How important is quad core vs dual core?
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Sorry if I'm beating a dead horse. I've spent about 5 hours searching the last 2 days so I figure I'll just ask the question.
Looking to purchase some hardware and it looks like everyone goes for quad core processors, despite being lower end and slower.
If I'm on a 150/25 connection, only a handful of users, and wanted AES-NI support, would I really benefit that much from a quad core or even dual core with hyperthreading?
Was looking at picking up a G4400 because it's relatively cheap and from everything I'm reading it would smoke a J1900, N3150, etc; but it appears as if those are preferred. Though that may be due to low power and cost efficiency. The SG-2220 has the significantly slower dual core Atom and given that it's being sold for SOHO, I'd assume it gets the job done, though I'm not a pfsense expert so maybe I'm missing something.
I'd rather have a little overkill but I also don't want to be under-doing it by only going with a dual core.
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As long as you're ok with the power usage, the G4400 will crush the embedded quad core CPUs. Plus, you can upgrade it if you need to. Can't do that with CPUs soldered on to the motherboard. As far as the actual number of cores, OpenVPN and Suricata come to mind. If you have multiple tunnels or are monitoring multiple interfaces, more threads can come in handy, but for a relatively simple home connection with VPN, a dual core like the G4400 won't break a sweat with a 150/25 connection IMO.
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G4400 is overkill. Celeron is a bit cheaper and still overkill. You can buy a, atom pentium/celly or a amd am1 quad cores without bothering much and maybe saving money, both while purchasing and on electric bill later.
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Thanks guys, perfect answers. 8)