New PfSense Router Continued Continued...

[PenguinMaster]

I want to make a new PfSense router, people seem to be mixed about my options though. I either want to buy a dell power edge r410 and just install PfSense on that, or my other option is to buy some used regular computer hardware, and turn that into a rackmountable router. So no dell / acer custom motherboards. Does anyone have any ideas? And aren’t regular i5’s and i3’s not supposed to run 24/7?

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

5 minutes ago, Chickenfans said:

And aren’t regular i5’s and i3’s not supposed to run 24/7?

They will run 24/7 just fine, there the same dies anyways

 

Whats your budget? How much bandwidth?

 

Both are pretty overkill, for most uses a atom will be fine, how much do you care about power usage?

[PenguinMaster]

27 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

They will run 24/7 just fine, there the same dies anyways

 

Whats your budget? How much bandwidth?

 

Both are pretty overkill, for most uses a atom will be fine, how much do you care about power usage?

I want to run a couple servers on the network. I would prefer semi decent power usage. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Chickenfans said:

I want to run a couple servers on the network. I would prefer semi decent power usage. 

How much bandwidth? What features do you need? Id probably get a atom based system.

[PenguinMaster]

14 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

How much bandwidth? What features do you need? Id probably get a atom based system.

Our internet speed is one-gig. I have an external Managed Network Switch, (Quanta LB4M), so enough ethernet ports to connect the switch. I don't know if port prioritization is built into the PfSense OS or not?, but I would like to run PoE voIP Telephones at some point. I used to have the Linksys 3200 ACM router, but I don't need its WiFi capabilities, because I have two WiFi Access Points, and I need something rack-mountable.

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, Chickenfans said:

Our internet speed is one-gig. I have an external Managed Network Switch, (Quanta LB4M), so enough ethernet ports to connect the switch. I don't know if port prioritization is built into the PfSense OS or not?, but I would like to run PoE voIP Telephones at some point. I used to have the Linksys 3200 ACM router, but I don't need its WiFi capabilities, because I have two WiFi Access Points, and I need something rack-mountable.

Since you don't need things like deep packed inspection or a vpn you really won't need much cpu in the router.

 

Also look at a edgerouter.

[PenguinMaster]

1 hour ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Since you don't need things like deep packed inspection or a vpn you really won't need much cpu in the router.

 

Also look at a edgerouter.

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/___ZachG___/saved/#view=ngfXHx

 

Would this work? I think the power supply would be an issue, since there is minimal to no air flow for it. What power supply should I supplement?

[Electronics Wizardy]

9 minutes ago, Chickenfans said:

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/___ZachG___/saved/#view=ngfXHx

 

Would this work? I think the power supply would be an issue, since there is minimal to no air flow for it. What power supply should I supplement?

If your gonna get a nic, get intel, best driver support and there normally faster.

 

The i3 is kinda overkill, but will work fine. Use the stock cooler though, no reason to go aftermarket here.

 

You want a psu with a fan that is on the back.

 

But if you want to go used, id jsut get this.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-PoweEdge-R210-II-1x-Intel-Xeon-Quad-Core-E3-1240-3-30GHz-16GB-NO-HDD-IL/123601419753?hash=item1cc737fde9:g:UMMAAOSwKIpV-uEJ:rk:1:pf:1&frcectupt=true

 

For ssd, id get a used intel s3500 or simmilar. The super cheap ones seem to have a higher failure rate.

[Razor Blade]

If I can chime in on the R410 since I have experience running one barebones with PFsense.

 

In my testing an Dell R410 with a non redundant PSU, running a single L5630, a single SSD in the DVD-ROM slot, and two DIMMs along with opting for the Dell Active Power Management (hardware power management) should get the power consumption to about 70-75W at idle (where it pretty much stays most the time since it is still incredibly overkill hardware for a router)

 

It seems redundant PSUs in my testing will increase power consumption by anywhere from 10-20W with both plugged in and about 5-10W with only one plugged in. A second CPU will increase power consumption by 30-40W but will vary wildly depending on what CPUs you run. Obviously adding more hard drives, memory DIMMs, SSDs, PCIe peripherals, etc will increase power consumption also.

 

NOTE: My testing was done non-scientifically with a kill-a-watt device and compared to a watt meter on the UPS the setup was plugged into. Neither should be considered completely accurate since neither were calibrated or verified with calibrated equipment.

 

 

 

Pros to running the R410 is for one, PFsense runs on it just dandy. No drama or BS. Also it is incredibly cheap! There have been eBay auctions for a single CPU 410 with RAM, HDDs, trays, iDRAC 6 dedicated NIC, and rails for under $100 shipped.. The L5630 CPU you can get for under $10 usually (and not necessary unless you're trying to cut as much power consumption as possible). The drive caddy replace the DVD-ROM with an SSD is about $8 on Amazon. That alone would be worth the price of admission...even if you end up just turning it into a hypervisor box later.

 

Cons to running the R410 would still be power consumption is still a bit on the high side for a router build and a 410 only has one usable PCIe slot. (It does have another slot but it is for an integrated HDD controller) so if you're planning to run 10Gb networking, you're going to have to make due with the 2 integrated Broadcom ports while the PCIe slot is taken by the 10Gb card.

[PenguinMaster]

5 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

If your gonna get a nic, get intel, best driver support and there normally faster.

 

The i3 is kinda overkill, but will work fine. Use the stock cooler though, no reason to go aftermarket here.

 

You want a psu with a fan that is on the back.

 

But if you want to go used, id jsut get this.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-PoweEdge-R210-II-1x-Intel-Xeon-Quad-Core-E3-1240-3-30GHz-16GB-NO-HDD-IL/123601419753?hash=item1cc737fde9:g:UMMAAOSwKIpV-uEJ:rk:1:pf:1&frcectupt=true

 

For ssd, id get a used intel s3500 or simmilar. The super cheap ones seem to have a higher failure rate.

I was looking for power supplies with the fan on the back, and haven’t been able to find anything. Have you seen anything? I am trying to stay away from the Dells mostly because of their power consumption. Will the stock cooler give ample enough cooling for 24/7 runtimes though?

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

21 minutes ago, Chickenfans said:

I was looking for power supplies with the fan on the back, and haven’t been able to find anything. Have you seen anything? I am trying to stay away from the Dells mostly because of their power consumption. Will the stock cooler give ample enough cooling for 24/7 runtimes though?

 

That dell will be very low power, about the same as that system you want to make. Its a single socket system.

 

 

[Alex Atkin UK]

The thing about pfSense is once you start dabbling with it, your requirements may grow so its better to over-specify.

 

This is why I went with a low power i5, as there isn't much point using such a powerful router OS if your CPU limits what you can actually do with it.  Just a single VPN can easily eat up 25% of the CPU at 60Mbit, with Gigabit you definitely would be limiting yourself if you didn't have at LEAST an i3.  The pfSense forum is full of people recommended i5s for Gigabit.

I'm currently waiting delivery of a laptop i5 CPU based appliance from Amazon right now to replace my desktop low-power i5, as that would drop the power consumption from 40W to nearer 15W, at around the same hardware capabilities.

[PenguinMaster]

15 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

That dell will be very low power, about the same as that system you want to make. Its a single socket system.

 

 

What’s the sound level like on these dell’s though?

And for the Router build I had, would this power supply work? Or is it too trashy, I’m having trouble finding anything with a rear exhaust.

[Electronics Wizardy]

52 minutes ago, Chickenfans said:

What’s the sound level like on these dell’s though?

And for the Router build I had, would this power supply work? Or is it too trashy, I’m having trouble finding anything with a rear exhaust.

I have a r230 at work and its silent, the r210ii should be the same way. Id just get one of these, no reason to go diy here.

 

Don't get that psu, its crap.

 

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151078

[PenguinMaster]

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