Dell Optiplex GX50 SFF
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My roommate had a Dell Optiplex GX50 small form factor sitting in a box that he wasn't using, so I grabbed it to install pfsense onto. Installation went without a hitch. I purchased 512MB or RAM, the max it could hold ($22 shipped) and a gigabit AirLink NIC ($10 from Fry's) for the LAN connection. The harddrive had died, so I replaced it with another old IDE drive I had sitting around (I had two, so I picked the one with the lowest amperage ratings on the label). Once it was installed, I disconnected the power to the floppy and CD drives.
I'd originally purchased a CF to IDE adapter and a 266x CF card, and it installed fine. However I ended up not using it as I decided I wanted to proxy traffic and it would probably die too quickly.
The dmesg:
# dmesg Copyright (c) 1992-2008 The FreeBSD Project. Copyright (c) 1979, 1980, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. FreeBSD is a registered trademark of The FreeBSD Foundation. FreeBSD 7.0-RELEASE-p4 #0: Sat Sep 13 03:20:38 EDT 2008 sullrich@freebsd7-releng_1_2.geekgod.com:/usr/obj.pfSense/usr/src/sys/pfSense.7 Timecounter "i8254" frequency 1193182 Hz quality 0 CPU: Intel Celeron (1096.67-MHz 686-class CPU) Origin = "GenuineIntel" Id = 0x68a Stepping = 10 Features=0x383fbff <fpu,vme,de,pse,tsc,msr,pae,mce,cx8,apic,sep,mtrr,pge,mca,cmov,pat,pse36,mmx,fxsr,sse>real memory = 535261184 (510 MB) avail memory = 509825024 (486 MB) ACPI APIC Table: <dell gx50 ="">ioapic0: Changing APIC ID to 1 ioapic0 <version 2.0="">irqs 0-23 on motherboard wlan: mac acl policy registered kbd1 at kbdmux0 ath_hal: 0.9.20.3 (AR5210, AR5211, AR5212, RF5111, RF5112, RF2413, RF5413) hptrr: HPT RocketRAID controller driver v1.1 (Sep 13 2008 03:20:10) cryptosoft0: <software crypto="">on motherboard acpi0: <dell gx50 ="">on motherboard acpi0: [ITHREAD] acpi0: Power Button (fixed) acpi0: reservation of 0, a0000 (3) failed acpi0: reservation of 100000, f00000 (3) failed acpi0: reservation of 1000000, 1ee77000 (3) failed Timecounter "ACPI-fast" frequency 3579545 Hz quality 1000 acpi_timer0: <24-bit timer at 3.579545MHz> port 0x808-0x80b on acpi0 cpu0: <acpi cpu="">on acpi0 acpi_button0: <power button="">on acpi0 pcib0: <acpi host-pci="" bridge="">port 0xcf8-0xcff on acpi0 pci0: <acpi pci="" bus="">on pcib0 vgapci0: <vga-compatible display="">mem 0xf8000000-0xfbffffff,0xffa00000-0xffa7ffff irq 16 at device 1.0 on pci0 agp0: <intel 82810="" (i810="" gmch)="" svga="" controller="">on vgapci0 pcib1: <acpi pci-pci="" bridge="">at device 30.0 on pci0 pci1: <acpi pci="" bus="">on pcib1 re0: <realtek 8169sb="" 8110sb="" single-chip="" gigabit="" ethernet="">port 0xec00-0xecff mem 0xff8ffc00-0xff8ffcff irq 16 at device 7.0 on pci1 miibus0: <mii bus="">on re0 rgephy0: <rtl8169s 8110s="" 8211b="" media="" interface="">PHY 1 on miibus0 rgephy0: 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, 1000baseT, 1000baseT-FDX, auto re0: Ethernet address: 00:18:e7:18:54:68 re0: [FILTER] xl0: <3Com 3c905C-TX Fast Etherlink XL> port 0xe880-0xe8ff mem 0xff8ff800-0xff8ff87f irq 18 at device 12.0 on pci1 miibus1: <mii bus="">on xl0 ukphy0: <generic ieee="" 802.3u="" media="" interface="">PHY 24 on miibus1 ukphy0: 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, auto xl0: Ethernet address: 00:06:5b:9d:a9:2e xl0: [ITHREAD] isab0: <pci-isa bridge="">at device 31.0 on pci0 isa0: <isa bus="">on isab0 atapci0: <intel ich="" udma66="" controller="">port 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6,0x170-0x177,0x376,0xffa0-0xffaf at device 31.1 on pci0 ata0: <ata 0="" channel="">on atapci0 ata0: [ITHREAD] ata1: <ata 1="" channel="">on atapci0 ata1: [ITHREAD] uhci0: <intel 82801aa="" (ich)="" usb="" controller="">port 0xff80-0xff9f irq 19 at device 31.2 on pci0 uhci0: [GIANT-LOCKED] uhci0: [ITHREAD] usb0: <intel 82801aa="" (ich)="" usb="" controller="">on uhci0 usb0: USB revision 1.0 uhub0: <intel 1="" 9="" uhci="" root="" hub,="" class="" 0,="" rev="" 1.00="" 1.00,="" addr="">on usb0 uhub0: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered pci0: <serial bus,="" smbus="">at device 31.3 (no driver attached) speaker0: <pc speaker="">port 0x61 on acpi0 fdc0: <floppy drive="" controller="">port 0x3f0-0x3f5,0x3f7 irq 6 drq 2 on acpi0 fdc0: [FILTER] pmtimer0 on isa0 orm0: <isa option="" roms="">at iomem 0xc0000-0xc7fff,0xc8000-0xcffff pnpid ORM0000 on isa0 atkbdc0: <keyboard controller="" (i8042)="">at port 0x60,0x64 on isa0 atkbd0: <at keyboard="">irq 1 on atkbdc0 kbd0 at atkbd0 atkbd0: [GIANT-LOCKED] atkbd0: [ITHREAD] ppc0: parallel port not found. sc0: <system console="">at flags 0x100 on isa0 sc0: VGA <16 virtual consoles, flags=0x300> sio0: configured irq 4 not in bitmap of probed irqs 0 sio0: port may not be enabled sio0: configured irq 4 not in bitmap of probed irqs 0 sio0: port may not be enabled sio0 at port 0x3f8-0x3ff irq 4 flags 0x10 on isa0 sio0: type 8250 or not responding sio0: [FILTER] sio1: configured irq 3 not in bitmap of probed irqs 0 sio1: port may not be enabled vga0: <generic isa="" vga="">at port 0x3c0-0x3df iomem 0xa0000-0xbffff on isa0 uhub1: <vendor 2="" 9="" 0x413c="" general="" purpose="" usb="" hub,="" class="" 0,="" rev="" 1.10="" 1.01,="" addr="">on uhub0 uhub1: 3 ports with 3 removable, self powered Timecounter "TSC" frequency 1096672945 Hz quality 800 Timecounters tick every 1.000 msec Fast IPsec: Initialized Security Association Processing. hptrr: no controller detected. ad0: 238475MB <hitachi hds722525vlat80="" v36oa6ma="">at ata0-master UDMA66 Trying to mount root from ufs:/dev/ad0s1a re0: link state changed to UP xl0: link state changed to UP re0: link state changed to DOWN re0: link state changed to UP pflog0: promiscuous mode enabled re0: promiscuous mode enabled re0: promiscuous mode disabled re0: promiscuous mode enabled</hitachi></vendor></generic></system></at></keyboard></isa></floppy></pc></serial></intel></intel></intel></ata></ata></intel></isa></pci-isa></generic></mii></rtl8169s></mii></realtek></acpi></acpi></intel></vga-compatible></acpi></acpi></power></acpi></dell></software></version></dell ></fpu,vme,de,pse,tsc,msr,pae,mce,cx8,apic,sep,mtrr,pge,mca,cmov,pat,pse36,mmx,fxsr,sse> -
??? What's your question?
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No question, just thought to post hardware that had no issues. I wasn't sure where else to put it, so I posted in the hardware forum.
Do people not post successful hardware here?
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Ah sorry.
Yes some do, but usually it's connected with some kind of issue, so i didnt know what to make of your post :DDo you know how much power the whole system draws?
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I finally picked up a Kill-A-Watt device to check power draw. Just sitting there and with light web browsing using a transparent proxy and traffic shaping the system pulls around 35W.
While downloading at 15Mbps and 300Kbps upload and around 300 active states, the system pulls around 49W. With this load the CPU is running around 40% with the occasional spike to 80%, so I'm guessing the system could handle 30Mbps or so fine.
While booting and accessing the harddrive, it pulls around 62W.
Any ideas how this compares with other more embedded solutions?
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http://pcengines.ch/alix.htm
The ALIX which can push over 50 Mbit/s can be powered over PoE.
The page says it uses about 5W, but the PoE specs and the PSU provided in the onlineshop are for up to 15W.So even if it's not as low as 5W it's maximum 15W.
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I could probably shave off a few watts by using a CF instead of a harddisk. Still, five times the power envelope for a six an a half year old fat system isn't too bad. Cost for power is around $3/month (plus cooling costs), which I can live with. And considering the small out of pocket cost, it'd take me years just to make that up in power costs.
Still, I really want to get one of those embedded boards to play with. Maybe when this system dies?
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After monitoring the power for 30 days, the system used 27.5 KWH of power, and transferred 428GB of data. I feel pretty satisfied with the functionality for $3/month electricity usage (+ cooling costs).
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For the other readers:
27500 Wh / 720 h= 38.2 W power consumption.
Not that bad, considering it's not an embedded system. -
My 1.86 GHz Core 2 Duo desktop pulls about 115 Watts while idling, and about 200 Watts under load. So yeah, for what is basically an old desktop it's doing really well.
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I am using an old Dell OpiPlex GX150 desktop which is a 1Ghz PIII with 512MB ram and 40gig IBM Deathstar hard drive which only draws about 32 watts at idle and about 45 watts max. For something that is big as a desktop with a fan I'd say it's pretty darn good.
One of these days I'm going to convert the PC into a hybrid embedded system meaning no fans and no hard drive. It'll save a few watts but not so much. Still cheaper than buying a $300 embedded device.
For remote office environments I always go embedded since no moving parts to worry about. However, if I am successful of taking an old Dell PC with low power draw and convert it into a hybrid it'll save it from going to e-waste since for a router it's got plenty of life left in it and save some money too.
Darkk
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Do you plan on converting the existing power supply to fanless, or are you going to purchase a new fanless power supply?
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Do you plan on converting the existing power supply to fanless, or are you going to purchase a new fanless power supply?
I may have to replace the power supply with a fanless model. The entire PC doesn't need alot of power to run so I can probably get away with a small factor 100 watt PS unit once I change the hard drive to a CF or laptop hard drive and no fans. I'd very happy if the entire thing runs under 20 watts but not likely due to the PIII. Lucky it's not a P4, power hungry little beast.
Darkk
