an OpenWRT board. The box says openwrt. From what I recall, there were no markings on the board and there was no documentation other then what was on the 3rd party sellers page on Aliexpress. When I bought it, I knew it was a roll of the dice and if broke early or there was some other issue. But, it’s been a very very reliable product. The bios and exactly what’s in there is a good question. I have what I need to extract the BIOS and peek at it, but I’m not feeling confident that I’ll be able to determine anything.
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      169. My takeaway from this video: Chinese companies need to market themselves better.

        Literally the entire narrative would flip if they have a nice website.
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      170. I own one Ryzen mini pc from Topton/CWWK. Great little machine. But to me, one Chinese company of mini/industrial PCs that stands out from others, is Qotom. I’ve had very positive experience using Qotom products throughout the years.
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      172. I believe no one would even mention these brands if similar motherboards were made by brands like ASUS, Gigabyte, or MSI. Unfortunately, there are no affordable alternatives for enthusiasts in the market. And companies like QNAP and Synology offer blatantly weak hardware at unimaginable prices.
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      173. It is very right that it is “you” who are responsible for your data security. Hardware, Software and Data… “You gotta keep them separated”, man ????
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      174. Are these brands dodgy …yes Will I recommend them …I think I will LOL !!!!! Unless the business is based OUTSIDE mainland China …… stay away stay away
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      175. Don’t have a reason to care about either one of these companies yet. Two companies making NAS mobo’s and none so far that I have seen supporting ECC memory. If they do, they are few and far between as I have looked at all the products on both their websites quite a few times. Regardless of the added cost…these are not true NAS mobo’s without ECC. Long term storage be damned I guess! Which begs the question, why even buy “NAS” specific hardware at all at that point? I am currently building a complete 2U rackmount all SSD M-ATX system with ECC for just under $1K US. If i can piece together something like this ala carte for that price, surely a manufacturer with all their purchasing power and production capabilities could do it better and for less.

        This is a NAS specific YouTube channel…so tired of seeing video after video on NAS’ that do not support ECC. Catering to the lowest common denominator does not interest me.
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      176. I’ve been diving into these kinds of products for the past few months. Although solely online, and not hands on as yet. For mini pc, and itx motherboards it *appears* there are two main (or most common) OEM design sets and we assume manufacturers. Those are BKHD and ChangWang. Of course there is no guarantee or requirement that they own either the pcb manufacturing or the assembly/test/packaging sites. After all does Apple own any factories? I think not.

        The boards and products from these two (or their manufacturers) get resold under a variety of websites and resellers. Some present themselves simply as resellers, others like to cos play as the manufacturer. As you said, on Aliexpress Topton has the biggest presence. They definately feature products from both the BKHD and CW pools. It’s purely a feeling but I think Topton got into overseas sales, and small volume or retail sales much earlier than most. It may well be that the other two were focused on in-China bulk supply at that time. There are other resellers, KingNovy being the next most obvious who are either part of Topton or a clone of theirs. Or maybe Topton dropship for the other reseller.

        After that it’s like amazon China based sellers where 20 sellers are selling or dropshiping the exact same products often using the same pictures and text.

        At least on servethehome there seems to be a feeling that the topton/kingnovy pair are very flaky on after sales. That would fit with the idea of them being primarily being box shifters and good at marketing.

        As ever theres plenty of other weirdness out there. For example there are two different cwwk outlets on Aliexpress, and one or both may be the official seller. And they even show different stock levels! It could even be that CW licence people to be the/an outlet, or contract different fulfilment companies. Or its two pure resellers.

        It’s a mind field. The alternatives though are say, ASRock boards, or Asus NUCs, and they are two to five times the price.
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      177. I was looking for a product on the toptonpc website and on the “shipping & delivery” entry I just found a nonsensical pseudo-latin Lorem ipsum text, like: “MAECENAS IACULIS

        Vestibulum curae torquent diam diam commodo parturient penatibus nunc dui adipiscing convallis bulum parturient suspendisse parturient a.Parturient in parturient scelerisque nibh lectus quam a natoque adipiscing a vestibulum hendrerit et pharetra fames nunc natoque dui.” (copied from the website).

        Obviously, they don’t think customers will look there to buy any products.
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      178. Good and informative Video and I can see your point. But it leaves me with one question: What “reputable” Vendor has similar Products. Meaning 6×2.5 GB Nic and low power CPU. But enough for a little Proxmox host acting as Firewall/Router and some VMs? (I’d love some suggestions)
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      180. 19:13 you need to consider that the website is being auto-translated to english by some 3rd party translation plugin, which breaks a lot of the functionality of the website. The actual chinese website is not this bad.
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      182. As we have seen during the pandemic for FFP2 masks the certificates usually are worthless/forged. And in this case the certificates don’t really certify that much. The certified fact is simply one specific product is free of harmful chemicals or elements. There’s just no guarantee on security or the integrity of these companies. That said, I bought a Beelink Mini PC for a family member but made sure to delete all partitions including the recovery partition and installed a fresh copy of windows. With that done it’s a great piece of hardware with probably only a little risk left.
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      183. Just bought an aoostar to combine with an Unraid license before they go subscription. Just to play around with it until Synology gets their proverbial sh*t together and put out a new quick sync compatible NAS. That said… Upon arrival I will be profoundly scanning this thing though.
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      188. CWWK was doing OEM for a long time, but in China it is also been the pricey choice, because it’s more like doing social media influencers BS in China, for warranty, in China it’s always 7 day free unconditional free refund, 15 day free return, 1 year warranty, don’t know about aboard.

        Topon is just CWWK but older and lesser social media influencers BS, getting their bucks more from industrial product line, and its oversea marketing is slightly better(I just took a look at CWWK English website, lol, they are really not preparing anything.)
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