NIPOGI AK1PLUS N100 low performance / vendor cheating?

[mush]

I just bought NIPOGI AK1PLUS N100/16GB RAM/1TB SSD and realized that this model has low performance. For example in CPU-Z benchmark it has only 950 scores in multicore test, but it must have 1300 according to information declared on many benchmark websites.
After some investigations I found that it limited to 10W in BIOS default settings. In BIOS params 'Power Limit 1' & 'Power Limit 2' have value 10000, that means 10w max of power consumption.
I am an owner of another PC - Firebat T8 Plus with N100 processor and it works fine. I checked Power LImit parameters in this model and it is 15000 (15W)
I updated Power Limit for AK1PLUS to 15w and now the performance is fine, I did retest in CPU-Z and it has 1300 points now.
But there is another issue with overheating, with 15w it has temperature about 60 degrees in IDLE and 85+ under high load. It activates throttling after few minutes of full CPU load (!!!). For example my another PC Firebat T8 Plus has IDLE temperature around 40 degrees and not more more then 65 degrees on high load.

So, is there a way to use full CPU speed without overheating? Or there is not way and it is some kind of vendor cheating because of issues with cooling system?

[Mordred]

I just bought NIPOGI AK1PLUS N100/16GB RAM/1TB SSD and realized that this model has low performance. For example in CPU-Z benchmark it has only 950 scores in multicore test, but it must have 1300 according to information declared on many benchmark websites.
After some investigations I found that it limited to 10W in BIOS default settings. In BIOS params 'Power Limit 1' & 'Power Limit 2' have value 10000, that means 10w max of power consumption.
I am an owner of another PC - Firebat T8 Plus with N100 processor and it works fine. I checked Power LImit parameters in this model and it is 15000 (15W)
I updated Power Limit for AK1PLUS to 15w and now the performance is fine, I did retest in CPU-Z and it has 1300 points now.
But there is another issue with overheating, with 15w it has temperature about 60 degrees in IDLE and 85+ under high load. It activates throttling after few minutes of full CPU load (!!!). For example my another PC Firebat T8 Plus has IDLE temperature around 40 degrees and not more more then 65 degrees on high load.

So, is there a way to use full CPU speed without overheating? Or there is not way and it is some kind of vendor cheating because of issues with cooling system?

If you change the power limit to a higher value, you need also modify the fan curve to be capable of dissipate all the heat. You can modify this curve in the BIOS ( I don't have this model and I don't know if it is possible or not) or you can use some software (for example fancontrol) and change the fan curve.

[mush]

There is no fan control options in BIOS. Fan seems to be working fine and loud (not the quietest one at all)
Actually, It the manufactor changed default power limits to lower value (as a result -30% of the CPU performance). Seems the only one reason of that is to hide overheating?

I only configured to use typical PL options for N100 CPU as it is in other mini PC models.

[dragonpoo]

I'm curious, aside from some benchmark software that pushes the system to its limit, did you actually notice performance issues when using it with the default settings? Most people freak out when their CPU is pushing 40% utilization, and it's rare for it to run sustained like this.

I'm not saying you are wrong or right, I just wonder what "real world testing" has shown.

[mush]

I'm curious, aside from some benchmark software that pushes the system to its limit, did you actually notice performance issues when using it with the default settings? Most people freak out when their CPU is pushing 40% utilization, and it's rare for it to run sustained like this.

I'm not saying you are wrong or right, I just wonder what "real world testing" has shown.

When you buy PC with N100 you spend money for performance of N100, not for performance of eg: N5090, right?
I am going to use this PC in Linux cluster and want to make sure performance will be fine, as well as thermal characteristics.
In worst scenario it will be used with default power limit setting just to prevent overheating (I am going to use it with uptime 24/7), but I wanted to know if someone has issue like this and ways to solve it. If there is no software solution for this I will try to check heatsink and replace thermal paste there

P.S.: I also have noticed with small 0.5sec freezes on preinstalled Windows 11, when I move apps windows or play minecraft. Not sure what is a reason of this - low performance or some issue with the Windows itself.

[dragonpoo]

About the freezing you see under Windows 11, I have seen those things before (other brands of computer) due to video driver issues. Typically, check for an upgrade (or downgrade to the OOB one from Microsoft) and it would hopefully improve.

I get your point about expectations on the CPU. As I said, it's rare for most people to push their system to the limit - even in my virtualization environment with multiple systems running on the same hardware, things get really weird when the CPU is putting out more than 70% sustained utilization.

[mush]

According to conversation with @barry777 (thanks you, btw!)
There is a hardware issue with cooling system in this particular version of AK1PLUS and has been fixed last year for new models.
As I understood there is no way to fix it by end user (@barry777 please correct me if I am wrong)
I tried to fix it via changing bios settings and changed thermal paste for CPU - no results.
So guys, please beware of particular version of the NIPOGI AK1Plus N100/16/1Tb, SKU: CMNAK1PLBEU1661 / Bios v. 2.22.1287, 09/20/23

Thanks