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[XGS_Is_On]

Mooching for something with enough juice to handle 25G, and a half-height PCIE slot.

Any suggestions?

[Chrysalis]

Might be beyond what ali sells

Looks like 25g cards can be driven by as low as PCIE gen 3.

I think would be a DIY build probably.  So pre built with fairly high end chip, then add the networking hardware after.

Might be worth waiting for the next threadripper chips to come out as they will be based on at least zen 4 I think, lots of PCIE connectivity and CPU threads available.  Then just buy a system with one of these in, thats as small size as possible whilst having the PCIE connectivity available to support the card.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amds-threadripper-7000-cpus-tr5-platform-will-arrive-later-this-year

[XGS_Is_On]

25G throughput really doesn't need much resource as long as it's done right. The killer seems to be interrupts so a many core CPU might not be ideal.

Going to do some testing with a Xeon chip that's had HT disabled and feed it a Mikrotik CHR with fewer cores than I have historically.

[Chrysalis]

Ok please let us know how it gets on.

[skyeci]

I ordered an n100 2.5gb unit from ali express with the idea of upgrading my you fibre to 2gb. About 12 days delivery from order....already have a 2.5gb switch and 2.5 lan cards in pc's...Will be having a play soon

[skyeci]

I'm impressed. I have tested the n100 over my lan with cat6 and 2.5gb lan & router card's and did some speed tests with my you fibre 1gb/1gb connection. Speed tests are up compared to my normal gigabit setup. I usually get 925-925 up and down but over the 2.5gb lan I am getting 945/950 up and down plus passing through a 2.5gb switch. The n100 seems like a great bit of kit. Just need to negotiate a deal with you fibre if possible to upgrade my link to 2gbps

[XGS_Is_On]

Could always just pay the pretty reasonable list price. You're under contract with them having very recently signed up so not exactly a massive incentive for them to cut you a deal to upgrade you.

Might reach out to the CEO to get his thoughts on this. His pricing is pretty good and handing out discounts isn't a great precedent. You think you can get symmetrical 2 Gbps elsewhere with months/years to go on your YouFibre account go for it: early cancellation fees for doing nothing are always a bonus

[Ronski]

Its always worth a go to negotiate, they can only say no, so apart from a small amount of time to lose it costs nothing to ask. Anyway this is rather off topic.

[hushcoden]

....already have a 2.5gb switch...

Which one is that and where did you buy it?

[dee.jay]

I just dropped £440 on a pair of these bad boys:-

https://mikrotik.com/product/crs310_8g_2s_in

Ready for 10Gbps uplink from downstairs to upstairs, and 2.5Gb all round for desktops/servers and AP's alike...

[skyeci]

Not sure if any other n100 users were seeing high temps out the box? - running a monitoring tool I was seeing on average 39dc across the 4 cores as an average temp and it felt pretty hot touching the top of the unit. I have since replaced the supplied thermal paste with some NT-H1 - good improvement now - average temps across the 4 cores running at 25-28dc so I think it was worth doing. The top of the unit is now cool to the touch.

On a side note - you fibre coming tuesday to upgrade my ont for 2gb/2gb connection.

[Alex Atkin UK]

Yes, but its about the same as the N5105.  I don't really want to change the paste as I did that on my previous unit and while it ran cooler for some reason I started having random lock ups.  Probably not related (its not like I'm a novice to applying paste), but it makes me nervous.

Replacing the paste making the case cooler doesn't make much sense though, as if the CPU is cooler the case should be hotter.

Given the N100 has a TjMax of 105C, I'm not exactly concerned with mine running 45-50C. I mean its based on Intel 12th Gen Efficiency cores, they're not exactly known to run cool.

[Ronski]

Replacing the paste making the case cooler doesn't make much sense though, as if the CPU is cooler the case should be hotter.

Exactly what I was thinking. Believe there was an issue with some units where the case didn't properly contact the CPU, so the CPU ran hot.

[Alex Atkin UK]

Exactly what I was thinking. Believe there was an issue with some units where the case didn't properly contact the CPU, so the CPU ran hot.

But generally that would mean the case is cooler because its not taking the heat away.  The fact the case is hot kinda suggests its doing its job just fine.  I believe these units also cool the Intel NICs, which I would be more concerned if they are using heat pads that I might disturb them.

I mean sure its hotter than my 12700F when idle, but that's actively cooled.  Its really the load temperatures you want to look at.  On the box I re-pasted it would hit 85C under stress testing but when I re-pasted it dropped to about 65C.  But under pfSense, I can't do anything to push the N100 past 60C.

Modern CPUs are designed to hit thermal throttling temperatures, keeping them cool is mostly about not cooking everything else inside and not having your router performance suddenly tank.  The former I think all bets are off as the case heats the contents.

[Ronski]

Exactly, if the case is hot, and nothing else is heating it up, then its doing its job.

If the CPU is hot and the case isn't, then its likely hasn't got good heat transfer from the CPU to the case.

Stripping one of these down is easy compared to a 3080, which I re-padded, and it made a lot of difference.