Netgate Discussion Forum
    • Categories
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Search
    • Register
    • Login

    Repurposing old i3 for Gigabit speeds?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Hardware
    5 Posts 3 Posters 1.1k Views
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • F
      floppysense
      last edited by

      I have an old system running an i3-530 (first gen) processor. It's dual core and runs at 2.93 GHz. Despite the age, will this be enough to run pfsense on a Gigabit connection? I'm giving the box an Intel dual NIC and at least 4 GB DDR3 RAM.

      SammyWooS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • stephenw10S
        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
        last edited by

        Yes. ☺

        You may hit a limit if you install some of the hungrier packages but I would expect that to pass 1Gbps without a problem. (normal packet size caveats apply!)

        Steve

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • F
          floppysense
          last edited by floppysense

          Many thanks, @stephenw10. I'm thinking possibly snort, as well as maybe OpenVPN and a few other smaller ones. Think I should be okay, or should I leave some out?

          Edit: I will be running an SSD.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • stephenw10S
            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
            last edited by

            Try it and see if you already have that hardware. You will probably be able to do more than you expect.

            Steve

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • SammyWooS
              SammyWoo @floppysense
              last edited by

              @floppysense said in Repurposing old i3 for Gigabit speeds?:

              i3-530

              This i3-530 has no hardware AES-NI, will break starting with pfsense 2.5.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • First post
                Last post
              Copyright 2025 Rubicon Communications LLC (Netgate). All rights reserved.