Low Power pfsense build ... Denverton?

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jeremy1

New Member
Aug 21, 2017
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I want to build a low power pfsense box for my house and have been waiting for the Denverton release. My internet speed is 100 Down/10 Up so I know I don't need anything too powerful but I want to plan for future upgrades my ISP makes and have QuickAssist for OpenVPN. Other planned uses for the box are Suricata, pfBlockerNG. I was hoping for a predecessor to the C2358 (Dual Core, 1.7-2.1Ghz, QuickAssist, 7W) but none of the Denverton dual core chips (C3338 and C3308 [STH says it does but Intel says it doesn't) have QuickAssist and all the quadore chips have >15W TDP. With the available processors at this point in time Rangeley (C2xxx) seems better suited to my needs except for the LPC Clock Bug. Are there any rumors of additional low powered Denverton CPUs that will be released soon or should? For a single user using OpenVPN to VPN from my phone/laptop to my house will QAT make a major difference? An alternative option I have considered is the Jetway JBC313U591W-3160-B, are there other options I should be looking at?
 

LagrangePoint

New Member
Jul 6, 2016
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Decatur, AL
I just read on a Reddit thread that low end Apollo Lake SoC is "the go to for self built PFSense routers." At $55, it can't hurt to try. For one user, I doubt you need an Atom C2000 or C3000 series. I hardly used 15% CPU on my C2758 running several VM machines.
 

StammesOpfer

Active Member
Mar 15, 2016
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Also the Clock bug isn't the end of the world. I bought a c2758 on the forums here and when that bug came out Supermicro Cross-shipped a new board to me no problem. I am downsizing now so it isn't in use but it is a pretty awesome board. It seems c3xxx is priced higher than similar c2xxx series.
 

cesmith9999

Well-Known Member
Mar 26, 2013
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I just read on a Reddit thread that low end Apollo Lake SoC is "the go to for self built PFSense routers." At $55, it can't hurt to try. For one user, I doubt you need an Atom C2000 or C3000 series. I hardly used 15% CPU on my C2758 running several VM machines.
The only reason that I would go to the SM boards over this is IMPI. other than that, these are the way to go unless you have a LOT of bandwidth

Chris
 

Patrick

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
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@cesmith9999 I can say, I have used IMPI on an old pfSense machine that had an issue. Much better than another time when I had a 12 in USB cable and had to get a serial console restore to a top of rack pfSense machine. Never want to do that again.
 

rubylaser

Active Member
Jan 4, 2013
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Michigan, USA
I love IPMI and have it on all of my Supermicro gear. But, for a simple home connection, I think the value proposition is pretty compelling for the J3355B @ $55. With a bunch of gear in production, I wouldn't even think about using this board for a few reasons, lack of IPMI, not being able to support the fastest internet connections, or maximum VPN throughput, but for a a simple cable connection or the like, this is pretty tough to beat.
 

PigLover

Moderator
Jan 26, 2011
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I'd look for a used Supermicro C2358 board or system. IPMI is wonderful to have - and troubleshooting/repair can be a PITA without it. The clock bug is not a big deal (and, as noted above, SM will offer a simple repair) - but because of the bug reports people are shy about buying these and/or dumping them so deals can be had.

C2358 is plenty to run small site pfSense with some "heavy" add-ons (like Suricata IPS with a large rulebase). If all you need is basic routing/firewall C2358 will do.