Soekris net6501 vs. Sandy Bridge

Tubs

To build up a home pfsense firewall with low power consumption for 50 Mbit WAN my first intention was to buy Soekris net 6501. But this embeded system is quite expensiv.

After checking some forums I think Intel Sany Bridge based PC is cheeper and more powerfull by not really more power consumption. My idea was:

Intel mini ITY boad S1200KP
Intel G620T or G630T
Pico PSU-80 power supply
some RAM
ITX housing (e.g. M350)

Best would be if passive cooling is possible.
Someone already tried out?
Any idea what will be power consumption in idle mode?

The Intel E3-1220L with 20 W TDP is too expensive.

The 2 NICs of the S1200KP are enough. My Switch can handle VLAN.

Thanks for your help.

wallabybob

If fanless is very important I suggest you consider the Intel D2500CC motherboard. It has two onboard Intel gigabit LANs and was reported as costing about $100 (presumably US$). There are some posts in the pfSense forums referencing this board.

The 500MHz single core CPU on Alix boards is reported capable of around 80Mbps throughput so the dual core Atom CPU on the D2500CC should be more than capable of meeting your stated requirement.

Tubs

@wallabybob:

so the dual core Atom CPU on the D2500CC should be more than capable of meeting your stated requirement.

Fanless ist not the requirement. But without fan I will get less power consumption.

First time for me to her about the new Atom. Du you have any idea about the power consumption of such a system (incl. RAM, SSD dirve or USB pen drive)?

Do you expect a difference in power consumption between D2500CC and D2700DC? For this small difference in price I would go for the D2700CC instead.

Thanky a lot
Tubs

wallabybob

I downloaded the D2500CC Technical Product Specification file from http://downloadmirror.intel.com/20718/eng/D2500CC_TechProdSpec03.pdf I found it by searching the Intwl web page for D2500CC. The document has some power consumption information. Its possible there is a similar document for the D2700CC.

Tubs

@Tubs:

Do you expect a difference in power consumption between D2500CC and D2700DC?

I did not check carefully. The D2500CC is the only Cedar Trail board with dual NIC. For all other an add-on NIC would be necessary.

Tubs

jms703

@Tubs:

Intel mini ITY boad S1200KP
Any idea what will be power consumption in idle mode?

I built a system like this. However, the 2nd NIC doesn't work on PFSense 2.0.1 yet.
You will need a case that will allow an intel ct gigabit pci-express card until PFSense 2.1 comes out.
I have this board with the G20 and it runs at 36 watts.

The T series intel processors offer very little power savings.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i5-2500t-2390t-i3-2100t-pentium-g620t.html

Tubs

@jms703:

@Tubs:

Intel mini ITY boad S1200KP
Any idea what will be power consumption in idle mode?

I have this board with the G20 and it runs at 36 watts.

Finally I went with Intel D2500cc Atom board.
With picoPSU power supply, CF card and CF to SATA adapter it runns at 17 W.

I expected a little bit less, but 36 W would be too much for a 24/7 home firewall.

fragged

@jms703:

@Tubs:

Intel mini ITY boad S1200KP
Any idea what will be power consumption in idle mode?

I built a system like this. However, the 2nd NIC doesn't work on PFSense 2.0.1 yet.
You will need a case that will allow an intel ct gigabit pci-express card until PFSense 2.1 comes out.
I have this board with the G20 and it runs at 36 watts.

The T series intel processors offer very little power savings.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i5-2500t-2390t-i3-2100t-pentium-g620t.html

I just built a pfsense box (well just a motherboard on the floor so far, still waiting for Antec ISK110 VESA case + psu) with S1200KP and G630T and both NIC's are working fine with 2.0.1-RELEASE (amd64).