I've absolutely had it with store bought POS routers. Want to build my own.

[aigomorla]

Aigo I was eyeing that exact board. It looks PERFECT. Thanks for the info and ideas about the APs. I think that is what I'll be buying tonight then.

if its for a router, you wont be disappointed. :biggrin:

just make sure u have a switch for it, as it only has 2 ethernet ports... which one goes to the modem.
So if u want to connect additional devices, you will require a switch.

If your going to go with the uni-fi route like i did, then a PoE switch may make your life a bit easier (less wire clutter) but the uni-fi box comes with a PoE injector, so its not required.

 

[Carson Dyle]

120 bucks for an Atom motherboard? Just because it has two NICs?

 

[Red Squirrel]

It looks like that mobo has the cpu too, so that's actually a pretty good deal. Just add ram, hard drive and psu and you have a fully functional computer system.

 

[Keysplayr]

120 bucks for an Atom motherboard? Just because it has two NICs?

Comes with the CPU, sips power and it has two "INTEL" NICs. Plays nice with most operating systems. Less headaches. And, you can't come near this for routing power with over the counter store bought junk routers for the same money. Not even close.. I paid 149.00 for this ASUS POS. Never again.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Sorry, I just don't see it. You can buy Atom motherboards for $60-70 and add a NIC card.

 

[aigomorla]

Sorry, I just don't see it. You can buy Atom motherboards for $60-70 and add a NIC card.

that would make it sort of bulky...
The pci-e nick card will not fit on a slim itx case.

That is why i decided to go with everything onboard.

And if u add the cost... 70 + 20 - 30 dollar Intel PCI-e nic, it will come out to a difference of about 20-30 dollars...

 

[code65536]

Is an Intel NIC really that important? I've been using Realtek's GbE NICs for many years (they're the default NIC in pretty much everything) and have never once had a problem with them. Ever. Not even a glitch.

Granted, I've only used them with Windows, but they seem pretty rock solid to me.

Dual Realtek GbE, mini-ITX, fanless Bay Trail, $85:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128698

 

[aigomorla]

Is an Intel NIC really that important? I've been using Realtek's GbE NICs for many years (they're the default NIC in pretty much everything) and have never once had a problem with them. Ever. Not even a glitch.

for pfsense and smoothwall, yes.
Intel nics have the best compatability with everything.
They also have the fastest communication transfer with the lowest latency.

for windows no...

this isnt a board id use for windows, its a board i use for a router when using pfsense or smoothwall.

Also using broadwell cpu can open a new can of worms of freebsd core hasnt been updated.
Its best to use something which people say works, and hasnt had a problem.

Id did a ton of research on pfsense and smoothwall compatible setups.
If its for a router, u cant go wrong on that board.

 

[dtgoodwin]

Keys, i use this board for all my routers now.
http://www.amazon.com/BLKD2500CCE-In...d2500+dual+nic

Its the perfect thing for a router.
-Dual intel Nics.
-Atom x64
-Itx form factor.

I run that with smoothwall.
It is tucked inside a Habey case, which is HORRIBLE for anyhting else besides an ATOM.
http://www.amazon.com/Mini-ITX-Alumi...rds=habey+case

I needed either that or, go with a morex case with a picupsu.

I have it on a 2.5inch 200gig 7200rpm laptop drive i had during a SSD upgrade on a laptop.
I threw in a spare 2GB SODIMM module i had left over again in a upgrade.

Smoothwall Express 3.1 x64 installed on it without a hitch.
I have hammered it with torrents, and anything else you could possibly hammer it with and it doesnt go down.
I have also used the VPN without a hitch.


I have built about 3 of them.
one for my house, and two for my cousins all without problems.

I dont have wifi on my router tho, i have it connected to a switch, which then has Ubiquiti's Unifi AP's attached to them to get my wifi.
http://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-UniFi...ubiquiti+unifi

I required placing 3 AP's though out my house to get full coverage at 5 bars, hence why i went that route.
And yeah, i get signal even half a block away.
My neighbor even came over and asked what the heck i was running for him to always see full bars even at his house next door.

I went the exact same route, except I used a Gigabyte ITX board with a mobile Celeron 847 processor and dual Realtek (yuk) NICS, a 120 GB 5400 RPM drive, and 2 GB of RAM all stuffed inside MiniBox ITX case with an 80-watt PicoPSU. It draws about 11 watts under load or not. I paid $50.00 for the motherboard, and $70 for the case/ps. I wish the had Intel, but the Realtek do work, just not as well under heavy load. I run Smoothwall 3.0 on it. The only time it ever gets shut down or restarted is when I've had to move it.

I run two Ubiquity Unify APs. They are absolutely fantastic for the price, AP handoff is seamless, and again, never had to reboot them other than an initial firmware update.

 

[Ayah]

Most of my stuff is actually pretty new. The old stuff actually uses less power I find, the new stuff requires massive heat sinks because of how hot it gets and heat = power usage. It's just the first time I hear of an actual PC (and not something like a Raspberry Pi) running at such low wattage. What kind of tweaks do people do to get a PC to run so low? Downclock? Even my Atom based server runs at about 75w. That is considered a low power usage platform. Sorry for hijacking this thread, I'm just really curious as to how people can get PCs to use such little power. It would greatly improve my UPS run time as well.

my UTM is: i3 3220, 16GB ram, intel DQ77MK, nc360t, 2.5" 120GB leftover drive powered by a seasonic s12ii 620W (only spare psu I had so bleh pf and efficiency for this system).

it consumes ~30W doing its typical job (obviously consumes more during startup, etc) with a PF of ~0.917 as measured by my extech 380803.

modern systems are pretty efficient these days when not seriously taxed, haswell would be even lower nevermind the fact that I'm using a ridiculously oversized PSU for this rig.

 

[Red Squirrel]

my UTM is: i3 3220, 16GB ram, intel DQ77MK, nc360t, 2.5" 120GB leftover drive powered by a seasonic s12ii 620W (only spare psu I had so bleh pf and efficiency for this system).

it consumes ~30W doing its typical job (obviously consumes more during startup, etc) with a PF of ~0.917 as measured by my extech 380803.

modern systems are pretty efficient these days when not seriously taxed, haswell would be even lower nevermind the fact that I'm using a ridiculously oversized PSU for this rig.

What motherboard are you using? That may be my issue I tend to pick bigger motherboards because that's all I can typically find that has what I want (built on video etc). For example that small Atom board posted here would be awesome but they don't have it in Canada. I was almost ready to buy it so I can make my current firewall more efficient and put it in a smaller 1U case.

Mind you my Atom server I use for environmental control still uses 74w and has a similar motherboard. (was a barebones kit so it came with the case)

 

[Ayah]

the motherboard is in the post, the intel DQ77MK, it's matx.

 

[aigomorla]

Mind you my Atom server I use for environmental control still uses 74w and has a similar motherboard. (was a barebones kit so it came with the case)

:O

Squirrel, i think u got a possum pretending to be a squirrel.

How many drives do you have on that?

The TDP on atom has a max of 13W.

 

[Red Squirrel]

:O

Squirrel, i think u got a possum pretending to be a squirrel.

How many drives do you have on that?

The TDP on atom has a max of 13W.

Just a single regular hard drive and small fan that is under volted (40mm? whatever fits in a 1u). Suppose I could change it to a SSD to save more power if I really wanted to, though that server does tons of logging so it would probably kill it fast. It's also connected to environmental control/sensors but probably negligible power usage and that was not part of the initial test.

Been a while since I tested power usage on each individual machine though as that requires a shutdown. I also stopped F@H on most machines so I suspect the average usage went down quite a bit as the machines are not at 100% load all the time. I always do my initial testing at full load though. Right now with stuff humming away I'm only at a bit under 400w for the whole server rack's critical stuff so that's pretty good or at least I thought it was until finding out that it's possible to get a full blown PC at only 30w.

 

[aigomorla]

yeah your system doesn't make any sense..

I have a C2D 8600 even which uses about that much voltage doing LinX.
And that's a 65W TDP cpu. :\

I messured it on a killawatt also, as I wanted to step down to a picopsu, and was forced to buy a 90W Power brick...