X11SBA-LN4F vs A1SRi-2558F
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I know a ton of people (myself included) have used the A1SRi-2558F for a pfSense mini-ITX build but has anyone explored the new X11SBA-LN4F Broadwell board? I'm wondering how it stacks up as it's slightly less money.
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Do Intel Pentium N3700 Processors support AES-NI?
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I'm wondering how it stacks up as it's slightly less money.
~250 € vs ~280 € (here in Germany)
4 core vs 4 cores
6 Watt TDP vs 15 Watt TDP
8 GB vs 64 GB
1600/1333/1066MHz DDR3 SO-DIMM vs 1600/1333/ DDR3 SO-DIMM
non ECC vs ECC or non ECC
1,35 V vs 1,35 - 1,50 V
AES-NI vs AES-NI & IQAT
2x COM ports in headers vs 2x Fast UART 16550 Serial Port (1 rear, 1 via header)
HD Graphics with 1x HDMI & 1x DP (Display Port), 1x VGA for BMC vs VGAIt seems that the C2558 platform is more pointed to be server like hardware and the N3700 is
more oriented to be for lower end market, or am I wrong with this? -
SuperMicro SuperServer E200-9B - http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/Mini-ITX/SYS-E200-9B.cfm
(ITX) (mini-ITX)- N3700 - 14nm SoC - 4/4 - 1.6 - 2.4Ghz - AES-NI
- 2.5 SATA int bay or use the Super Micro SuperDOM port and boot on that instead $58
- 4 GigE LAN Intel I210-AT
- IPMI 2.0 lan KVM
- 1xVGA!!! 1xHDMI 1xDP
- 2x sodimm slots - 8gb max
- 1x mSata slot
1 1x db9 male serial
2x USB3
2x USB2
1x pci-e 8x expansion slot - Could add an extra 4 GigE ports in a different case.
System board is the X11SBA-LN4F (Amazon $300) - put this at ITX board at 6 watts + CPU 3.5 watts + 1 for ram + .5 for hard drive - no radio = 11 watts average??
21 watt delta saves me 920 KWh or $156 over 5 year life.
Showing up on Ebay at $500
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Just finished installing a pfsense system on the X11SBA-LN4F.
Components:
X11SBA-L4NF: $216.99 shipped from CompSource
Sandisk 128 GB SSD: $35 shipped from Jet.com
Antec ISK 110 case: $39.50 shipped from Staples.com
2 x 4GB Samsung PC1600 DDR3L: $36 shipped from eBay(I know…much overkill but was bored and needed a project)
Does indeed pull 11 Watts at the wall using the above components (measured using a Kill-A-Watt at the wall).
Fanless and barely warm to the touch. CPU running 35C. Something in the system (listed as peripheral) runs between 51 and 55C.
Still a pfsense 'newbie' so just setting up and tweaking. System is overkill for my home but should be future-proof for faster broadband (hopefully) in the future. Having never run a board with IPMI, I really like that feature for setup, hardware and console (pfsense) monitoring remotely across the LAN.
Edit: I installed pfsense and let it run for 4 days with no WAN connection (only a LAN connection with no DHCP for setup / monitoring). It would always come up to the GUI. Since installing it, it has crashed (no Internet, no ping, no DHCP, no GUI) twice. However, the console still works. I have to reboot the machine to get to the GUI/Internet again. Nothing in the logs other than they just abruptly stop. Ran Memtest86+ for a complete run (a few hours) and zero errors. Any thoughts as to where to start?
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Any thoughts as to where to start?
A proper WAN connection should be up and running. And why not connecting the pfSense to
the Internet, for sure for playing around it is not really necessary and urgent but for the fully
functionality of the pfSense box it should be the best option for you.- Activate TRIM Support in pfSense for the SSD if the SSD is capable of the TRIM support
- Activate PowerD (hi adaptive) to get the right CPU frequency and proper TurboBoost options as well*
- Perhaps and if needed you could be also high up the mbuf size if needed and enough RAM is available
- Create a /boot/loader.conf.local file for making all the custom set ups and tweaks persistent against upgrades
- Not really a must be, but it could be helping out in some situations
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@BlueKobold:
Any thoughts as to where to start?
A proper WAN connection should be up and running. And why not connecting the pfSense to
the Internet, for sure for playing around it is not really necessary and urgent but for the fully
functionality of the pfSense box it should be the best option for you.- Activate TRIM Support in pfSense for the SSD if the SSD is capable of the TRIM support.
- Activate PowerD (hi adaptive) to get the right CPU frequency and proper TurboBoost options as well.
- Perhaps and if needed you could be also high up the mbuf size if needed and enough RAM is available
- Create a /boot/loader.conf.local file for making all the custom set ups and tweaks persistent against upgrades
- Not really a must be, but it could be helping out in some situations
It is currently on the Internet. I was testing hardware for a few days to make sure that nothing failed. In my long experience with electronics, they tend to fail within the first few weeks. Just wanted to get that out of the way.
I'll look into TRIM. Didn't know that option was available. However, I don't think that this would be causing the issue at hand.
Had already activated PowerD (hi adaptive). Have also tried other options with no effects (other than a slower GUI.
Had already changed mbuf size to the recommended size for Intel NIC's per a guide (found via Google several days ago). No change.
Will create the loader.conf.local file for what you recommend. If I downgrade (to try 2.1.5 for example), will this file hold persistent settings or will it only work for upgrades?I might try a 2.2.5 snapshot for kicks. I really need stability and if I can't get it on the current version, I'll switch it up a bit. If I can't get it on those, I'll go back to regular router for now until I work it out. Wife hates interruptions in Internet and home television (Windows Media Center, Xbox 360 extenders and two HDHomerun primes). I have also turned off AES-NI for my N3700 for now to see if that has any effect.
The system seems to run for anywhere from an hour to 2 days before locking (again, console still works - I can remote into it via IPMI and it's responsive. I usually have to reboot from there).
One more thing: Apologies up front as I'm completely new to FreeBSD so I'll have to learn how to do things (like create files, edit files, etc). Looks like I can shell into the system and use 'ee' as an editor to create / edit files. Once created, I can use the built in editor of pfsense to edit them (or maybe I can create and edit them from pfsense). That's just stuff that I'll learn off to the side so please be patient as I may not know how to do some of these things but I'll google it to death to learn! :)
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@Engineer What are you using for a power supply?
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@Jailer…the built in 90W supply (new) for the Antec ISK-110. The Kill-a-Watt shows 11 watts pulled at the wall.
It could be power supply but since the console doesn't drop (nor did memtest or the system when I had a USB DVD burner attached), I would think the power seems OK.
I don't know if the SuperMicro logs power issues or not. IPMI page shows everything very good (very close to rated).
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I have had a SuperMicro and Asus servers lock up on the IPMI access and the best help has always been to check for BIOS updates. Other firmwares on the system board from big iron True Raid controllers and the BMI firmware for the IPMI can fight the system board bios and cause this inability to access - It should not be related to pfSense as long as the cord is connected and you have a client on the same subnet with the BMI and client sharing the same gateway IP.
Also Java (Remote redirected video console app) can get really screwed up in a way I cannot decipher and reboots fix that usually.
Glad you confirmed 11 watts - that is an awesome number for a Quad core 2MB cache ITS board with plenty of horsepower - I think this N3700 has the same power as the C2558 and J1900 but with better power efficiency. I do now worry about ECC memory requirements since it not a File Server - its really an appliance.
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@Jailer…the built in 90W supply (new) for the Antec ISK-110. The Kill-a-Watt shows 11 watts pulled at the wall.
It could be power supply but since the console doesn't drop (nor did memtest or the system when I had a USB DVD burner attached), I would think the power seems OK.
I don't know if the SuperMicro logs power issues or not. IPMI page shows everything very good (very close to rated).
Well my first guess would have been instability due to poor power supply but I can't find anything on the one used in that case. If it were me I'd still try to find another suitable power supply to try out and see if that helps.
Such are the pitfalls of blazing trails with new hardware…......
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I don't know if the SuperMicro logs power issues or not. IPMI page shows everything very good (very close to rated).
Check the event log in the IPMI page and see if anything shows up there. It's under Server Health -> Event Log
Edit: Just noticed from your other post your mention of a usb DVD burner. No need for it, you can mount an ISO file in the KVM viewer and install from there. IPMI is awesome.
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I don't know if the SuperMicro logs power issues or not. IPMI page shows everything very good (very close to rated).
Check the event log in the IPMI page and see if anything shows up there. It's under Server Health -> Event Log
Edit: Just noticed from your other post your mention of a usb DVD burner. No need for it, you can mount an ISO file in the KVM viewer and install from there. IPMI is awesome.
Yea, I found that after the initial setup using the DVD burner. Having never used IPMI before, I didn't even have it connected to the network until after the first crash. I saw the virtual drive (using an image) in the viewer. I agree that IPMI is awesome so far.
I see nothing under the Event Log on the IPMI KVM viewer.
This is the first board that I've ever had that has an IPMI port….really do like this feature!!!!!
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Were you able to stabilize it by any chance? If yes, what did you do and with what pfsense version?
At this point I am debating between Supermicro X10SBA-L and Supermicro X11SBA-LN4F. I was dead set to get the first one, until I noticed that the Intel N3700 version has AES new instructions set.
So I am kind of waiting on your thread to see if it's yay or nay. Surprisingly, your thread is almost the only useful thread on the X11SBA-LN4F mainboard so you're opening new paths here.
Thanks,
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Were you able to stabilize it by any chance? If yes, what did you and with what pfsense version?
At this point I am debating between Supermicro X10SBA-L and Supermicro X11SBA-LN4F. I was dead set to get the first one, until I noticed that the Intel N3700 version has AES new instructions set.
So I am kind of waiting on your thread to see if it's yay or nay. Surprisingly, your thread is almost the only useful thread on the X11SBA-LN4F mainboard so you're opening new paths here.
Thanks,
I'm tinkering with disabling hardware offload settings right now to see if it stabilizes. Takes quite a while to test because it has gone days between crashing before. Oh, and for the record, I had actually bought the X10SBA-L but cancelled the order because of the lower power and AES-NI instructions of the X11SBA-LN4F. It was $80 more but for future proofing (and a test showing the difference AES-NI adds to encrypted throughput), I chose the X11 board.
I'll keep this updated. I'm still on 2.2.4 for now.
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Is your mainboard having the latest BIOS version by any chance?
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Is your mainboard having the latest BIOS version by any chance?
I went to the SuperMicro site the day I received the board. They didn't have ANY BIOS posted…for the main board nor the IPMI BIOS. I'll check again but don't think there is anything new there.
Edit: Nothing shows up (yet)....not even the first release BIOS or IPMI firmware.
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I empathize with you for the troubles you're going through with that motherboard model, but in the end I guess I'll cough up the money to go for a Supermicro A1SRi-2558F. It's on long term support from Supermicro, FreeBSD 10 certified, AES-NI + QuickAssist. As you, I probably don't need headaches but reliability in the long shot.
