Is this good enough?
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Hi,
I am planning to use my old Pentium 4 3.2Ghz box with 3 GB of RAM to install pfsense. I will be getting 2 Intel Pro 1000 Gigabit nics.
I read somewhere that the PCI bus might be a bottle neck. If this is so, how do I find out what speed the PCI bus is running at - and what speed should it be? Is there a Windows program that can show me this? ( the box currently has Vista on it)
Is this system fast enough to handle my 25 Mbps internet connection ?
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It can work but pentium 4 is reaching my limit of power hungry vs. utility these days.
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I have tested pfSense on different older hardware :
Pentium 3 @ 600Mhz / 512Mb Ram / with 2x PCI Realtek Gigabit NIC's
Pentium 4 @ 3.4Ghz / 1Gb Ram/ 2x PCI Realtek Gigabit NIC's
Pentium E2140 @ 1.6Gb / 2Gb Ram/ 2x PCI Realtek Gigabit NIC's
Pentium E2140 @ 1.6Gb / 2Gb Ram/ 2x Pci Express Realtek Gigabit NIC's
Pentium E6550 @ 2.33Gb / 2Gb Ram/ 2x PCI Realtek Gigabit NIC's
Pentium E6550 @ 2.33Gb / 2Gb Ram / 2x Pci Express Realtek Gigabit NIC'sInternet connection is 200Mbps / 12Mbps
Even with the Pentium 3 and PCI NIC's i get a speed of 150Mbps without any problems,
so for your purpose, a 25Mbps it won't be a problem ;)The only downside is your power consumption that will be easy arround 70a80Watt,
for that reason i have build a more friendly system :Asrock D1800M (intel Celeron J1800 @ 2.4Ghz)
2Gb DDR3 Ram
2x Pci Express Realtek Gigabit
pfSense 2.2.2 embedded on a USB 3.0 Pen driveTotal power consumption is now arround 19 a 21Watt :)
grtz
DeLorean -
The only downside is your power consumption that will be easy arround 70a80Watt,
for that reason i have build a more friendly system :Asrock D1800M (intel Celeron J1800 @ 2.4Ghz)
2Gb DDR3 Ram
2x Pci Express Realtek Gigabit
pfSense 2.2.2 embedded on a USB 3.0 Pen driveTotal power consumption is now arround 19 a 21Watt :)
grtz
DeLoreani gots a P4@2.40GHz running pfsense and it only uses 35-40W. i was thinking of buying a low power system before, but now the P4 will stay aslong as it lives ….
yes i could save like 30wh ( or around €65 / yr). but by the time it starts paying off there will be systems running on 3w idle. so its pointless (for me) -
i gots a P4@2.40GHz running pfsense and it only uses 35-40W.
Is that a Socket 478 cpu ?
Grtz
DeLorean -
Hi Everyone,
Thanks for the replies. Would my setup be powerful enough to run Snort too ?
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With your setup it is powerful enough to run all the packages that you like to install.
grtz
DeLorean -
@pfs:
Hi Everyone,
Thanks for the replies. Would my setup be powerful enough to run Snort too ?
I'm running Snort and pfblockerNG on my pentium 4 2.4D and 1GB of RAM without issue but my connection is quite slow.
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i gots a P4@2.40GHz running pfsense and it only uses 35-40W.
Is that a Socket 478 cpu ?
Grtz
DeLoreanno clue what the socket is, its an old Fujitsu-siemens pc i found gathering dust, 5yrs ago … i can't run too many packages on it because it only has 256mb of ram and i can't be bothered to waste money on it to buy more :)
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My SFF refurbished Core2Duo system (Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8400 @ 3.00GHz) only draws 38-40W idle and 55-65W under load. Best part is that the box only cost about $85. I paid more for the dual-port Intel NIC and the SSD.
I reached the same conclusion as others after pricing out the 10-25W systems. The cost savings per year (at $0.12/kWh) weren't enough to pay for the higher cost of the compact systems.
The other factor is that with the SFF PC only being $85, I'm not as worried if it fails because I can get another. Or even keep a spare on the shelf.
