Revision as of 12:48, 1 August 2023

Summary

We are in need of a faster Gateway. While our current Gateway (a Intel Pentium J4205 has an average passmark of 2442 (918 single) is more than powerful enough for our gigabit connection;

just a single wireguard connection can easily spike the CPU usage to around 70%.

We also want a smaller case (1U) so that we can have more space left in the rack.

Notes

an 11th gen Intel i3-1115G4 (6158 passmark, 2665 single) could easily do wireguard at ~2GB/s so ideally we want to get a system just as powerful or more powerful.
one option would be to move wireguard to Erratic instead, however that means that a remote reboot of Erratic will kill all connections.
Right now we have an UniFi Dream Machine Pro on loan to test if we like it.
CPUs are compared using cpubenchmark.net, cpus should be faster than what we have now.

Options

Bkhd 1U Server Intel Atom Quad Core C3558 6 Lan 2 Sfp + 10G

Link: https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/1005005238535931.html

Comes in a 1U case, can be configured with either a 4-core Intel C3558 (2417 passmark, 852 single) or a 8-core Intel C3758 (4750 passmark, 868 single). Has 6 lan ports and two SFP ports. See also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3EMMYTdOYo

According to the Youtube video it idles around 20w and would spike up to 25w under load. (4-core version)

4-core price (w/8GB ram & 8GB eMMC): €502,27

8-core price (w/8GB ram & 8GB eMMC): €610,80

pros

Comes as a 1U case
Seems to come with a 12v Meanwell PSU build-in
Lots of lan ports
Has two SFP ports
The 8-core is about twice as fast as our J4205 in multi-threading

cons

Slower than than our J4205 single core wise.
The 4-core version is slower
China, so support could be icky (though we are a hackerspace)
No video out, only console.
Rather expensive. (Especially considering the performance)

Topton Intel I226 4x2.5G 11th gen i3-1115G4

Link: https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/1005005101103120.html

Configurable as Core i3-1115G4 (6158 passmark, 2665 single), Core i5-1135G7 (9939 passmark, 2709 single), i7-1165G7 (10378 passmark, 2846 single). Priced are €237,69, €393,10, €466,23.

Known to work nicely with proxmox and opnsense (I226 passthrough works without any issue). Also comes with a NVME slot and replaceable ram.

pros

Good bang for buck.
4 lan ports, console port and video out.
additional support for a 4/5G modem.
Even the cheapest option has a faster single-core performance than our J4205 in multi
Topton is a decent brand and their systems are often used for these applications.
Has 4x2.5G nics

cons

Runs a tad hot (imho - Melan)
Not a rack mountable design, though system is fairly small itself.
China

@@ Line 42: / Line 42: @@
 === Topton Intel I226 4x2.5G 11th gen i3-1115G4 ===
 Link: https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/1005005101103120.html
@@ Line 48: / Line 49: @@
 Known to work nicely with proxmox and opnsense (I226 passthrough works without any issue).
 Also comes with a NVME slot and replaceable ram.
+[[File:UkGZn5w.png|thumb]]
 <big>'''pros'''</big>
 * Good bang for buck.