Question A6-7400K enough for OPNsense?

[General_Cool]

Just found a good deal for a PC (just without an enclosed case or good PSU) that features an A6-7400K and 4gb of ram that I'm planning on running OPNsense with. The ram is obviously easily upgradeable (if needed) but the chip not so much as I'll be limited to FM2+ chips which means I'll be limited to a maximum of a non-hyperthreaded quad core at best without having to find a new motherboard. I am not that knowledgeable on OPNsense but was planning on learning on the go, so I honestly have no idea what the processing requirements will be for my set of circumstances (1 gigabit internet and no server running on the network, maybe OpenVPN too?). I feel like a 3.5GHz dual core should be sufficient but if I knew better I guess I wouldn't be asking...

 

[USAFRet]

Just found a good deal....

How much is this 'good deal'?

 

[General_Cool]

How much is this 'good deal'?

50 bucks

 

[USAFRet]

50 bucks

In a home environment, I've run similar off worse.
pfSense, unTangle, ipCop...

 

[General_Cool]

In a home environment, I've run similar off worse.
pfSense, unTangle, ipCop...

So basically you could run it on a Pentium 4 and be good?

 

[USAFRet]

So basically you could run it on a Pentium 4 and be good?

Depending on exactly what you're doing with it, the hardware requirements are pretty slim.
https://docs.opnsense.org/manual/hardware.html

 

[General_Cool]

Depending on exactly what you're doing with it, the hardware requirements are pretty slim.
https://docs.opnsense.org/manual/hardware.html

Any experience regarding running pfSense on low end hardware? I imagine since OPNsense is a fork of pfSense they should run similarly.

 

[USAFRet]

Any experience regarding running pfSense on low end hardware? I imagine since OPNsense is a fork of pfSense they should run similarly.

The last time I ran a pfSense system was early 2000's, on a system that was mediocre at that time..lol.
And it gave zero impediment to the LAN performance.

So yeah, it will run on a potato.
Depending, of course, on what you're doing with it.

If you're looking for it to be the firewall for a 200 user LAN...then no, you need better hardware.

But with the home networking of today, there really isn't a lot of need for a border device like this.

 

[thestryker]

I'm not sure how well that's going to turn out when running any services with a 1gbit internet connection. While the A6-7400K is technically dual core this is Bulldozer which means it's very much not comparable to a proper dual core CPU. It might be worthwhile to learn on, but I wouldn't expect to get a lot of longevity out of it if you're going to use it as more than just a basic router.

 

[General_Cool]

The last time I ran a pfSense system was early 2000's, on a system that was mediocre at that time..lol.
And it gave zero impediment to the LAN performance.

So yeah, it will run on a potato.
Depending, of course, on what you're doing with it.

If you're looking for it to be the firewall for a 200 user LAN...then no, you need better hardware.

But with the home networking of today, there really isn't a lot of need for a border device like this.

Interesting, no 200 user LAN here

 

[General_Cool]

I'm not sure how well that's going to turn out when running any services with a 1gbit internet connection. While the A6-7400K is technically dual core this is Bulldozer which means it's very much not comparable to a proper dual core CPU. It might be worthwhile to learn on, but I wouldn't expect to get a lot of longevity out of it if you're going to use it as more than just a basic router.

A8-6500? Found another (better) deal with more ram, would just need a case and SSD I'd be in under $100 or maybe even less. I feel like the quad core would be a sufficient unit, but from what I've read OpenVPN is still single threaded meaning I'd like to stick to a high clock speed while keeping a relatively power draw. I also read another user on a different site say he had an A8-5500 running with a VPN with no issues due to all A8s having AES-NI.

 

[thestryker]

A8-6500? Found another (better) deal with more ram, would just need a case and SSD I'd be in under $100 or maybe even less. I feel like the quad core would be a sufficient unit, but from what I've read OpenVPN is still single threaded meaning I'd like to stick to a high clock speed while keeping a relatively power draw. I also read another user on a different site say he had an A8-5500 running with a VPN with no issues due to all A8s having AES-NI.

It would be better. The key thing you should be looking for from other people's experiences is making sure they're talking about using it on a 1gbit+ connection. High speed connections do make a difference with regards to how much compute power you need.

I'm curious as to why you're looking at buying such old hardware for this application. There should be newer options that use less power for not a lot more. You could even get a brand new router box out of china for around $200 or so.

 

[General_Cool]

It would be better. The key thing you should be looking for from other people's experiences is making sure they're talking about using it on a 1gbit+ connection. High speed connections do make a difference with regards to how much compute power you need.

Will do more research on this but from what I've been reading even dual cores seem to suffice for 1gb speeds. I'd like at least a little bit of future proofing and it seems quad cores are acceptable for 2.5gb.

I'm curious as to why you're looking at buying such old hardware for this application. There should be newer options that use less power for not a lot more. You could even get a brand new router box out of china for around $200 or so.

Pre OOB (PSP and IME) chips only + I like the challenge of trying to build something cool out of the absolute dumpster fire that is FM2+ for sub $50 bucks (not including PSU, don't wanna burn the house down)

 

[palladin9479]

I've run stuff like that on Via Epia platforms lol. To give an idea, those things were designed to run forever without a fan. So I think that APU is perfectly fine for whatever home project your up to.