Intel Mini-ITX Atom 8-core Hardware Build Recipe Available Here

dopey

I'm sure someone with a ME degree and a working knowldge of thermal and fluid dynamics could probably tell us exactly the best way to arrange vans, but my rule of thumb has always been, something to pull in cool air, and something to push out warm air.

The M350 has alot of ventillation, so that' sprobalby not critical but what I ended up doing was putting two fans on the fan bracket blowing down at the cpu/ram/motherboard and one fan on the front blowing outwards.

My case is mounted on the wall so that if you're looking directly at it, the backplate is on your left and the front face is facing to the right.

This allows the top fans to pull in cooler air from the room, and the font fan to vent out.

It probably would have been better to mount it so that the front face was facing upwards, but I didn't want to worry about weight on the power cord unplugging it over time since that would be on the bottom.

I probably overthought it :)

robi

@dopey:

I notice most people doing this build, seem to be using an SSD, and it never occurred to me to just use a flash key and pfsense embedded. Is there a reason why most people on here have been going hte SSD router and not the usb flash route + embedded route?

I'm using two of the c2758 boards with CF-to-SATA adapters running from 4GB CF cards the NanoBSD version.
Much better than the SSD, imho.

pfcode

@robi:

Much better than the SSD, imho.

in terms of ?

dopey

@robi:

I'm using two of the c2758 boards with CF-to-SATA adapters running from 4GB CF cards the NanoBSD version.
Much better than the SSD, imho.

Why CF to sata? why not just get a decent USB key and plug it directly into the internal USB port.

redpine

@dopey:

The M350 has alot of ventillation, so that' sprobalby not critical but what I ended up doing was putting two fans on the fan bracket blowing down at the cpu/ram/motherboard and one fan on the front blowing outwards.

It's an open air case, so it's best to have all fans blowing inward. Closed air boxes have a design for how air moves, so usually you blow air from one side and suck it out the other side. Open air have no path for moving air since air can come and go anywhere. Best to have them all blowing inward. Outward facing fans will suck air from the side and not move much from inside.

Guest

Why CF to sata? why not just get a decent USB key and plug it directly into the internal USB port.

There are so many options for storage devices out at these days that everybody could be lucky to go
with his favorite one.

SD card, CF card, CFast card
SATA-DOM
SSD-DOM
mSATA
M.2 SSD
SSD/HDD
USB 3.0 pen drive

several adapters types
CF & Cfast card adapters
CF card closed SSD enclosure
2,5" SSD CF card dummy adapter
SD Card to CF card RAID adapters
Addonics CFast to SATA Adapter Bracket - To Suit PCI Slot

robi

@pfcode:

@robi:

Much better than the SSD, imho.

in terms of ?

In terms of all what NanoBSD gives you compared to the full install. Upgrades done much more securely and with less downtime.

robi

@dopey:

@robi:

I'm using two of the c2758 boards with CF-to-SATA adapters running from 4GB CF cards the NanoBSD version.
Much better than the SSD, imho.

Why CF to sata? why not just get a decent USB key and plug it directly into the internal USB port.

Define "decent" ;)

CF technology is used by far more often in professional environments, it proved during the years to be a reliable choice in many industrial areas.
USB sticks are more for home use. I don't really trust them. At least, I couldn't find any reference of any USB stick to be "industrial grade" used as bootable device (booting USB stick is often a "hack", rather than an officially supported mechanism, it's heavily dependent on motherboard BIOS implementation, while booding from PATA/SATA is a standard)

Also, I installed a special CF-to-SATA adapter which has an opening on the case, thus allows me to replace the CF card if needed, without having to remove the device from the rack and open it.

But, nevertheless, imaging a 4GB USB stick with the NanoBSD image, and booting from it, works with this motherboard (I tested it successfully with a Verbatim USB stick. Installing packages was slower on the same machine than when using with CF-to-SATA and a CF card).

dopey

Good point. I'm having a hard time trying to find an enterprise ready USB stick, or even a USB stick that documents it's load levelling algorithm and lifespan.

I think I'll stick with the grossly overkill 120gb ssd :)

pfcode

I'm having a hard time to find the fan control/speed settings in BIOS for my PWM fan. BTW, Does anybody know where to order a 20pin male to 24pin male power supply cable (at least 1ft long)?

redpine

Standard 10mm long fan screws should work. They're the "fat" looking screws:
Something like this should work:
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Computer-Case-Screws-Pack/dp/B00785I5ZM

These were slightly too large for the fans I bought. Ended up going to home depot and buying half inch #6 screws. Works real good. These fans are real quite.

trumee

@redpine:

Standard 10mm long fan screws should work. They're the "fat" looking screws:
Something like this should work:
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Computer-Case-Screws-Pack/dp/B00785I5ZM

These were slightly too large for the fans I bought. Ended up going to home depot and buying half inch #6 screws. Works real good. These fans are real quite.

What fans are you using?

redpine

What fans are you using?

Found them on ebay. 40x40x10 4pin fans. Everflow is the brand. Shipped from Hong Kong. Beat my SSD from California.

dopey

In case anyone is curious:
CPU Temp Normal 25 degrees C
System Temp Normal 31 degrees C
Peripheral Temp Normal 31 degrees C
DIMMA1 Temp Normal 30 degrees C

Ambient temp is 22-24C

This is with two fans on the top blowing in
and a fan on the front blowing out.
All three are 40mmx10mm top motor fans purchased from mini-box.com

I should note, it's pretty noisy. But my furnace is less than 10' away in the same room :) So yeah, the noise is nothing.

@redpine:

It's an open air case, so it's best to have all fans blowing inward. Closed air boxes have a design for how air moves, so usually you blow air from one side and suck it out the other side. Open air have no path for moving air since air can come and go anywhere. Best to have them all blowing inward. Outward facing fans will suck air from the side and not move much from inside.

That's a good point, but on the other hand, the case is so small that you can feel air flow from all of the perforated vents in just about any configuration, so unless you're running a CPU at the edge of it's thermal tolerance, it's probably not going to make a difference :)

I mean if you look above, the CPU temp is pretty close to ambient air temp.

Downloadski

Thanks for the good information in this thread.
Last time i tried to invent the wheel myself and did not want to do that again.

I ordered:
supermicro MBD-A1SRI-2758F-O
2 x samsung M474B1G73QH0-YK0 (8 GB SoDIMM from approved list)
M350 mini-ITX case
M350 Wall Mounting Bracket
M350-HDD Bracket
Mini-Fit-JR Adapter
3x Evercool EC4015SH12BP
still have a samsung MZ7WD240HCFV-00003 240 GB SSD left over from my tests with windows storage spaces (that sucked hard)

Still need a 12 volt mini din power brick.

I looked at the 80 watt seasonic SSA-0901-12 http://www.seasonicusa.com/adapter-80W.htm
i have 5 supermicro boards running on Seasonic PSU and no issues till now, so seems good idea to stay with the combination.

I read however that more person choose a 192 Watt brick.

Is 80 Watt not enough ? (i read killawatt results from 17-20 watt running in the thread and i guess there is no spinup power for SSD needed ;D )

SSD is 3.0 Watt max
Fans few watts each (0.26 Amp on 12 volts will be 3.12 watt)

Edit: ordered the 192 watt brick from the German shop that delivers the mini box items.
The seasonic image was misleading, no 4-port mini din is possible with them accoring to the eu support i asked.

redpine

Got this system up and running. Added an UPS to it and it's all hanging on a wall in my garage, keeping unfriendlies out of my house. This system uses very little resources and blocks a considerable amount of traffic.

My biggest problem was I got way laid trying out using KVM on the box. I had so many problems with KVM, from traffic not making it out the gateway to occasionally not even routing inside the LAN. I had everything working in an isolated environment, but then when I moved to connect to the WAN, I had so many problems that after a day of fiddling, I reinstalled pfSense on bare metal and everything was up and working in 10 minutes.

Great little box.

Sir Loin

Very good to see the thread is still alive. Glad the information has been helpful for so many people.

For me, I am still running 2.2.2. I have been afraid of upgrading to 2.2.4. Has anyone upgraded your box from 2.2.2. to 2.2.4? Did you do anything to prepare for a fail upgrade? Did the upgrade go smoothly for you?

Thanks.

divsys

I've done a few 2.2.2 -> 2.2.4 without issue.
Only thing "special" was to make sure I had a backup config.xml just in case.
The only other caveat from me: all my systems are HD installs, no CF.

C'mon, what could go wrong? ;)

Guest

For me, I am still running 2.2.2.

On what you are running 2.2.2? CFCard, CFast card, mSATA, HDD or SDD or…...

Are you able to install it once more again and then try it out for sure!
Are you using LAG (LACP) or IPSec VPN?

Backup Config.xml
Backup all your scripts
create a separate loader.conf.local file for custom things like boot options, or special entries

Sir Loin

I am running 2.2.2 on an SSD. I don't have any scripts. So backing up config.xml would be it, I suppose. There are a few users on my network that there isn't really a good time to do the update. May be I will try it this weekend. I would hate to go back to the old Asus router if the upgrade goes up in flames :-)