Supermicro X7SPE-HF-D525 / X7SPA-HF-D525 Thread

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lpallard

Member
Aug 17, 2013
276
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Interesting solutions, but for a $200USD router, I dont think I'll find anything :)

Patrick: I've already looked at the Atom S1260... Although it looks like a very interesting embedded platform, its overpriced! I couldnt find anything for less than $450!

The new Atom "Avoton" and "Rangeley" CPU's are also all 400$+..

Unless I opt for a Celeron based platform with support for 8GB RAM (Do I really need ECC for pfsense???) and two NIC's with a PCIE slot, all is left are expensive comemrcial solutions such as the Supermicro or S1260 based platforms designed to be miniature servers...

I will keep searching for a decent solution. Ideally, if I could find an embedded platform with the required features for less than $100, I'd be very happy, even if that means going down the second hand road..
 

TangoWhiskey9

Active Member
Jun 28, 2013
402
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Interesting solutions, but for a $200USD router, I dont think I'll find anything :)

Patrick: I've already looked at the Atom S1260... Although it looks like a very interesting embedded platform, its overpriced! I couldnt find anything for less than $450!

The new Atom "Avoton" and "Rangeley" CPU's are also all 400$+..

Unless I opt for a Celeron based platform with support for 8GB RAM (Do I really need ECC for pfsense???) and two NIC's with a PCIE slot, all is left are expensive comemrcial solutions such as the Supermicro or S1260 based platforms designed to be miniature servers...

I will keep searching for a decent solution. Ideally, if I could find an embedded platform with the required features for less than $100, I'd be very happy, even if that means going down the second hand road..
Celeron. If only one had Intel NICs. I think you can have 16GB with Celerons?

Hey - you do know that unless you have like a 1 gigabit WAN connection, an Atom D510 or D525 is going to work fiine right?
 

lpallard

Member
Aug 17, 2013
276
11
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Hey - you do know that unless you have like a 1 gigabit WAN connection, an Atom D510 or D525 is going to work fiine right?
Absolutely! a 1Gbps WAN is not gonna happen soon, especially here in Canada... Unless you pay $6,500 a month ;)

I realize that I forgot to mention: I intend to do snort on LAN side as well as WAN. Unless I am mistaken, then a dual core CPU at 2.0GHz + will be strongly advised..

I dont know for sure if Celeron's take 16GB RAM... I surely hope so, and wouldnt be surprised if they did.

Right now I am leaning toward totally different architectures:

Embedded D525 with 8GB RAM (Supermicro X7SPE-HF-D525 or similar)
Embedded Celeron platform with 16GB RAM (GIGABYTE GA-C1007UN-D or GA-C1037UN-D) None have dual INTEL NIC's!! Is that big of a deal?? My current D510 platform uses dual Realtek and I never had problems with them...
Standard platform with Pentium G3220 or i3 or similar low end desktop chip and corresponding mobo.

Each solution has its own pros/cons. The embedded D525 will suffice plenty for the foreseeable future on the WAN side of things, but will most likely bottleneck on Snort/HAVP/Squid transactions for WAN, LAN1 & LAN2 (the DMZ). Also, it supports "only" 8GB RAM (officially 4GB). Should be plenty but currently I am maxing out 4GB so how much more will I use? If I end up at 150% of now, then I will be reaching the 8GB.. The D525 will allow rackmount in a 1U case easily, and is very low power.

The embedded celeron will, I think at least, offer similar or slightly better performance than the D525 but its bigger advantage is the bigger memory support. Other than that, it will generate more heat and require active cooling (or an oversized heatsink) and none of the embedded celeron platforms have Intel Nics...

Finally, the so-called standard platform will allow to customize everything (have dual Intel Nics, and some PCIE slots for additional Gigabit adapters, support 16GB + RAM and a fast dual core (although low end) CPU. The only downside is the noise and power consumption. Also, I am not sure I could fit such build in a 1U case...

Unbelievable, I succeeded in confusing myself.... :cool:
 

lpallard

Member
Aug 17, 2013
276
11
18
I actually decided, unless this is a very bad idea, to go down the virtualization road and virtualize my pfsense router. This is mainly to eliminate the number of physical machines in my already cluttered home office and because of the ever increasing electricity costs....

My current server has plenty of overhead power that still has to be tapped. Why not go down the VM road and give it a try!?

Now I need to find a good quad port NIC for the server. I decided to open a new thread on this forum (http://forums.servethehome.com/networking/2905-quad-port-gigabit-nic-virtualization.html) to get people's feedback... The whole server business is still a monster to me so..
;)
 

Patrick

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
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I know I keep raising dead threads, but, @Patrick did you ever try out some 8GB DIMMs?
And the ECC bit?
I hate to say it, but I cannot remember 8 years ago overly clearly in what we tested on this board. I think we did, but I apologize. 8 years ago almost seems like a lifetime at this point.
 

JediAcolyte

Active Member
May 29, 2020
187
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US
I hate to say it, but I cannot remember 8 years ago overly clearly in what we tested on this board. I think we did, but I apologize. 8 years ago almost seems like a lifetime at this point.
Its ok! I knew it was a long shot. I'll get some larger DIMMs and try them out and report back. Its been a great little pfsense box so far.