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    New build on CybertronPC Quantum XL2010

    Hardware
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    • B
      b3nitro
      last edited by

      Hi,

      I'm new to pfsense and its look amazing, I've planning to remove my old Dlink and get something stronger like pfsense with snort :)

      I dont have old hardware to spare because I'm using it for a NAS but I have a 20% rebate for that : http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3988069&Sku=C122-4950

      http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=27_1048_1052&item_id=020294

      There are some much better servers for that price (8gb ddr3, 1tb hdd but the AMD APU A4 is not in the freebsd compatible hardware list..)

      I've checked the freebsd hardware compatibility list for that one and its look ok.

      Do you have any recommendations for a begigner like me ? :)

      Thanks in advance

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      • T
        tirsojrp
        last edited by

        You can build an better (smaller/newer/quieter/less power hungry) system with that money.

        Check ebay for the nics, for that price you can get an PCIe dual nic.

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        • A
          asterix
          last edited by

          Ditto

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          • B
            b3nitro
            last edited by

            Thanks for the replies!

            Much cheaper on ebay, is an old server like this one would do the trick ? : http://www.ebay.ca/itm/IBM-System-x3650-Dual-Core-3-0GHz-4GB-8-x-73-4GB-10K-2-5-SAS-Server-/140942697923?pt=COMP_EN_Servers&hash=item20d0d6e5c3&_uhb=1#ht_1340wt_1399

            Hardware looks fine but not sure about the "Integrated ServeRAID 8 with 256MB Cache and Battery Backup Unit SAS RAID Adapter"

            Its not far from home so the shipping is low and this will give me many spare hdd's (I'll probably only use 2 in raid1) ;D

            I only need 2 ethernet port, WAN + switch, there will be 2 servers soon behind the switch in a 12U wall unit (this is why I check for rackmount server instead of building a miniItx unit)

            Still a miniItx might be better and simplier  ???

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            • T
              tirsojrp
              last edited by

              Yeah, a mini-itx board with dual nic and at least a Pentium G620T can easy beat that IBM server.

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              • stephenw10S
                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                last edited by

                What sort of throughput do you need? VPN? Squid? Snort?

                Steve

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                • B
                  b3nitro
                  last edited by

                  It's almost only for Snort and basic routing abilities

                  This will run like that : modem + pfsense snort + switch for nas, workstation, home server etc

                  If I use a miniItx I may add a wirelessG card as independant wifi for cellphones or a wireless router on another NIC

                  From where I usually buy there is no much good motherboard with dual nic, few pci, pci-e

                  What about a old and cheap desktop pc :
                  http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2043689&Sku=J001-11009
                  Or
                  http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2886024&Sku=T76-2208

                  Did not check hardware details yet but they have few extra slots for NIC cards, cheap and not power hungry

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • stephenw10S
                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                    last edited by

                    Depends how you define 'power hungry'. Both of those systems will consume a lot more than an Atom based box which may be all you need. However you haven't stated your throughput requirement. What speed is your WAN connection?

                    Steve

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                    • B
                      b3nitro
                      last edited by

                      I have ASDL 20 Mbps

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                      • stephenw10S
                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                        last edited by

                        In that case almost anything will be fine, including very low powered boxes. A D525 based box will be good for ~500Mbps of NAT/firewall. Add Snort and that comes down but still way in excess of 20Mbps.
                        The very low powered Alix boxes are not good for Snort, not enough RAM.
                        If you choose to add a wifi interface you may want to transfer large files between wifi and LAN which will be restricted only by the wifi speed. Potentially this is far higher than 20Mbps so may effect your choice of hardware.

                        Steve

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                        • B
                          b3nitro
                          last edited by

                          Thank you, I'll try to find an Atom box for that or I'll build it myself

                          Thanks to all of you !

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                          • K
                            KrPacMan
                            last edited by

                            There are alot of small integrated motherboards nowdays. Recently i bought a motherboard with an integrated Celeron 847 processor on it (Asus C8HM70I/HDMI) that supports 64 bit and more RAM than the typical Atom-processor. I'm running Windows Server on it at the moment but i bet Pfsense would work perfectly on it. With 16 GB RAM and a small SSD it would be a very fast solution that is very cost-effective. It draws a little more power (17W TDP), but in most cases it is so little that it won't affect anything.

                            What i'm trying to say is that Atom processors are pretty nice, but there are better alternatives lurking around.

                            Panda GateDefender Performa 8100 (Portwell NR-5500) with Pfsense 2.1 :: blog

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                            • B
                              b3nitro
                              last edited by

                              Thanks Kr^PacMan,

                              Find something similar but I'm having son difficulty to find hardware compatibility for the onboard LAN. 2 Onboard LAN + 1 PCI will give me the possibility to simply add my old pci wirelessG card and have a great setup but the onboard LAN is 2 x Realtek GbE LAN chips… Didn't find numbers for that chip

                              There is the mb : http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4444#ov

                              If both LAN will work with FreeBSD this would be awsome, if not I'll have to find something else with at least 1 working onboard LAN + 2 PCI

                              Is anybody know these onboard "Realtek GbE LAN chips" ?

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • stephenw10S
                                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                last edited by

                                If you look at the drivers they are offering for the LAN you'll see they are RTL8111 chips. However there are several variants with that same model number. Some are supported by pfSense 2.0.X but some may require using pfSense 2.1beta (or RC if it's been released) with it's more recent drivers.

                                Steve

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                                • B
                                  b3nitro
                                  last edited by

                                  Thank you I think I'll go with that next week :D

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • stephenw10S
                                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                    last edited by

                                    This post seems to indicate you'll need to use 2.1:

                                    @Psychoholic:

                                    I picked one of these up last week myself.

                                    Unless I'm doing something wrong, 2.0.2 does not recognize the NICs, however 2.1BETA seems to be working fine, though I have not yet put it into production - if you can call a home network "production" :)

                                    With beta, I initially had an issue where neither interface would function (despite ifconfig reporting up for both) until I ran ifconfig down/up for each interface.  After clearing the CMOS all was well.

                                    Steve

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                                    • R
                                      rjcrowder
                                      last edited by

                                      This looks like a pretty nice, inexpensive option. http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,60336 Dual Broadcomm nics.

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                                      • B
                                        b3nitro
                                        last edited by

                                        Thank you stephenw10,

                                        That board may ruin my first experience with pfsense, I'll try to find another one ^^

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                                        • B
                                          b3nitro
                                          last edited by

                                          That board have Intel® 82574L Gigabit Ethernet wich is supported by the em(4) driver :
                                          https://www-ssl.intel.com/content/www/us/en/motherboards/desktop-motherboards/desktop-board-d2700mud.html

                                          Only one NIC but have PCI slot available for another ethernet NIC, exit my old Linksys Wireless G ^^

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                                          • B
                                            b3nitro
                                            last edited by

                                            I also found that interresting : http://www.ncix.ca/products/?sku=76623&vpn=XH61V&manufacture=Shuttle&promoid=1360
                                            But + CPU + RAM + Shipping ~ 320$CAN
                                            Similar build here : http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,56950.0.html

                                            I also found a cheap 1U case with PSU  :o : http://www.supermicro.com/products/chassis/1u/503/sc503l-200.cfm 90$
                                            But I'll have to cut the backplane and use a PCI vertical to horizontal adapter. It's not a big deal.. PCI connector will be sideway and the whole thing will became ugly  :-\

                                            I think I'll stay with my last plan of : https://www-ssl.intel.com/content/www/us/en/motherboards/desktop-motherboards/desktop-board-d2700mud.html

                                            • 2gb kingston RAM + Intel PCI NIC + Cheap case & Psu (IN WIN BP655), around 220$ before shipping

                                            Other ideas ?

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