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

    State of MBT-2220/MBT-4220?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Official Netgate® Hardware
    12 Posts 5 Posters 1.7k 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.
    • G
      goodthings
      last edited by goodthings

      I'm looking for a reasonably affordable replacement for a defective SG-2220.
      The official Netgate Minnowboard series looked perfect but my local distributor doesn't and won't carry it. Ordering from USA would add tax and custom fees.
      I read that they weren't launched due to a HDMI issue that was fixed in 2.4.4, does this mean they are a supported appliance now? Will they ever be?
      I want to support Netgate but there seems to be a big hole for x86 devices below the SG-5100.
      My old SG-2220 seemed perfect for my basic tasks plus openvpn + squid + suricata + pfBlocker/DNSBL.
      I know that the SG-3100 exists and should be sufficient at this moment in time but I'm not sure about the next 4-5 years.

      jimpJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • jimpJ
        jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate @goodthings
        last edited by

        @goodthings said in State of MBT-2220/MBT-4220?:

        I read that they weren't launched due to a HDMI issue that was fixed in 2.4.4, does this mean they are a supported appliance now?

        Yes, now that we have addressed the HDMI issue sufficiently, they are fully supported as pfSense appliances. They do not ship with pfSense installed, but they do come with a credit-card shaped USB drive with the CE installer pre-loaded on it.

        @goodthings said in State of MBT-2220/MBT-4220?:

        I want to support Netgate but there seems to be a big hole for x86 devices below the SG-5100.

        We have another device coming that will be closer to the SG-1000/2220 in terms of power. We'll have some details on that soon, but nothing is public yet.

        @goodthings said in State of MBT-2220/MBT-4220?:

        I know that the SG-3100 exists and should be sufficient at this moment in time but I'm not sure about the next 4-5 years

        If the 2220 was fine the 3100 should be more than enough.

        Remember: Upvote with the 👍 button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

        Need help fast? Netgate Global Support!

        Do not Chat/PM for help!

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • G
          goodthings
          last edited by

          Interesting.
          Do you happen to know if any European distributor sells the MBT-4220 or are these generally only sold directly by Netgate?

          jimpJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • jimpJ
            jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate @goodthings
            last edited by

            @goodthings said in State of MBT-2220/MBT-4220?:

            Interesting.
            Do you happen to know if any European distributor sells the MBT-4220 or are these generally only sold directly by Netgate?

            Not off the top of my head, but if you ask sales@netgate.com they would be able to tell you for sure.

            Remember: Upvote with the 👍 button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

            Need help fast? Netgate Global Support!

            Do not Chat/PM for help!

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • B
              bcruze
              last edited by

              i replaced a sg2220 with a mbt-4220 and the switch over took all of maybe 15 minutes

              you will be very happy with your purchase. i am

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • B
                bplein
                last edited by bplein

                I bought an MBT-4220 a couple of weeks ago, and am about to replace my DIY atom-based pfSense router with it today.

                I did have some stability problems but I think it may have been due to imported settings from my other system that weren't compatible. If I do a base install of pfSense and just use it like that (I put my work laptop behind it for a business day), it's stable. But just today while writing up this response, after importing my settings from another system, it locked up on me again.

                Is there a "best practice" list of settings such as thermal/crypto settings, powerd, any tunables, etc. for this specific board? It appears that the following work fine (but I haven't A/B tested anything yet):

                • AES-NI CPU-based Acceleration
                • Intel Core CPU on-die thermal sensor
                • Enable PowerD, Hiadaptive
                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • B
                  bcruze
                  last edited by

                  i have aes enabled.

                  temp die enabled. with the fan unplugged. it stays around 56c

                  mine is on adaptive and stays around 6-700Mghz and runs 2 openvpn tunnels with no issues

                  B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • B
                    bplein @bcruze
                    last edited by

                    @bcruze I was seeing higher temps with the fan unplugged, so I sourced a 35x35x20mm heat sink, search for LPD35-20B by Alpha Co. It works great.

                    In fact I got a lot of 10 on eBay cheaper than I could find one shipped anywhere else. Seller wanted $12 plus $6 shipping, I used the “make offer” function and offered $11 total shipped and he accepted.

                    B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • B
                      bcruze @bplein
                      last edited by

                      @bplein

                      if at anything above adaptive mine did go up about 10 degrees

                      B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • B
                        bplein @bcruze
                        last edited by

                        @bcruze Yes, I had mine on Highadaptive. I tested with the fan unplugged (stock heatsink) by loading up the processor, one core at a time, and wasn't comfortable with it going up into the 70C+ range. With this 20mm tall elliptical fin heat sink (with the case sitting on its side with rubber feet attached) the temps are quite sane.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • B
                          bplein
                          last edited by bplein

                          Looks like they dropped the price on the MBT-4220 by $100 (list) and $50 under the prior "sale" price. https://store.netgate.com/MBT-4220-system.aspx

                          So it looks like I overpaid by $50 for it. ☹ Maybe they can send me a consolation prize.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • S
                            smnolde
                            last edited by

                            I've recently purchased and configured from scratch my first pfSense box using the MBT-4220. It's been running well for about a week now and I'll have a few weeks further to evaluate it and tweak it. This MBT-4220 is a great replacement for a quite old FreeBSD system I've not upgraded in years.

                            For home use this is more than adequate and meets my needs:

                            • DHCP pools and static mapping
                            • OpenSSH user shell
                            • OpenVPN connection for family mobile devices
                            • traffic mapping using ntopng
                              *Queing
                              *Squid/squidguard

                            Many of these things I configured by hand in the past but now have everything in a nice little box. Wifi access is provided by a separate wifi router.

                            I've read about replacing the fan with a heat sink so I'm investigating that as a possible upgrade.

                            For home the cpu runs 4-10% depending on activity and ntopng. Load averages are about 0.24 with a video stream running. Temperature with the fan is about 38-40°C.

                            Configuring OpenVPN for my family's phones and PCs is pretty simple. It's been good to add squidguard on the OpenVPN interfaces so I can filter out the trackers and ads (and other unwanted content).

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