Intel Mini-ITX Atom 8-core Hardware Build Recipe Available Here

codyst

@BlueKobold:

Total: $593.69 Shipped

Wow, go with it, this would be a really fast pfSense box as I see it right!

Enable the TRIM support in pfSense if not automatically done during the installation

Enable PowerD "high adaptive"

The RAM I would try out as 2 x 4 GB or 2 x 8 GB ECC RAM and not only one module

perhaps if you go with 2 x 8 GB ECC RAM I would try up to tune the mbufs numbers

But all in all this is a very fast machine and you will be happy with it as I see it right!

I went with 1x 8GB stick of RAM for now so when I upgrade later I won't have to replace 2x 4GB sticks. I can just buy 1 additional 8GB.

Guest

I can just buy 1 additional 8GB.

This can be really better as I see it right, perhaps others won´t consider
but having much RAM inside a machine was never a false.

mifronte

@codyst:

…
4-Pin Molex to SATA Power Cable http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812200061
...

This cable will not work with the motherboard (I made the same mistake) because you need a Female 4-Pin Molex. This cable is a Male 4-Pin Molex.

Here is the correct SATA Power Cable.

codyst

@mifronte:

@codyst:

…
4-Pin Molex to SATA Power Cable http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812200061
...

This cable will not work with the motherboard (I made the same mistake) because you need a Female 4-Pin Molex. This cable is a Male 4-Pin Molex.

Here is the correct SATA Power Cable.

That sucks! Thanks for catching that for me.

Sir Loin

I did include a link to the correct cable in the OP. Good luck.

codyst

@Sir:

I did include a link to the correct cable in the OP. Good luck.

Yeah, I just didn't realize I ordered a male when I ordered it on newegg. Oh well, it was only a couple bucks!

dopey

i just purchased this build (from amazon and mini-box) with a few minor tweaks (different 4 pin extension cable).

Thanks for doing all the research and providing it.

Unfortunately the power brick is out of stock at mini-box for a couple of weeks so I'll have to wait a bit before being able to fully test everything, but still, this will be a fun nice replacement for my current dd-wrt unit.

trumee

@codyst:

Fans (3x Evercool EC4015SH12BP 4-Pin PWM Fans) http://www.directron.com/ec4015sh12bp.html
Fan Screws (3x Sets of Screws) http://www.directron.com/fanscrews.html

Did these screws fit the fan?

codyst

@dopey:

i just purchased this build (from amazon and mini-box) with a few minor tweaks (different 4 pin extension cable).

Thanks for doing all the research and providing it.

Unfortunately the power brick is out of stock at mini-box for a couple of weeks so I'll have to wait a bit before being able to fully test everything, but still, this will be a fun nice replacement for my current dd-wrt unit.

I ordered my power brick off ebay and got it in 2 days. http://www.ebay.com/itm/130478987672

@trumee:

@codyst:

Fans (3x Evercool EC4015SH12BP 4-Pin PWM Fans) http://www.directron.com/ec4015sh12bp.html
Fan Screws (3x Sets of Screws) http://www.directron.com/fanscrews.html

Did these screws fit the fan?

They did! Using a screwdriver was a pain in the ass because it was so tight so I went out to the garage and got the power drill.

pfcode

@codyst:

I ordered my power brick off ebay and got it in 2 days. http://www.ebay.com/itm/130478987672

I would avoid any items sold from United States, their Shipping charges and Import charges are totally bullshit. BTW, Why 150W 12V/12.5A, Is 60W 12V/5A not good and enough?

dopey

@codyst:

I ordered my power brick off ebay and got it in 2 days. http://www.ebay.com/itm/130478987672

Thanks. I'll order one of those and get my mini-box order cancelled.

@pfcode:

I would avoid any items sold from United States, their Shipping charges and Import charges are totally bullshit. BTW, Why 150W 12V/12.5A, Is 60W 12V/5A not good and enough?

Well, I live in the US :) So that makes it easier.
The main reason why I'm going with that one is the 4-pin mini-din. The straight 4-pin power connector is a bit simpler than a picopsu. I haven't found another unit that has the 4-pin.

codyst

@dopey:

@codyst:

I ordered my power brick off ebay and got it in 2 days. http://www.ebay.com/itm/130478987672

Thanks. I'll order one of those and get my mini-box order cancelled.

No problem! I am just waiting on my RAM to be delivered tomorrow, I went ahead and ordered another 8GB from Amazon for a total of 16GB. The rest of the system is hooked up and boots up fine to the POST screen where it obviously errors out due to no RAM. The IPMI also works and is super cool, I had no idea that existed until researching a pfsense system to build.

I am looking forward to tomorrow!

R3Z3N

So, I found a work around to my WAN not aquiring DHCP, which it did at least for 3 days. IGB0 no longer will accept a DHCP address from my cable modem, however it does work fine getting an address from a generic dd-wrt router serving DHCP. I have to use any of the other Ethernet ports to connect the Supermico board to the cable modem. Very very wierd. Currently the more I use pfsense, the more broken it seems, for example even with a clean install of squid3, I only get I-CAP errors. NTP service when setup seems to drop randomly, and the webgui many times is just too slow, or allowing no access with an internal error 500 or 503. Fresh pfsense installs only work for short periods.

Guest

@codyst

I went ahead and ordered another 8GB from Amazon for a total of 16GB.

I would guess to high up the mbufs numbers, 16 GB is really enough, better then wasting
unused RAM then spending 3 GB in total for a higher mbufs size. I would give this a try. ;)

@Justin0
In your signature you have named a Supermicro C2558 mainboard and a SSD.
And after a fresh install did you enable TRIM support and PowerD, related to
the slow GUI or Interface?

Regarding to the NTP Server, did you configure it in this direction:

Setting NTP up on the DD-WRT and then on the pfSense setting up the DD-WRT as the NTP server?
Or did you only setting up the NTP on pfSense and then nothing?

R3Z3N

@BlueKobold:

@Justin0
In your signature you have named a Supermicro C2558 mainboard and a SSD.
And after a fresh install did you enable TRIM support and PowerD, related to
the slow GUI or Interface?

Regarding to the NTP Server, did you configure it in this direction:

Setting NTP up on the DD-WRT and then on the pfSense setting up the DD-WRT as the NTP server?

Or did you only setting up the NTP on pfSense and then nothing?

Trim and PowerD enabled.

NTP was setup after I tried to deploy PFsense: Internet>Cable Modem>PFSense>DDWRT AP ONLY mode

It's not just NTP though, it seems services tend to stop and start randomly, or not work at all. Squid3 antivirus blocks everything w/default settings after fixing the prompts to fix the files once saved, igiving ICAP errors on websites. Disabling IPV6, and saving interfaces (along with disabling IPv6 tracking or DHCP6) results in many log entries about not able to find IPv6 on WAN. Just odd problems that feel like the GUI does not properly alter the settings.

mifronte

Does anyone know a definitive way to enable trim on this motherboard?

I searched, but there are so many methods, I don't know which one to use for version 2.2.4. Is the boot in single user mode and running


/sbin/tunefs -t enable /
/sbin/reboot

the recommended way to enable trim? Will this persist between reboots and upgrades?

Also, what is everyone using for PowerD settings for this build recipe?

R3Z3N

The above is how I enabled trim. Again just make sure you are in single user mode, which I did over IPMI.

Guest

the recommended way to enable trim?

At first I would even have a look on the tech specs. from the SSD, mSATA, SSD-DOM or SATA-DOM
or what ever you have installed in your pfSense box!!! Because there are some devices that not
accepting any TRIM orders and for this it is not really fine to enable the TRIM support.

But if your device is accepting and supporting TRIM I would also at first have a look in the OS
that TRIM is enabled or not and then if this was not done during the installation process I would try
enabling it.

Will this persist between reboots and upgrades?

Many things can be done by set up a /loader.conf.local that during the updates and upgrades
many things would be not wiped away, the other option is to work it out by using scripts that
should stored in a place that will be not affected by the upgrade or update process, so that they
all can be run with a cron job after those processes.

Also, what is everyone using for PowerD settings for this build recipe?

This can be really different each from another! Because this tends mostly on the running services,
installed packages, amount of users, network load and much other things that plays together.

So it is not a really "We have all the same Supermicro Board and should use then all the same settings"
or something likes that. I one situation it will be the best to go without, and in other situations it is better
to go with min, max, adaptive or high adaptive mode, but this tends really on every single situation and
offered services, usage, number of users, or what ever is your situation at your place.

In one way it is for CPUs or SoCs with so called "CPU turbo clock" but this can also be differ
from other CPUs or SoCs with more then one CPU core for using it for power saving´s.

But this settings are often affect the whole system performance and so it can be different
what users are choosing to go with, this often is more related to their system and config.
At many mainboards this must also activated in the BIOS first to use it.

PowerD minimum = is using only the minimum CPU frequency
PowerD maximum = is using only the maximum CPU frequency
PowerD adaptive = ?
PowerD highadaptive = is using from the minimum to the maximum CPU frequency

In FreeBSD that is also called "powerd flags" if want to search by your own over this settings.

As an example:
Alix APU 1D4 Board without PowerD enabled shows up max. ~450 MBit/s throughput (iPerf)
Alix APU 1D4 Board with PowerD enabled shows up max. ~650 Mbit/s - 750 Mbit/s throughput (iPerf)

dopey

Got my case, ssd, memory, and board. (no fans or power supply yet).

Hooked up a regular ATX power supply I have sitting around and am tinkering with the IPMI configuration to try to get SOL working with pfsense so I can make configuring this thing completely without the need to hook anything up directly to it.

@codyst:

No problem! I am just waiting on my RAM to be delivered tomorrow, I went ahead and ordered another 8GB from Amazon for a total of 16GB. The rest of the system is hooked up and boots up fine to the POST screen where it obviously errors out due to no RAM. The IPMI also works and is super cool, I had no idea that existed until researching a pfsense system to build.

I'm the last person to "question" overkill :)
But is 16gb really necessary, or is it overkill? I know one SODIMM isn't taking advantage of dual channel, but does is that really going to make a difference here? And under what conditions would one really need/want 16GB ram for pfsense?

Guest

~2 GB for highing up the mbufs size (if used)
~2 GB for the ClamAV (if used)
~4 GB for Squid (depends on what caching method is used)
~4 GB - 8 GB for pfSense & Snort (if snort will be used)

Ok this might be then more likes a full featured UTM appliance
but why not if he is willing to use it in this way?