Looking for Low Power 100mbps Throughput

NOYB

What about a Nettop? Any with 1gbit VLAN capable and pfSense 2.1+ compatible?

Requirements:
<=20 watts at idle (at wall measured)
Silent, Fan-less

=1GB RAM
=100MB Router Throughput
Basic Video (VGA and/or DVI) (does not have to be onboard, can be removable to save space and power after system install)
<= 2 USB 2.0 and/or 3.0
Intel Processor

Preferences:

SSD rather than HDD; 2) USB Flash rather than HDD
WiFi Included (<=N)
Dual On-Board NIC (<=100mbit)
Mini ITX; 2) Micro ATX
Intel NIC
Intel Motherboard

Acceptables:
Single On-Board 1gbit NIC utilizing Tagged VLANs for WAN & LAN interfaces

jimp

Not sure if you'll find anything inside that niche, but it may exist.

Things seem to jump from the 5-6W used by lower-power ALIX and similar boards up to around 30+ for Atom boards. ALIX can only push about 85Mbit/s, and Atoms can push a couple hundred Mbit/s.

dreamslacker

Most Atoms or Zacate setups should meet the requirements provided a high efficiency PSU is used (typically a PicoPSU or onboard DC).

The only exception would be the Intel NIC. Most of these setups won't have an onboard Intel GBe NIC.

podilarius

http://www.neweggbusiness.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816101364

This has Intel NIC and IPMI for remote management. There are 3 others as well … These systems I known can push 300Mbits ...

jimp

Those are nice, but they don't meet the OP's specs of being less than 20W, those generally run around 30-35+ when idle.

podilarius

Even with powerd running? Problem is he wants performance and power savings … you usually sacrifice one for the other. Those ATOMs are the balance IMO.

jimp

I agree. But even with powerd running I never did clock one of those at less than 30W with my Kill-a-Watt

podilarius

Where you using HDD, SSD, or some sort of flash disk? If using HDD, then retest with SSD, otherwise good luck finding something in that power range that can push 100Mbit or over.

stephenw10

The problem with most Atom boards is that they are based on the desktop chip (D525, D510 etc) which, amazingly, don't support speedstep. So running powerd doesn't make much difference.
Running an N550 with a good DC-DC power supply and you can be well under 20W (at idle).

Steve

podilarius

So get:
http://www.neweggbusiness.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811152108
http://www.neweggbusiness.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813153188

And the necessary memory and ssd and go to town.

stephenw10

Something like that. Except that you will probably be dissipating more Watts in the PSU than the board when it's idling. You need to use a very low power PSU to get good efficiency.

Steve

chrisintaipei

http://ark.intel.com/products/56462/Intel-Desktop-Board-D2500CC

d2500cc -> just released this week or so (about last week or so i checked and it was not available yet).
Intel board - nice
Intel chip NIC (Gb of course) - nice
dual port NIC - now that's what made me buying this board
10W TDP
mini ITX
atom D2500 CPU - not too slow (passmark doesn't have a value for D2500 yet but i expect it to be faster than D525 and slower than D2700, which should still be pretty decent nevertheless)
D-sub + DVI
PS2

i think it also has one mini express card slot if you want to put wifi card onto it.

from what i can see, only thing missing is DC input (see DN2800MT, 8v ~ 19v DC input onboard, very handy)

however this can still be over 20W though. i have a intel D525MWV board + seasonic SII 330W PSU (80 plus) + 3.5" hard drive + intel PCI Gb NIC -> all this comes to 30~35W. well if change 3.5" into SSD then maybe it can be close to 20W i guess.

alternatively can consider going the DN2800MT route. it is rated at 6.5w TDP but with one NIC only. however the final box would be quite a lot bigger as it'd need a PCI NIC.

i bought one D2500CC today together with Aopen S100 case (with 65W DC adaptor). if you don't know what S100 case is, you really should take one second to have a good look at it.

currently considering if should buy one SSD or 2.5" HDD - many thanks to thai flood, interestingly, it's cheaper to buy an intel SSD 40G than buying a 320/500G 2.5" HDD…

can't wait to get my first pf box running :)