This is what you need:

Memory Capacity: 4x 204-pin DDR3 SO-DIMM socket (Supports up to 64GB DDR3 ECC Un-Buffered memory)
Memory Type: 1600/1333MHz ECC DDR3 SDRAM, 204-pin gold-plated DIMMs
DIMM Sizes: 16GB, 8GB, 4GB, 2GB
Memory Voltage: 1.5 V, 1.35 V

So basically: ECC laptop RAM, standard stuff but with ECC. As posted by NogBadtheBad, even crucial has this stuff: http://eu.crucial.com/eur/en/compatible-upgrade-for/Supermicro/a1sri-2558f

Others have them too, i.e.:

Transcend TS256MSK72W6N
Kingston ValueRAM KVR13LSE9S8/4

SuperMicro also has a list of tested memory: (use tabs at the top for other module sizes) http://www.supermicro.nl/support/resources/memory/display.cfm?mspd=1.6&mtyp=65&id=19062770653AAC69ECAB308B0C1ED17C&prid=83767&type=DDR3%201.35V%20SODIMM&ecc=1®=0&fbd=0

ATM OpenVPN (but only 30/40Mb u/d) , so it would not be a prob. in sw.

But was actually thinking of switching my OVPN (PKI/TLS)  Site-to-Site (L2L)  (summerhouse) tunnel to - IPSEC (PKI)
IPSEC for L2L seems like a performancewise advantage , if/when i get a 100/100Mb

And the i'll just use OVPN for roadwarriors (family remote in) , and VPN remote exit-nodes

But this was just an Academic question about why to be able to load both ?
If i have AES-NI that would perform best in all situations (i suppose) ??

Is the possibility there for supporting (SW encr for some kind of conns - why ?) , and HW for others ?

Ahh … Are some of the ciphers only supported in SW , due to HW crypto limitations ?

From the Front page (pfsense) : Hardware crypto AES-CBC,AES-XTS,AES-GCM,AES-ICM
These might be the only ones w. HW support for my cpu ?

/Bingo

Thank you. That answers it.

In case someone runs across this thread later - it connects up with an internal m.2 B slot and netgate is working on a LTE /GSM kit option. As of Dec 2017 it doesn't look like its out yet though.

For my network, speed is not crucial (unusually)

Seems to be quite a few opinions on APU2 throughput out there - eg:
https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?topic=2139.0

Config dependent; I would think it should easily do what you are asking…

It's 32bit ARM however it is supported by the latest 2.4 and future pfSense versions. The 32bit limitation only applies to i386 Intel / AMD platforms and not ARM based devices.

@Rockjansky:

Hi, I have the same issue on 2.4 and above with an 8540p laptop. I did a minimal amount of research, but it looks like maybe this is a phantom task that BSD uses when the processor is overloaded and it sets this to steal some cycles to prevent overheating? Anyway, interested if anyone figures it out.

Thanks

Mmm. I am still to experience this on any other platform.

I've sent in the whole chassis for RMA. Waiting on our local Supermicro dealership to check on the server. When I enable some PCI-E features(above 4G decoding) the server also refuses to pass POST. I also had a hard time convincing it to work properly in UEFI mode. I'll update the thread if they come up with some resolution to the problem other than replacing the chassis with some other model.

much easier. I reinstalled pfsense and started the ifconfig command ones to get started and configure pfsense.

Then I went back to the WAN setting and if found this setting " Speed and Duplex" where I could set the necessary media type.

Rebooted and the WAN address got the ip address ;-)

Everything looks good

@johnkeates:

I have no idea what the virt-manager GUI does, I either use bare config files or managed configuration. I probably missed the boat on the GUI part before it came out, and when it did come out, I already moved on to configuration management  :-\

Anyway, I pretty much left the KVM bandwagon and only run Xen, and a bit of vmware, and they all just take the host CPU and all it's features by default and give it to the VM.

Maybe removing the fallback option is what you need? Also, did you enable hardware assisted virtualisation?

I've been quite happy with KVM, but I think I should give Xen a try. Anyway, I've managed to get it to work using "Westmere" CPU. I've not tryied removing "fallback" option yet,but will try that.

Also, what I think is strange is that my real CPU is an AMD FX-8350 but the "emulated" one is an "Intel Westmere"…. I though that you can only "emulate" AMD CPUs on AMD CPUs and Intel CPUs on Intel CPUs but obviously I was wrong!.

@Spencer1990:

@Spencer1990:

Hi there just wanted to update you guys on this build.

First thing after an hour or so of frustration I found out that you have to use pfsense 2.4 because it has uefi bios support.
After that everything installs easily. I setup openvpn using aes256cbc and sha256 and I'm able to hit my max line speeds 150/150 using around 45% cpu.
The form factor is great too and very easy to open and install your ssd and ram of choice. I would definitely recommend this mini pc.

Thanks
Spencer

Hi there a little update on the cpu usage I had my info wrong. The max I have seen is 15% cpu usage and load average of 0.7 while maxing my 150Mbps connection on openvpn using aes256cbc and sha256. I was only maxing the download so I imagine if I maxed the upload too at the same time it would max out at 30% cpu usage. Thanks

How do you think this would do with a gigabit connection?

If you were running multiple VPN connections over a 150up/down connection, would this box be able to handle it?

Thanks.

@sparkman123:

@johnkeates:

That is because those pretty much are laptop CPU's. You won't find them on standard motherboards, pretty much only on embedded and industrial stuff, or the Qotom and MiniSys boxes we already mentioned. There is a small number of ITX board that have them as well, but I have no idea if Intel even allows people to buy they SoCs to put on motherboards with PCIe slots for example.

What about the LAN NIC types on these mini-pcs? For example, I've seen quite a few threads discussing how bad RealTek LAN adapters are for pfsense. This thread is a good case in point:

https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=128098.0

There is no mention of what kind of LAN NICs these boxes have in the tech specs, so it's hard to know if they use stock Intel, RealTek or something worse.

The boxes in the Qotom thread all use Intel cards. Mostly the I2xx series.

No. But you could configure some packages manually to store their logs on external devices. Best solution is to not write the logs at all and just send them to a logging server.

@stephenw10:

Yeah pretty sure those are just re-badged Supermicro boxes. As such they are usually waaaaaay overpriced secondhand. Especially if you aren't even going to to use the software that is really what you're paying for.

IMO  ;)

Steve

These XCS 370 and XCS 570 are not always to find on Ebay, but the past year they  popup on regulary time
and have fair prices.
But indeed, it's a Supermicro in Red  :P

Grtz
DeLorean

@kejianshi:

My experience with design temperatures….

CPUs with design temperatures of 100c start throttling at 70c.

People can say they do not, but I've never had a chip with a t-junction of 100c make it beyond 80c before my computer turned into a snail.

well, since I haven't seen an APU2 get that hot I'm not sure it's relevant. they tend to run hotter than a regular desktop at idle, but they don't get all that much hotter under load. (assuming the heatsink isn't installed wrong.)

SuperMicro A1SRI-2358F + Chassis CSE-101i isn't really "made" for 2x HDs, but the HD bay does easily fit 2 SSD atop each other.
But, since I'm using external pwr supply, the mobo only has 1 male molex connector for HD pwr. So, I had to order female molex to 2x SATA power for the SSDs. Wasn't easy to find female molex to SATA power, but finally got 1 in today.

Got everything up and running with Auto Install (ZFS), very easy. Thanks for recommendations everyone.

pool: pfSenseZFSpool state: ONLINE   scan: scrub repaired 0 in 0h0m with 0 errors on Thu Dec  7 07:01:02 2017 config: NAME        STATE    READ WRITE CKSUM pfSenseZFSpool  ONLINE      0    0    0   mirror-0  ONLINE      0    0    0     ada0p3  ONLINE      0    0    0     ada1p3  ONLINE      0    0    0 errors: No known data errors

Indeed, not much room for 'other stuff', you'll need more CPU power for that.

@Ehryk:

AHA!!!

Yep, ran into that too, it was the next thing I would have recommended to check against, however, this applies only to internal headers, external D-SUB connectors are everywhere the same. If you say you had partial success with USB, then after the ACPI trick you should have noticed success on the rear D-SUB too. And only after that, try the internal header…  8)

This is not SuperMicro-specific, this dates from the 1990's, there were always two flavours of interal header pinout: IBM/DTK WIRING SCHEME and EVEREX/ASUS WIRING SCHEME.
It's only a question of which manufacturer adopts which standard, nothing more.

                SERIAL MOTHERBOARD CABLE 10 PIN DIL TO DB-9                         (IBM/DTK WIRING SCHEME)                   This is the ribbon cable from the MB serial                     connector to the DB-9/DB-25 COM connector                   DIL              DB-9            DB-25                   1 -------------- 1  DCD __________ 8                   6 -------------- 2  RX ___________ 3                   2 -------------- 3  TX ___________ 2                   7 -------------- 4  DTR __________ 20                   3 -------------- 5  GND __________ 7                   8 -------------- 6  DSR __________ 6                   4 -------------- 7  RTS __________ 4                   9 -------------- 8  CTS __________ 5                   5 -------------- 9  RI ___________ 22                   10 ------------- 10  N/C OR KEY                 SERIAL MOTHERBOARD CABLE 10 PIN DIL TO DB-9                         (EVEREX/ASUS WIRING SCHEME)                   This is the ribbon cable from the MB serial                     connector to the DB-9/DB-25 COM connector                   DIL              DB-9            DB-25                   1 -------------- 1  DCD __________ 8                   2 -------------- 2  RX  __________ 3                   3 -------------- 3  TX  __________ 2                   4 -------------- 4  DTR __________ 20                   5 -------------- 5  GND __________ 7                   6 -------------- 6  DSR __________ 6                   7 -------------- 7  RTS __________ 4                   8 -------------- 8  CTS __________ 5                   9 -------------- 9  RI  __________ 22                   10 ------------- 10  N/C OR KEY