Mhz vs core

mattias197711

Heya.

did a search but didnt get that much wiser.
atm i c2d e8400 on a asus mainboard 4gb ddr2 120Gb sata boot
intel pci card for LAN and nvidia onboard (nfe) for WAN

i'm going to build a new machine going for smaller case itx style
but what does pfSense prefer MHz or more cores ? and i do guess that there isnt much diff from AMD vs Intel

i3 or i5
x4, x6, x8 amd cant modellnumber on amd.
i'm going to try to get a mainboard with 2 onboard nics if intel/3com if not i'll get a addon card.
2x8Gb ddr3 if cheap more RAM. 60Gb ssd

atm i only have 100Mbit fiber but will be able to get 250 or 1Gbit soon so want a box that runs smoothly
any suggestions on mainboard that fitt the bil and if you have good luck with some brands ram/ssd and so on

thx

\Mattias

Ecnerwal

For comparing cpus, www.cpubenchmark.net - there is far more under the hood than cores and clock speed. You might think it would be that simple, but it's not. I'm down in clock speed, have 4 times the cores, and run about 400 times faster than one of my old systems…

ITX limits your options quite a bit from what I gather, and it's not a route I went. Plenty do.

Personally, I'm in the "realtek ethernet is worse than useless" camp from experience, so I now try to stick with intel adapters, even if not paying the premium for intel "server" adapters. Fool me once...

My configuration is intended to be "overkill" and for the long haul - people with other priorities (low power, fanless, SSD, etc.) choose much differently. Too many years of ancient P4 systems being shunted to the router-box job, so I finally snapped and got a good new box - if it loafs, I'm fine with that.

tirsojrp

pFsense is not optimized for multiple cores.

Also, Mhz does not equal performance. A 3ghz Dual Core pentium is not as fast as a 3Ghz C2D.

This list can help you to choose.
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

Ex: Pentium G860's cores are faster that the cores of the AMD FX-8350, but in a multi-threaded focused benchmark the AMD FX will crush the G860.

mattias197711

thanks for some input.
ofc its not simple to say mhz vs mhz. its hard to know what to get
user input is allways good tried and tested :p

i'll have a look at the webpage when you build a new computer you allways want the best you can get for your money

stephenw10

@mattias197711:

what does pfSense prefer MHz or more cores ?

MHz.
As already said, one of the most important processes in pfSense, pf, is single thread only. Hence, in outright moving packets performance, single thread ability is all important. However if you are also running, say, snort or squid then more cores will be used.

Steve

mattias197711

once more thx for the help there.

the cpu i use now was low down on that list.
so think for me i3 or i5 seems the best way for me.
time to find a good mainboard then i'll start with my Intel G840 that i have in my windows,
when i get my 3770k.

hm just saw that my win mainboard has Intel(R) 82579V asus p8z68-v gen3.

well well.

thanks for help and some input.

/Mattias