Intel NUC (4x4 motherboard)
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Has anyone added a USB Gb NIC? Would love to use this as a solution instead of the system I just got:
SUPERMICRO SYS-5017C-LF 1U w/ i3 2100 and 4Gb ramI have not. Only installed pfSense on it to verify that it would work, then installed Windows 8 and went back to the old notebook pfSense router. Would you really need a second NIC? I prefer putting the WAN on a VLAN.
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I have searched for this a few times but come up blank on each occasion. The HDMI 1.4 spec includes HEC (HDMI Ethernet Channel) which is intended to connect internet enabled TVs and BD players etc. There seems to be no reason why it couldn't be used as an ethernet adapter if it is included. I have just searched again specifically for the NUC and found nothing. Thoughts?
Steve
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Almost certain these devices don't have the ethernet channel present in the HDMI.
I got one and it is awesome, 256gb M4 and 16gb DDR 1600. I have a genuine 9w idle and under severe load no more than 18-20w. 30w max load under a GPU+CPU stress test. Turn off all the speedstep and power saving and still have a 13w idle. The most impressive thing is that it is low power almost always, unlike full size boards that idle pretty well but ramp up quickly this thing is barely ever above 15w, regardless of the OS support for power saving, idling VM's etc.
Onboard nic is good but patchy driver support, I've tried ESXi5.1 (custom e1000e driver), Server 2012/Hyper-V (hacked Win8 driver) but pfsense out of box.
There is room for a PCIE nic, either http://www.cartft.com/catalog/il/1500/?utm_source=Pangora&utm_medium=CPC or http://www.mini-tft.de/xtc-neu/product_info.php/info/p145114_Speed-Dragon-MNW02A–-Half-Size-Mini-PCI-Express-G.html
Of course, if you require the SSD in there then fitting the Intel NIC is going to be hard because you are only left with a half size slot. I may put a PCIE extender in there on a ribbon to break out onto the Intel (there is internal room). The half size could should fit with just a little modding. Just need to fashion some kind of breakout cable which is no big deal!
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Almost certain these devices don't have the ethernet channel present in the HDMI.
I got one and it is awesome, 256gb M4 and 16gb DDR 1600. I have a genuine 9w idle and under severe load no more than 18-20w. 30w max load under a GPU+CPU stress test. Turn off all the speedstep and power saving and still have a 13w idle. The most impressive thing is that it is low power almost always, unlike full size boards that idle pretty well but ramp up quickly this thing is barely ever above 15w, regardless of the OS support for power saving, idling VM's etc.
Onboard nic is good but patchy driver support, I've tried ESXi5.1 (custom e1000e driver), Server 2012/Hyper-V (hacked Win8 driver) but pfsense out of box.
There is room for a PCIE nic, either http://www.cartft.com/catalog/il/1500/?utm_source=Pangora&utm_medium=CPC or http://www.mini-tft.de/xtc-neu/product_info.php/info/p145114_Speed-Dragon-MNW02A–-Half-Size-Mini-PCI-Express-G.html
Of course, if you require the SSD in there then fitting the Intel NIC is going to be hard because you are only left with a half size slot. I may put a PCIE extender in there on a ribbon to break out onto the Intel (there is internal room). The half size could should fit with just a little modding. Just need to fashion some kind of breakout cable which is no big deal!
These guys may have some breakout cables that may help your goal. http://www.hwtools.net/
They have crazy stuff. While looking through their products I often stop and think: "Wait, what? You can do that? and why would you want to?" Their prices look decent, but they ship from Taiwan, so shipping can often raise the price significantly (sometimes double.)
When I say crazy, I mean they have 2 different adapters to take mini Pci-Express out to an external board with a PCI-Express slot; one of which they make a nice plexiglass case for a video card and power supply; oh, and a nice power board so you can use a standard ATX power supply with it. Or Express Card to external PCI-Express; they have 2 versions of that, one with the big plex case or one with a smaller aluminum case, but the aluminum case won't fit super large video cards.
Respectively:
http://www.hwtools.net/Adapter/DB5L.html
http://www.hwtools.net/Adapter/PE4H.html
http://www.hwtools.net/Adapter/PE4H%20V3.2.htmlIt gets better from there, like SD card to micro SD card adapters… but in the opposite direction, to get a full size SD card to work in a Micro slot.
Enjoy!
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I have searched for this a few times but come up blank on each occasion. The HDMI 1.4 spec includes HEC (HDMI Ethernet Channel) which is intended to connect internet enabled TVs and BD players etc. There seems to be no reason why it couldn't be used as an ethernet adapter if it is included. I have just searched again specifically for the NUC and found nothing. Thoughts?
Steve
This looks cool, Ethernet over hdmi is only 100/Mbps though. I will need to brush up on my VLAN to get it to work I think, or maybe a usb adapter that is compatible with PFsense. My 1U device hasnt shipped so I canceled the order.. more testing to come!
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there is dual intel nic avaliable in a full size mini pcie card here
http://www.globalamericaninc.com/commell-mpx-574d2.html
would give thiss unit a lot more expandability -
That's an interesting product, it appears to be Intel 82574L based as well which is a bonus.
However if you check the manufacturers (Commell) page, here they say:
Note : MPX-574D2 is compatible with COMMELL boards ONLY and only compatible with boards shown below!
So possibly some compatibility issues, non standard use of the socket?
Steve
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What's nice about the Intel DC3217IYE is that it uses the QS77 chipset. There is more than enough bandwidth on this chipset to run multiple devices without bogging it down. It would make an awesome pfSense SOHO pfSense devices if they removed one of the HDMI ports and added another NIC.
It's low-power and high on features. NewEgg has them listed for $299 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856102002&Tpk=DC3217IYE), and if it had a second NIC, I'd be buying one right now (not that I need one, but I could easily "find" someone who needs one).
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NewEgg has them listed for $299 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856102002&Tpk=DC3217IYE)
- $10 off w/ promo code 72SALE1, ends 1/31 (today)
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What about adding an Ethernet port or two on the mini PCIe, there are two of them on the NUC.
http://www.bvm-store.com/ProductDetail.asp?fdProductId=547
http://www.bvm-store.com/ProductDetail.asp?fdProductId=548%29
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Like it says on that page, and the page I linked to three posts up, these cards are not compatible with all boards that have a minipci-e slot. It makes me wonder why not. There are some posts about using this card in a macmini where it works OK once you have the drivers in place, so it's not an exclusive to Commell pin-use for example.
I think I'm saying that there are no guarantees this will work. ;)Steve
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There are other mini pcie ethernet options. Last time i looked jetway had a couple of intel models and there was one on ebay. Chipset cant remember.
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Has anyone considered using one of these in conjunction with a Thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter like the one Apple sells:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD463ZM/A/thunderbolt-to-gigabit-ethernet-adapter
I understand that these adapters use a Broadcom BCM5701 which is supported via the bge driver in FreeBSD.
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Problem is that the nuc with thunderbolt dosn't has a seperate rj45 interface. I would also like to use a nuc as fw (vlan workaround is not an option for me)
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15W Haswell-based NUC
dual mPCIe/SATA slots
HD 5000 graphics
Source: vr-zone -
Hi major thread bump
But did anyone in the end ever manage to build a successful Intel Nuc with pfsense ?
I see lots of links and interest on this thread and was considering doing the same thing myself, I like the idea of the dual nic cards which I had no idea existed even…
It is such a shame the usb to ethernet dongles are said to be unstable and require high cpu usage....
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I haven't yet used the NUC, but I am ordering for use as both an Access Point and Firewall/Router. I have extra 204pin DDR3 RAM and a 24GB mSATA, and mPCIe WiFi card so I can't gauge the cost for the average person. The only thing I have to buy is a second NIC which I'm buying the Rosewill RNG-406U, USB3.0 to gigabit ethernet. Which I don't understand why people think they can't use USB, I've been running an Atom N270 2GB 666MHz RAM based pfsense box at my mom's, with a USB2.0 gigabit adapter, all you do is use it on the WAN side, my Internet would never even get close to topping out USB2.0 480Mbit rate, and the CPU rarely runs above 10%. I'm also connecting a SMA connector to the top outside of the box, and connecting them to the antenna ports on the WIfi Card, allowing me to mount the antennas -which I have 3x 12dbm- on top and modular adaptation. Off the LAN side will go into my 8 port with 4 ports PoE D-Link switch. So it should do everything I want it to do and more. I'll let you know.
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I have pFsense v2.1 running on the NUC. Using VLANS through a Netgear GS116E.
Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-3217U CPU @ 1.80GHz
Current: 1700 MHz, Max: 1800 MHz
4 CPUs: 1 package(s) x 2 core(s) x 2 SMT threads -
This really is the right solution for the NUC. (Though I use a somewhat larger fanless HP switch at home, and the similar D-Link switches have a CLI, so you don't have to run the Windows utility to program them.)
I'm trying to get AES-NI fixed in FreeBSD, so IPSEC and OpenVPN will be (much) faster. Won't help you on your i3-3217U,
but the i5 3rd gen, and both i3 and i5 Haswell-based NUCs will all support AES-NI.A better setup might be to load bhyve or VMwear on the NUC, and put pfSense in a VM. It only needs a few (1-2GB at most) GB for
most home setups. You can put 16GB and a 240GB 'SDD' in the current NUCs, and there is one coming that will allow a 2.5" SATA SSD inside the case.The alternative is the new 8-core (out of order execution) Atom.
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I might also add that the whole setup uses less that 30 Watts as measured by the UPS and is
totallynear silent.This is what is on the UPS:
1xNUC (120GB mSate, 16GB 1333 MHz DDR3)
1xGS116E Switch
1xGS108PEv2 POE Switch (load: 2xPolycom IP 335 VOIP phones, 1xAXIS M3007 Camera, 1xEnGenius EAP350 WiFI AP)
1xLinksys PAP2-T VOIP ATA.
