If you're serious about your home networking, there's a good chance that you've already thrown out your ISP-given router. While they're fine for general everyday use, they tend to fall apart once you try doing some serious stuff on them. That's why some enthusiasts decide to skip the router part altogether and instead opt for a mini PC to act as their networking hub.

Fortunately, Black Friday has put a few choice DIY router devices on discount. So, if you want to up your networking game, you can do worse than check out the CWWK Intel Alder Lake N100.

The CWWK Intel Alder Lake N100 is just $192 for the barebones model right now

As part of Amazon's Black Friday sale, the CWWK Intel Alder Lake N100 is now 20% off. That pushes the price down from $240 to $192, meaning you can save a cool $48 by picking this formidable little box up before the Black Friday sales end.

Do note that the option I've picked out here is for the barebones version. That means it comes with no RAM and no SSD. This should be perfect for tinkerers who may have a stick or two lying around that they can use, or if you want to use very specific hardware for your router. If you do want hardware to be included, the 8GB RAM, 128 GB SSD version is currently 16% off, too.

Why the CWWK Intel Alder Lake N100 is a top pick

Now that we know how much it's on sale for, let's take a peek into why it's a solid choice for people who want a DIY router. Other than the aforementioned ability to purchase it in a barebones state and customise it to your liking, the mini PC comes with an N100 as its processor. This is powerful enough to keep up with your routing, but lightweight enough not to make a dent in your electricity bill. This will likely end up running 24/7 after all, so you don't want something that requires too much juice to run.

This mini PC also comes with a pretty rare specification: four Ethernet ports. Mini PCs usually come with one, and you may find some with two, but four ports are hard to come by. With four ports, you can hook up several devices via Ethernet for the best in stability and speed.

With these two aspects in mind, plus some happy reviewers stating that OPNsense worked great on it, the CWWK Intel Alder Lake N100 is a good consideration this Black Friday for DIY routers.