New hardware

Hmmm... Somehow I got the idea it was twice the price, but on checking further it appears to be roughly the same. Which would have better performance? The Qotom is an i5 CPU and has Intel NICs, but the Netgate has an ARM CPU and Marvel NICs. Both have 4 GB.

noplan

@jknott

depends on your use case, and on how long u wanna use the "box"
if u are a home/lab user and planning to use the box till it dies go with the netgate box considering the future possibility to go all in with the pfS+ version they are talkin about

and hey its a netgate box vs a china box ;)

dont get me wrong i really dont have a clue what hardware i m gonna buy in the next 6 months

A Former User

@noplan said in New hardware:

and hey its a netgate box vs a china box

Exactly where do you think the Netgate device is manufactured?

JKnott

@jwj

As was the Unifi AP I recently bought. Does the Netgate have those AES-NI instructions?

bingo600

@jknott said in New hardware:

@jwj

Does the Netgate have those AES-NI instructions?

AES-NI is an Intel extension

A Former User

@jknott No. It doesn't. The i5 will crush the ARM device for single thread performance and OpenVPN throughput. Question is, do you need that performance? Netgate box will be more energy efficient.

For what it's worth, I've always seen the 5100 as entry level. Then I cried inside at the price... The LAN<->LAN filtering rates is what I pay attention to. I would want line speed.

JKnott

@bingo600 said in New hardware:

AES-NI is an Intel extension

It's on other CPUs too.

bingo600

@jknott said in New hardware:

@bingo600 said in New hardware:

AES-NI is an Intel extension

It's on other CPUs too.

Please mention just one ARM CPU that has it (AES-NI)

JKnott

@jwj said in New hardware:

No. It doesn't. The i5 will crush the ARM device for single thread performance and OpenVPN throughput. Question is, do you need that performance? Netgate box will be more energy efficient.

The Netgate takes a 12V 2A power supply, which means it runs less than 24W. The Qotom takes 15W, so there's not much difference. As for the AES-NI instructions, it wasn't that long ago that plans were dropped to require them. I don't have much of a need for those, as I only occasionally use the VPN, but I wouldn't want to lose the ability to update the software for the lack of them.

JKnott

@bingo600 said in New hardware:

Please mention just one ARM CPU that has it (AES-NI)

According to that article I linked to, several do.

A Former User

@jknott For sure not an obvious choice. You're going to have to have a think about it.

Also some of the discusion around pfSense+ leads me to believe the REST API is on the roadmap. Will that bring back the AES requirement or will they work around that with the other instructioin sets available on the ARM devices. I have no idea...

What do you see as the lifespan of this device?

noplan

@jwj
couldn't agree more here with @jwj

bingo600

@jknott said in New hardware:

@bingo600 said in New hardware:

Please mention just one ARM CPU that has it (AES-NI)

According to that article I linked to, several do.

Where does it say that an ARM CPU has AES-NI ??

I see this , where it specifically mentions that AES-NI is Intel/AMD only

Other architectures have Crypto instructions too , but not AES-NI

/Bingo