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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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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Jesus christ what is your taskbar????
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Wouldn’t it be better to test their products out vs. banging on about what their products *might* be like based on Googling?
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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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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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topton is really crap, don’t trust them. They will not answer, no support, no updates!!!
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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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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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One question comes to mind: why don’t big brands make such soc mobo’s? They could, couldn’t they?
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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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Not only is this video 19 minutes too long, would you really trust the opinion of someone that has that may tabs open on their browser?
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Hall Carol Anderson Donna Thomas Melissa
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Koelpin Meadow
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Perez Matthew Taylor Mark Lee Kimberly
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Wilson William Lopez Patricia Gonzalez Mark
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Clark Ruth White Betty Thomas Michael
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Anderson Karen Moore Karen Martinez Ronald
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Clark David Thompson Joseph Lopez Sarah
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As these companies can be gone tomorrow, warranty is a pipedream.
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Harris Maria Hall Jason Hernandez Larry
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If include full ECC mode support = perfect
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Williams Patricia Lewis Thomas Lopez Joseph
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Thompson Melissa Rodriguez Margaret Anderson Elizabeth
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Hernandez Timothy White Lisa Brown Anthony
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Martinez David Robinson Larry Martin Elizabeth
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Harris Jose Rodriguez Thomas Jackson Donna
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74243 Dietrich Motorway
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Harris Barbara Taylor Deborah Garcia Nancy
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Hauck Meadows
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Martin Edward Garcia Barbara Wilson Kimberly
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Walker Barbara Thomas Mark Thompson Betty
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Young Larry Moore Richard Clark William
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Perez Sharon Perez Patricia Johnson Helen
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Kirlin Parkways
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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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Kautzer River
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Nikolaus Squares
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Schmitt Hills
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i dont think anyone in china uses emails for anything. so probably the only reason for them to have an email so they can reply you via whatsapp
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Robinson Ruth Jackson Donald Taylor Mark
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Anderson Edward Perez Brian Lee Maria
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White Brenda Martinez Steven Allen Jessica
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Harris Brian Martin Linda Jones Robert
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the nefarious individual is the Communist Chinese Government!!!
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Bette Landing
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Thompson Donna Hall Mary Young Lisa
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Rodriguez Laura Garcia Deborah Allen Robert
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Miller Kenneth Taylor Richard Lopez Edward
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Taylor Lisa Jackson Jeffrey Martin Robert
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Summarizing the video for everybody: is it safe to use these products? “We don’t know.”
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Jackson Karen Taylor Kimberly Miller Steven
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Williams Mary Young Donna Johnson Linda
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Lopez Nancy Taylor Jason Hernandez Betty
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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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Christiansen Stravenue
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Williams Shirley Wilson Jennifer Brown Joseph
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Martinez Jose Jackson Linda Lewis Angela
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Walker Melissa Martinez Michelle Davis Deborah
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Brian Club
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Taylor Ronald Davis Timothy Moore Barbara
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Gonzalez Maria Smith Edward Garcia Cynthia
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Lopez Scott Miller Sharon Walker Scott
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Williams Dorothy Williams Amy Jones Anthony
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Young Sharon White Betty Davis Scott
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Its pretty simple for me. No warranty or no EU based address = no buy
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Wilson Carol Young Patricia Young Jose
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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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Its 2024 and he is still using Classic Shell… OMFG ????????????????????????
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I beat the crap out of a cwwk q670 board and it’s rocking it. Documentation and bios updates are really poorly managed though.
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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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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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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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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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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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thank you for this. I am curious about Yanling as well, as they appear to be an OEM.
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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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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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Wow, I’m really excited to see our computer products on NASCompares. Thank you again!
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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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Have one of these Chinese motherboard, does it support sas drives?
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For basic boards they are pricey. $500 for a Celeron mb?
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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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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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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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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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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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The router manufacturer you mentioned is AVM not Fritz. Fritz is more a name for their products. Like Fritz!Box or Fritz!OS ????
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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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Any news about 2024 Synology and Qnap Nas realese…… 2 and 4-Bay…. I have been Switching to Qnap but i still love DSM…
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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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“DDR4 512GB” from that line I already don’t trust them.
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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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Why aren’t Synology, QNAP, and Asustor referred to as “Eastern” companies?
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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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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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You done any investigating into Eryang??
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Great video! I’d like to suggest a video topic. Is optane cache still relevant in 2024?
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Never ever trust Chinese government / companies.
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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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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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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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I smell CCP backdoor.
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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I am amazed the larger oems have not taken notes and started to make similar boards
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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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Have you seen this FriendlyELEC CM3588 NAS?
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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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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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I’d feel a lot better if you could get coreboot onto them
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6:03 “Default installed our activated OEM cracked version Win7” ????
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*ding*….Not seagulls this time ????, I was tempted by picking up one of these for a NAS setup, but went down the mini-PC route.
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Excellent investigative content
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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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