Qotom Denverton fanless system with 4 SFP+

Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.
is39

is39

Member
Oct 5, 2022
36
21
8
SF Bay Area
Qotom has new series of fan-less Denverton systems with 4 x SFP+ (now, only some of those are 10G, with 0-2-4 options (and corresponding versions of CPU); the rest is 1G SFP+ (!?)), plus 5 x 2.5G:

Qotom Router PC 5 NIC 4 SFP+ X86 Mini Computer Fanless firewall PC

Integrated processor, 5 Gigabit Intel network cards, Type C, Mini SAS, DDR4 memory, 4x10G SFP+
www.qotom.net www.qotom.net
No detailed information on motherboard yet, but it's all quite new.

Prices look attractive, i.e.

Q20331g9 4* Sfp+ 10gbe Ports 5 Intel 2.5gbe Lan Multifunctional Computer Vms Nas Home Server Pfsense Opnsense Mini Pc - Buy C3758 C3758r 4x Sfp+ 10gbe 2.5gbe Nas/ Virtualization Host 4x Sfp+ 10gbe Home Server For Proxmox Ve 4 10g Sfp+ Ports Pfsense Firewall Router Mini Pc Product on Alibaba.com

Q20331g9 4* Sfp+ 10gbe Ports 5 Intel 2.5gbe Lan Multifunctional Computer Vms Nas Home Server Pfsense Opnsense Mini Pc - Buy C3758 C3758r 4x Sfp+ 10gbe 2.5gbe Nas/ Virtualization Host 4x Sfp+ 10gbe Home Server For Proxmox Ve 4 10g Sfp+ Ports Pfsense Firewall Router Mini Pc Product on Alibaba.com
www.alibaba.com
It seems the system also has 2 x M.2 and 2 x SATA for storage and SFF8087 (miniSAS) for something.
AST2400 for video tells me it has BMC, though i do not see dedicated port; could be just for serial console.

Looks like a nice router/VPN platform (may be a bit underpowered for VPN).
 
B

blunden

Active Member
Nov 29, 2019
488
153
43
They don't say what NICs they use for the SFP+ ports unfortunately.

I wonder what the routing performance is like.
 
is39

is39

Member
Oct 5, 2022
36
21
8
SF Bay Area
Well, i've ordered one, ETA next week (!?).
That SFF8087 is for SATA indeed, and can be split into 4 x SATA interfaces.
Motherboard model is MB4C911-0331 (the photo shows MB4C911-0332); but i can't find either on Qotom sites.
This system reminds me of SuperMicro E302-9A / E302-12D, but noticeably cheaper (and corresponding downgrades to save the money).
 
  • Like
Reactions: blunden
J

Jorge Perez

Active Member
Dec 8, 2019
105
45
28
Goddamnit, I was waiting for some decent Denverton 10G routing hardware, but I just started setting up a Wyse 5070 with PFSense.
 
N

newabc

Active Member
Jan 20, 2019
470
244
43
is39 said:
Well, i've ordered one, ETA next week (!?).
That SFF8087 is for SATA indeed, and can be split into 4 x SATA interfaces.
Motherboard model is MB4C911-0331 (the photo shows MB4C911-0332); but i can't find either on Qotom sites.
This system reminds me of SuperMicro E302-9A / E302-12D, but noticeably cheaper (and corresponding downgrades to save the money).
Click to expand...
I am wondering the shipping fee to cons US.
 
T

tozmo

Active Member
Feb 1, 2017
142
102
43
74
This isn't a facetious question, so don't read it in a sarcastic tone:

How does one use these? I have a 2015 era Qotom 4x that I used for PFSense. I retired it and went with a used HP low-power tower where I added a 4x intel NIC, again with PFSense for a router.

How would you use the 4x SFP+ and the 2.5g's? Long ago I read how these types of boxes aren't meant as a switch, they don't have the ASIC that makes it natural, and all packets end up going through the CPU which, even if it's a Xeon, isn't really designed to manage packet-handling well.

Have things changed?
 
is39

is39

Member
Oct 5, 2022
36
21
8
SF Bay Area
Right, this is what've ordered (c3558r). Look at other Qotom selections on Amazon, they have c3338/c3558/c3758 CPU options for this platform.
 
is39

is39

Member
Oct 5, 2022
36
21
8
SF Bay Area
I plan to use it as firewall/router. I do not really need that many 2.5g ethernets, even 1..3 would be enough (IPMI and 1-2 copper);
there is still no clarity if those boxes do have IPMI/KVM, but the video board gives a hint; if it does, it would be a shared port.

This box would replace 4 x GigE Qotom fan-less system. It's connected to a switch which is doing switching; those are cheap-ish now,
even with 10G support.
I cannot use systems with a fan in the target environment (well, i can, but then i end up swapping fans or even systems too often; sticky dust :( ).
 
B

blunden

Active Member
Nov 29, 2019
488
153
43
tozmo said:
This isn't a facetious question, so don't read it in a sarcastic tone:

How does one use these? I have a 2015 era Qotom 4x that I used for PFSense. I retired it and went with a used HP low-power tower where I added a 4x intel NIC, again with PFSense for a router.

How would you use the 4x SFP+ and the 2.5g's? Long ago I read how these types of boxes aren't meant as a switch, they don't have the ASIC that makes it natural, and all packets end up going through the CPU which, even if it's a Xeon, isn't really designed to manage packet-handling well.

Have things changed?
Click to expand...
The intended way to use these are as routers. You would probably only use a small number of the ports, in a simple setup probably just one as WAN and one as LAN. In some cases, you might want to aggregate some of them or have multiple WAN ports if you have redundant internet connections. If you don't want to use vlans for some reason, you could also use some of the ports for different network segments.

No, things have not changed, nor are they likely to do so in the future. Switches exist for good reasons. :)
 
N

newabc

Active Member
Jan 20, 2019
470
244
43
is39 said:
I've found same item on Amazon, shipping $42.
I'm more concerned about quality and availability of BIOS updates.
I've one Qotom box which had initial issues, but eventually worked out ok - years later, once BIOS fix was available.
Click to expand...
For Qotom, probably they will only update the BIOS for 2 or 3 years only.
Probably I was 1 of the users for the 1st batch of Qotom 5th gen i5 quad-port mini PCs(which were so popular in reddit, netgate user forum and STH forum at that moment), but they removed this product from their website around 2 years.
 
B

blunden

Active Member
Nov 29, 2019
488
153
43
The Atom C3758R based model looks very similar to the Netgate 8200 router based on the same SoC.

pfSense Plus How to buy

Purchase pfSense Plus software on a Netgate Appliance, on AWS or Azure as a cloud instance , or as a virtual machine
www.netgate.com www.netgate.com

TNSR How to buy

Purchase TNSR software on a Netgate Appliance, on AWS or Azure as a cloud instance , as a virtual machine, or bare metal image
www.netgate.com www.netgate.com

A good example of the performance difference between pfsense and TNSR on the same hardware. :D
 
N

NablaSquaredG

Layer 1 Magician
Aug 17, 2020
1,345
820
113
Just be aware that if you use transceivers on those SFP+ ports, they might overheat depending on the exact type (some depend on the airflow over them they'll have in usual switches / servers).
 
B

blunden

Active Member
Nov 29, 2019
488
153
43
NablaSquaredG said:
Just be aware that if you use transceivers on those SFP+ ports, they might overheat depending on the exact type (some depend on the airflow over them they'll have in usual switches / servers).
Click to expand...
True. In my case I would be using DAC cables though, which should presumably be fine without it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Vesalius
is39

is39

Member
Oct 5, 2022
36
21
8
SF Bay Area
I've received Q20321G9-S10 system (w/C3558R) and it's pretty much as described.
Did not test it much yet, but both SFP+ interfaces are functional at 10G; the other two (1G SFP+?) are reported by FreeBSD 12.x as 1000BASE-KX ;-)
 
  • Like
Reactions: tigo
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom