PfSense server for small organisation
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Sorry all for not replying. In the end I bought an Asus AM1M-A and it works fine out of the box. Only hmac with OpenVPN doesn't work ( https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=83187.0 ). OpenVPN log shows no error before crashing so I have no idea where to start troubleshooting :( My Intel dual port card works fine! I will take a look at idle power consumption one of the coming days; I cannot yet supply any performance figures as I have not been in a situation that would produce any useable numbers. Anyone have an idea how to test this?
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Already did a quick check: booted without UTP connected I saw an idle power use of 32w….higher than I anticipated. This could be due to two things:
- PSU. I have a full size ATX PSU which guarantees 80% efficiency (bronze). 0.8 * 32 = 24,5w consumption by other hardware
- Intel dual port NIC. It has a heatsink which suggests it uses some power. But I'm not sure about that. Might remove the card tonight and see what it does in idle.
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@_JT:
Already did a quick check: booted without UTP connected I saw an idle power use of 32w….higher than I anticipated. This could be due to two things:
- PSU. I have a full size ATX PSU which guarantees 80% efficiency (bronze). 0.8 * 32 = 24,5w consumption by other hardware
- Intel dual port NIC. It has a heatsink which suggests it uses some power. But I'm not sure about that. Might remove the card tonight and see what it does in idle.
The NIC probably does draw a noticeable amount of power.
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You might need to tweak some system settings to get PowerD/Throttling to work nicely on your system. I don't know about tweaks for AMD, but this are the changes I made for my Intel Pentium G630T:
In /boot/loader.conf.local add:
hint.p4tcc.0.disabled=1 hint.acpi_throttle.0.disabled=1
I set this up in system tunables via GUI:
dev.cpu.0.cx_lowest sysctl dev.cpu.0.cx_lowest=C3 C3 dev.cpu.1.cx_lowest sysctl dev.cpu.1.cx_lowest=C3 C3
Enable PowerD in Advanced/Misc.
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The NIC probably does draw a noticeable amount of power.
Yes I found that out. Disconnecting the SSD made no difference, which is not unexpected as modern SSD's draw <0,5w in idle. Removing the networkcard however decreased power consumption to 24,5w in idle. 24,5 * 0.8 = 19,6w. A lot better, even though I think it could have been lower. TDP of 12w + mobo + memory + SSD, all idle.
You might need to tweak some system settings to get PowerD/Throttling to work nicely on your system. I don't know about tweaks for AMD, but this are the changes I made for my Intel Pentium G630T:
In /boot/loader.conf.local add:
hint.p4tcc.0.disabled=1 hint.acpi_throttle.0.disabled=1
I set this up in system tunables via GUI:
dev.cpu.0.cx_lowest sysctl dev.cpu.0.cx_lowest=C3 C3 dev.cpu.1.cx_lowest sysctl dev.cpu.1.cx_lowest=C3 C3
Enable PowerD in Advanced/Misc.
PowerD kills my system unfortunately. One of 2 problems I found with my config. https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=83035.0
How can I find out at which clock frequency the CPU runs? Probably command line but I am not really known with the BSD command line. -
@_JT:
How can I find out at which clock frequency the CPU runs? Probably command line but I am not really known with the BSD command line.
Should be:
sysctl dev.cpu.0.freq
Quick Google search suggest that PowerD with various AMD CPU's might work better with FreeBSD 10. pfSense 2.2 beta is currently based on FreeBSD 10.1 RELEASE.
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CPU is running at 2050mhz in idle so that explains the power consumption. Now to find out how I can enable throttling…
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i would add more ram, and maybe go asus board + eec if you have not purchased same already
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I already have the Asus board. And I can't keep purchasing all kinds of hardware to just see if it works ;)
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Got the same, Asus AM1M-A, Athlon 5350, SSD
Best/Least I've managed is about 24,5W draw from wall socket (also using dual slot Intel Pro1000MT NIC).
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ECC, haven't managed getting it to work. Tried two different brands, had Hynix and Kingston's unbuffered ECC sticks lying around.
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FreeBSD, enabling CPU throttling leads to system crash (unless I disable C6 state in BIOS)
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No such issues under Linux but haven't seen lesser energy expenditure there either.
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Disabling one/two/three "cores" does not make any difference at all in power draw. Only undervolting works to an extent.
I could probably shave couple of Watts off by making the cooling passive (remove fan) but I am not sure it's worth the trouble. None of the big custom heatsinks seems compatible to fittings used with AM1 socket.
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