New Build
-
Well, just ordered A2SDi-4C-HLN4F. Though I think it might take a week or two to get here (cost €360 including shipping).
Congrats. Do let us know about your build and how it turns out for you.
I am most likely going the desktop grade route. J3355B is the top choice in new – but I am also looking at ebay for used mobos/cpus where if I can get an i3/i5 with a low tdp around 15W in the same price range as the new J3355 -- it might give me a bit more grunt for my VPNs since they use AES-256-CBC. I am not sure if i3/i5 would be fanless though. Might have to check.
I am probably going to get a 1U case from these fellas -- http://www.plinkusa.net/1u.htm
Brand new they cost from $45 - $150. Even used supermicro chassis sell for more than that on ebay. For my use case, the base one would do as well, they have 3-4 choices from $45 to $60. The good thing about them is that they also provide 39mm I/O plates for the different mobos which you can use instead of the 50mm I/O plates that normally come with boards.
If your board is some random layout for which they don't have an I/O plate, you can always buy the basic plate and cut it up according to your mobo.
-
The i3's and i5's can be fanless but you'll get the mobile low power ones. Not bad for pfSense, so it's not like you need the raw core power at max performance.
Regarding ECC: don't get it unless you have both the money and use weird non-checksummed protocols. -
No i5/i7/xeon is going to come as close to 6W. The least I have seen is about 35W for those processors at which point I also need to worry about enough cooling in a 1U chassis - which means cooling fans, worrying about fitting all of that in 1U and if not, then spring for a 2U chassis etc. etc.
My QOTOM-Q355G4 (Core i5 box) has a TDP of 15W , but most of the time uses less.
It's not 1U , but a little neat passively cooled box.https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=132528.msg728629#msg728629
https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/QOTOM-Q355G4-4-Gigabit-LAN-I5-5250U-Dual-core-LAN-Pfsense-Linux-ubuntu-mini-pc/108231_32798680692.html
What i mean to say is that there exists Core i5's with a reasonable TDP , that might fit in a MoBo.
/Bingo
@johnkeates:
The i3's and i5's can be fanless but you'll get the mobile low power ones. Not bad for pfSense, so it's not like you need the raw core power at max performance.
Regarding ECC: don't get it unless you have both the money and use weird non-checksummed protocols.Where do I find the mobile low power ones? I have been trying to search for core i3/i5 U designated processors, but newegg, amazon and ebay all just show me $300-$500 laptops. I don't want that. All I want is to buy a core ix-xxxxU processor. I found a few T designated processors, but then the TDP is 35W and above which means it won't be fanless.
-
No i5/i7/xeon is going to come as close to 6W. The least I have seen is about 35W for those processors at which point I also need to worry about enough cooling in a 1U chassis - which means cooling fans, worrying about fitting all of that in 1U and if not, then spring for a 2U chassis etc. etc.
My QOTOM-Q355G4 (Core i5 box) has a TDP of 15W , but most of the time uses less.
It's not 1U , but a little neat passively cooled box.https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=132528.msg728629#msg728629
https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/QOTOM-Q355G4-4-Gigabit-LAN-I5-5250U-Dual-core-LAN-Pfsense-Linux-ubuntu-mini-pc/108231_32798680692.html
What i mean to say is that there exists Core i5's with a reasonable TDP , that might fit in a MoBo.
/Bingo
@johnkeates:
The i3's and i5's can be fanless but you'll get the mobile low power ones. Not bad for pfSense, so it's not like you need the raw core power at max performance.
Regarding ECC: don't get it unless you have both the money and use weird non-checksummed protocols.Where do I find the mobile low power ones? I have been trying to search for core i3/i5 U designated processors, but newegg, amazon and ebay all just show me $300-$500 laptops. I don't want that. All I want is to buy a core ix-xxxxU processor. I found a few T designated processors, but then the TDP is 35W and above which means it won't be fanless.
You cannot buy them for end-user purposes. They are not socketed and integrated on the motherboard directly.
-
@johnkeates:
You cannot buy them for end-user purposes. They are not socketed and integrated on the motherboard directly.
Aha ! No wonder I wasn't able to find any. Well then in that case, if I am to build my own, the best i3/i5/i7 I would get would be with a TDP of 35W.
Looks like I should stick with Celeron J3355 or Pentium N3700 which are integrated as well, but at least you can get ITX boards instead of laptop boards of weird shapes and sizes which may or may not fit my case.
-
Just go with exactly what pfBasic recommends ;)
-
Just go with exactly what pfBasic recommends ;)
Oh I am going to. Was only wondering if there was an option to get a bit more grunt in the processor so that it could handle AES-256-CBC since that's what my VPN provider uses. I saw pfBasic's J3355 thread where he laid out it's performance vis-a-vis VPN and different ciphers which is why I was thinking of getting a slightly better processor, but since that would increase the TDP –leading to cooling etc. I think I am going to stick to the J3355
-
For VPN get an i5. The Qotom boxes work fine with OpenVPN.
-
@johnkeates:
For VPN get an i5. The Qotom boxes work fine with OpenVPN.
Nooooooooooo !!!!!
I thought I had finally made up my mind to get the J3355. Now I have to search all over again :(
I was going to build one in a 1U rack. and also wanted as low a TDP as possible. As I mentioned above, with i3/i5, the least TDP I can get would be 35W, which means I would have to fit in fans in the 1U making it difficult.
Looks like I should stop thinking about fitting it in 1U and just put a box in a rack shelf.
Starting from scratch… Thanks, but no thanks johnkeates. ;)
/justkidding
-
@johnkeates:
For VPN get an i5. The Qotom boxes work fine with OpenVPN.
Nooooooooooo !!!!!
I thought I had finally made up my mind to get the J3355. Now I have to search all over again :(
I was going to build one in a 1U rack. and also wanted as low a TDP as possible. As I mentioned above, with i3/i5, the least TDP I can get would be 35W, which means I would have to fit in fans in the 1U making it difficult.
Looks like I should stop thinking about fitting it in 1U and just put a box in a rack shelf.
Starting from scratch… Thanks, but no thanks johnkeates. ;)
/justkidding
I think the TDP of those mobile i5 boxes is like sub-15W :p You could take the board out and put it in a 1U rack mount case? Oh, and it's passively cooled so there's that. But in a 1U with no fins, you might want to put a little fan running at a slow speed in there.
-
What throughputs do you need for VPN? The j3355 will do quite a bit of VPN throughput. (300mbps)
I5 is a bad recommendation. I3 is better at openvpn than i5.
If you need something more powerful than a j3355 (which you probably do not), then look to a modern Pentium that is not passively cooled, not an i3 or an i5. Massive Overkill recommendations are pretty much par for the course on this forum, you have to be careful and protect your wallet.
-
What throughputs do you need for VPN? The j3355 will do quite a bit of VPN throughput. (300mbps)
I5 is a bad recommendation. I3 is better at openvpn than i5.
If you need something more powerful than a j3355 (which you probably do not), then look to a modern Pentium that is not passively cooled, not an i3 or an i5. Massive Overkill recommendations are pretty much par for the course on this forum, you have to be careful and protect your wallet.
Currently my internet speed is 50Mbps, but I am planning on bumping it up to 75Mbps or 150Mbps after my current contract ends. So I will still be within the limits of J3355, I believe.
I also have options for 300Mbps, 1000Mbps and 2000Mbps, but they are prohibitively expensive right now where I live.
-
What throughputs do you need for VPN? The j3355 will do quite a bit of VPN throughput. (300mbps)
I5 is a bad recommendation. I3 is better at openvpn than i5.
If you need something more powerful than a j3355 (which you probably do not), then look to a modern Pentium that is not passively cooled, not an i3 or an i5. Massive Overkill recommendations are pretty much par for the course on this forum, you have to be careful and protect your wallet.
Currently my internet speed is 50Mbps, but I am planning on bumping it up to 75Mbps or 150Mbps after my current contract ends. So I will still be within the limits of J3355, I believe.
I also have options for 300Mbps, 1000Mbps and 2000Mbps, but they are prohibitively expensive right now where I live.
I that case, the J3355 would be a good choice. Not only does it work very well, it also has the right performance for your connection. Regarding i3 vs. i5, for pure OpenVPN performance, single core speed is the most important at this time.
-
As I was prowling the local craigslist last evening, here's what I found
A Supermicro server for sale
-
Board: Supermicro X9SCL-F
-
Chipset: Intel C202
-
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1240 - 8M cache, 3.3GHz, 4 cores/8 threads
-
PSU: Supermicro 350W 80 PLUS Gold
-
RAM: 4x4GB ECC Unbuffered RAM
-
RAID: LSI MegaRAID 9260-4i 4 port SAS RAID controller
-
HDD: 4x500GB Seagate Constellation
All for $200 !!! A new build with J3355 ($55+$2 shipping) + picopsu ($35) + RAM ($25) + 1U case ($45+$20 shipping) + riser card ($14) + sata to pata adapter($4) (my laptop drive that I was gonna use is IDE) would have cost me exactly $200.
I know this completely ruins my low TDP requirement and is serious overkill for what I want to do, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity. I am thinking of using this as my pfsense because my crummy Netgear WNR3500L just cannot handle the VPN and keeps getting disconnected.
I will still build a low power router with a J3355 a few months down the line and then convert this as my backup or a 2nd FreeNAS box.
Now comes the fun part of exploring the new machine and tinkering with it.
-
-
That's a good find, enjoy!
In order to offset the high power usage, consider not building a standalone J3355 now that you have this box. It would just be another box to buy and feed power even if it's not much power
Use your new server as intended and virtualize as many services as you can on it! There's a subforum here dedicated to virtual pfSense setups and it works very well.
-
I'd suggest virtualising pfSense as well, but running pfSense stand-alone on it wouldn't be so bad either. You can change the profiles to down clock and lower the fan speeds dramatically. A bigger server doesn't always require a baseline of 100W, it really depends on the settings. PowerD and the likes help a lot too.
If you have more services you want to run besides pfSense, and are interested in virtualisation, it is worth it to set it up. The NICs in this server are excellent.
-
Ooh!!!
New things to learn. Will seriously look into virtualization and powerD etc. I might come back with a shit ton of questions. Be ready to answer them ;)
The one thing I am not sure about is the backplane on that server. It says SAS, but can't be 100% certain. I haven't been able to see the model number on the backplane.
-
Ooh!!!
New things to learn. Will seriously look into virtualization and powerD etc. I might come back with a shit ton of questions. Be ready to answer them ;)
The one thing I am not sure about is the backplane on that server. It says SAS, but can't be 100% certain. I haven't been able to see the model number on the backplane.
It's probably SAS with SATA fallback support, at least, that's what the cables and part numbers so far tell me. It is totally plausible that they are using a SAS controller, SAS cables and SAS connections but a SATA-only backplane chip. The disks themselves look like SATA disks.
-
The disks are definitely SATA. I pulled each one out and checked.
Will need to figure out the backplane once I get back home.
-
Found the case model number: its CSE-813M ( I have updated my previous post, to provide links where I can)
However I found 2 models with the 350W gold power supply : Not sure which one I have.
https://www.supermicro.com/products/chassis/1U/813/SC813MT-350CB
https://www.supermicro.com/products/chassis/1U/813/SC813MTQ-350CB
Secondly the backplane is the Supermicro SAS815TQ, so I am assuming that my chassis is SC813MTQ-350CB, because the other one has SAS815T backplane, although I haven't found much difference between the 2 backplanes. How would I figure out if this was a SAS1 or SAS2 backplane ?
Also for the motherboard: I found 3 different X9SCLs. I am not sure what the difference is :
[Supermicro X9SCL+-F](https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C202_C204/X9SCL_-F.cfm)