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    PC engines board for build

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Hardware
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    • GilG
      Gil Rebel Alliance
      last edited by

      Just check the bios version, there are a few threads on this forum about it.
      Version 4.0.7 is suggested and I have found it to be reliable.
      Newer bios versions may be experimental.  ;)

      11 cheers for binary

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      • R
        Rainmaker
        last edited by

        I ran an APU2C4 for nearly 2 years. My ISP/WAN connection is 380/20, and pfSense ran perfectly without any issues. There is some tuning you can do (search for the APU thread), but it's a very solid option. You'll have no issues on the APU up until over around 500Mbps (WAN > LAN). After that you'd be better installing IPFire or some other Linux distro. On a gigabit connection, an APU2C4 running pfSense will cap out around 540Mbps but a Linux based distro will do gigabit wirespeed. Below 500Mbps they're equal and pfSense has many more features, so I'd recommend it entirely.

        WAN: 380/22 cable
        Box: pfSense 2.4.3-RELEASE
        Kaby Lake Pentium G4560 2c4t @ 3.5Ghz
        Asrock mITX motherboard & pico PSU
        4GB DDR4 RAM
        60GB mSATA
        2x Intel NIC (i210, 219v 1Gbps)

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        • gtjG
          gtj
          last edited by

          Hello,

          I got an APU2C4 a few months now and although I'm satisfied, it limits my WAN speed to around 50Mbps. My provider tops at around 90 when not using PIA.

          I have a Voyo V1 with an Intel N4200, GBitE and USB 3.0 interfaces.
          Provided that I'm going to add a Trendnet USB 3.0 gigabit interface as a 2nd NIC, am I going to benefit using that build over my APU2C4? The N4200 seems to be higher clocked and also supports AES-NI as well.

          If not,, what hardware would you suggest in order for me to be able to utilise my IP's full speed?

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          • stephenw10S
            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
            last edited by

            That's 50Mbps over OpenVPN I assume?  Because otherwise anything could do more than that.

            Steve

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            • gtjG
              gtj
              last edited by

              @stephenw10:

              That's 50Mbps over OpenVPN I assume?  Because otherwise anything could do more than that.

              Steve

              Yes Steve. I should have been more clear.
              50mbps over OpenVPN. With PIA turned off, of course, it doesn't have any problem to get me the full speed of my provider.

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              • stephenw10S
                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                last edited by

                50Mbps Ovpn is still pretty slow. I would think you could get more than that from the APU2 with some tuning.

                Steve

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                • gtjG
                  gtj
                  last edited by

                  @stephenw10:

                  50Mbps Ovpn is still pretty slow. I would think you could get more than that from the APU2 with some tuning.

                  Steve

                  Hi Steve,

                  Do you have any suggestion/tweaks I should try?

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                  • stephenw10S
                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                    last edited by

                    At a minimum enable FastIO and increase the send/receive buffers to 512K. Those are both gui options now in 2.4.X.

                    Steve

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                    • gtjG
                      gtj
                      last edited by

                      @stephenw10:

                      At a minimum enable FastIO and increase the send/receive buffers to 512K. Those are both gui options now in 2.4.X.

                      Steve

                      Will try as soon as I reach home and will report back.

                      Thanks Steve!

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                      • GilG
                        Gil Rebel Alliance
                        last edited by

                        iperf testing the OpenVPN I got around 85Mbps without any additional tuning.

                        11 cheers for binary

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                        • gtjG
                          gtj
                          last edited by

                          @stephenw10:

                          At a minimum enable FastIO and increase the send/receive buffers to 512K. Those are both gui options now in 2.4.X.

                          Steve

                          Well, I changed the settings you suggested and now it hits the full potential of my IP!
                          Thank you so much Steve!  8)

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                          • stephenw10S
                            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                            last edited by

                            Yes I would have expected more without any tuning but it is very dependent on link latency among all the other variables that affect measured speed.

                            Anyway glad you're seeing more now. ;)

                            Steve

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                            • gtjG
                              gtj
                              last edited by

                              @stephenw10:

                              Yes I would have expected more without any tuning but it is very dependent on link latency among all the other variables that affect measured speed.

                              Anyway glad you're seeing more now. ;)

                              Steve

                              The thing is that it works brilliant now and I can take advatage of my full IP's speed. Ping times seem also to be lower.They went down to 17ms from 21.

                              This came at about the right timing when I had started to feel disappointed with my PC Engines board.

                              Thanks again :)

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                              • S
                                Stugots
                                last edited by

                                Another reason to avoid the APU3's is that the they all use the i211 Intel NIC's and the APU2C4 uses the i210 which has some advantages over the i211.  Can't remember the exact difference, sorry.

                                I'm using an APU2C4 with a 100/10MBit connection without any problems at all.  I'm using IPSEC for VPN.

                                PC Engines APU2C4

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                                • V
                                  VAMike
                                  last edited by

                                  @acascianelli:

                                  Another reason to avoid the APU3's is that the they all use the i211 Intel NIC's and the APU2C4 uses the i210 which has some advantages over the i211.  Can't remember the exact difference, sorry.

                                  i210 supports wake on lan and baseboard management. I think one NIC on the APU2 may support WoL, baseboard management isn't implemented. So yes, if you need WoL, the APU2 may be a better choice (if it's working), otherwise they're the same.

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