Will this Hardware take me close to 1000/1000Mbit, pls check before I order.

jasonlitka

Those NICs are identical to the ones built into the SuperMicro X8SIL(-F). Unless you have some reason to want to use add-in NICs, save yourself some cash (and space) and get the SuperMicro board. If you need 4 ports then consider the X8SIE-LN4(F).

Cry Havok

The Intel Server cards have been widely reported as having higher throughput than the desktop cards.

MarkProvanP

Have you read the advice about running pfSense on an SSD? The normal .iso install will destroy the SSD due to the constant, small reads/writes. To have an SSD survive this, you need to run an embedded install, which would run just as well off of a small (but fast) CompactFlash card.

cmb

@MarkProvanP:

Have you read the advice about running pfSense on an SSD? The normal .iso install will destroy the SSD due to the constant, small reads/writes. To have an SSD survive this, you need to run an embedded install, which would run just as well off of a small (but fast) CompactFlash card.

Not true. There are write limits with SSD but your firewall will write vastly less to disk with a normal full install (logs are in RAM) than a typical laptop or other device running SSD with Windows, OS X, or other OSes.

jwelter99

This is bogus info.

I've been running pfsense off Intel 80GB "G1" SSD's since they came out. Using the Intel tools they are still reported 99% life remaining - so in 2 years those constant small reads/writes have used 1% of my SSD life span.

John

@MarkProvanP:

Have you read the advice about running pfSense on an SSD? The normal .iso install will destroy the SSD due to the constant, small reads/writes. To have an SSD survive this, you need to run an embedded install, which would run just as well off of a small (but fast) CompactFlash card.

fableman

@jasonlitka:

Those NICs are identical to the ones built into the SuperMicro X8SIL(-F). Unless you have some reason to want to use add-in NICs, save yourself some cash (and space) and get the SuperMicro board. If you need 4 ports then consider the X8SIE-LN4(F).

I now have a SuperMicro board based on Intel atom 1.6Ghz with dual NIC's and I can't get over 380Mbit with little CPU load. (I manage to max the CPU load at 34%) Soo I think the built in stuff not that great.

Cry Havok

@fableman:

I now have a SuperMicro board based on Intel atom 1.6Ghz with dual NIC's and I can't get over 380Mbit with little CPU load. (I manage to max the CPU load at 34%) Soo I think the built in stuff not that great.

I've certainly heard similar reports from others - that apparently identical built in NICs don't perform as well as physical cards.

dreamslacker

@fableman:

I now have a SuperMicro board based on Intel atom 1.6Ghz with dual NIC's and I can't get over 380Mbit with little CPU load. (I manage to max the CPU load at 34%) Soo I think the built in stuff not that great.

Which Supermicro is this? I know of at least one of the Supermicro Atom boards that uses Realtek 8111 NICs instead of Intel 82574's.

jwelter99

I've never had this with onboard Intel NIC's. The chip and drivers are identical to the stand-alone cards and performance has always been equal.

Perhaps with some shoddy RT on board NIC you would gain performance with an add in Intel card.

I won't buy boards that use RT nic's unless it's only for IPMI. Intel is my #1 choice, followed by Broadcom.

@Cry:

@fableman:

I now have a SuperMicro board based on Intel atom 1.6Ghz with dual NIC's and I can't get over 380Mbit with little CPU load. (I manage to max the CPU load at 34%) Soo I think the built in stuff not that great.

I've certainly heard similar reports from others - that apparently identical built in NICs don't perform as well as physical cards.

Zeon

I would recommend rather than using the X8SIL series Supermicro motherboards you take a look at the new LGA1155 socket ones like the X9SCM coupled with the newer Intel Core-i3 2100. It's a newer architecture and probably slightly faster/more power efficient.

fableman

Still looking for improvments to the build:

This is what I decided at this moment.

Bold have been changed after your inputs.

I changed the NIC's to PCI-eXpress verion to get faster bus speeds over PCI (can it be that some internal NIC use PCI bus and not PCI eXpress?)
That forced me to a new motherboard and then I changed to 1155 instead of the older 1156 version.
Then I hade to change CPU to 1155 aswell.

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-H67M-UD2H-B3 H67 S-1155 M-ATX
CPU based on 1155: INTEL CORE I3 2100 3.10GHZ 3MB S-1155
NIC's to be sure I get pci-X: INTEL GIGABIT CT DESKTOP ADAPTER PCI-E

Memory: CORSAIR 4GB DDR3 XMS3 INTEL I3/I5/I7 1333MHZ
HD KINGSTON V DRIVE 30GB SSD SATA/300 MLC
PSU: SILVERSTONE SFX 450W
BOX SILVERSTONE SST-SG01-B-F EVOLUTION M-ATX BLACK

Any more input ideés I would love.

jasonlitka

@Cry:

@fableman:

I now have a SuperMicro board based on Intel atom 1.6Ghz with dual NIC's and I can't get over 380Mbit with little CPU load. (I manage to max the CPU load at 34%) Soo I think the built in stuff not that great.

I've certainly heard similar reports from others - that apparently identical built in NICs don't perform as well as physical cards.

I've not had that experience, at least not with Intel NICs. I've got an X8SIL-F right in front of me and have had no issues pushing 100MB/s through the onboard 82574L controllers when running CentOS, OpenSolaris, or Windows Server 2008R2.

Cry Havok

The ones in the case I'm aware of were nominally Intel Gbit server grade cards, which topped out below that of a physical card by a measurable margin. The problem may have been specific to the motherboards or chipsets used, but I don't have enough technical information on the setup any more (this dates from a few years ago now).

jwelter99

Issues with the X9 series and FreeBSD 8.1 makes it an iffy PF sense 2.0 platform. I agree that once driver issues are resolved it makes sense to consider this.

@Zeon:

I would recommend rather than using the X8SIL series Supermicro motherboards you take a look at the new LGA1155 socket ones like the X9SCM coupled with the newer Intel Core-i3 2100. It's a newer architecture and probably slightly faster/more power efficient.

fableman

@jasonlitka:

@Cry:

@fableman:

I now have a SuperMicro board based on Intel atom 1.6Ghz with dual NIC's and I can't get over 380Mbit with little CPU load. (I manage to max the CPU load at 34%) Soo I think the built in stuff not that great.

I've certainly heard similar reports from others - that apparently identical built in NICs don't perform as well as physical cards.

I've not had that experience, at least not with Intel NICs. I've got an X8SIL-F right in front of me and have had no issues pushing 100MB/s through the onboard 82574L controllers when running CentOS, OpenSolaris, or Windows Server 2008R2.

100MB as in Megabyte?

100MByte/s = 800Mbit/s just to be sure cos I was using Mbit as unit and not MB.

fableman

@jwelter99:

Issues with the X9 series and FreeBSD 8.1 makes it an iffy PF sense 2.0 platform. I agree that once driver issues are resolved it makes sense to consider this.

@Zeon:

I would recommend rather than using the X8SIL series Supermicro motherboards you take a look at the new LGA1155 socket ones like the X9SCM coupled with the newer Intel Core-i3 2100. It's a newer architecture and probably slightly faster/more power efficient.

English not my native language, I guess Iffy = unstable ?

Will I be able to run pfsense 2 on Intel 1155 builds with eXpress NIC's at all?

jasonlitka

@Cry:

The ones in the case I'm aware of were nominally Intel Gbit server grade cards, which topped out below that of a physical card by a measurable margin. The problem may have been specific to the motherboards or chipsets used, but I don't have enough technical information on the setup any more (this dates from a few years ago now).

I believe there were a few manufacturers that were using PCI-e bridge chips to force multiple onboard NICs through a single PCI-e lane. Maybe you ran into one of those.

jwelter99

The problem is the socket 1155 boards are very new and the driver support hasn't caught up with them yet. Obviously on Windows it's not that bad of a situation, and on some of the bleeding edge Linux also support is good, but I would have concerns that PFSense and FreeBSD 8.1 supports it correctly already. Most of the 1155 board I've seen are using a new Intel NIC that I know is not on the 8.1 or 8.2 HCL yet.

It was the same with the prior generation socket 1156 boards - it always takes a bit for the drivers to catch up.

John

@fableman:

@jwelter99:

Issues with the X9 series and FreeBSD 8.1 makes it an iffy PF sense 2.0 platform. I agree that once driver issues are resolved it makes sense to consider this.

@Zeon:

I would recommend rather than using the X8SIL series Supermicro motherboards you take a look at the new LGA1155 socket ones like the X9SCM coupled with the newer Intel Core-i3 2100. It's a newer architecture and probably slightly faster/more power efficient.

English not my native language, I guess Iffy = unstable ?

Will I be able to run pfsense 2 on Intel 1155 builds with eXpress NIC's at all?

lifespeed

Don't confuse PCI-X, an older less-desirable server slot interface, with PCI-e (PCI-Express) which is what you want.

fableman

Feels like I have to try and buy to be sure.

I will order and I get back when I got time to assemble it and test for pfsense v2.