CWWK M8 N150/N355

[Enquiries]

hi there, big fan of your channel and reviews.

I have just found this NAS board and your review for CWWK M8 N150/N355. I am still relatively new to all of this and am learning along the way. I am really interested in using a Sparkle Intel Arc A310 ECO (https://www.sparkle.com.tw/en/A310-ECO) for Plex transcoding purposes but I am not sure if this will fit. The PCIE slot on the board looks quite a bit further in and I know that some smaller slots work on larger cards with a slight downgrade in performance but I am not sure on how that all works.

I'm very familiar with computers and have built many pc's in my time but I've never tried to build a NAS before while trying to juggle a good mix of cost to performance to power consumption. I am essentially thinking of building a low power nas with this GPU for plex and that is essentially it. I have an intel nuc that was decommed through work which I use for proxmox so dont need the nas to handle anything crazy because the nuc handles that.

[ed]

The Arc A310 ECO is a dual-slot, full-height PCIe 4.0 x8 GPU, but it works fine in a PCIe x16 slot too – with bandwidth scaling to the slot’s capabilities.

Now, here’s where the CWWK M8 gets tricky:
• The board does have a PCIe x8 physical slot, but it’s positioned unusually deep on the board due to the compact layout.
• Most full-height, dual-slot GPUs (like the Arc A310) will physically not fit unless you’re using a PCIe riser cable or modifying your chassis setup.
• Also, clearance with the SATA ports and board edge is very tight on these compact NAS boards.


If you’re set on using the Arc A310 ECO:
• Use a PCIe x8 to x16 riser cable (preferably angled) and mount the GPU horizontally or vertically depending on your case.
• Make sure your NAS case has enough ventilation and clearance, as the Arc A310 ECO does run cool, but still needs breathing room.

Also, double check that your power supply has a 6-pin connector and enough headroom, even though the A310 ECO is just a 75W card.