Supermicro A1SRi-2558F

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pyro_

Active Member
Oct 4, 2013
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Damn those are tempting. If they were matx I would already have one on the way
 

Dajinn

Active Member
Jun 2, 2015
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Wow, that's nice. How is the performance of this as a router? I mean aren't the E3 Xeons practically overkill for that kind of stuff anyway?
 

Patrick

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
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Wow, that's nice. How is the performance of this as a router? I mean aren't the E3 Xeons practically overkill for that kind of stuff anyway?
These have not only AES-NI but also QA which pfSense is allegedly going to be using soon. More than enough (and then some) for router, firewall, proxy and etc up to 1gbps without issue.
 

abstractalgebra

Active Member
Dec 3, 2013
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MA, USA
Nice find, they are normally $240-250 on amazon/superbiz.
Now what chassis to use and then the sodimm ram... This kingston is the cheapest ECC RAM I found so far:

What card would you use to add 801.11n+ wireless to this?

Kingston 8GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM ECC Unbuffered DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Server Memory Model KVR16LSE11/8KF
Newegg $59
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820239958
 
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canta

Well-Known Member
Nov 26, 2014
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These have not only AES-NI but also QA which pfSense is allegedly going to be using soon. More than enough (and then some) for router, firewall, proxy and etc up to 1gbps without issue.
just my opinion:
AES is good for VPN.

for router, you can get cheap stuff with N3150 :D. and can do add extra VMs too..

vpn is the biggest killer on processing power due on encryption and decryption..
I would worry on Atom/bay trail D pentium can handle only very limited vpn connections.

E3 has more processing power and low power in idle...

even on old miniitx SoC, router can be dong without issue:D
my first router was VIA C800 with 256M DDR RAM and 256M Compact flash, I kept it till the last breath :D.
I think C800 had AES...
 

canta

Well-Known Member
Nov 26, 2014
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Wow, that's nice. How is the performance of this as a router? I mean aren't the E3 Xeons practically overkill for that kind of stuff anyway?
router only? I would say overkill for regular use..

if VPN is the major connection ( 5 or more), get i3 or E3 due on encryption and decryption.

I like I3 and E3 power consumption scaling.. good during idle and performance.

btw... I avoid marve... chipset. they tend to cut all corners :p
 

Dajinn

Active Member
Jun 2, 2015
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router only? I would say overkill for regular use..

if VPN is the major connection ( 5 or more), get i3 or E3 due on encryption and decryption.

I like I3 and E3 power consumption scaling.. good during idle and performance.

btw... I avoid marve... chipset. they tend to cut all corners :p
'Cept for the corners of the chip when it's soldered to the board itself :cool:
 

RTM

Well-Known Member
Jan 26, 2014
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if VPN is the major connection ( 5 or more), get i3 or E3 due on encryption and decryption.
While I am not generally fond of buying stuff with the hope that something "might" be implemented in the future, the rangeley platform has some serious potential for becoming an awesome VPN box. As Patrick mentioned, Rangeley (c2558/c2358/c2758) supports QuickAssist, which is a separate crypto engine that should be many times more efficient than using AES-NI.

I do not consider these numbers very accurate (they change a little for every blog post), but if they hold up somewhat, the QA in a C2758 should be able to do 7/8Gbps IPSEC (src 1, 2) and a "fast quad core Xeon" should be able to do about 2 Gbps IPSEC (src 2).

Apparently QA in C2558 is slower than C2758, but even half of 7/8 Gbps is pretty awesome for such as small box.
 

JimPhreak

Active Member
Oct 10, 2013
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Nice find @Patrick! Just picked one up. Currently have my pfSense router virtualized on my ESXi box but now that I'm moving it to a rack chassis I'd like to break it out and separate it from my main server. Already have a left over 4GB stick of SODIMM ECC RAM for it and a SATA DOM SSD I can use with it. Just need to pickup a case/psu for it. I used the M350 with a PicoPSU a few months back for the router for my second home, wondering if I should do the same here or test something new.
 

spyrule

Active Member
I have the A1SAi version of this board, and I run Sophos UTM 9 on it, and its rock solid, and performs awesome. Highest CPU so far is about 9% when I was doing a major version upgrade a few months past.

Only thing to be aware of, these boards DO NOT support ANY non ECC memory. So just make sure you plan for that when ordering hardware (my supplier told me my ram was ECC, when in fact it wasn't, and I had to wait an extra 2 weeks to get my ram... grrrr).
 

JimPhreak

Active Member
Oct 10, 2013
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I have the A1SAi version of this board, and I run Sophos UTM 9 on it, and its rock solid, and performs awesome. Highest CPU so far is about 9% when I was doing a major version upgrade a few months past.

Only thing to be aware of, these boards DO NOT support ANY non ECC memory. So just make sure you plan for that when ordering hardware (my supplier told me my ram was ECC, when in fact it wasn't, and I had to wait an extra 2 weeks to get my ram... grrrr).
I wish UTM would freakin' support OpenVPN client connections. It's literally the ONE thing stopping me from using it on my home network. I use it at work and love it.
 

CreoleLakerFan

Active Member
Oct 29, 2013
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I have a couple of 8gb ecc sodimms that I used in a SuperMicro C2750 that I'll let go for $40 ea if anyone needs memory for one of these boards.
 

JimPhreak

Active Member
Oct 10, 2013
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Can anyone point me to a quality 1u rack mountable chassis to use with this board? Preferable something that won't be super loud as it will be in my living room until I move into a new house next year.