Consumption and network adapter

[rigel]

Hello,

I'm newbie and i have some questions about hardware.
I already have a Intel Core I5 3470T, two 4Go SoDimm DDR3 and a 120Go SSD.
So, i search and found firewall of the LGA 1155 motherboard:

https://fr.aliexpress.com/store/product/HCiPC-M505-2-LAN-HCB75SFP-6L-Intel-B75-82574L-6LAN-2-I350-Fiber-LAN-By-Pass/404571_32717744366.html
https://fr.aliexpress.com/store/product/Firewall-industrial-embedded-motherboard-B75-LGA-1155-socket-Motherboard-B75SL-with-6LAN-2-BYPASS-3-SATAIII/2160029_32712325845.html

I would use my OPNbox with proxy, IDS, VPN and maybe other packages for fun and learning.
My connexion speed is actually 1MBytes, but i already want my OPNbox for fiber coming this year or next years.
Wattage calculator estimate 161W for a full charge, but is not realistic in use.
How much energy can you estimate for this platteform or/and how much energy consume your opnbox if you built it ?



These motherboards incorporate the Intel 83583 or Intel 82574L network adapter.
Modern plateform incorporates Intel I211-AT or other network adaptater.
What are the differences of this network card and the consequences on OPNsense ?
Search engines say nothing about these differences.


Thank's.

[opnfwb]

Older Intel NIC chipsets will use the EM driver, whereas newer NIC chipsets will use the IGB drivers. The IGB drivers/chips have more offload features and tweaks compared to the EM driver however, both NICs are good quality and will easily support 1000/1000 connections without overwhelming the processor.

The wattage calculation seems quite high. If you leave powerD enabled and use an efficient power supply, I would expect an idle using somewhere between 20W to 40W, maybe 50W at a maximum under full load.

You may be better off sourcing the all-in-one Qotom firewall options that are passively cooled and use 12VDC power supplies for better efficiency and space management.

For reference, a current overkill OPNsense box of mine has an Intel i3-4130, 16GB DDR3, 100GB 2.5inch 5400RPM HDD, and a quad port Intel 82580 NIC. The whole thing is powered with an ATX 110V 80+ Bronze 280W power supply. Power consumption is 30W.

Here is the manpage for the EM driver and supported chipsets: https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=em&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=FreeBSD+11.1-RELEASE&arch=amd64&format=html

Here's the manpage for the IGB driver and supported chipsets: https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=igb&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=FreeBSD+11.1-RELEASE&arch=amd64&format=html

[rigel]

For energy consumption, it reassures me.
I thought a consumption close to 100W for built solutions.
In the end, it's not nearly as energizing as the Quotom's box given the extra CPU power.
This remains reasonable for me.

I saw the Qotom's box, but I'm afraid of being CPU limited.
The form factor does not really matter to me, there are small boxes now.
I'm not very fanless, heat is the enemy of electronics.
And I'm not sure that we can have the full power of the CPU in time without it being forced to slow down because of the limitations of the envellope thermal.
I read that some of the users of boxs use USB fans to cool their boxes, it's quite ironic.
But for basic use, I think it's still a good solution.


For NICs, I read the datasheet to see these offloads even though I am far from understanding everything.