I'll be writing a fuller review of this device on my blog (you'll find it -- its going to be the only review on the internet.)
I have ordered the N100 model with the SFP card. I'm quite happy with the support and handling of shipping on the retailers' side so far. Well done! I'm also reasonably happy with the device itself. All of its core functions work well out of the box and the components selected are adequate and come from well known brands (PSUs are from meanwell, for instance.)
However in order to achieve the low price point some sacrifices did have to be made. I have ordered the device without memory or disk as I had intended to install my own SATA SSD I already had. Unfortunately, the SATA port does not work out of the box and enabling it requires soldering a resistor (according to the support.) You are meant to install an mSATA disk in this device. Had I known this, I would've ordered with memory and storage pre-installed. I recommend you do so as well.
The BIOS settings are pretty locked down currently. None of the settings relevant to power-efficient operation are available out of the box. So the device will consume 20-25W at idle when you first set it up. The cores properly enter the C10 C-state and consume little power. However the CPU Package C-state is locked at C2 and the package continuously consumes 3W. Enabling ASPM and other usual tweaks via workarounds (not available in BIOS) will reduce the overall power consumption to 15W, but the CPU package remains stuck at C2 C-state anyway. The SFP card supports ASPM, but only L0s. However even with the SFP card physically removed the C2 package C-state lock remains in place. Hopefully the BIOS option availability and the C-state problem can be addressed in the future with a BIOS update.
The fans that come installed are all 3-pin DC and spin at max speed constantly. The SFP module fan in particular is quite loud -- others are better. The pins available are all PWM-capable (except for SFP module) and the firmware does have fan curve control options (which work for PWM only.) Unfortunately replacing the fans of this size with PWM ones is expensive (40x40mm PWM fans are rare). Perhaps a better solution will be to use a standard 120mm fan sideways and 3D-print some guides to move the air over the components.
