OPNsense Forum

English Forums => Hardware and Performance => Topic started by: OpenMind on January 11, 2024, 04:15:37 PM

Title: Mini PC Intel Celeron J4125
Post by: OpenMind on January 11, 2024, 04:15:37 PM
Hi,

I'm new to OPNsense and in the process of setting up my server with OPNsense, my WAN port broke, and I guess it's simply time to upgrade the hardware.

My use case is a few devices (2 or max 3) behind the OPNsense and a OpenVPN/WireGuard VPN Client running on it. It would be nice if the hardware could handle gigabit speeds on the VPN client <=> WAN.

As it's one of my test networks (playground) I was looking for a cheap solution, so I went to AliExpress and found the following: https://aliexpress.com/item/1005003378019857.html

I would go for the J4125 CPU with 8 GB Ram and 64 GB SDD. They state that it got 4 network cards: Intel i225v 2,5g Net

I wonder if this box would handle the gigabit speed and if there is any know compatibility issues with the network cards ?

Any advice ? Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Title: Re: Mini PC Intel Celeron J4125
Post by: meyergru on January 11, 2024, 05:55:36 PM
For 20 bucks more, you can get an N5105 (https://de.aliexpress.com/item/1005005631248505.html), for 40 bucks more an N100, which is nearly twice as fast as the J4125.  Those models also employ the I226V, which has a few bugfixes.
Title: Re: Mini PC Intel Celeron J4125
Post by: OpenMind on January 11, 2024, 06:04:22 PM
Thanks meyergru,

is it worth the 20 bucks extra ? I mean, I just need a decent hardware which can handle the speed at a small price. It's just a test net.
Title: Re: Mini PC Intel Celeron J4125
Post by: meyergru on January 11, 2024, 07:38:33 PM
40 bucks... I would guess that the J4125 is too slow for 1 Gbit/s VPN speed, at least with Wireguard. No guesses for OpenVPN. Considering the known problems with I225 and the rest of the components (RAM and NVME), I would take the N100 as a no-brainer. The N5105 has more power draw, which in the long run could outweigh the price premium on the N100.
Title: Re: Mini PC Intel Celeron J4125
Post by: OpenMind on January 12, 2024, 03:25:14 PM
Thanks, will check and also if there are other solutions too.

Thanks.
Title: Re: Mini PC Intel Celeron J4125
Post by: cookiemonster on January 12, 2024, 03:37:33 PM
You have two extreme requirements. 2-3 devices to route, you can do it with just about anything.
Then 1 Gb VPN, that is what requires some modern cpu that is not rock-bottom price.
Just look on the maker's hardware specs https://shop.opnsense.com/ (https://shop.opnsense.com/) for the hardware used to attain IPSec VPN throughput for an idea.
Title: Re: Mini PC Intel Celeron J4125
Post by: OpenMind on January 18, 2024, 12:22:27 PM
I ran some tests with my older Hardware uning WireGuard.
On 500 MBit I get around 80-90% CPU usage (see screenshot).

I compared the CPU with the N100 and was surprised to see that it's not that much faster.

Thanks for your input, I will see what I do now.