Need advice on a pfsense box

jasonlitka

All the Haswell boards I've seen ship with i210 and/or i217 NICs, neither of which are currently supported.

As to your CT NICs, the 82574L works very well but you should know that the packet buffer doesn't include ECC. This doesn't matter for a home or SMB system, but if this is a business-critical box I'd suggest stepping up to the i350. Use of this card also means you can get 4 ports in a single PCI-e slot.

super_8

Well the box is more for a personal network so i don't think ECC is that important.

But i am planing to get 3 CT NICs one for wan and 2 for lan which would be conected to switches. but i'm more worried about the pfsense having problems with the new haswell cpu-s and 1150 borads

jasonlitka

@super_8:

Well the box is more for a personal network so i don't think ECC is that important.

But i am planing to get 3 CT NICs one for wan and 2 for lan which would be conected to switches. but i'm more worried about the pfsense having problems with the new haswell cpu-s and 1150 borads

I recently went through this process as well. I decided to go with Xeon E3 V2 and C206 boards.

super_8

@Jason:

I recently went through this process as well. I decided to go with Xeon E3 V2 and C206 boards.

well i am looking for something less powerfull to handle a 30/10 line. So i will probably just stick with the 1155 boards (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128547)

jasonlitka

@super_8:

@Jason:

I recently went through this process as well. I decided to go with Xeon E3 V2 and C206 boards.

well i am looking for something less powerfull to handle a 30/10 line. So i will probably just stick with the 1155 boards (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128547)

Basically the same parts, different branding.

super_8

@Jason:

@super_8:

@Jason:

I recently went through this process as well. I decided to go with Xeon E3 V2 and C206 boards.

well i am looking for something less powerfull to handle a 30/10 line. So i will probably just stick with the 1155 boards (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128547)

Basically the same parts, different branding.

Same parts?

jasonlitka

@super_8:

@Jason:

@super_8:

@Jason:

I recently went through this process as well. I decided to go with Xeon E3 V2 and C206 boards.

well i am looking for something less powerfull to handle a 30/10 line. So i will probably just stick with the 1155 boards (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128547)

Basically the same parts, different branding.

Same parts?

Still talking about Ivy Bridge.

super_8

well then i'm just gonna get the sandy/ivy pentium with an asus z77 or similar board that has RAID function.

Fevan

http://www.pfsense.org/index.php@option=com_content&task=view&id=46&Itemid=51.html

Hardware Compatibility List

As pfSense 2.0.1 is based on FreeBSD 8.1, its hardware compatibility list is the same as FreeBSD's. The pfSense kernel includes all FreeBSD drivers.

Also here a guy runs freebsd on his haswell core i7-4770k cpu and socket 1150 mobo:

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTQyNDg

When you really think about it haswell is 6 months + old and ivybridge have been out for a years… id be shocked if pfsense did not work on them, people would go mad simply put!

It maybe wiser to repost a new question and ask anyone running pfsense on new intel haswell cpus though in case before buying!

The haswells are better I feel since they got 55watt and low power use making them even more ideal for 24/7 pfsense boxes, and they are faster and better and similar priced....

I think the real issues are the nics and realtek ones... sticking with intel nics seems best as you know.

Quite a few like the xeons, I guess since they are server class and always run 24/7, but really they are still pricey and hot. A cheaper haswell running with 55watts with onboard gpu sounds way better imo. Even I had a Q9300 quad + mobo running 24/7 for years and no issue. But I guess for pure stability an xeon is great.

I have considered going AMD A6-6400K 3.90GHz 65Watt. Its still 65watts, but its 4.1ghz dual core and supports AES and £60 only, the AES instructions will be handy for me since I use OpenVPN, but am still considering the same haswell cpu as yourself !

Other then that good luck with the build ill join very soon !

super_8

@Fevan:

The haswells are better I feel since they got 55watt and low power use making them even more ideal for 24/7 pfsense boxes, and they are faster and better and similar priced….

Depends on which type of cpu,for example a pentium G2030T uses only 35W.

As for the Xeons i think they are for the more powerfull systems. But for now i think i will stay with the 3gen cpus.

super_8

[update]

Looks like i will have to go with Haswell since the 3gen pentium only supports DDR3-1066 memory.

Fevan

Yeah 32watt is very low and good, 2.6ghz so not bad either.

Yeah the xeons would fair better for 24/7 use and more powerful, but if your looking for low noise/power, I like the haswell set ups.

you can an onboard gpu, with xeon you need an gpu…

why would you need faster ram for your pfsense box ? not unless you got brought the ram already, even then is not the faster ram suppose to work backwards compatible...

super_8

@Fevan:

why would you need faster ram for your pfsense box ? not unless you got brought the ram already, even then is not the faster ram suppose to work backwards compatible…

1066 is too slow, since i plan to run some packages that are heavy on ram + the store i'm buying from only has 2gb 1066 ram modules.

Fevan

ouch on 2gig

Well when you get finalized with your build and hardware, let us know how the performance is :)

super_8

well i am deciding between these two builds

1. 1155
CPU: Intel Pentium G840 or Intel Core i3 2120
Mobo:
option1: http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P8H61MX_R20/
option2: http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Z77A/
RAM: 2x4GB ddr3 1333
HDD: 2x WD RED NAS 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB
NIC: 3x pcie Intel PRO/1000

2. 1150
CPU: Intel Pentium G3420 2x3.20GHz
Mobo:
option1: http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H81M-GL/index.us.asp
option2: http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H87%20Pro4/
option3: http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P8B75V/
RAM: 8GB(2x4) ddr3 1600
HDD: 2x WD RED NAS 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB
NIC: 3x pcie Intel PRO/1000

What do you think?

I've also been looking at HP ProLiant ML310 server. It's a bit more expencive but it has reliability, don't know if it supports pfsense…

Fevan

I like setup 2 due to haswell, how comes such a massive hdd though ?

If your running it via virtualbox pfsense are you doubling it up as a download box or media box ?

I was planning on a 64gig hdd but many on here gone with an 8gig ssd just for their pfsense boxes.

super_8

@Fevan:

I like setup 2 due to haswell, how comes such a massive hdd though ?

well i prefer WD HDDs and i chose the wd red because it's designed for 24/7 operation and 1tb is the smallest they got.
And didn't people have problems with SSDs because they started dying after a few months?

super_8

Oh and another thing, is ECC ram important to have or can i stick with a non ECC-system?

Fevan

ECC ram is good for reliability which is why its more recommended for server machines ie xeon cpus etc

However its more pricey and again only works on mobos for servers like x79 mobos or xeon socket mobos and similar.

If you look at some of the new socket 1150 mobos no mention of ECC support, so I guess they only take the normal Ram.

Yeah SSDs can die… any hdd can also. Your Nas drives are better suited to run 24/7 however I feel its total overkill for pfsense which takes what 1gig, people often suggest small 8gig or 30gig SSDs. Even a 64gig maybe overkill.

If your using pfsense packages though people do suggest more ram like 8gig since they soak up ram I hear.

I figured since you mentioned you were installing 2x2TB WD reds, you would be using it for other reasons other then pfsense.
I see pfsense system requirements is it takes 1gig hdd space anyhow so a 4tb is kinda overkill to the max.

if am wrong someone would correct me however!

super_8

@Fevan:

I figured since you mentioned you were installing 2x2TB WD reds, you would be using it for other reasons other then pfsense.
I see pfsense system requirements is it takes 1gig hdd space anyhow so a 4tb is kinda overkill to the max.
if am wrong someone would correct me however!

well first of you got the size wrong it's 1TB not 2 :P, but the only reason why i chose those disks is because they are supposed to be for 24/7 operation, and like you said i don't need space but 1tb is the smallest from the red version even any other brad of HDDs don't go lower then 250GB (unless you mean ssd disks)

the reason why i said 2 is because i was thinking of setting them up in RAID.

but i have been thinking about getting the HP ProLiant ML310 server for the box, it would only cost a bit more. but i don't know if it supports pfsense and it has intel Vpro which i would rather stay away from.