So I got a little carried away…
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Hi Larikin,
You are right, i love my build, and so should you.
I know the people here post a little harsh, but they want the best outcome for you! :)
Thanks
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I'm using a 6 core xeon, no complaints here.
7700k is 4.2ghz - I know because I de-lidded one and use it in my VR rig.
I would recommend de-lidding it, you'll shave off up to 30 degrees Celsius.
Im actually about to retire the xeon and use a skylake I have laying around.
I think Kaby Lake is a great chip for this. The speed shift stuff will keep cpu/watt low and only ramp up as needed with much less latency between the cpu freq changes. It is a very welcome addition to processor tech IMO.
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What you could possible be doing on your firewall that you would need a 1TB SSD? That is 250$ just wasted, the 250GB would of been overkill ;)
How much did that build cost? Prob could of gotten a SG-4680 for half of that..
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LOL - willy waving on the pfsense hardware forum! Isn't this something normally on the gamers forums?
What benchmarks are you getting hahahaha !!!!11111
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LOL - willy waving on the pfsense hardware forum! Isn't this something normally on the gamers forums?
What benchmarks are you getting hahahaha !!!!11111
Willy waving here would be someone getting it to run on a TI-83 graphing calculator. ;D
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@W4RH3AD yeah ;D
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What you could possible be doing on your firewall that you would need a 1TB SSD? That is 250$ just wasted, the 250GB would of been overkill ;)
How much did that build cost? Prob could of gotten a SG-4680 for half of that..
I got the larger sized hard drive so I have the options to store large log files.
In terms of cost, it was around AUD$2.1k. When I compare that against os the SG-4860, it is just under US$1k. Convert that into AUD, and then our import duties plus tax, it comes up just short of AUD $2k. On that basis, I felt it better to spend the same amount of money and see what I could get :)
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If your build makes you happy that fine. But there's no arguing that it is extremely inefficient and wasteful. It is by no standard a good build. Your component selection was poor, and just didn't make any sense for a firewall.
You could have built a MUCH better pfSense system for ~$1500USD.
All you did was build a gaming computer sans GPU and installed pfSense on it. Obviously it will do everything you could possibly want and more, but you threw a lot of money into silly components when you could have spent that same $ on things that would have had some tangible benefit for a firewall/router.
Spending way more than necessary on a system is all dealers choice, if you want to spend your money that way then have at it. It's your money after all.
You just spent your money on the wrong stuff. -
Obviously it will do everything you could possibly want and more, but you threw a lot of money into silly components when you could have spent that same $ on things that would have had some tangible benefit for a firewall/router.
I bought what was in stock at the time. Out of interest, what could have I changed / added to get further benefit for a firewall/router? Note that I've ordered a 4 port NIC card.
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1000w power supply
This is absurd, and the "no-fan" argument is silly, they make fanless PSU's. If you really want to spend the money then get redundant PSU's, or a true-sine wave UPS. These really aren't necessary for a home build in most parts of the world though. Assuming you didn't buy a bargain bin PSU (which would be a bad idea) you probably paid a pretty penny for this and could have purchased a fanless PSU that would have been more efficient than a 1000W PSU for equal or less than this.
16GB PC4-2400 DDR4 RAM
You'll have to try hard to use 16GB of RAM in a home use system. Even if you could, you almost certainly will never have any sort of perceptible difference in performance from using the latest and greatest DDR4-2400. You would have been better served by saving money and getting slower clocked DDR4.
Gigabyte AORUS GA-Z270X-GAMING 5 Motherboard
~$200USD for a Full size ATX gaming motherboard for a router? This board only has one good built in NIC, and you're paying a lot of money for senseless features like LED lights, pretty heatsinks and "high-end" audio chipsets (things you never sue on a firewall/router). Supermicro has LGA 1151 offerings in the same price range. There are plenty of other pro-sumer boards not aimed at gaming that would have been far better picks for a firewall/router.
Intel Core i7 7700 4.5ghz / 8MB / Quad Core CPU
7700 is only 3.6 GHz https://ark.intel.com/products/97128/Intel-Core-i7-7700-Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-4_20-GHz
Even if you did go and get the K series @ 4.2GHz that's getting all of the media attention for overheating, you would ahve probably been better off matching the CPU to your intended use case. Even at gigabit speeds, you very likely would have never hit the limits of an i3-7350K @ 4.2 GHz (remember, this is a router [for home use]).Intel EXPI9402PT PRO 1000 PT Dual Port Gigabit Server Adapter
This is what is crazy to me, out of all the overkill in your rig one of the most important components is where you chose to skimp!? This is actually a totally fine choice for your slow connection and would have worked great at gigabit speeds. But you threw hundreds of dollars at effectively nothing then got a NIC over a decade old…
Samsung 1TB SSD 850 EVO Series HD
1TB of home router logs, really? No, you won't even get remotely close to using this. And an 850 EVO for a home router? You are only going to see tangible performance increases from using this prosumer SSD during bootup, which you should only be doing on very rare occasion anyways. Even then, the difference will be measured in single digit seconds…
Corsair Carbide 400Q V2 Black Mid-Tower ATX Case
You have a full-ATX router/firewall, and you paid more to get this… Why?
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I bought what was in stock at the time. Out of interest, what could have I changed / added to get further benefit for a firewall/router?
Yawarra APU2C4 & 30 GB mSATA & Compex WLE200NX plus antennas for ~AUD$790.00 + shipping
pfSense appliances in australiaNote that I've ordered a 4 port NIC card.
Ok, this might be then not the best option to go with the APU2C4, but at ByteFoundry you should be able to get a
1U appliance that allows you to add a PCIe NIC. But I would be asking at first which PCIe slot that appliance is offering. -
Larrikin, welcome to the community!
I built an overkill system in late 2013 for my use case, as my first entry into the pfSense world. 2U Rosewill case, Intel Xeon Haswell @ 3.1GHz, 16GB ECC RAM, Seasoninc 80+ Gold 360 Watt PSU, Supermicro motherboard with 4 on-board Intel NICs… All for about $700. I got so carried away with "future-proofing" my setup that I didn't really care about the silliness of a system idling at 50 Watts vs. building something that idles at 7-15 Watts. Now with all my lessons learned, the server appliance I built (and am currently still using) would be better suited for actual server purposes -- I'm thinking about Nextcloud -- and not my SOHO use case. In other words: this server is just chewing up electricity and money, and even at "load" it's still throttled down to like 800 MHz. I can't tax this system even if I tried!
One of my biggest lessons learned was to spec the system's PSU as close to the actual power consumption as possible. So even though the Seasonic 360 Watt PSU I got is super eficient, the system uses like 50 Watts or so, so it's nowhere near efficient, and I end up wasting electricity. I'm looking into DC power supplies for my next build like the picoPSU 80 Watt or some other DC 5 volt power supply that goes straight into a Supermicro motherboard.
I'm jonesin'g to build my 2nd pfSense rig, and since I'm nowhere near "needing" a high-speed ISP connection (I was perfectly happy with my 5/1 Mbps cable connection for years... streams 1080p fine) that my next rig is going for quiet and low power. I'm looking at the newer 6-port appliances that Netgate is planning on releasing in the coming months, or I may just build my own mini-ITX system.
The components you chose for your system are fantastic for a gaming rig. Gaming motherboard, Kaby Lake i7 CPU, crazy power supply, ATX case, fantastic Samsung 850 EVO SSD. Just need to add a good GPU, and assuming you have good monitors, speakers, headphones, keyboard, mouse, you're all set for a fantastic gaming system or prosumer workstation.
Sure, if you use it for pfSense, even 5 years from now you won't come close to using the capacity of the components you chose.
It's a different ball game. Soon you may wish you went with a 1U or 2U rackmount server case or maybe a mini-ITX form factor and something you could easily rackmount in your home "data center." A bunch of gaming ATX boxes just take up space, honestly.
"Form follows function."
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" Convert that into AUD, and then our import duties plus tax, it comes up just short of AUD $2k"
How is that?? It's $750 USD which is ok about 1K AUD.. Your saying to ship it and pay tax it would be another 1k AUD?? I really find that hard to believe.. Whats the GST 10% lets call shipping 75 AUD.. your at more like 1.2K AUD not anywhere close to 2k..
Seems you are just as bad at math as you are at picking out hardware for a firewall ;) Sorry just couldn't help myself.. Too easy! ;)
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" Convert that into AUD, and then our import duties plus tax, it comes up just short of AUD $2k"
How is that?? It's $750 USD which is ok about 1K AUD.. Your saying to ship it and pay tax it would be another 1k AUD?? I really find that hard to believe.. Whats the GST 10% lets call shipping 75 AUD.. your at more like 1.2K AUD not anywhere close to 2k..
Seems you are just as bad at math as you are at picking out hardware for a firewall ;) Sorry just couldn't help myself.. Too easy! ;)
It is US$848 with the SSD
Shipping is US $52.65
Total: US$900.65
Equals: AUD$1220 + bank fees which is therefore AUD$1230Now add import duties plus GST
AUD$250.00 (see http://dutycalculator.com/new-import-duty-and-tax-calculation)
Landed Cost: AUD$1480
So for a few dollars more, I get a much higher spec'd hardware.
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How about a 'picture' of this pfBeastSense ::)
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1500 is not 2100.. That is for sure… so my point of bad math stands ;)
"So for a few dollars more" 40% more of 1500 is not a few dollars more - hehehe.. For a few dollars more I can get the Mulsanne vs the Flying Spur as well...
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1500 is not 2100.. That is for sure… so my point of bad math stands ;)
"So for a few dollars more" 40% more of 1500 is not a few dollars more - hehehe.. For a few dollars more I can get the Mulsanne vs the Flying Spur as well...
What does the title of this thread say? :)
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What does the title of this thread say? :)
It's a bit of an understatement. I think what people are trying to tell you is that there is no scenario where your hardware choices for a pfSense appliance make sense to any of us. Of course you can build a system that outclasses the SG-4860 (or nearly any device you can buy off the shelf) as far as raw performance is concerned. You could have done that for probably 1/4 of what you spent.
If you want to actually put your hardware to some good use (rather than it sitting more than 90% idle nearly 100% of the time) consider running a hypervisor on it. You could have pfSense + an entire home lab's worth of other VMs running with no performance penalty to pfSense.
