Choosing hardware based on throughput performance

Aluminum

Unless you are infatuated with having a tiny router, if you really want to leverage the most out of a lucky home with gigabit internet, grab one of the SMB "starter server" deals.

You can often find a couple models with cheap E3 xeons, I often see Lenovo TS140 and Dell T220 in the low $300s or less. Last week there was a killer one day deal for $280: 1225v3 @3.2ghz, 4GB ECC, 1TB HDD, free shipping.
Add a dual port intel 82571 nic for $20 off fleabay, quads not much more. (1000 pro pt, expi9402pt, x3939, nc360t are common variants of the duals)

Those two models for sure are actually quiet (seen a few in person) and relatively efficient for the performance they provide (can't cheat physics) there may be others models and vendor types that are similar.

zax123

@Aluminum:

Unless you are infatuated with having a tiny router, if you really want to leverage the most out of a lucky home with gigabit internet, grab one of the SMB "starter server" deals.

You can often find a couple models with cheap E3 xeons, I often see Lenovo TS140 and Dell T220 in the low $300s or less. Last week there was a killer one day deal for $280: 1225v3 @3.2ghz, 4GB ECC, 1TB HDD, free shipping.
Add a dual port intel 82571 nic for $20 off fleabay, quads not much more. (1000 pro pt, expi9402pt, x3939, nc360t are common variants of the duals)

Those two models for sure are actually quiet (seen a few in person) and relatively efficient for the performance they provide (can't cheat physics) there may be others models and vendor types that are similar.

Thank you for this.

I think this is the way I'm going to go. I have a room with "servers" in it and one more won't hurt much.

I checked out the Dell website and doesn't look like the T220 exists anymore. The lowest price T320 was $1200+, so I'm not sure how they get to $280. Was that the Dell or the Lenovo? Was it a used machine?

Thanks again for the suggestion!

Rob

Aluminum

Sorry it was T20, this was the deal last week, expired:

http://slickdeals.net/f/8192191-dell-poweredge-t20-tower-server-xeon-e3-1225-v3-quad-4gb-ddr3-1tb-hdd-dvdrw-279-w-free-s-h-dell-back

Best deal I've seen so far, but with cyber week coming up I think there will be plenty of good buys soon.

Often much better than the consumer bloatware crap because no windows tax and nicer components: with the E3 12_5 models you get a C2_6 chipset motherboard with intel NIC and usually a full x16 from cpu along with x4 and/or x1 off the PCH for expansion. PSU might be slightly custom (lenovo uses different harness you can adapt) but tends to be a more efficient one too.

I believe HP has a similar model in this price class as well, makes sense as the big vendors all try to cover the SMB server niche.

zax123

That's awesome! Now I know what to look for, thank you so much.

I'll wait till Black Friday and grab the best deal possible on a similar config. I'd even be fine if there were no hard drive, I'm much rather an SSD anyway. Hopefully those servers use SATA.

Out of curiosity, how does one enable PowerD/Hi Adaptive in pfSense?

System > Advanced > System Tunables > and then start/activate PowerD & reboot the pfSense box.
After doing this have a look in the Dashboard for the correct MHz/GHz entry will be there.
Do a iPerf test with one PC on the WAN interface and one on the LAN interface, thats it.

If you are using a mSATA drive that is capable of the TRIM support, I would also suggest to activate
TRIM support on your pfSense box.

Do a full install on the SSD or mSATA
reboot to the single user mode
at the prompt type in| cd /sbin/ and then ./tunefs -t enable /
./reboot
to verify that it is activated open a shell and type in| tunefs -p / and tunefs -p / var

dopey

Just to pipe in, I am quite happy with my A1SRi-2758F.

With a few packages running, routing performance is still more than capable of hitting gigabit throughput.

The biggest problem is the PPPoE issue. For me, this is a residential connection - but I work from home and use alot of bandwidth, 700-750mbit/s is plenty. So I'm pretty happy with it.

But if you absolutely need the gig throughput and use PPPoE there are other choices that wlil probably work better, and even crazier, use less power. Some of the low power i3/i5 CPUs are pretty capable, and may use more power at peak, but for the load that routing presents to them, they end up actually coming in at or lower than the rangeley.

nikkon

Mobo is on the way…will be here in 2 weeks.
In the mean time i found a gbit ethernet adaptor:
DELL 0X3959 2 x 10/100/1000 Mbps PCI-E 4X REF
Or
Intel D33745-B PRO-1000 Single Port Gigabit Ethernet PCI-E U3867
What do you think ? Will handle gigabit pppoe?

zax123

Thanks for chiming in @dopey,

I'm pretty convinced that I'll go with a Dell T20 or a Lenovo TS140 E3 server. I have lots of room in my "server room" and I really don't want to worry about getting something with not enough power. And I find the Supermicro to just be too expensive.

I'm hoping I'll get a T20 or TS140 with no HDD and I'll put a small (64gig or so) SSD on it. I'm trying to never buy an HDD again. :)

Thanks all!

awebster

@zax123
Beware the Lenovo TS140…its a great box, but you'll be pretty unhappy if you try to put an aftermarket SSD in it.
It uses custom brackets and power cables, which you only get in the box if you buy a Lenovo branded drive.

zax123

@awebster:

@zax123
Beware the Lenovo TS140…its a great box, but you'll be pretty unhappy if you try to put an aftermarket SSD in it.
It uses custom brackets and power cables, which you only get in the box if you buy a Lenovo branded drive.

Oh wow, thanks for letting me know.

That means I'm back to looking only for a good deal on the T20.

Much appreciated!

dopey

@awebster:

@zax123
Beware the Lenovo TS140…its a great box, but you'll be pretty unhappy if you try to put an aftermarket SSD in it.
It uses custom brackets and power cables, which you only get in the box if you buy a Lenovo branded drive.

I have a ts140 and i had no problems installing a regular sata ssd and hdd in it.
the power connectors were not custom. yes, the brackets were weird, but i didn't have any problems gettng things to fit.

for SSDs, keep in mind, yo're not dealing with moving parts. Zip ties are your friend.

awebster

I stand corrected, the server in question is the RS140 which has strange power connectors & brackets.

nikkon

need advice:
Intel Ethernet Server Adapter I210-T1

or

Intel Gigabit CT 82574L

which one is more reliable and fast

The i210-T1 is a Server grade NIC and could be a really cool LAN Port to speed up things there. ~45 € here
And the Intel Gigabit CT adapter will be a really cool WAN port as I see it right. ~25 € here

Harvy66

@BlueKobold:

The i210-T1 is a Server grade NIC and could be a really cool LAN Port to speed up things there. ~45 € here
And the Intel Gigabit CT adapter will be a really cool WAN port as I see it right. ~25 € here

The i210-T1 also makes for a nice desktop NIC 8) Integrated Realtek… Not in my home. Disabled in bios, discrete NIC.

nikkon

i210-T1 ordered :)

zax123

Hi guys,

Would this server:

http://slickdeals.net/f/8205601-dell-poweredge-t110-ii-core-i3-2120-tower-server-w-1yr-prosupport-229-free-shipping?src=rcm_category

Be powerful enough to do 1gigabit WAN reliably with a few VPNs, etc?

Please let me know, it's really not expensive.

Thanks!

Robert

zax123

Actually, this looks like a good deal, especially with 10% off first order:

https://www.blinq.com/detail/electronics/printers-networking-office/networking-routers/lenovo-thinkserver-ts140-5u-tower-server-xeon-3-2ghz-4gb-ram-70a4001lux/156830?condition=brand-new

Should I go for it?

@zax123

pfSense box 1
pfSense box 2

Both will do what you want and need, for ~$299 or ~$310 it will be perhaps in the same price range
as you search but much better then the bigger once compared to the power consumption!

8 GB RAM
mSATA

Will be rocking for a long time together with pfSense for sure.

Snort
SARG
ClamAV
pfBlocker-ng
Squid & SquidGuard

You will be able to built a real UTM device with this.

zax123

@BlueKobold,

Thank you for this recommendation. You mention + 8GB of memory, so pfSense would need 8GB of memory on these Celeron boxes, and I will get an mSATA or SATA SSD. I assume 128GB is big enough.

I am going to wait till Black Friday to see if either of these go on special and grab one the cheapest possible.

Thanks again for the info!