Is ASRock D1800M / Intel J1800 ok for gigabit NAT ?

[aleatorvb]

Link to official page
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/D1800M/

Highlights:

• FANLESS CPU (!!)
• Micro ATX Motherboard
• Intel Dual-Core Processor J1800
• Supports DDR3/DDR3L 1333 Long DIMM Slots
• 1 PCIe 2.0 x16, 2 PCIe 2.0 x1
• Built-in Intel 7th generation (Gen 7) graphics, DirectX 11.0, Pixel Shader 5.0
• Realtek Gigabit LAN

Will this work with gigabit nat?  I have 980 mbps down, 890 mbps up on average.
2 or 4 GB ram would probably be enoguh.

While the realtek lan card isn't the best, I can upgrade to intel cards in the near future.

This is a very cheap mb+cpu combo, I can get it under 50$.

Thank you for your time.

[aleatorvb]

Also found Q1900M which has a Quad-Core Processor J1900 for a little bit more $.
Probably the quad-core will be enough for this?

[BakerT]

This one seem kinda nice:

http://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=J1900D2Y#Specifications

[nzimmers]

Asrock also makes a j2900 (little faster than the j1800) also 4 cores

Im personally using the gigabyte j1900. It was $79

[vsxi-13]

@nzimmers:

Asrock also makes a j2900 (little faster than the j1800) also 4 cores

Im personally using the gigabyte j1900. It was $79

What's your performance like?  I'm interested in pfSense hardware appliance to head up my lab, but I also do not want to spend an arm and a leg.  That being said, I'd still like to push some good performance with with VPN.

[nzimmers]

@vsxi-13

Here's a test I just conducted measuring LAN -> LAN using TCP with iperf (I didn't tune anything, everything defualt) no encryption

Cat5e 6 ft direct connection (regular cable, not patch/crossover)

Test 1
Iperf Server:
My personal computer
Core i3 4130T
ASUS Mini ITX DDR3 2600 LGA 1150 Motherboards H97I-PLUS
Used on-board Intel(R) Ethernet Connection (2) I218-V

Ipfer Client:
Pfsense
J1900
Gigabyte GA-J1900N-D3V
Used on-board Realtek GbE LAN

Results:
–----------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.1.101, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 65.0 KByte (default)

[  3] local 192.168.1.1 port 47614 connected with 192.168.1.101 port 5001
[ ID] Interval      Transfer    Bandwidth
[  3]  0.0-10.0 sec  864 MBytes  725 Mbits/sec

Test 2 (i tried the -d  dual test with Pfsense as the server)
–----------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.1.1, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 63.0 KByte (default)

[  4] local 192.168.1.101 port 62101 connected with 192.168.1.1 port 5001
[  5] local 192.168.1.101 port 5001 connected with 192.168.1.1 port 3927
[ ID] Interval      Transfer    Bandwidth
[  4]  0.0-10.0 sec  4.02 GBytes  3.45 Gbits/sec
[  5]  0.0-10.0 sec  17.0 MBytes  14.2 Mbits/sec

[aleatorvb]

Thank you for the information nzimmers - can you tell me what version of pfsense you are using? Are you able to reset it without any issues?

I have read this topic https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=73518.0 and to be frank it scared me a bit. I am looking up for upgrading my dc2500cc pfsense with this but i'm not 100% sure the gigabyte will work as flawless as the intel board…