Netgate Discussion Forum
    • Categories
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Search
    • Register
    • Login

    Intel atom 330 vs 230 ?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Hardware
    34 Posts 7 Posters 24.2k Views
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • A
      akus
      last edited by

      @Cry:

      Can I strongly recommend you do some reading of the forum.  Being able to push 100 Mb/s in both directions takes more than just a CPU.  Your choice of network card will probably matter more.

      Yes, im atm @ 2x Realtek cards (PCI 32-bit), they arent the optimal I feel, planning to get myself 2x Intel Pro 1000mbit PCIe next month

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • K
        ktims
        last edited by

        @akus:

        Yes, im atm @ 2x Realtek cards (PCI 32-bit), they arent the optimal I feel, planning to get myself 2x Intel Pro 1000mbit PCIe next month

        The ubiquitous RTL8139 can't do 100mbit. You don't really need to go as far as the GigE PCIe cards though, a couple PCI Intel Pro/100s can probably fill your needs, and they're cheap as chips these days.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • A
          akus
          last edited by

          @ktims:

          @akus:

          Yes, im atm @ 2x Realtek cards (PCI 32-bit), they arent the optimal I feel, planning to get myself 2x Intel Pro 1000mbit PCIe next month

          The ubiquitous RTL8139 can't do 100mbit. You don't really need to go as far as the GigE PCIe cards though, a couple PCI Intel Pro/100s can probably fill your needs, and they're cheap as chips these days.

          Well its not 8139 i have, think its 8101SC its 2x Gigabit realteks. But I will get the Intel Pro 1000mbit to be ready for inc uppgrade this summer, dont feel like buying 2x100mbit for 40 euro a piece now and in 3months 2x1000mbit for 60 euro a piece. Will PFsense work fine with Intel Pro PT 1000mbit ? For example Smoothwall wasen't to happy with PCIe cards =/

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • K
            ktims
            last edited by

            @akus:

            Will PFsense work fine with Intel Pro PT 1000mbit ? For example Smoothwall wasen't to happy with PCIe cards =/

            Yup, works perfectly. Some newer chips may not work in the FreeBSD 6.2 based 1.2, but they will work fine in 1.2.2 or the upcoming 1.2.3.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • Cry HavokC
              Cry Havok
              last edited by

              Those Realtek cards should be fine - it's only (some of the) old 10/100 chips that were impressively terrible ;)  I'd suggest you test them out to avoid having to buy more hardware you don't need.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • A
                akus
                last edited by

                @Cry:

                Those Realtek cards should be fine - it's only (some of the) old 10/100 chips that were impressively terrible ;)  I'd suggest you test them out to avoid having to buy more hardware you don't need.

                With P2P stuff im having problem reaching over 30mbit/s. Downloaded from an ftp @ 43mbit/s maximum atm. In everyday use I can use about 15/15mbit/s on P2P content before it starts to rise in ms in games and notacibly slower web-browsing. I like to have alot of stuff going without compromising my ms in games. So I will go for the better NIC's I guess, the hardware atm is a P4 2,6ghz 768ram, so i guess the CPU is good for atleast 100/100 ?

                But anyhow ? You must admit its fun to buy hardware that you dont need =)

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • Cry HavokC
                  Cry Havok
                  last edited by

                  There are plenty of posts, and some stuff on the pfSense pages (and wiki) about hardware sizing.  Random guesswork isn't your friend ;)

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • A
                    akus
                    last edited by

                    @Cry:

                    There are plenty of posts, and some stuff on the pfSense pages (and wiki) about hardware sizing.  Random guesswork isn't your friend ;)

                    Ok i've checked around but here is one thing. I have orderd 2 cards called Intel Pro/1000 PT. They aren't listed as supported cards under the hardware list(exact matched name). But the controller chip that the
                    card is built on is listed as supported and other cards in the list uses that controller also? What shall I do? Turn them back to the vendor or they will work?

                    Its the chip that we are talking about is called 82572:

                    "    The em driver supports Gigabit Ethernet adapters based on the Intel
                        82540, 82541ER, 82541PI, 82542, 82543, 82544, 82545, 82546, 82546EB,
                        82546GB, 82547, 82571, 82572 and 82573 controller chips:

                    · Intel PRO/1000 CT Network Connection (82547)
                        · Intel PRO/1000 F Server Adapter (82543)
                        · Intel PRO/1000 Gigabit Server Adapter (82542)
                        · Intel PRO/1000 GT Desktop Adapter (82541PI)
                        · Intel PRO/1000 MF Dual Port Server Adapter (82546)
                        · Intel PRO/1000 MF Server Adapter (82545)
                        · Intel PRO/1000 MF Server Adapter (LX) (82545)
                        · Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop Adapter (82540)
                        · Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop Adapter (82541)
                        · Intel PRO/1000 MT Dual Port Server Adapter (82546)
                        · Intel PRO/1000 MT Quad Port Server Adapter (82546EB)
                        · Intel PRO/1000 MT Server Adapter (82545)
                        · Intel PRO/1000 T Desktop Adapter (82544)
                        · Intel PRO/1000 T Server Adapter (82543)
                        · Intel PRO/1000 XF Server Adapter (82544)
                        · Intel PRO/1000 XT Server Adapter (82544)
                    "

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • W
                      wallabybob
                      last edited by

                      I expect you will find your cards work fine.

                      If I recall correctly the 82571 was the first Intel PCI Express GigE chip and those with higher numbers came later.  Notice that the list of cards doesn't include any based on the 8257x. The list probably hasn't been kept current the way the list of supported chips has been. A further reason for confidence is that an Intel employee has been committing the updates to support new Intel GigE chips.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • A
                        akus
                        last edited by

                        @wallabybob:

                        I expect you will find your cards work fine.

                        If I recall correctly the 82571 was the first Intel PCI Express GigE chip and those with higher numbers came later.  Notice that the list of cards doesn't include any based on the 8257x. The list probably hasn't been kept current the way the list of supported chips has been. A further reason for confidence is that an Intel employee has been committing the updates to support new Intel GigE chips.

                        What got me wondering is that if you visit Intel's website you discover that (atm atleast) that particular card isen't supported in OpenBSD. Since im a mere amatuer in BSD I don't know if this apply FreeBSD also.
                        And I certanly don't know if that apply to PF Sense. Well let's see what happens when they arrive =)

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • W
                          wallabybob
                          last edited by

                          I just remembered I bought a couple of Intel Pro/1000 PT cards for work a couple of years ago. They are recognised by FreeBSD 7.0 and work well.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • A
                            akus
                            last edited by

                            @wallabybob:

                            I just remembered I bought a couple of Intel Pro/1000 PT cards for work a couple of years ago. They are recognised by FreeBSD 7.0 and work well.

                            After the recomendation to what Cry Havok wrote about looking around in the forums/wiki for hardware that work, it have got more confusing than before =). But what is very very clear.
                            Stick with Intel and it will work as expected. Experementing with cheap stuff will only give u sad face =). So that is what I just did =). And I hope I will get smiley face when I get it rigged up =)

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • A
                              akus
                              last edited by

                              @Cry:

                              There are plenty of posts, and some stuff on the pfSense pages (and wiki) about hardware sizing.  Random guesswork isn't your friend ;)

                              So after alot of looking around and stuff, I have bought some hardware for my becoming router/firewall. I am a student so the money I get my hands on are not much (and of my local customs take 50% of everything I get my hands on).

                              CPU: Intel Dual-Core E2XXX  2,2ghz /1meg cache / 800mhz FSB Socket 775
                              MB: Asus P5N-E nForce 650i
                              Mem: 512 DDR2 533mhz
                              HDD: ATA 100 7200rpm
                              2xNIC: HP INTEL PRO/1000PT DESKTOP MANAGEABLE PCI-E

                              I will only have my PF Sense as standard, using DHCP, nothing else. No VPN/IPsec/PPPTP or stuff like that.

                              My goal atm is to push 100/100 through WAN, and in the longterm(before end of this year) get 1000/1000 through WAN.
                              If my setup won't push 100/100 through WAN, what is it I should replace? Or will I have a software issue?
                              What do I have to replace to get 1000/1000 trough? (CPU i recon ofc, but otherwise?).

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • Cry HavokC
                                Cry Havok
                                last edited by

                                Note that the recommendation for Intel Server grade cards, which perform much better than the desktop cards.  You'd possibly also benefit from more memory.

                                Once more, you'll find more (particularly about pushing Gbit traffic) in the forum already.

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • A
                                  akus
                                  last edited by

                                  @Cry:

                                  Note that the recommendation for Intel Server grade cards, which perform much better than the desktop cards.  You'd possibly also benefit from more memory.

                                  Once more, you'll find more (particularly about pushing Gbit traffic) in the forum already.

                                  Yea i guess it's a whole science how to reach 1gbit all out. But refering to your awnser I should be able with no complication get out 100/100 from that setup?

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • Cry HavokC
                                    Cry Havok
                                    last edited by

                                    Given that I can push 50 Mb/s with a single core 1 GHz box using the problem Realtek cards, yes you should have no problem with 100 Mb/s.  After that there will be a lot of "it depends"…

                                    Pushing 100 Mb/s of maximum size packets as a single session has a very different load to pushing 100 Mb/s of minimum size packets between thousands of different hosts.  Your exact usage profile will make a big difference to what hardware you need.

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • A
                                      akus
                                      last edited by

                                      @Cry:

                                      Given that I can push 50 Mb/s with a single core 1 GHz box using the problem Realtek cards, yes you should have no problem with 100 Mb/s.  After that there will be a lot of "it depends"…

                                      Pushing 100 Mb/s of maximum size packets as a single session has a very different load to pushing 100 Mb/s of minimum size packets between thousands of different hosts.  Your exact usage profile will make a big difference to what hardware you need.

                                      So ofc bit-torrent traffic is the worst kind I guess =)

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • N
                                        n1ko
                                        last edited by

                                        @akus:

                                        @Cry:

                                        Given that I can push 50 Mb/s with a single core 1 GHz box using the problem Realtek cards, yes you should have no problem with 100 Mb/s.  After that there will be a lot of "it depends"…

                                        Pushing 100 Mb/s of maximum size packets as a single session has a very different load to pushing 100 Mb/s of minimum size packets between thousands of different hosts.  Your exact usage profile will make a big difference to what hardware you need.

                                        So ofc bit-torrent traffic is the worst kind I guess =)

                                        I am using 1.2GHz old duron with many extra packages (squid etc.) and I am seeing 10-20% cpu use with max traffic. My connection is only 24Mbps but if you multiple that by four you can see that even this machine could handle the load probably.

                                        Your machine is probably a bit overkill, atleast the cpu. I would personally buy atom330 and more RAM.

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • A
                                          akus
                                          last edited by

                                          @n1ko:

                                          @akus:

                                          @Cry:

                                          Given that I can push 50 Mb/s with a single core 1 GHz box using the problem Realtek cards, yes you should have no problem with 100 Mb/s.  After that there will be a lot of "it depends"…

                                          Pushing 100 Mb/s of maximum size packets as a single session has a very different load to pushing 100 Mb/s of minimum size packets between thousands of different hosts.  Your exact usage profile will make a big difference to what hardware you need.

                                          So ofc bit-torrent traffic is the worst kind I guess =)

                                          I am using 1.2GHz old duron with many extra packages (squid etc.) and I am seeing 10-20% cpu use with max traffic. My connection is only 24Mbps but if you multiple that by four you can see that even this machine could handle the load probably.

                                          Your machine is probably a bit overkill, atleast the cpu. I would personally buy atom330 and more RAM.

                                          Hello there and thx 4 the reply.

                                          Well 512 ram was because i got it cheap. But this morning i won a auction for 1gib DDR2 for 5euro. So it will be more ofc. Only thing I haven't decided is if I should return the NICS (they arent opend yet) and get maby a dual RJ45 server grade NIC, but that will prob be about 50euro more or something.

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • K
                                            ktims
                                            last edited by

                                            As far as I can tell there's little to no difference between the server and desktop Intel cards. I can't find any difference in capabilities or performance, and when I posed the question nobody was able to come up with anything. I think the desktop cards are fine, and excellent. You should keep them, they will work well.

                                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                            • First post
                                              Last post
                                            Copyright 2025 Rubicon Communications LLC (Netgate). All rights reserved.