Review of 3 DIY installs: DC2500CC, GA-J1900-D3V, H81M-A+G1840+2xINTEL PRO
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I don't pretend to have done this in a very controller manner, as I wanted to see the real-life scenario, hopefully someone will benefit from this.
The short version:
- 300 mbps - get DC2500CCE
- 700 mbps - get GA-J1900-D3V - but wait for 2.2 to finish, might be good for much more
- 900+ mbps - get something with INTEL NIC and a celeron from the last generations
Common:
- embedded installs (2.1.5 on 1 and 2, 2.2 latests on 2)
- wan - PPPOE, 1000 Mbps down, around 250 up (but varries alot)
- desktop: windows 7, i5-3570, realtek nic (i know, but i had to use my one intel nic for (3) since i only found one locally to buy; will remedy that soon)
- my "main server" nas4free - 1 x intel pro nic, i3-4330, 24 gb ram
- iperf desktop - pfsense: 910 Mbits / sec
- iperf server - pfsense: 915 Mbits / sec
Pfsense stick was duplicated copied from 1 to 3, and backup+restore from 1 to 2 and we have:
- tinc with 34 hosts
- a few firewall rules
- openvpn server with 1 client that does 20-30 kb/s of traffic continously
- pptp server with 0 clients
(1) Hardware:
- DC2500CCE
- 1x 4 GB Ram Kingston
- 1 pci slot free
(2) Hardware:
- GA-J1900-D3V
- 1 x 4 GB Ram sodimm Kingston
- one pci slot free
(3) Hardware:
- Assus MB: H81M-A (onboard realtek nic not used - i don't think pfsense even sees it)
- CPU G1840
- 8 gb of hyperx ddr3 ram (borrowed from server since i forgot to buy)
- 2 x Intel PRO / 1000 CT nics on pci-express x1
- one free pci-express (probably x16, did not bother to check)
Testing method
- speedtest.net from desktop in browser
- iperf from desktop to a friend's server colocated in my ISP local datacenter with gigabit up/down
- as above, but from server
- ran one or two tests with each platform then just moved lan/wan cables to next, did text and so on, round robit
(1) seems severely under-powered for gigabit connection - got 380 to 400 mbits with 80-90% cpu used
(2) way better than (1) - got 600 to 750, sometimes 900 but i thing it's a limit of the realtek nics or the drivers
(3) blown away… doing wire speed 890-910 Mbits/s with room to spare
- almost full GB/s nat (but probably limited by my testing methods)
- at 800 mbits/sec the cpu load is
CPU: 0.4% user, 0.0% nice, 0.2% system, 20.5% interrupt, 78.9% idle
If you have any questions or want me to test things let me know. I plan on putting zwave power meters on the 3 platforms and record the power used over a few days. If i have time i will add photos of my frankenstein systems..
P.S. GA-J1900-D3V works wonders with nas4free - works out of the box (with some bios tweaking) and does 98 MB/s transfers over windows shares (samba/cifs) over one nic and 2 x 90 MB/s over both onboard nics.
P.P.S. Everyone that spent time teaching me things - thank you again!
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Attached some photos. I will try to do some latency tests tomorrow and I will start learning about managed switches…
![system 3 download test.png](/public/imported_attachments/1/system 3 download test.png)
![system 3 download test.png_thumb](/public/imported_attachments/1/system 3 download test.png_thumb)
![d2500cc system.jpg](/public/imported_attachments/1/d2500cc system.jpg)
![d2500cc system.jpg_thumb](/public/imported_attachments/1/d2500cc system.jpg_thumb)
![ga-j1900 system.jpg_thumb](/public/imported_attachments/1/ga-j1900 system.jpg_thumb)
![ga-j1900 system.jpg](/public/imported_attachments/1/ga-j1900 system.jpg) -
hello, I'm following ..
thanks for tests -
I don't pretend to have done this in a very controller manner, as I wanted to see the real-life scenario, hopefully someone will benefit from this.
The short version:
- 300 mbps - get DC2500CCE
I think your test might have some tweaking to do.
I get over 500Mbit downloads over my AT&T Uverse (gigabit) service through my PFSense running on a DC2500CCE.
Last night after upgrading to PFSense 2.2, I measured again, got about 600 down and 300 up.
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Was this over a pppoe or direct (dhcp/static ip/etc) wan connetion?
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This is a direct connection (GigE) to AT&T's on premises SOHO router, which uses DHCP to their central switch/office.
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Are you both using the real Intel boards with Intel NICs?
I would expect >500Mbps throught that board. The D510 was shown to push 485Mbps.Steve
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I am using the onboard NICs, yes, Intel (it's an Intel motherboard).
I do not know why my throughput is asymmetrical. If I plug straight into AT&T's router, I get 900+down and 600+up. There are lots of variables:
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2 switch hops from my desktop to my pfSense router.
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I run NAT
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This is speedtest.net, not a straight test running ncat or other tools
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you try 2.2 final on those boxes?
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I will upgrade all of them to 2.2 in the next few weeks and post the results here. As far as i know they work fine with 2.2
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any news ?