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    Atom or Pentium?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Hardware
    28 Posts 9 Posters 10.3k Views
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    • N
      nicko029
      last edited by

      Hi,

      I need advice on hardware.
      First choice is: Supermicro X7SPA-H-D525 (Atom D525).
      Second choice is: Intel Server Board S1200KP + Pentium G620.

      For additional network card: INTEL Network Interface Card Gigabit CT Network Adapter

      I have 20/20Mbps connection. I'll use just firewall, maybe some other packages and let's say VPN (just to be on the safe side).

      First, are there any issues with the hardware above?

      Second, will the Atom board be enough for my setup?

      If I have some servers on the second network and want firewall between them, I assume I'd need Penitum for more throughput?

      Thanks!

      EDIT: I forgot to ask will 2Gb of RAM be enough?

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • stephenw10S
        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
        last edited by

        There are now sooooo many posts on here asking basically the same question.  ::)

        The D525 is good for around 500Mbps firewall only or 50Mbps VPN. If you want to run Squid or Snort it will be substantially less.

        The G620 is good for 1Gbps+ of firewall traffic.

        2GB of ram is more than enough for almost anything. If you are running Snort you can never have too much ram, and ram is cheap these days.

        Both those will be far in excess of what is required for a 20/20 connection.

        You should consider one of the new cedar trail Atom boards which will use less power and seem to be significantly cheaper.

        Steve

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        • N
          nicko029
          last edited by

          Hi,

          thx for reply. I've already read about the Atom, but I wanted to know if I will be able to use VPN and on Internet connection and just regular firewall on my local networks (1Gbps) with Atom. Cedar trail looks great, but I need FW ASAP, so just to be sure, I've ordered Celeron G530…

          Thx again!

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          • N
            nexusN
            last edited by

            @nicko029:

            Hi,

            thx for reply. I've already read about the Atom, but I wanted to know if I will be able to use VPN and on Internet connection and just regular firewall on my local networks (1Gbps) with Atom. Cedar trail looks great, but I need FW ASAP, so just to be sure, I've ordered Celeron G530…

            Thx again!

            Celeron G530 ;D
            Much Seconded :D thought a bit overkilling for your purpose ::)

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • stephenw10S
              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
              last edited by

              If you need Gbps transfer between internal subnets/interfaces then the G530 is the right choice.  :)

              Steve

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              • A
                asterix
                last edited by

                @stephenw10:

                If you need Gbps transfer between internal subnets/interfaces then the G530 is the right choice.  :)

                Steve

                As far as I know internal data transfers do not require much CPU (may be a few cycles) as the data is handled by the switch. WAN to LAN and LAN to WAN data transfers (throughput) is generally what takes CPU resources.

                Anyways, its a no brainer.. go for the Pentium.

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                • stephenw10S
                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                  last edited by

                  That's true, traffic on an internal switch uses no resources on your pfSense box.
                  However if you have more than two internal interfaces, LAN and OPT1 for example, then traffic between them has to be routed through pfSense.

                  Steve

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                  • N
                    nicko029
                    last edited by

                    Thx guys!! I've ordered Celeron G530.

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                    • N
                      nicko029
                      last edited by

                      I've tried to install pfSense on Intel S1200KP motherboard, but it halts on loading em1 driver for integrated NIC.
                      So, I've searched a little bit and found out that this board has two different NICs: Intel 82579EM (which is not supported in HERE.) and Intel 82574L.

                      Did anyone succeeded to install v2.0.1 on this board with 2 integrated NICs?

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                      • N
                        nexusN
                        last edited by

                        @nicko029:

                        I've tried to install pfSense on Intel S1200KP motherboard, but it halts on loading em1 driver for integrated NIC.
                        So, I've searched a little bit and found out that this board has two different NICs: Intel 82579EM (which is not supported in HERE.) and Intel 82574L.

                        Did anyone succeeded to install v2.0.1 on this board with 2 integrated NICs?

                        Very sorry for your issue, and it should be 82579LM according to http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/s1200kp/sb/480536_g38894_001_s1200kp_tps_r1_0.pdf.

                        While in my case, I am using DH61WW which utilizes a 82579V which works well on pf 2.0.1 with an add-on card using 82574L.
                        V stands for a consumer chips while LM is for enterprise, I am not sure what would be the difference such that your NIC cannot function, hopefully that is a minor issue and can be addressed with an update shortly.

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                        • stephenw10S
                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                          last edited by

                          Support for 82579LM was added to the Intel driver in October 2010. FreeBSD 8.1 is from around May 2010. However I know that the em driver in pfSense 2.0.X is a newer version since the 8.1 release version had bugs.
                          Also I'm fairly confident that at some point some newer drivers were back ported but I'm not certain of that.

                          It certainly looks as though support wasn't officially included until 8.2.

                          Steve

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                          • N
                            nicko029
                            last edited by

                            So what now? Driver should work (it's a version 7.2.3), but it doesn't. What now, just wait? I've opened this topic just to avoid this :(

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                            • B
                              bmironb
                              last edited by

                              I have a 80% cpu load & 40% - 50% load of memory ( intel celeron 1.7ghz processor and 256 mb ram ), one pc lan client, one wifi-ap, 2 interfaces( wan & lan on pfsense 2.0.1 pc platform i386 ), this statistics of my sistem were recorded when i was downloading with bitorrent 7 things/files, with wifi-ap clients connected, Also Squid started on wan interface working as proxy on external ip ! just posted a recorded statistic of my sistem for your information, thanks.

                              Regards.

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                              • N
                                nexusN
                                last edited by

                                @nicko029:

                                So what now? Driver should work (it's a version 7.2.3), but it doesn't. What now, just wait? I've opened this topic just to avoid this :(

                                Unless someone who is familiar with the drivers can help or a new release of pf arrives, pfsense may not be available on your set up.

                                On looking up in Hardforum, someone suggested to use m0n0wall beta as an alternative at the moment, the latest of it is FreeBSD 8.2 based that 82579LM should be supported.

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                                • C
                                  cmb
                                  last edited by

                                  Seth has some 2.1 images with a FreeBSD 8.2 base up. http://iserv.nl/files/pfsense/releng82/

                                  That's what I'm running my IPv6 networks on at the moment with no issues. Worth a try.

                                  Though I would expect that NIC to work on 2.0 and 2.0.1 if it's supported in the stock 8.2 driver, as our Intel driver is actually newer than what's in 8.2 (though no guarantees Intel didn't break something on certain specific cards in the newer one, I'm not aware of any problems in the driver we include in 2.0.x release versions).

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                                  • N
                                    nicko029
                                    last edited by

                                    Thx, I'll give it a try!! :)

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                                    • S
                                      SlowGrind
                                      last edited by

                                      Please report back and let us know if it works… I was going to build a system using this same motherboard.

                                      Thanks.

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                                      • J
                                        jms703
                                        last edited by

                                        @nicko029:

                                        Thx, I'll give it a try!! :)

                                        Please report back! :-)

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                                        • N
                                          nicko029
                                          last edited by

                                          It seems it's working, both DEV release and x64 standard release.

                                          Now, I've got problem with usb cd-rom, so I can't install pfSense yet, but I'll get the S-ATA one, so I'll report back with the news…

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                                          • N
                                            nicko029
                                            last edited by

                                            I've accidently installed amd64 release instead of DEV i386, but from what I've seen, DEV release is also working (it didn't stuck at the em driver).
                                            So, thx cmb!

                                            I already put the machine in the rack, so I'm a little bit lazy to try DEV i386, but it should work :-)

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