Recommandations on hardware for gigabit WAN
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Personally, I would stick to one box/esxi.
How much load (in terms of MHz as esxi talks in MHz) is the game server putting on the box and how much memory?
Remember also that kvm/proxmox/ovirt etc have less overhead than esxi and could run Centos in openVZ
I would opt for a secondhand haswell based i7/asrock b85 box with 32 gig of ram, a 10 gbit Nic (Chelsio t420-so-cr) hooked up to a mikrotik crs226. Have separate vswitches and do it all virtually.
If memory serves it seems to hover at around 12000MHz on a decent night with players populating most of the servers.
Symtpoms when the servers are loaded are:-
Server framerate fluctuates
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Latency rises for all players
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Players get dropped for no apparent reason
I'm not sure the build you are suggesting is an upgrade to my current ESXI system? or a standalone pfSense box?
Anyways unless I get one of them extended ITX boards from Asrock it will be almost impossible to get 32GB DDR3My current ESXI build is a I7-4770 with 16GB of RAM, this would be repurposed to running CentOS for my game server, no hypervisor.
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My suggestion would be to beef up your esxi machine- is itx a requirement? There are some 8 and 10 core xeons showing up on eBay secondhand cheaply…
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My suggestion would be to beef up your esxi machine- is itx a requirement? There are some 8 and 10 core xeons showing up on eBay secondhand cheaply…
The footprint is somewhat important, however it is quite possible even with mini-itx:
http://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=EPC612D4I#SpecificationsIt was my first intention to upgrade the ESXI, however the upgrade path is quite expensive.
Asrock EPC612D4I - 260€
CPU: E5-2670V3 from Hong Kong(Ebay - 388€
RAM: 2x16GB DDR4 SO-DIMM ECC ~ 351€
Enclosure: Cooltek Coolcube ~45€
PSU: Silverstone SX500-LG ~ 99€
SSD: Reused ~ 0€Total: 1143€
I might be able to get 300€ for my old ESXI server so the total cost would be
843€if I decided to go micro-atx the cost would be:
ASRock EPC612D4U ~ 280€
CPU: E5-2670V3 from Hong Kong(Ebay - 388€
RAM: 2x16GB DDR4 DIMM ECC ~ 233€
Enclosure: Cooltek Coolcube Maxi ~58€
PSU: Sea Sonic G Series 360 ~ 73€
SSD: Reused ~ 0€
Total: 1032€Total cost after selling current ESXI: 732€
The cost would still be higher than simply splitting it up and getting a dedicated pfSense box.
On top of that everything is passively cooled as it is right now, I could make a Xeon almost as quiet, but it would cost me at least 100€ more to do so.
The idle power consumption would most likely be on par with my 4770+Supermicro pfSense box.So, if we take the ESXI box one step further and include my current NAS option:
HFX PowerNAS
I7-4770T
Running Windows 10
Sabnzbd
Mediabrowser server
FlexraidASRock EPC612D4U ~ 280€
CPU: E5-2670V3 from Hong Kong(Ebay - 388€
RAM: 2x16GB DDR4 DIMM ECC ~ 233€
Enclosure: Fractal Design Node 804 ~ 112€
PSU: Sea Sonic Platinum Series 400 Fanless ~ 132€
SSD: Reused ~ 0€
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 ~74 €
I added some options to make it more quietTotal: 1219€
Suppose I can get 300€ for my current ESXI server and 300€ for my HFX Powernas NAS:
Total after they're sold: 619€An interesting idea, I'll need to think about it.
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My home server is described in a bit of detail here: https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/constellation-my-new-home-home-office-server-build.6801/
It has plenty of cycles free, but I don't run game servers.
I highly recommend the 10gbit nic (chelsio or mellanox - Both are cheap on ebay - $70USD for a dual port chelsio, or $20 for a single port mellanox) into a mikrotik CRS226 or the smaller version CRS210, to feed your home network. That said, you can't have that and a HBA in the same box if you go ITX.
One particularly nice thing about the Chelsio is it shows up as multiple devices in ESXi (al-la SR-IOV) so you can do passthrough to more than one VM easily if you want to.
Other options for you to consider:
Xeon-D (8 core/16 thread low power, 2.6ghz turbo) - Broadwell based low power. High threads, 2x10gbit integrated 10gb-T nicsXeon E5-2670 - AKA sandy bridge generation 8 core - lots of these going on ebay cheaply these days. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/151964337392 for instance - 2.6 GHz, 3.3 GHz Turbo, 8 Cores, 16 Threads, 20 MB cache.
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My home server is described in a bit of detail here: https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/constellation-my-new-home-home-office-server-build.6801/
It has plenty of cycles free, but I don't run game servers.
I highly recommend the 10gbit nic (chelsio or mellanox - Both are cheap on ebay - $70USD for a dual port chelsio, or $20 for a single port mellanox) into a mikrotik CRS226 or the smaller version CRS210, to feed your home network. That said, you can't have that and a HBA in the same box if you go ITX.
Other options for you to consider:
Xeon-D (8 core/16 thread low power, 2.6ghz turbo) - Broadwell based low power. High threads, 2x10gbit integrated 10gb-T nicsXeon E5-2670 - AKA sandy bridge generation 8 core - lots of these going on ebay cheaply these days. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/151964337392 for instance - 2.6 GHz, 3.3 GHz Turbo, 8 Cores, 16 Threads, 20 MB cache.
To be precise, I'm running CS:GO servers, unfortunately they're not multithreaded on Linux meaning each instance likes to hog a full core on my 4770, this is somewhat problematic if I get a low-frequency high-core count CPU.
Secondly, the Sandy Bridge xeons are cheap, but their idle consumption seem to be substantial compared to their Haswell-E counterparts.
The cost of a Sandy Bridge vs Haswell-E will of course be able to pay for the increased consumption of the Sandy Bridge for ~ 4 years, but it sorta bothers me.Still, it is something to consider.
There's one thing I don't fully understand about your recommendations - The 10gbit NIC - Why is it a good idea when my LAN is 1 gigabit and WAN is also 1 gigabit? Wouldn't it just sit at 10% capacity since the bottleneck is well.. everywhere else?
Also, The Mikrotik switch, what's the advantage of getting this switch instead of say - the Cisco SG300-10?
I've always used unmanaged switches so this is new territory for me
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Ok so you run a CS:GO server, nas, pfsense(presumably dhcp), and likely other stuff on your esxi box.
The nas and some cs:go traffic is local, as is dhcp and a few other things. So you don't limit your local bandwidth or latency passing data through to the net, it makes sense to feed your switch with 10gbit.
You may only use 4-5 gbit at peak, but 10gbit gear is relatively cheap anyhow and you get a bit of future proofing in the mix
My reason for suggesting the Mikrotik switches is they are effectively "dumb" switches with some management functions, but more specifically they easily and cheaply link 10gbit sfp+ as a trunk to multiple port 1 gbit twisted pair. So as a core switch they are good value. They can also handle vlans
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Ok so you run a CS:GO server, nas, pfsense(presumably dhcp), and likely other stuff on your esxi box.
The nas and some cs:go traffic is local, as is dhcp and a few other things. So you don't limit your local bandwidth or latency passing data through to the net, it makes sense to feed your switch with 10gbit.
My reason for suggesting the Mikrotik switches is they are effectively "dumb" switches with some management functions, but more specifically they easily and cheaply link 10gbit sfp+ as a trunk to multiple port 1 gbit twisted pair. So as a core switch they are good value. They can also handle vlans
At the moment they are split up NAS on its own hardware by itself and pfSense + CentOS(For game server) On an ESXI box, however if I was going to beef up the ESXI machine it seemed like a good idea to consolidate all machines onto 1 ESXI host, it would be easier to justify the increased cost and footprint this way.
with ECC memory and servergrade hardware I could also consider Freenas instead of FlexRAIDGood point on the mikrotik switch + 10gbit nic, I'll have to take that into account.
On a sidenote I began to wonder if I could do away with the media converter and attach the fiber from my ISP directly to pfSense if I got a dual port chelsio, but I have to research that before making any assumptions.I'll have consider my options, thank you for providing some new ideas on how to set up my network
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To further clarify:
The way I see it you have two streams, external (as in up and down from the internet) and local
External traffic you will limit to Game serving/downloading/uploading etc.
Local traffic could be:
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Traffic To/From your NAS
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DHCP
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Traffic between clients on your network
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Upstream (external/internet) traffic to the internet from your clients
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Downstream traffic (external/internet) traffic to your clients
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Game traffic to the server
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Update traffic if you share updates across the clients on your network
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Wireless traffic including negotiations/wireless overhead
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Bonjour server/client traffic
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Mythtv traffic, if you run something like a Silicondust HDhomerun
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Remote Desktop traffic to your VMs
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IP Camera feeds
While you can have all of this on 1gbit, if you have multiple VMs accessing the local network clients and visa versa there could be latency induced due to lack of bandwidth, or traffic during peaks. If you did it on 10gbit, basically you end up with a topology that looks like two or more switches (the VSwitches, and the physical switches) and a 10gbit trunk between them.
Therefore even if your local traffic takes up 5gbit or so with the NAS VM streaming 4K to multiple clients @ 1gbit, it's not going to impact upon your game performance as you still have plenty of spare network bandwidth to share around. Obviously if you had 10 clients grabbing files from your file server at 1gbit and your fileserver VM could manage 10gbit worth of data being read at the same time, that would flood the network, but it's a highly unlikely scenario in home use.
As for running fibre to pfsense - I can't say whether this will work - you'll have to speak to your fibre provider and work out the setup you have. Typically speaking fibre providers don't like this as they run VoIP and other services over the fibre also, thus have redundancies built in for emergencies.
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To further clarify:
The way I see it you have two streams, external (as in up and down from the internet) and local
External traffic you will limit to Game serving/downloading/uploading etc.
Local traffic could be:
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Traffic To/From your NAS
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DHCP
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Traffic between clients on your network
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Upstream (external/internet) traffic to the internet from your clients
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Downstream traffic (external/internet) traffic to your clients
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Game traffic to the server
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Update traffic if you share updates across the clients on your network
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Wireless traffic including negotiations/wireless overhead
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Bonjour server/client traffic
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Mythtv traffic, if you run something like a Silicondust HDhomerun
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Remote Desktop traffic to your VMs
While you can have all of this on 1gbit, if you have multiple VMs accessing the local network clients and visa versa there could be latency induced due to lack of bandwidth, or traffic during peaks. If you did it on 10gbit, basically you end up with a topology that looks like two or more switches (the VSwitches, and the physical switches) and a 10gbit trunk between them.
Therefore even if your local traffic takes up 5gbit or so with the NAS VM streaming 4K to multiple clients @ 1gbit, it's not going to impact upon your game performance as you still have plenty of spare network bandwidth to share around. Obviously if you had 10 clients grabbing files from your file server at 1gbit and your fileserver VM could manage 10gbit worth of data being read at the same time, that would flood the network, but it's a highly unlikely scenario in home use.
As for running fibre to pfsense - I can't say whether this will work - you'll have to speak to your fibre provider and work out the setup you have. Typically speaking fibre providers don't like this as they run VoIP and other services over the fibre also, thus have redundancies built in for emergencies.
It actually makes alot of sense now, especially if I put the NAS on the ESXI box, I can easily see 1 PC saturate a 1Gbit link when accessing the NAS - The mechanical harddrives would most likely end up being the bottleneck if two tried to access it, but still, you would easily saturate a 1gbit link.
I've been looking a bit more into the NIC, but I do not fully understand the tranceiver module.
If I buy the Mikrotik CRS226 and a 10Gbit nic wouldn't I need a tranceiver module in both the Mikrotik CR226 and the NIC? If yes - How do I figure out which type I should use and what cable(or optical wire) to go along with it?
Looking up the X520-DA2 on the intel webpage gave me a list of modules I could use and a reference to a "direct attach cable" that just needed to comply with some specifications that I'm guessing is pretty standard for direct attach cables.
I am guessing that I could use the direct attach cable since the switch and NIC will be placed right next to each other, but I do not know if this is 'best practice'I've been looking at the Intel X520-DA2 instead of the ones you suggested, the only reason being it seemed better supported in ESXI.
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I wrote this in PM for another user:
You need SFP+ transmitters at both ends of the 10gbit connection (which are about $20 each) (ebay or http://www.fs.com/c/10g-sfp-plus_63 - the cheapest model will do 300 metres or approx 1000 ft) http://www.fs.com/10gbase-sr-sfp-850nm-300m-multi-mode-optical-transceiver-p-11589.html - if in doubt about compatibility, select cisco as the compatible brand.
You need fibre to join the transmitters (which is relatively cheap, you're looking for OM3 or OM4 Multimode - Duplex - optic fibre, with LC-LC. LC-LC stands for Lucent Connector - Lucent Connector) - here is one example: http://www.fs.com/lc-lc-duplex-10g-om4-50-125-multimode-fiber-patch-cable-p-17235.html - ebay is also an option but is more expensive.
You of course need a 10gbit ethernet card for the server. The Mellanox ConnectX-2 (MNPA19-XTR) is very cheap on ebay ($18-20) and highly recommended, as is the Chelsio t420-SO-CR (dual port, approx $75 on ebay).
You need a switch that can handle it. Mikrotik crs210 (2x10 gig + 8x1gig ports) and crs226(2x10 gig+24x1 gig ports) are both reasonably well liked, and quiet/cheap for what they are, approx prices are $180 and $240 respectively - ebay or amazon. Despite their names, do not use these for routing (that is what pfsense is for!).
http://www.amazon.com/MikroTik-CRS210-8G-2S-IN-Router-Switch/dp/B00RSNN17G
http://www.amazon.com/Mikrotik-CRS226-24G-2S-IN-Gigabit-Router/dp/B00KVF7S40More when I have a moment
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You do not want an Intel 10gig card as with some of them you need to use Intel transceivers, which can be quite expensive.
Really both Chelsio or Mellanox are well supported by ESXI as they are server/enterprise hardware. Neither brand needs optics keyed to them, they work with any optics.
You can use a passive twinax cable, however they have higher latency and lower length than optical. On the other hand they are cheaper up to 5 meters, and can do up to 10 meters. As you mentioned, if they are right next to each other, then twinax(sfp+) will work for you.
With software raid and 4+ Rotating disks you should be able to push at least 400 megabytes a second if it is tuned correctly.
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You do not want an Intel 10gig card as with some of them you need to use Intel transceivers, which can be quite expensive.
Really both Chelsio or Mellanox are well supported by ESXI as they are server/enterprise hardware. Neither brand needs optics keyed to them, they work with any optics.
You can use a passive twinax cable, however they have higher latency and lower length than optical. On the other hand they are cheaper up to 5 meters, and can do up to 10 meters. As you mentioned, if they are right next to each other, then twinax(sfp+) will work for you.
With software raid and 4+ Rotating disks you should be able to push at least 400 megabytes a second if it is tuned correctly.
Thanks for making me understand it, I think I get it now, one of my concerns was the vendor lock, I could see that the Intel one was locked, but if the Chelsio and Mellanox aren't locked it will just make things easier(and cheaper)
I think I'll go with a Mellanox card, both Mellanox and Chelsio seem to be mostly sold in the US, so I have to calculate shipping costs and +25% import costs, it will quickly run up.
Also, I'll go with the fiber modules + cable you linked me to, the fs.com store will ship it very cheap if I'm patient.
FlexRAID is not really RAID, it's a set of disks with an added parity drive, meaning if I move one of the disks(except the parity disk) to another PC, I'll see the contents like any other non-raid disk.
This has some benefits
- I can lose 1 disk and rebuild it
- If I lose two disks before rebuilding, I'll 'only' lose the contents of the two disks and not the entire set
- You can manage singular disks like any other non-raid disk.
The downside is you'll only get the read and write rate of 1 disk, if the contents accessed is on the same disk.
Therefore the previously mentioned mechanical hdd limitI've been using an adaptec 52445 in the past, but sold it off with my old fileserver(Took up too much room).
Compared to the Adaptec interface Flexraid doesn't seem as polished, but it did the job when I lost a disk.
I am however contemplating eitherA) Going back to hardware RAID 6 since now I have room for the controller on a matx platform
or
B) Get some more memory and try out FreenasAh well, that was a sidestep into something completely unrelated to pfsense, better get back on track.
Thank you for the feedback, I think I have all of it covered right now, now it's just a matter of ordering the items and assembling them
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A few last things.
Considering the Mellanox cards are so inexpensive, and you will need to pay for shipping, I suggest you buy one or two more than you need in case you get a dud. This way if one is dead, you don't have to pay shipping twice.
Also, the Connectx-3 is a newer model and is still receiving updates this(or the Chelsio mentioned) would be the preferred card.
Regardless of which Mellanox card you get, it would pay to put it in a Windows box and update the firmware before use.
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A few last things.
Considering the Mellanox cards are so inexpensive, and you will need to pay for shipping, I suggest you buy one or two more than you need in case you get a dud. This way if one is dead, you don't have to pay shipping twice.
Also, the Connectx-3 is a newer model and is still receiving updates this(or the Chelsio mentioned) would be the preferred card.
Regardless of which Mellanox card you get, it would pay to put it in a Windows box and update the firmware before use.
I managed to find a new MCX312A-XCBT for 110€ including shipping from Europe, so I decided to go with that.
Still need the rest of the hardware, but your suggestion about the mikrotik switch + 10gbit card seemed like a good idea regardless of what setup I'll end up with.
I'll probably order the tranceivers + cable today as well, and I'll probably order the switch soon, that way I can get to know it using my existing setup before ordering new hardware.
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The box should be able to handle a 1000/1000 internet connection.
The motherboard should be mini-itx size
Also, on the LAN side I have a game server, so stable low latency is vitalI would also like the box to push a decent amount of bandwidth using OpenVPN or something similar, actually the closer to gigabit throughput the better.
I'm not using any of the packages as it is right now, but I would like a large overhead on performance if the need rises in the future.Going through the forums I've been looking at Supermicro A1SRi-2758F
Will this be good enough for my use? Should I consider anything else? Any recommendations on amount of RAM?- Forget ITX
- A barebones midtower is significantly cheaper than customizing an ITX server
- E3 Xeons and similar desktop-class cpus are significantly faster than that atom, see #2
- OpenVPN is currently implemented in a fashion that you want fast single-threaded performance, more cores mean little, see #3
- E3/desktop cores are currently 1-2 generations ahead of E5 cores (IPC ~+5%/generation/avg) and a much much cheaper way to put your single-threaded program in the fastest possible core, see #4
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The box should be able to handle a 1000/1000 internet connection.
The motherboard should be mini-itx size
Also, on the LAN side I have a game server, so stable low latency is vitalI would also like the box to push a decent amount of bandwidth using OpenVPN or something similar, actually the closer to gigabit throughput the better.
I'm not using any of the packages as it is right now, but I would like a large overhead on performance if the need rises in the future.Going through the forums I've been looking at Supermicro A1SRi-2758F
Will this be good enough for my use? Should I consider anything else? Any recommendations on amount of RAM?- Forget ITX
- A barebones midtower is significantly cheaper than customizing an ITX server
- E3 Xeons and similar desktop-class cpus are significantly faster than that atom, see #2
- OpenVPN is currently implemented in a fashion that you want fast single-threaded performance, more cores mean little, see #3
- E3/desktop cores are currently 1-2 generations ahead of E5 cores (IPC ~+5%/generation/avg) and a much much cheaper way to put your single-threaded program in the fastest possible core, see #4
Already did, I'm going for at least mATX right now, I'm still restricted when it comes to physical size, but mATX gives a much broader selection.
In fact I found an ATX case that was perfect for me, but alas, it's out of production… the Lian Li PC-V650.
Right now I'm considering the PC-V354 as an alternative, but that's only mATX, for almost the same physical size the V-650 would enable me to use a full ATX board.Indeed it is, it's also easier to customize
3+4+5)
The problem with quad core xeons is that it doesn't put me in a better position than I am now, sure I could virtualize pfSense and my NAS, but the game server would most likely still need to be run serperate, that's why I wanted to go with E5 xeons, to consolidate all systems on to one ESXI host.
The problem being of course - price, even with the ES xeons on ebay the setup would be somewhat costly.
To mitigate this slightly I'm considering an Asrock X99 board, they support xeons + ECC but also support running all cores at full turbo multiplier.
Alot of possibilities, but right now I'm trying to determine what option would suit my usage best. -
Would a Core2Quad with 4GB of RAM running pfSense be able to handle gigabit WAN and LAN speeds?
You can find quad core Dell Optiplex 755's on ebay all day long for $99 - built in Intel gigabit NIC and I put an Intel CT gigabit PCIe card into the graphics slot and it works perfectly. You could even find a dual or quad port Intel NIC for not too much and get more than 1 port out of the PCIe slot - probably from $15 for an older one to $45 for a Chinese i350-T2 to $60 for a Chinese i350-T4 or $200 or so for an official Intel i350 depending on how many ethernet ports you need. Power supply is 235W on an Optiplex 755/760/780.
I have a SFF (small form factor) which only has the graphics PCIe slot and a PCI slot but it might fit your size requirements. It's quiet and can lay flat or on its side. Built in NIC for each model…
755 Intel 82566DM - Gigabit
760 Intel 82567LM - Gigabit
780 Intel 82567LM - GigabitHere are the 4 form factors for Dell Optiplex 755
http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/optix/en/opti_755_techspecs.pdfThe USFF is a no go because it has an external brick power supply and does not have a PCIe slot. You probably want SFF (small form factor).
For those that don't mind a little bit of basic modding, you should be able to get an Optiplex 755 and drop an Intel Xeon X3363 in for a bump to 2.83GHz.
eBay X3363 is $30 and search eBay for "lga 771 775 adapter" for a stick on adapter to get the X3363 (quad core) to work in a 755. You just need to update to the latest BIOS first. This should still get the PC in under $100.
Good site for the mod
http://www.delidded.com/lga-771-to-775-adapter/******** x 2
Super overkill I'm sure but if the AES-NI instruction set in the processor is important for VPN - and I'm not sure if it even matters if your processor is powerful enough (core2quad) you can get a Dell Precision T5500 on ebay with a Xeon 56xx processor (around $150 - $200 shipped with 8GB RAM). Obviously big, heavy and way more of a power hog than an Optiplex 755.******** x 3
If you get a Core2Duo Optiplex 755, 760 or 780, all 3 form factors look and operate the same. If you want to bump the 760 or 780 to an X3363, the microcode isn't in the BIOS for either of these, so you have to flash the microcoded BIOS first, then do the X3363 upgrade as outlined above.
The Microcode is already in the BIOS for the 755 so no preflashing is necessary.
https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-OptiPlex-360-380-760-780-960-Xeon-LGA-771-E0-1067A-MicrocodeSince this can all be done with these 3 boxes (755, 760 and 780) you should be able to find something affordable on ebay or used/refurbed.
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3+4+5)
The problem with quad core xeons is that it doesn't put me in a better position than I am now, sure I could virtualize pfSense and my NAS, but the game server would most likely still need to be run serperate, that's why I wanted to go with E5 xeons, to consolidate all systems on to one ESXI host.
The problem being of course - price, even with the ES xeons on ebay the setup would be somewhat costly.
To mitigate this slightly I'm considering an Asrock X99 board, they support xeons + ECC but also support running all cores at full turbo multiplier.
Alot of possibilities, but right now I'm trying to determine what option would suit my usage best.If you really want to go that route, consider that E5 16xx Xeons are often unlocked, and no I do not mean those wacky engineering samples on ebay. Conflicting reports on the cheapest versions, but a 1660v3 is confirmed unlocked if you want to have 8 fast cores and eat ECC cake too. If you don't want to pay the OCD-uber-all-in-one ESXi tax (I definitely see a pattern in the people that post their builds…) but you still want performance its cheaper to just run multiple real servers.
I have a 1680v2 (8 core Ivy for X79/C602) that eats through torture tests at 4.5Ghz, YMMV. Another fun fact: Broadwell (E5 v4) is coming soon to socket 2011v3 and will be a drop-in upgrade after bios update on decent X99/C612 boards.
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Would a Core2Quad with 4GB of RAM running pfSense be able to handle gigabit WAN and LAN speeds?
Typical routing and standard firewall duties? Sure.
OpenVPN or similar? Not even close.
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Would a Core2Quad with 4GB of RAM running pfSense be able to handle gigabit WAN and LAN speeds?
Aluminum pointed it out pretty well, on top of that I'm currently considering putting everything on an ESXI host, so in either case it's not going to be enough.
Also, a Core2Quad is pretty dated, and the idle power consumption is somewhat high compared to later CPUs
As a platform to get to know pfSense on I can see it's attractive if the price is right, but for my use I need a bit more performance.If you really want to go that route, consider that E5 16xx Xeons are often unlocked, and no I do not mean those wacky engineering samples on ebay. Conflicting reports on the cheapest versions, but a 1660v3 is confirmed unlocked if you want to have 8 fast cores and eat ECC cake too. If you don't want to pay the OCD-uber-all-in-one ESXi tax (I definitely see a pattern in the people that post their builds…) but you still want performance its cheaper to just run multiple real servers.
I have a 1680v2 (8 core Ivy for X79/C602) that eats through torture tests at 4.5Ghz, YMMV. Another fun fact: Broadwell (E5 v4) is coming soon to socket 2011v3 and will be a drop-in upgrade after bios update on decent X99/C612 boards.
Well I am also considering putting pfSense and NAS on 1 pc with ESXI and reinstall the gameserver baremetal on my I7-4770.
This would most likely be the chepaest way to go.if I contend with putting just pfSense and NAS on 1 PC, a quad core xeon should be sufficient.
I could get a LGA2011-3 board with a quadcore xeon(they're not that expensive new or on the second hand market) and if I ever wanted to migrate the gameserver to ESXI I could get a CPU upgrade - perhaps when broadwell-EP cpus are available second hand.
ES xeons are attractive when you look at the price, but if I'm going to use it for NAS there's too many unanswered questions when it comes to ES vs retail.