J3445m vs Ryzen 2600

[greyday]

I am currently running OPN on a ryzen 2600 build and it runs great, but the power draw could be better (the build was leftover from a server upgrade, and I figured it would be pretty darn future proof). However, my test bench board died and I was able to get a J3445M on the cheap. I know the power draw will be significantly lower, but what kind of limitations am I looking at if I swap them? I am new(ish) to OPNsense and I've been mostly testing it out currently to eventually replace my ISP provided fiber router, so while I've spent some time reading up I'm not entirely sure what I need overall...

Current needs are firewall, able to run at least 1gb fiber internet (but it'd be good to be prepared for future upgrades to anywhere from 2-10gb), routing split to at least three lans or more (I have expansion cards already), replace my pihole docker on my server, and some light to medium security once my feet are more wet. I've mostly just been learning the configs so far, using it behind the ISP router.

Any arguments for one or the other? Experience with similar "down"grading? General thoughts?

[johndchch]

you're going from a system with a single thread rating of 2250 ( and 6c/12t ) to one with a single thread rating of 800 (4c) - so quite a drop in capacity.

However if you're not running suricata/zenarmor it may well be fine - especially if you add a couple of decent NICs in it ( the onboard lan on the j3445m is realtek - not ideal ). If you're wanting ids and zenarmor - I really doubt it'll keep up though.

In the end the only answer will be to just try it and see how it performs on your current connection

plan B would be run esxi on the ryzen 2600 and virtualise opnsense ( presumiung you're running bare metal at the mo) at least it then gives you the chance to use some of the cpu capacity for other things

[greyday]

I don’t really need the cpu power, either mobo will work just fine as a test bench…

I think from your summary I am going to just keep the 2600 running as is. It’ll waste more energy (I have solar so waste is a loose term here, but still) but it will definitely be more future proof as well as capable for experimenting with features. Thank you!

[ReDaLeRt]

Consider managing the CPU through the BIOS configuration to achieve lower power consumption on idle for the Ryzen 2600 CPU.

Also, use powerd to force the CPU to lower clock speeds as much as possible. On my i5 4690k, its idle power consumption at the power plug is around 60W. The CPU load on my firewall usually is below 20%.