Thinkpad T41 vs. X61 as pfSense router
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How would I be able to evaluate the difference in performance of a ThinkPad T41 based pfSense router Vs one using an X61?
I have two laptops which I would be able to employ for the purpose but not sure how to tell how to tell what difference there would be in performance?
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The X61 is about 8 - 9 years old. It can take 4 GB DDR2 RAM and has a built in Gigabit Intel NIC. It's about as ancient a bit of crap as you should use.
The T41 was released 13 years ago. It maxs out at 2G of DDR RAM. But actually finding 1G sticks of that is going to be hard.
The X61 will be all round faster. Probably more reliable.
The T41 has had it's life.
For low enough speeds (ie, probably below 50Mbit) either will work just fine.
I used an R51 (or R52) but found that the 3Com PC Card wasn't up to the task at 25 mbit.
Use the X61
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In spite of the X61 being an ancient bit of crap :) I still find it quite useful from time to time so I thought I'd try installing pfSense on the T41….
Didn't get far though.... 'CPU does not support long mode'!
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Did you try installing the i386 version of pfsense? I think that long mode message occurs when you try to install the amd64 version on an x86 cpu that isn't x86_64/amd64.
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Did you try installing the i386 version of pfsense? I think that long mode message occurs when you try to install the amd64 version on an x86 cpu that isn't x86_64/amd64.
That occurred to me when I looked again at the download options.
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I have good experience on building my own cpu with intel celeron with asrock board and using realtek nics 4gig ram around 400 bucks more or less
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The t41 will work for a simple pfsense install. I'm not sure how much bandwidth you can get out of it, but if you have something like 3mb DSL, you'd be fine.
You will be limited to 32 bit versions of pfsense. Most software seems to be going 64 bit only, so I'm not sure how long pfsense will continue with 32 bit versions.
My first pfsense router was on an old 400MHz Celeron. It handled my 3mb DSL just fine.
I've been using IBM/Lenovo t series laptops for 25 years. The T40 series was one of my favorites.