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

Red Boll

Thank you for sharing! Nice pictures.

My MSI Z97I AC with a dual core Intel Pentium G3460 is running at 45°C-47°C at 3% CPU usage with just the stock Intel cooler and one intake fan provided with the case. Since I have just 2 fan headers on the mobo I am not using the include case outtake fan.

I will add some extra (LED) fans for some "extra coolness" 8) in the near feature. ;)

(Case is not in a closet but "on display" in my computer room)

Sir Loin

Here are a few more pictures with the new power setup.

The complete setup. The new 4-pin power supply and a 4-pin extension cable. I added one Y-cable and two low noise cable from my Nortura fans. Also you can see the cable that draws power from the motherboard to the SSD. picoPSU is no longer needed.

From the side, you can see the 4-pin extension cable connected to the 4-pin connector on the motherboard. You can also see the fan Y-cables.

I need to find a very short SATA cable. Not sure if one exists.

The third fan installed, configured to blow outward. The top two fans are configured to blow down and into the case.

4-pin power connector installed on the back of the case. Had to cut the center part of the hole off.

Sir Loin

BTW, I had this error from the VGA output:

Igb3: Could not setup receive structures

I needed to do this below to get the system to work. It is from https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Tuning_and_Troubleshooting_Network_Cards

Intel igb(4) and em(4) Cards

Certain intel igb cards, especially multi-port cards, can very easily exhaust mbufs and cause kernel panics, especially on amd64. The following tweak will prevent this from being an issue:
In /boot/loader.conf.local - Add the following (or create the file if it does not exist):
kern.ipc.nmbclusters="1000000"
That will increase the amount of network memory buffers, allowing the driver enough headroom for its optimal operation.

To avoid this, only enable WAN and LAN during setup, then go to the shell to create the file (if it isn't there already) and edit it. I went to the shell (use VGA out or IPMI) and downloaded nano editor (I don't use VI, which is built in already).

pkg_add -r ftp://ftp-archive.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD-Archive/ports/i386/packages-8.1-release/Latest/nano.tbz

pkg is not part of pfsense. Follow the steps in this link to bootstrap pkg on pfsense:

https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Installing_FreeBSD_Packages

robi

@Sir:

BTW, I had this error from the VGA output:
Igb3: Could not setup receive structures
I needed to do this below to get the system to work. It is from https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Tuning_and_Troubleshooting_Network_Cards

I really don't see what triggers this at certain people.
I've got the very same motherboard using gigabit internet and dual WAN on two of the ports, using VLANs on the others, and my MBUFs are only at 14%. No tweak needed.
I start fearing that this is gonna hit me unexpectedly one day, so I'm trying to understand what's the logic behind.

Fredster

@Sir Loin: Do you have a wattage meter available to you to measure how much power your setup draws from the wall? Thank you for sharing your build!

Sir Loin

Yes, I do have a Killawatt. I can plug it in to see what kind of wattage it is pulling. It should be less than 20W.

scuzy

here is mine in a inwin BQ656.DD120 case that comes with an external powersupply for $64
i added a noctua 40mm cpu cooler to keep my board running at 31C

Sir Loin

@Fredster:

@Sir Loin: Do you have a wattage meter available to you to measure how much power your setup draws from the wall? Thank you for sharing your build!

I plugged in my Killawatt yesterday when I installed a new, shorter SATA cable. It is about 16 to 20 Watts during boot up, and about 21-22 watts at about 3% CPU utilization. The only thing drawing power besides the motherboard and the RAM is a Samsung 850 Evo 250GB SSD. This SSD draws on average 4 Watts and 50 mWatts during idle. I only did a quick look last night. I will check again to night.

For shorter SATA cables, I found two that work.
6-inch: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009GUKTQK
4-inch: http://www.amazon.com/Pack-Double-Locking-SATA-III-Cables/dp/B00KRSM3JG/ (this is a 5-pack)

I would rather have the 4-inch one, but I only needed one, so I got the 6-inch cable instead. Beats having a 10-inch, 12-inch, or 18-inch SATA cable in the case blocking air flow.

The absolute shortest SATA cable I can find is this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Power-SATA-Data-Cable-for-XBOX-One-Disk-Drive-DG-6M1S-/221778473401

It works if you connect to port 5 or 6, but not port 0.

Sir Loin

Checked again tonight.

2% CPU
CPU cores at 31C to 34C
Killawatt shows 17.7W to 18.0W

scuzy

i added a noctua 92mm case fan that's near dead silent to my case and now all 8 cores runs at 25-28c which is perfect.

Sir Loin

scuzy, how did you install the fan onto the case? Do you have pictures you can show us? Thanks.

scuzy

i'll take a picture tonight. But basically i tapped 4 holes on the grill with a dremel and screwed the fan onto the grill :)

dobje

Nice system !, how will it perform on a 500/500 fiber connection ? ( vpn , std fire-walling)

scuzy

FasTrak

@Scuzy, @Sir Loin: Have you done some iperf tests on the systems?

puwawa

Would like to know how it performances with packages such as snort and clamav turned on. Thanks a bunch ;)

scuzy

i have snort, squid, clamav running on mine and it's never gone past 2-3% but my network is small about 40 devices for home use.

tssrshot

I love this thread. I've been on the fence for this mobo combo and jumping to PFSense for a long time. I've got 1Gb Century Link and no one has tested anything even remotely close to those speeds yet. I'm only looking to Route/FW…maybe something else in the future for testing/learning, but I need a reliable 1Gb machine for huge fast transfers. Anyone confidently able to say this will handle those speeds?

Thanks,

Bryan

Guest

@tssrshot:

I love this thread. I've been on the fence for this mobo combo and jumping to PFSense for a long time. I've got 1Gb Century Link and no one has tested anything even remotely close to those speeds yet. I'm only looking to Route/FW…maybe something else in the future for testing/learning, but I need a reliable 1Gb machine for huge fast transfers. Anyone confidently able to say this will handle those speeds?

Thanks,

Bryan

As others where reporting that they where getting with an lower end Alix APU board WAN speed around
600 - 650 MBit/s so the C2758 would be sufficient enough for a 1 GBit/s ISP link.

To be sure I would go with an Intel Xeon E3-1231v3 / 4 cpu cores / 3,4 GHz
and an Intel I210-T1 server network adapter.

tgharold

3GHz Core2Duo machines with Intel NICs should top out around 1.2-1.4Gbps. Power draw for my Lenovo M58p is 38W idle and 50-60W under heavy load. This was a $80 refurb box from NewEgg, plus $80 for a PCIe Intel Pro/1000 dual-port NIC refurb.