New setup, will PCIe bandwidth be a problem?
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Hello forum, my first post here ;D
So after a lot of reading and youtube watching over the last week I finally found a setup I will go with and ordered the following parts:
ASRock J3355B-ITX http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/J3355B-ITX/index.us.asp
G.Skill Standard SO DDR3L-1600 DC - 8GB https://www.proshop.dk/RAM/GSkill-Standard-SO-DDR3L-1600-DC-8GB/2496568
WD Green SSD 2.5" - 120GB https://www.scan.co.uk/products/120gb-wd-green-ssd-25-ssd-sata-iii-6gb-s-7mm-read-540mb-s-write-430mb-s-63k-37k-iops-40-tbw-retail
Cubid 2757 60W Industrial Mini-ITX Chassis with PCI and riser cable http://www.mini-itx.com/store/~CUBID-2757and finally I scored a used original IBM Intel I340-T4 for 1/5th of the price, that had been sitting in a "dust free" server rack.
Now my two questions.
- I was originally going to get a IBM Intel Quad PRO/1000 PT PCI-E which uses PCIe 1.0a x4 = 1GB/s
but the IBM Intel I340-T4 uses PCIe 2.0 x4 = 2GB/s
I though my PCIe was 2.0 x16, but now I read in the manual that its actually acting as an PCIe 2.0 x2 = 1GB/s
Will this be any problem? I'm not intending to run this setup maxed out 24/7, its only for home use with 2-3 computers and down the line a FreeNAS on a 100mbit isp, but still in worst case, will this be a limiting factor?
- The onboard LAN is a Realtek RTL8111GR, I have read a lot of negative things about Realtek and pfsense, but also that with the latest builds it isnt a factor anymore, so I'm confused.. Is this still an issue?
If it is and if my first question is not an issue, should I just run all connections from the I340-T4?
Thank you :o
- I was originally going to get a IBM Intel Quad PRO/1000 PT PCI-E which uses PCIe 1.0a x4 = 1GB/s
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No issues at all, you can max out 4 Gigabit ports 24/7 with PCIe v2.0 @ 1x speed.
PCIe v2.0 x1 speed = full duplex 500MBps after overhead.
500 Megabytes = 4 Gigabits
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No issues at all, you can max out 4 Gigabit ports 24/7 with PCIe v2.0 @ 1x speed.
PCIe v2.0 x1 speed = full duplex 500MBps after overhead.
500 Megabytes = 4 Gigabits
Very good, I'm relieved, was about to cry when I discovered that it was only x2 ::)
Regarding my second question, I found this post https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=128098.0 and so it seems that Intel is the way to go and I'm very happy that I got the I340-T4.
But still should I then completely disregard the onboard Realtek LAN port and only use the I340-T4? -
Yeah, IMO i340-t4 is one of the best NIC's you can use as far as price/performance goes (it uses ~40% of the power the PRO/1000 Quad port does and offers more features).
I would totally ignore the onboard NIC.
Great build btw, I think you'll really like it.
I highly recommend the J3355B for most home use-cases! Also an excellent price/performance piece of hardware!
Please post what kind of performance (throughput, what packages, CPU usage, etc.) you get on your build! I posted a thread on VPN with a build effectively identical to yours and it was very impressive!
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Yeah, IMO i340-t4 is one of the best NIC's you can use as far as price/performance goes (it uses ~40% of the power the PRO/1000 Quad port does and offers more features).
I would totally ignore the onboard NIC.
Great build btw, I think you'll really like it.
I highly recommend the J3355B for most home use-cases! Also an excellent price/performance piece of hardware!
Please post what kind of performance (throughput, what packages, CPU usage, etc.) you get on your build! I posted a thread on VPN with a build effectively identical to yours and it was very impressive!
Will do!
Ja I read that post, it was what made me decide for this setup, so thank you :)
I just realized that a PCIe x1 port was enough for the i340-t4, I originally wanted the ASRock J3455-ITX http://asrock.com/mb/Intel/J3455-ITX/ even though its twice the cost, but decided against it because of the PCIe x1.
Should I return the J3355B for the J3455 instead? -
I wouldn't, a J3355B will do everything you need and more on a 100Mbps WAN.
The only reason I would consider a J3455 is if you want to use a lot of heavy packages intensively (i.e., suricata, pfBlockerNG, DNSBL with a lot of rules and a lot of VPN traffic).
If you aren't going to combine all of those things together then the J3355B will exceed all of your needs.In my test with suricata doing a decent amount of work, pfBlockerNG & DNSBL with a lot of lists running, and routing all traffic through a VPN I was only able to get ~60Mbps on a J3355, but that's a lot of stuff going on at once and most people don't need anything near that.
That said, if you decide on a J3455 there's another consideration.
The mini-ITX J3455 is a physical 1x slot, meaning that for your NIC to fit you have to either cut off the pins after x1 on the NIC (i340-t4 has a line printed on the PCB where this cut would need to be), or you have to cut out the back "wall" on the motherboard slot.
either of these options are technically completely valid and within the PCIe spec (PCI slots didn't used to even have a back wall) But they obviously carry risks as you can do it wrong and ruin the motherboard or NIC. FWIW, I've done it on an old video card and it took about 5 minutes.Your other option is to get the larger micro-ATX board
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157729Again, I would recommend you stick with the J3355B you already have.
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Ja, sorry :-[, I now feel bad seeing your long replies and me forgetting to tell that I plan on running through and around a VPN, probably DNS cashing and I'm highly considering pfBlockerNG & DNSBL, but not so much snort or suricata (only to play around).
I luckily wont have to cut into the new mb or cut away pins, as I will be using a riser cable with the case I'm buying, so thats a cheap fix and I wont ruin the warrenty.
A larger board though appealing wont be an option as I've settled for the case I found, it was a looong tough search for just the right case and I'm not going trough that again. phew ::)
Thank you for all your replies btw, it really is valued.
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No worries! I'm glad it was helpful.
From what you described the J3355B should be fine.
If your riser fits the case you got then crisis averted on the J3455B if you choose that!
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No worries! I'm glad it was helpful.
From what you described the J3355B should be fine.
If your riser fits the case you got then crisis averted on the J3455B if you choose that!
It should, the riser cable is bought with the case as a must for PCIe cards to fit the case :)
I just cancelled my order for the J3355B and put in a new order for the J3455B on another site, which in total only set me back 26$ so all is good and now I can just sit back and wait for parts.
Thank you again for all your help pfBasic!
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Absolutely! Please let us know how it ends up working for you!
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Yeah, IMO i340-t4 is one of the best NIC's you can use as far as price/performance goes (it uses ~40% of the power the PRO/1000 Quad port does and offers more features).
I would totally ignore the onboard NIC.
Great build btw, I think you'll really like it.
I highly recommend the J3355B for most home use-cases! Also an excellent price/performance piece of hardware!
Please post what kind of performance (throughput, what packages, CPU usage, etc.) you get on your build! I posted a thread on VPN with a build effectively identical to yours and it was very impressive!
Just need to be careful about some of those rebranded devices. Some of the rebranched i350 NICs have MSI-X disabled in the firmware. This is an important feature to reduce interrupts under high load.
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Yeah I remember reading somewhere a list of which rebrands shut off features to i340 & i350, do you remember which? Or is there a way to check?