Atom mobo considerations
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I'm looking for some hardware advice on an atom platform build that I'm planning to do. My requirements are
- must be able to route 150Mbps from WAN
- must be able to route 30Mbps OpenVPN
- needs at least 3 gigabit capable NICs, or just one and a pci-e x4 slot (since I have a Intel dual gbit nic left)
An optionally, it would be nice if there was a possibility to act as 802.11n access point.
I got my eyes on a AT3IONT-I DELUXE by ASUS (http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=iHWm73RqE6MCmCtw), but I'm not entirely sure it's a good choice. I'm not sure the wireless n is going to work with FreeBSD, but I cannot seem to find the chipset so I can't check. Any help with that would be appreciated. Also, this board seems somewhat focused on multimedia - though I'm not interested in paying for any graphical power. Are there better alternatives for me out there?
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I'm not sure the wireless n is going to work with FreeBSD
It almost certainly isn't. Unless someone has added support very recently.
There are some 802.11n cards supported by FreeBSD but not in N mode.Routing 150Mb/s shouldn't give you a problem but 30Mb/s VPN might. Check the forum though there are plenty of reports from Atom users.
Steve
Edit: It looks like it's a Atheros wifi card so that's good but it's Realtek LAN (RTL8112L) that's bad. In fact I'm not sure it's supported at all.
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Ok, I went for this AT3IONT-I DELUXE board. Maybe someday the 802.11n will be supported by FreeBSD, and in the meantime my D-Link will have to do. I'll post back with my findings.
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The board works pretty well for me. I've used an intel pro NIC instead of the onboard realtek. The wifi module is atheros and indeed recognized and works in 802.11g on fbsd 8.1. Maxing my 100mbit works easily with ntop and traffic shaping enabled.
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zzattack,
Can you tell me all the info. you have on the Atheros WiFi card? I'm looking for a mini-PCIe solution for my own little Atom motherboard.
Thanks
;)
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zzattack, could you measure the electricity your setup uses? I'm looking for a low energy consuming board for my pfSense installation.
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@Koen:
zzattack, could you measure the electricity your setup uses? I'm looking for a low energy consuming board for my pfSense installation.
The ION chipset is a bit of a guzzler due to the graphics core. You'll want to look at the D510/ 525 setups for lower power consumption (the IGP is much more power efficient than the 945GC used in the 330 series) and higher performance.
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The best, for low consumption, are the Nxxx Atoms (N550, N450). This is because they support Speedstep and the desktop versions don't. At low cpu loads they can, therefore, consume a lot less power.
Steve
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The best, for low consumption, are the Nxxx Atoms (N550, N450). This is because they support Speedstep and the desktop versions don't. At low cpu loads they can, therefore, consume a lot less power.
Those are the embedded Atoms, right? Can you recommend any boards with those Atoms and Intel NIC's?
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I can't really recommend one since I'm not using any.
There are quite a few available though perhaps not many with Intel NICs.
The Jetway JNC9C-550-LF for instance has Realtek Gigabit nics. Realteks gigabit nics are supposed to be not too awful though. ::)Steve
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Some of the Jetway boards have capability of accepting a daughterboard with 1 or 3 Realtek Gb NICs or 3 Intel Gb NICs.
