I have a Sophos XG 230 1U appliance running pfsense nicely, what’s the best power efficent CPU to get re pfsense, something from the i3 / i5 range, but with T marking?
On a 125/20 connection atm, but hoping for 900/900 end of the year if the provider gets the fibre infra in the area installed.
Unit was originally shipped with Intel G4400 CPU
I’d get a 4 core processor if the main board supports it.
Looks like you could get a Xeon E3 as well, which is what I’d probably use if it works. Looks like you are in for around $30-$45usd on ebay for used processors.
Looking at those too. Not many around in the UK on eBay - E3-1235LV5 as has HDMI on the board and this has GPU on chip etc.
I have a spare i3-6100T I have found in my loft, that’s 35w TDP. I know TDP doesn’t fully factore everything in the hardware etc.
I was looking at the i5-6500T etc.
Xeon might be a problem if there isn’t an onboard GPU of some sort, so an i5 might be the better option.
Intel specs have GPU on the E3-1235LV5, but the price of these are tbh just silly on eBay etc.
Will have a further think. Sophos XG230 Rev2 is idling at circa 30w.
The E3 I was looking at were cheap, but no GPU. Keep us posted, I’ve been thinking that maybe some of thes used Sophos devices might be an OK server in a lab and might want to give one a try. I know other people have said they installed pfsense on them and they work great. Just one more data point as I sometimes need to scrounge for equipment in a hurry to bring a service back online.
I’ve also been on the look out for the XG/SG 115/125/135 Rev 2 or 3. Seem a better powered unit etc.
TBH I maybe able to use the Xeon without the GPU as the Sophos units have a management port / RJ45/USB
As I can’t have a 900/900 connection yet as the provider hasn’t installed in the area yet.