Netgate SG-5100 Firewall and Network Appliance Review

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altmind

Active Member
Sep 23, 2018
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unimpressive hardware with unimpressive connectivity with a price too high.

the routing performance is also meh.

grab a used or not-used hp t640+intel nic, it will still be double the power and some expandability.
 
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zer0sum

Well-Known Member
Mar 8, 2013
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I'd love to see a review of one of the tiny micro appliances you can find on Amazon etc. for $250 or so :)
Here's one, that just needs that old RAM and mSATA you've got floating in your junk drawers.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072ZTCNLK/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=AZEYJ27R4YB41&psc=1
  • Intel Quad Core Atom E3845, 64 bit, 1.9GHz, 2MB L2 Cache
  • Fanless with passive heatsinks
  • Full AES-NI hardware support
  • 4x Intel Gigabit Ethernet NIC ports
  • DDR3L RAM
  • mSATA SSD
  • 1x USB 2.0
  • 1x USB 3.0
  • 1x RJ-45 COM (serial)
  • 1x VGA
 
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T_Minus

Build. Break. Fix. Repeat
Feb 15, 2015
7,625
2,043
113
I'd love to see a review of one of the tiny micro appliances you can find on Amazon etc. for $250 or so :)
Here's one, that just needs that old RAM and mSATA you've got floating in your junk drawers.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072ZTCNLK/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=AZEYJ27R4YB41&psc=1
  • Intel Quad Core Atom E3845, 64 bit, 1.9GHz, 2MB L2 Cache
  • Fanless with passive heatsinks
  • Full AES-NI hardware support
  • 4x Intel Gigabit Ethernet NIC ports
  • DDR3L RAM
  • mSATA SSD
  • 1x USB 2.0
  • 1x USB 3.0
  • 1x RJ-45 COM (serial)
  • 1x VGA
I have 2+ years on older gen of this with no AES-NI support.
Works fine for my basic home setup. I'm also only pushing 20\20, but have done multi-WAN with it no issue.

You pay for the size, and ease of install\mount that's for sure ;) My next setup is c2xxx based ATOM, I'm DIY in a tiny ITX case so I can get AES-NI and handle more bandwidth when I upgrade :D and more rules \ learning :D
 

SRussell

Active Member
Oct 7, 2019
327
152
43
US
I have 2+ years on older gen of this with no AES-NI support.
Works fine for my basic home setup. I'm also only pushing 20\20, but have done multi-WAN with it no issue.

You pay for the size, and ease of install\mount that's for sure ;) My next setup is c2xxx based ATOM, I'm DIY in a tiny ITX case so I can get AES-NI and handle more bandwidth when I upgrade :D and more rules \ learning :D
Are you using a recertified c2xxx board? If not, are you worried about running into the failure bug?
 

T_Minus

Build. Break. Fix. Repeat
Feb 15, 2015
7,625
2,043
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Are you using a recertified c2xxx board? If not, are you worried about running into the failure bug?
Yes.

There was a buy on these a few months back or last year? And I believe we all were able to RMA them. I had some others I sent in at the same time :) I'm just now getting back to putting them to use lol.
 
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SRussell

Active Member
Oct 7, 2019
327
152
43
US
Yes.

There was a buy on these a few months back or last year? And I believe we all were able to RMA them. I had some others I sent in at the same time :) I'm just now getting back to putting them to use lol.
Is your board AsRock or SuperMicro? I have an AsRock that died that I never bothered to replace.. I wonder how far they extended the warranty?
 

T_Minus

Build. Break. Fix. Repeat
Feb 15, 2015
7,625
2,043
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All of mine are SuperMicro, I sold my only ASROCK one a couple years back now iirc
 

Deslok

Well-Known Member
Jul 15, 2015
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deslok.dyndns.org
Maybe it was due to hyper-v overhead but I tried going for gigabit on a C2570 but was only able to get to 600 or so(it didn't seem to help throwing more cores at the vm than 4 and SR-IOV was enabled)

That said if you have 20/20 I don't think you're in any danger on a c2xxx board
 

zer0sum

Well-Known Member
Mar 8, 2013
849
473
63
I have 2+ years on older gen of this with no AES-NI support.
Works fine for my basic home setup. I'm also only pushing 20\20, but have done multi-WAN with it no issue.

You pay for the size, and ease of install\mount that's for sure ;) My next setup is c2xxx based ATOM, I'm DIY in a tiny ITX case so I can get AES-NI and handle more bandwidth when I upgrade :D and more rules \ learning :D
Mine is easily handling my 1gbps cable connection, and is running an ESXi 6.7 server with an OPNsense firewall with 2 cores / 2 threads, with 8gb ram, with VMXNET3 adapters :)

I haven't really tested vpn throughput as I'm happy with nebula/wireguard and am more interested in meshed connectivity :D

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