Potential pfSense (or other x86 Router Distro) box - Shuttle XH110/XH110v

[sfx2000]

Saw this over at Fry's today...

http://global.shuttle.com/main/productsDetail?productId=2007

It's a barebones box - so have to supply CPU/RAM/Storage, but oddly compelling as it has Dual Intel GigE network interfaces, along with plenty of expansion for RAM and Storage - plus two m2 slots (add a couple of WiFi cards perhaps?)

At Fry's, they go for $228.99...

http://www.frys.com/product/8873252?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

Drop in a skylake i3 or i5, and along with 8GB of RAM, along with a small SSD, and one would never have to be concerned about VPN performance

 

[System Error Message]

The main question is the price of configuration with quad core i7. Intel has skull mini PC now that dont have dual Gbe ports but have thunderbolt with PCIe compatibility which means eGPU case with multiport (or 10Gb/s) PCIe network card.

Still for i3 it would suit most at the price of a high end consumer router.

 

[sfx2000]

Would be really nice to have Thunderbolt capability with that box - as then one could add on a 10GBE end-point, but sad that it's lacking a bit there (was hoping Skylake would have TB on-chip, but for consumer/enthusiast chips, if I recall correctly (and I might be wrong here), it's still off-chip as dedicated silicon).

Prices for components are pretty much known, so deciding between i3/i5/i7 (or even Pentium/Celeron) depends on how deep one's wallet is...

Shopping smart, one could do an i3 box, and have more than enough to handle a gigabit connection, and excellent VPN performance -

With an i7 - stuff enough RAM into it with enough storage - one could actually stand up an OpenStack and Hadoop BigData analysis lab - ESXi or Linux with KVM/LXC would do nicely, and have "Cloud in a box"...

 

[RMerlin]

Personally, I wouldn't consider any of these boxes unless it was passively cooled.

 

[sfx2000]

Intel has skull mini PC now that dont have dual Gbe ports but have thunderbolt with PCIe compatibility

I like the Skull Trail NUC (heck, I like NUC's period), but the price of entry on it, and that one still has to add storage and RAM, and the storage options are somewhat limited compared to the box I mentioned above... and having to work with a laptop CPU vs. a desktop CPU, under load, that can be a problem...

It's a different solution to a different problem with a different answer - and not the best option for setting up a router...

 

[LouisvilleUK]

Very curious on opinions about pfSense mini box setup components. Starting to dip my toes in as a side project with pfSense, more of a learning thing for myself and looking into building a box.

The pfSense forum folks seem to push the “Rangeley” Atom chips (C2558 & C2578) with QuickAssist.

Anyone here build their own? Any regrets? Do you wish you had just bought from pfSense Store?

Any thoughts, information and resource links greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[garyd9]

Anyone here build their own? Any regrets? Do you wish you had just bought from pfSense Store?

Any thoughts, information and resource links greatly appreciated.

I built one... based around a "Supermicro Mini ITX A1SRI-2558F-O" board in a M350 mini-ITX case. Here are the amazon links for the parts I used. (I had an old SSD I installed with it):

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HS4NLHA/?tag=snbforums-20
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003DXI288/?tag=snbforums-20
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00316T5S8/?tag=snbforums-20
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009NQLT0M/?tag=snbforums-20
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00UZVSVYQ/?tag=snbforums-20
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CUYOGRM/?tag=snbforums-20

Regrets? Not really...

I wish that the motherboard had a mSATA (or even M.2) slot, which would have made installing an SSD easier (and resulted in a less restricted airflow in the case.) For memory, I installed 2x 8GB (total of 16GB) which is WAY overkill for pfsense, but I really wanted to populate 2 memory slots, and I couldn't find 2x 4GB pieces in stock and available for amazon prime delivery.

I installed a 40mm fan, but ended up disconnecting it. Instead, I have a 120mm 5v fan just blowing air over the case. It's completely silent (to my ears) and keeps the CPU cores down to just 15 degrees Celsius over room temp. (@RMerlin, does that count as passive cooling?)

Do you wish you had just bought from pfSense Store?

No, not at all: Assembling this little box gave me the chance to teach my 10 year old son the basics of assembling a computer. In fact, he pretty much put the whole thing together with me over his shoulder. He was happier than I was when it first POST'd and worked. THAT was priceless.

You need to be careful when putting together a box for pfsense, as it's using freeBSD which is somewhat limited in available hardware drivers. "Bleeding edge" might be tempting, but it's really just bleeding money if the freeBSD kernel doesn't support something.

 

[System Error Message]

Personally, I wouldn't consider any of these boxes unless it was passively cooled.

not even with silent fans? Fans help to keep moving so dust wont settle on it especially with dust filters.

 

[RMerlin]

not even with silent fans? Fans help to keep moving so dust wont settle on it especially with dust filters.

Fans are also a great way to collect the dust from far away in your room, and put it on your device, rather than just the nearby ambient dust that would settle on top of your case, with almost none of it getting inside.

And fans don't tend to stay silent as they start ageing.

They are plenty of industrial designs that are totally passively cooled, so no reason not to go with one of these if you are going to spend a few hundred dollars on a complete build anyway. Will mean downgrading the i3 for a Celeron or a Pentium in some cases, but that's usually fine, as long it's a modern architecture.

What can I say, I have very sensitive hearing, and noise quickly get on my nerves. A few years ago we did a test, I was the only person in my office able to tell by listening on the phone if our DSL modem was synced or not (none of my colleagues could hear the difference )

 

[System Error Message]

Fans are also a great way to collect the dust from far away in your room, and put it on your device, rather than just the nearby ambient dust that would settle on top of your case, with almost none of it getting inside.

And fans don't tend to stay silent as they start ageing.

They are plenty of industrial designs that are totally passively cooled, so no reason not to go with one of these if you are going to spend a few hundred dollars on a complete build anyway. Will mean downgrading the i3 for a Celeron or a Pentium in some cases, but that's usually fine, as long it's a modern architecture.

What can I say, I have very sensitive hearing, and noise quickly get on my nerves. A few years ago we did a test, I was the only person in my office able to tell by listening on the phone if our DSL modem was synced or not (none of my colleagues could hear the difference )

Well i silenced my CCR by replacing them with scythe fans and i can barely hear them. So it shouldnt bother you either. What would you do if asus started putting fans on their routers?

 

[garyd9]

What would you do if asus started putting fans on their routers?

I think they already started. Doesn't the 5300 have a fan? (The internal pictures here show one: http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...eless-ac5300-tri-band-gigabit-router-reviewed)

I know that the AC3200 (which didn't have a fan) could have used one. That thing got HOT. In fact, my little pfsense box with no air circulation whatsoever maxed out at around 47C core temp, which was considerably less than the AC3200 would show in the same situation.

 

[RMerlin]

Well i silenced my CCR by replacing them with scythe fans and i can barely hear them. So it shouldnt bother you either. What would you do if asus started putting fans on their routers?

I would stick to models that didn't have one.

I don't need to use their highest-end router for my LAN. For instance while I have both an RT-AC88U and an RT-AC5300, I use the RT-AC88U because I have zero need for the extra 5 GHz radio, and I find the RT-AC5300 too big and out of place for my living room.

 

[RMerlin]

Doesn't the 5300 have a fan?

It doesn't, tho I suspect that they considered it during development, based on some code I found in the firmware.

 

[System Error Message]

I would stick to models that didn't have one.

I don't need to use their highest-end router for my LAN. For instance while I have both an RT-AC88U and an RT-AC5300, I use the RT-AC88U because I have zero need for the extra 5 GHz radio, and I find the RT-AC5300 too big and out of place for my living room.

Dont you use the AC5300 as decoration? Make it seem spider like.