Firebox Harware Question

[mike56]

Is there any advantage to the Firebox Peak versions such as the the X5500E over say the X750E for running pfSense?  Is it worth paying more for a Peak?

Thanks,
Mike

[stephenw10]

No.  ;)

The peak has a faster CPU, 2GHz Pentium-M vs 1.3GHz Celeron-M. It has 1GB vs 512MB and it has a VPN encryption card that isn't supported by FreeBSD.

The CPU is not correctly supported by the est(4) driver so you can't use powerd to take advantage of Speedstep.
You are better off buying a core version and upgrading the CPU and ram yourself. Any of the 400MHz FSB Pentium-Ms are supported by est(4) and it gives a useful power and heat reduction whilst being more powerful than the celeron. They can be picked up on Ebay very cheaply.

Steve

[mike56]

Thanks Steve,

I did all the upgrades on my existing X750e, 2 GB of Memory and $4.00 CPU and it works great, I was looking for another Firebox and you confirmed my suspicions.

Mike