OPNsense Forum
English Forums => Hardware and Performance => Topic started by: racielrod on August 06, 2018, 03:59:53 pm
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Hello,
After moving from a consumer grade all-in-one router to a Ubiquity Edgerouter in the last year, I'm not considering exploring one of the available open source router solutions and OpnSense is in the top of my list.
I would like to find the right hardware that better balances
- Power
- Power efficiency
- Cost
While cost is always important I'm willing to stretch my budget for the right hardware if it checks the first 2 items.
Ideally I want to buy something that I can play with and use for a few years to come; so having some room to grow is important.
These are the features I'll be shooting for:
- Future: VPN Client (Maximize bandwidth on a 1Gbps link)
- Future: VPN Server
- Future: IDS
- QoS
... and these are some of my preferences
- Small form factor (mini/micro ITX?)
- Passive cooling is preferred
- Dual nic is fine (3-4 would be nice to have)
- Intel nics
- Ability to handle 1Gpbs w/o maxing-out resources (future proof)
- Power efficient (not sure about what I should be shooting for here in terms of power consumption while idling vs full load, etc).
- Processor supports AES-NI
I have been watching those Qotom boxes but I'm not sure if there is anything else worth considering, especially when it comes to putting together a build on my own.
I would really appreciate any recommendations you have based on your own experiences.
Thanks in advance!
R. Rod
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Qotom's are very good. I have two, one live and one for development both i5. Three other members of Team Rebellion also use Qotom units, they work perfectly. If you buy one though, remember to do the heat-sink compound change, they run a lot cooler then.
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+1, got one of those (in i5) too and it works well. Runs a little hot in its cupboard in hot summer ambient temperatures (30ish C ambient) but solved that with small USB fan against the case. Sort of defeats the purpose of the otherwise fanless design, but oh well. Haven’t tried replacing the CPU thermal paste.
Speed wise I can push approx 800Mbit with IDS enabled. Haven’t speed tested VPN.
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Mines averaging 43c. Ambient is around 28c. Twin USB fans as it's enclosed on 3 sides on a cabinet shelf. Cooling helped by these:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/AC-Infinity-MULTIFAN-Receiver-Playstation/dp/B00IJ2J2K0/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1533588947&sr=8-3&keywords=ac+infinity+dual+fan (https://www.amazon.co.uk/AC-Infinity-MULTIFAN-Receiver-Playstation/dp/B00IJ2J2K0/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1533588947&sr=8-3&keywords=ac+infinity+dual+fan)
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Thank you for your replies!
It is great to confirm Qotom works fine, I will try the thermal paste for sure. This will go on a small rack inside a closet, I will monitor the temperature very close, if needed I'm thinking https://www.acinfinity.com for the entire closet.
I see you are using Q355G4 which has a Bradwell
Intel® Core™ i5-5250U Processor 3M Cache, up to 2.70 GHz
Very similar in price Qotom has the Q515G6 which features a
Intel 7th Gen Celeron Kabylake SOC Processor,Default 3865U Dual Core Processor, 1.8GHz, 2M Cache
Link: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/QOTOM-Q355G4-2017-New-fanless-X86-4-LAN-Micro-Computer-I5-5250U-Dual-core-onboard-1080P/32800711474.html
Should I go for the newer architecture?
Not that I think I need it, but the Q515G6 would support up to 16Gb, uses DDR4 and the board comes with 6 nics (again, 4 should be plenty).
I searched for Q515G6 on this forum but I couldn't find anything.
Thoughts?
Thanks again!
R. Rod
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It's a Celeron CPU, no where near the performance. Check it out on CPUBoss.
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thanks for this info. i am going to try the Qotom-Q375G4 (Intel Core i7 5500U). a bit concerned about this one overheating.
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Qotom's are very good. I have two, one live and one for development both i5. Three other members of Team Rebellion also use Qotom units, they work perfectly. If you buy one though, remember to do the heat-sink compound change, they run a lot cooler then.
where can i get more info on this heat-sink compound?
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Just get hold of some good heat sink compound, Arctic silver 5, Cooler Master HTK-002 or Arctic Cooling MX-2, they are all better than the stuff that Qotom uses, take your pick on Amazon - and remember less is more, too much compound is as bad as too little.
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thanks for this info. i am going to try the Qotom-Q375G4 (Intel Core i7 5500U). a bit concerned about this one overheating.
Buddy of mine Nivek1612 has the i7 version, did the compound change and it runs as cool as the i5.
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I got the 7th Gen Celeron.
Runs at 43 C :o
I will try fan first then compound change.
There is only 1 person (me) on this network and my WAN speed is 140/50 so dont really need a i5.
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Qotim i5 5300, compound and fans. I've never seen it go over 45c, even during the recent heatwave.
(https://image.ibb.co/enmJSp/Capture.png)
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thanks.. i am going to try the arctic mx4 compound in the qotom G375G4. if still running hot then probably add a fan as well.
the manual for the motherboard Q3215UG4-P is surprisingly good (http://www.qotom.net/images/upload/File/Q3215UG4-P%20User%20Manual.pdf (http://www.qotom.net/images/upload/File/Q3215UG4-P%20User%20Manual.pdf)). should be easy enough to install to the fan header (#21 on the front of the board).
what do you all suggest for a fan? there is not much space in that qotom case. maybe one of these low profile fans (https://www.logicsupply.com/products/components/accessories/cpu-coolers-fans/). or i would love to find a reasonably priced semiconductor cooler (peltier device).