Pfsense and RAM
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My mobo supports 64gb RAM, does pfsense support 64bit ram?
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It's more a matter of what your motherboard/CPU combo can handle (and how they do so).
If you're running a 64 bit CPU and load a 64 bit version of pfSense, no problem.
If not, then …. maybe.....As a side note, what are you anticipating 64GB of RAM for with pfSense?
Even RAM hungry packages like Snort don't typically require that much (I know, I know someone will pipe in "but more,more,more is always better).Without major RAM hogs installed, pfSense does very well with modest memory.
Most of my setups use 1-2GB and rarely peak over 5% usage.
I even have a few 512MB installs left and they get up to 30-40% (have to migrate those to something more modern when time/budget allow).In general I DON'T run Snort/Suricata so my systems have modest memory requirements.
I have both 32 and 64bit versions running and as far as memory goes, either works very well at the 1-2GB level.All of this is load/bandwidth/package/other dependent, YMMV.
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My mobo supports 64gb RAM, does pfsense support 64bit ram?
FWIW, I am building a home router. The MB supports 8GB RAM. I loaded it up since 4GB was $33 and 8GB was $49. 8GB was future proofing it so I can re-purpose the PC for something else later. From what I have read, the faster the internet connection and the bigger the network, the more processor and ram you need. If you're under 100Mbit, planning a moderate number of packages, and using a home network, I have observed your hardware needs are not large for PFSense. 4GB and a moderate Atom might do it. I went with a supermicro J1900 board, mostly because it was low electrical demand, fanless, had hdmi and 2 intel nics, and the processor had some punch (not 13/i5/i7 punch … just enough with extra capacity.) I noticed while shopping that very few dual nic boards also have hdmi and most small mini itx cases don't leave room to use the available slot. Weird.
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From what I have read, the faster the internet connection and the bigger the network, the more processor and ram you need. If you're under 100Mbit, planning a moderate number of packages, and using a home network, I have observed your hardware needs are not large for PFSense. 4GB and a moderate Atom might do it.
If you look back through the Forum, you'll find that the RAM requirements are largely driven by packages once your past the "minimum" to service your network connections.
As an example I have a long running box running a 100/5 Mb connection, dual WAN w/50+Vlans, multiple OpenVpn connections to service a live business.
I'm using a 3.2Ghz Xeon Dual core CPU - 32 bit w/ 2GB RAM and a 64GB Hard drive.
RRD graphs show a typical memory usage of <10% and a maximum average over 4 Years of 22% (yes I know an average over 4 Yrs is ignoring possible "spikes", but this system has been very solid and I've never seen high memory usage on it).I just checked on a small I'd forgotten about in a home environment that's a P-III 800Mhz w/320MB of RAM. It's running 2.2.2 w/ OpenVPN and the RAM usage is at 40% (peaking to 80%), higher than I might like, but still ok.
In a nut shell, for a home system if you've got a Motherboard and 1GB of RAM you're probably going to be fine (barring package reqt's).
If you're looking to build/buy and it only costs $10 to go from 4GB to 8GB, that's cheap "future proofing".Just my $.02
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It's more a matter of what your motherboard/CPU combo can handle (and how they do so).
If you're running a 64 bit CPU and load a 64 bit version of pfSense, no problem.
If not, then …. maybe.....As a side note, what are you anticipating 64GB of RAM for with pfSense?
Even RAM hungry packages like Snort don't typically require that much (I know, I know someone will pipe in "but more,more,more is always better).Without major RAM hogs installed, pfSense does very well with modest memory.
Most of my setups use 1-2GB and rarely peak over 5% usage.
I even have a few 512MB installs left and they get up to 30-40% (have to migrate those to something more modern when time/budget allow).In general I DON'T run Snort/Suricata so my systems have modest memory requirements.
I have both 32 and 64bit versions running and as far as memory goes, either works very well at the 1-2GB level.All of this is load/bandwidth/package/other dependent, YMMV.
Yea I got a 64bit capable mobo/cpu combo and Im running amd64 version on my pfsense rig.
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You should be good to go then (barring some other hardware issue).
Let us know how it turns out.