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    New build for 1G speeds

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    • ?
      Guest
      last edited by

      It's not a requirement I just enjoy doing these as DIY projects.

      Supermicro C2758 board
      30/60/120 GB SSD
      PicoPSU 160 Watt
      M350 case
      8 GB RAM

      My current internet speed is 1G up and down and I may look at upgrading this to 2.5G so having something that is expandable is ideal.

      Intel G3260T, Core i3 or Xeon E3 will do the job for you, perhaps also the Xeon D-1500 platform will do
      the job too.

      If I end up starting a business I will probably get the 10G but that sort of equipment is out of my price range at this point.

      For the LAN or WAN side?

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • JailerJ
        Jailer
        last edited by

        @BlueKobold:

        Supermicro C2758 board
        30/60/120 GB SSD
        PicoPSU 160 Watt
        M350 case
        8 GB RAM

        Supermicro A1SRi-2758F accepts a direct 12v input. Pico PSU is not needed, just a 12v power brick and an appropriate 4 pin P4 12v adapter.

        Other Features
        Chassis intrusion detection
        Chassis intrusion header
        4-pin 12V DC power input or 24-pin ATX Power input

        http://www.supermicro.com.tw/products/motherboard/atom/x10/a1sri-2758f.cfm

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • M
          mattyd
          last edited by

          That 160W power supply is also supreme overkill unless you're running several power hungry spinning disks.

          My 2758 build runs about 15.8-16.2W under my typical usage (basically idle, since it is overkill).  You likely won't see lower than that.

          Serve The Home did power benchmarking at different loads, including maxing traffic through all four interfaces.  Their test rig was measured SSD, ram, processor and motherboard:

          http://www.servethehome.com/intel-atom-c2550-power-consumption-comparison/

          Round up to 40W, add in whatever your cooling needs, and toss in peak spin up draw for your hard drive if it is a spinning disk.  With my SSD-based build, I went with a 60W Seasonic 12V power supply because I believe it is higher quality than the bricks sold with the PicoPSUs.  I've always had good luck with Seasonic power supplies.

          http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=376-000S-00001

          I also built it in a Supermicro mini-ITX case and it was a pretty smooth build.  I have a half written post with some pictures lying around that I should finish up this weekend.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • P
            physwm2501
            last edited by

            It's not a requirement I just enjoy doing these as DIY projects.

            Supermicro C2758 board
            30/60/120 GB SSD
            PicoPSU 160 Watt
            M350 case
            8 GB RAM

            This looks like it would be a solid starting point and the platform I've been doing the most research on.

            My current internet speed is 1G up and down and I may look at upgrading this to 2.5G so having something that is expandable is ideal.

            Intel G3260T, Core i3 or Xeon E3 will do the job for you, perhaps also the Xeon D-1500 platform will do
            the job too.

            The other option was the D-1500 as it looks like it can handle the possible 10G

            If I end up starting a business I will probably get the 10G but that sort of equipment is out of my price range at this point.

            For the LAN or WAN side?

            This would be for both WAN and LAN side.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • P
              Paint
              last edited by

              @physwm2501:

              @BlueKobold:

              It's not a requirement I just enjoy doing these as DIY projects.

              Supermicro C2758 board
              30/60/120 GB SSD
              PicoPSU 160 Watt
              M350 case
              8 GB RAM

              This looks like it would be a solid starting point.

              My current internet speed is 1G up and down and I may look at upgrading this to 2.5G so having something that is expandable is ideal.

              Intel G3260T, Core i3 or Xeon E3 will do the job for you, perhaps also the Xeon D-1500 platform will do
              the job too.

              If I end up starting a business I will probably get the 10G but that sort of equipment is out of my price range at this point.

              For the LAN or WAN side?

              This would be for both WAN and LAN side.

              my recent build would work well for you - https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=113610.0

              pfSense i5-4590
              940/880 mbit Fiber Internet from FiOS
              BROCADE ICX6450 48Port L3-Managed Switch w/4x 10GB ports
              Netgear R8000 AP (DD-WRT)

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • P
                physwm2501
                last edited by

                @Paint:

                @physwm2501:

                @BlueKobold:

                It's not a requirement I just enjoy doing these as DIY projects.

                Supermicro C2758 board
                30/60/120 GB SSD
                PicoPSU 160 Watt
                M350 case
                8 GB RAM

                This looks like it would be a solid starting point.

                My current internet speed is 1G up and down and I may look at upgrading this to 2.5G so having something that is expandable is ideal.

                Intel G3260T, Core i3 or Xeon E3 will do the job for you, perhaps also the Xeon D-1500 platform will do
                the job too.

                If I end up starting a business I will probably get the 10G but that sort of equipment is out of my price range at this point.

                For the LAN or WAN side?

                This would be for both WAN and LAN side.

                my recent build would work well for you - https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=113610.0

                This looks promising

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • P
                  physwm2501
                  last edited by

                  @mattyd:

                  That 160W power supply is also supreme overkill unless you're running several power hungry spinning disks.

                  My 2758 build runs about 15.8-16.2W under my typical usage (basically idle, since it is overkill).  You likely won't see lower than that.

                  Serve The Home did power benchmarking at different loads, including maxing traffic through all four interfaces.  Their test rig was measured SSD, ram, processor and motherboard:

                  http://www.servethehome.com/intel-atom-c2550-power-consumption-comparison/

                  Round up to 40W, add in whatever your cooling needs, and toss in peak spin up draw for your hard drive if it is a spinning disk.  With my SSD-based build, I went with a 60W Seasonic 12V power supply because I believe it is higher quality than the bricks sold with the PicoPSUs.  I've always had good luck with Seasonic power supplies.

                  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=376-000S-00001

                  I also built it in a Supermicro mini-ITX case and it was a pretty smooth build.  I have a half written post with some pictures lying around that I should finish up this weekend.

                  That's good to know.  I will be going with an ssd for this system, the only difference is I'll get a 1U rackmout since I already have 2 other rackmount appliances.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • P
                    Paint
                    last edited by

                    @physwm2501:

                    @mattyd:

                    That 160W power supply is also supreme overkill unless you're running several power hungry spinning disks.

                    My 2758 build runs about 15.8-16.2W under my typical usage (basically idle, since it is overkill).  You likely won't see lower than that.

                    Serve The Home did power benchmarking at different loads, including maxing traffic through all four interfaces.  Their test rig was measured SSD, ram, processor and motherboard:

                    http://www.servethehome.com/intel-atom-c2550-power-consumption-comparison/

                    Round up to 40W, add in whatever your cooling needs, and toss in peak spin up draw for your hard drive if it is a spinning disk.  With my SSD-based build, I went with a 60W Seasonic 12V power supply because I believe it is higher quality than the bricks sold with the PicoPSUs.  I've always had good luck with Seasonic power supplies.

                    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=376-000S-00001

                    I also built it in a Supermicro mini-ITX case and it was a pretty smooth build.  I have a half written post with some pictures lying around that I should finish up this weekend.

                    That's good to know.  I will be going with an ssd for this system, the only difference is I'll get a 1U rackmout since I already have 2 other rackmount appliances.

                    I look forward to seeing your build.  I wish I had enough room for a rack in my apt.

                    The only thing I would recommend, no matter what system you end up building….. Make sure you use an Intel i350 chipset ethernet card.  The driver,  igb, is very stable and well supported by pfSense. Most of the issues I see with new builds are related to Realtek or Intel desktop (em)  driver issues.

                    You can get the Chinese version of this card for about 50 bucks,but some will argue that these cards have build quality issues.  Its mainly the luck of the draw, it seems

                    pfSense i5-4590
                    940/880 mbit Fiber Internet from FiOS
                    BROCADE ICX6450 48Port L3-Managed Switch w/4x 10GB ports
                    Netgear R8000 AP (DD-WRT)

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • P
                      physwm2501
                      last edited by

                      @Paint:

                      @physwm2501:

                      @mattyd:

                      That 160W power supply is also supreme overkill unless you're running several power hungry spinning disks.

                      My 2758 build runs about 15.8-16.2W under my typical usage (basically idle, since it is overkill).  You likely won't see lower than that.

                      Serve The Home did power benchmarking at different loads, including maxing traffic through all four interfaces.  Their test rig was measured SSD, ram, processor and motherboard:

                      http://www.servethehome.com/intel-atom-c2550-power-consumption-comparison/

                      Round up to 40W, add in whatever your cooling needs, and toss in peak spin up draw for your hard drive if it is a spinning disk.  With my SSD-based build, I went with a 60W Seasonic 12V power supply because I believe it is higher quality than the bricks sold with the PicoPSUs.  I've always had good luck with Seasonic power supplies.

                      http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=376-000S-00001

                      I also built it in a Supermicro mini-ITX case and it was a pretty smooth build.  I have a half written post with some pictures lying around that I should finish up this weekend.

                      That's good to know.  I will be going with an ssd for this system, the only difference is I'll get a 1U rackmout since I already have 2 other rackmount appliances.

                      I look forward to seeing your build.  I wish I had enough room for a rack in my apt.

                      The only thing I would recommend, no matter what system you end up building….. Make sure you use an Intel i350 chipset ethernet card.  The driver,  igb, is very stable and well supported by pfSense. Most of the issues I see with new builds are related to Realtek or Intel desktop (em)  driver issues.

                      You can get the Chinese version of this card for about 50 bucks,but some will argue that these cards have build quality issues.  Its mainly the luck of the draw, it seems

                      I'll be sure to use that.  Probably won't get to a build to later this year but I'll post it up once I'm done.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • R
                        robi
                        last edited by

                        @Paint:

                        The only thing I would recommend, no matter what system you end up building….. Make sure you use an Intel i350 chipset ethernet card.  The driver,  igb, is very stable and well supported by pfSense. Most of the issues I see with new builds are related to Realtek or Intel desktop (em)  driver issues.

                        Note that igb driver has severe pppoe issues, and it doesn't seem to be fixed any soon.
                        For 1G pppoe wan, use an intel nic with em driver, not igb. pppoe on igb will give you max 600M.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • P
                          Paint
                          last edited by

                          @robi:

                          @Paint:

                          The only thing I would recommend, no matter what system you end up building….. Make sure you use an Intel i350 chipset ethernet card.  The driver,  igb, is very stable and well supported by pfSense. Most of the issues I see with new builds are related to Realtek or Intel desktop (em)  driver issues.

                          Note that igb driver has severe pppoe issues, and it doesn't seem to be fixed any soon.
                          For 1G pppoe wan, use an intel nic with em driver, not igb. pppoe on igb will give you max 600M.

                          Which Intel Chipset is your ethernet card?

                          I find that the EM driver causes many watchdog timeouts, which causes the device to fail until the machine is rebooted. This is quite common, it seems, from other's experience here and on FreeBSD when interrupts go above 30k per second.

                          pfSense i5-4590
                          940/880 mbit Fiber Internet from FiOS
                          BROCADE ICX6450 48Port L3-Managed Switch w/4x 10GB ports
                          Netgear R8000 AP (DD-WRT)

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • R
                            robi
                            last edited by

                            It's not chipset issue, it's driver issue. On PPPoE interface packets are only received on one NIC driver queue by the igb driver. This has been discussed many times. It will use only one core of the cpu.
                            https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-bugs/2015-October/064334.html
                            Igb drivers are better than em in many aspects, except this. It's worth dropping in an em-based card for the interface dealing with PPPoE (typically WAN).

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • P
                              Paint
                              last edited by

                              @robi:

                              It's not chipset issue, it's driver issue. On PPPoE interface packets are only received on one NIC driver queue by the igb driver. This has been discussed many times. It will use only one core of the cpu.
                              https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-bugs/2015-October/064334.html

                              I dont use PPPoE. What I was referring to is the EM driver will fail at high interrupts/load for many retail chipsets until the machine is rebooted. It is related to this error:

                              https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=110224.0

                              All of my testing has been done using a 64-bit machine, so i386 is not the issue.

                              pfSense i5-4590
                              940/880 mbit Fiber Internet from FiOS
                              BROCADE ICX6450 48Port L3-Managed Switch w/4x 10GB ports
                              Netgear R8000 AP (DD-WRT)

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • R
                                robi
                                last edited by

                                I was just noting this for the one who started this thread. He/She may be using PPPoE, and should know about this issue.

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • P
                                  Paint
                                  last edited by

                                  @robi:

                                  I was just noting this for the one who started this thread. He/She may be using PPPoE, and should know about this issue.

                                  Fair enough.  Good information to know!

                                  pfSense i5-4590
                                  940/880 mbit Fiber Internet from FiOS
                                  BROCADE ICX6450 48Port L3-Managed Switch w/4x 10GB ports
                                  Netgear R8000 AP (DD-WRT)

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • P
                                    physwm2501
                                    last edited by

                                    @robi:

                                    I was just noting this for the one who started this thread. He/She may be using PPPoE, and should know about this issue.

                                    this information is appreciated.  My isp doesn't use PPPoE so it seems I'm safe from this issue and should stick with IGP in this particular case.

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • W
                                      whosmatt
                                      last edited by

                                      For what it's worth, I'm running six pfsense machines in production and all but one of them use the em driver.  I've never had any issues.  I've always considered it well supported and very stable.

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • P
                                        Paint
                                        last edited by

                                        @whosmatt:

                                        For what it's worth, I'm running six pfsense machines in production and all but one of them use the em driver.  I've never had any issues.  I've always considered it well supported and very stable.

                                        What intel ethernet chipset(s)?

                                        I had issues with my onboard 82574 chipsets when pushing 1gig with snort and pfBlockerNG enabled with DNSBL

                                        pfSense i5-4590
                                        940/880 mbit Fiber Internet from FiOS
                                        BROCADE ICX6450 48Port L3-Managed Switch w/4x 10GB ports
                                        Netgear R8000 AP (DD-WRT)

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • W
                                          whosmatt
                                          last edited by

                                          @Paint:

                                          @whosmatt:

                                          For what it's worth, I'm running six pfsense machines in production and all but one of them use the em driver.  I've never had any issues.  I've always considered it well supported and very stable.

                                          What intel ethernet chipset(s)?

                                          I had issues with my onboard 82574 chipsets when pushing 1gig with snort and pfBlockerNG enabled with DNSBL

                                          Most of them are virtual running on ESXi.  The one that is not is using the 82571EB chipset.

                                          Edit:  To clarify, four VMs are using the em driver.  One physical machine is using the em driver with the 82571EB chipset.  The other physical machine uses the bce driver.

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • P
                                            Paint
                                            last edited by

                                            @whosmatt:

                                            @Paint:

                                            @whosmatt:

                                            For what it's worth, I'm running six pfsense machines in production and all but one of them use the em driver.  I've never had any issues.  I've always considered it well supported and very stable.

                                            What intel ethernet chipset(s)?

                                            I had issues with my onboard 82574 chipsets when pushing 1gig with snort and pfBlockerNG enabled with DNSBL

                                            Most of them are virtual running on ESXi.  The one that is not is using the 82571EB chipset.

                                            Edit:  To clarify, four VMs are using the em driver.  One physical machine is using the em driver with the 82571EB chipset.  The other physical machine uses the bce driver.

                                            Thanks.  I was going to try the VM route as my research showed that it would fix the issues I was having, but it was easier for me to just upgrade to the i350

                                            pfSense i5-4590
                                            940/880 mbit Fiber Internet from FiOS
                                            BROCADE ICX6450 48Port L3-Managed Switch w/4x 10GB ports
                                            Netgear R8000 AP (DD-WRT)

                                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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