7 ms·

It would be so lovely to see more modern alternatives to this motherboard (amd gx-412 based). An modern Intel Pentium, Celeron or Atom could make such an intere

It would be so lovely to see more modern alternatives to this motherboard (amd gx-412 based). An modern Intel Pentium, Celeron or Atom could make such an interesting portable base station (pentium 8500 please, or even am older/slower celeron n5105), capable of being good wifi & a nice mini-server/ap.

gh02t 4y ago
There are quite a lot of Celeron J4125 boxes available with quad Intel NICs and Wifi that people use for pfsense routers. I have a 1U version that I use with 2.5 GbE, and there are a million variants of SFF boxes built around the same basic hardware.
- rektide 4y ago
  I have a pretty alright old Celeron laptop, Chuwi with a great screen, same 3-generations-old Goldmont era core. Nice machine, even with it's nearly 3 year old Atom. Personally though I'd really like to see a more modern offerning. A Pentium 8500 would be such an interesting really micro server. 4 newer Atoms/E-cores with AVX & AVX2, plus one big P-core... very compelling. Even a last gen N5105 or J6413 Tremont I hear is a huge boost over the old Goldmont. The product development lifecycles tend to be years long, alas. I really wish people would just make really small boards, low-features, fast, & load them with oculink to let us do what we will with the cores. Edit: oh STH review not looking as sunny as i thought wrt the n5105. Better but tbought i was much bigger diff. https://www.servethehome.com/two-fanless-intel-celeron-n5105-4x-2-5gbe-options-reviewed/ https://www.servethehome.com/two-fanless-intel-celeron-n5105...
  - gh02t 4y ago
    For use as a router, though, those are not necessarily better. The J4125 is more than capable of routing way more than 1 gbps, while running several services. And as the STH review points out, the N5105 in that unit has a bit more oomph but also uses quite a bit more power, which is IMO important for an always on or portable router. J4125 also isn't that old, it's a Q4 2019 SKU which has the added benefit of making it cheaper.
    - rektide 4y ago
      Agreed that power consumption is a big factor. Something is crazy that these things are 10w. My i5-9600t's idle at 6w (albeit I think Im a bit better than Patrick at tuning boards). My interest is less in a routing system, & more in having a microserver with some real capacity for use, for running some basic local services. I agree there's a place for old slow low power systems but personally i think some ambition for both low power (at low usage) and ability to scale up on demamd just makes sense & is to be expected. For a price, and not a vast one.
jotm 4y ago
If you're doing a custom case and don't limit your imagination, you can use one of the many netbook or laptop motherboards. Downside is they're limited to 1-2 mPCIe slots, on the other hand they also have 1-2 SATA ports so you can easily connect decent storage. Plus USB and video ports. Some boards have stupid whitelists for the mPCIe slots, so a bit of research is desirable. Or just steer clear of HP/Dell/Lenovo. Low power netbook chips can be passively cooled, and power bricks and connectors aren't as much of a problem as you'd think. They can be had for as low as $10 on eBay since barely anyone buys them. Kind of a shame.

gh02t 4y ago

There are quite a lot of Celeron J4125 boxes available with quad Intel NICs and Wifi that people use for pfsense routers. I have a 1U version that I use with 2.5 GbE, and there are a million variants of SFF boxes built around the same basic hardware.

rektide 4y ago
I have a pretty alright old Celeron laptop, Chuwi with a great screen, same 3-generations-old Goldmont era core. Nice machine, even with it's nearly 3 year old Atom. Personally though I'd really like to see a more modern offerning. A Pentium 8500 would be such an interesting really micro server. 4 newer Atoms/E-cores with AVX & AVX2, plus one big P-core... very compelling. Even a last gen N5105 or J6413 Tremont I hear is a huge boost over the old Goldmont. The product development lifecycles tend to be years long, alas. I really wish people would just make really small boards, low-features, fast, & load them with oculink to let us do what we will with the cores. Edit: oh STH review not looking as sunny as i thought wrt the n5105. Better but tbought i was much bigger diff. https://www.servethehome.com/two-fanless-intel-celeron-n5105-4x-2-5gbe-options-reviewed/ https://www.servethehome.com/two-fanless-intel-celeron-n5105...
- gh02t 4y ago
  For use as a router, though, those are not necessarily better. The J4125 is more than capable of routing way more than 1 gbps, while running several services. And as the STH review points out, the N5105 in that unit has a bit more oomph but also uses quite a bit more power, which is IMO important for an always on or portable router. J4125 also isn't that old, it's a Q4 2019 SKU which has the added benefit of making it cheaper.
  - rektide 4y ago
    Agreed that power consumption is a big factor. Something is crazy that these things are 10w. My i5-9600t's idle at 6w (albeit I think Im a bit better than Patrick at tuning boards). My interest is less in a routing system, & more in having a microserver with some real capacity for use, for running some basic local services. I agree there's a place for old slow low power systems but personally i think some ambition for both low power (at low usage) and ability to scale up on demamd just makes sense & is to be expected. For a price, and not a vast one.

jotm 4y ago

If you're doing a custom case and don't limit your imagination, you can use one of the many netbook or laptop motherboards. Downside is they're limited to 1-2 mPCIe slots, on the other hand they also have 1-2 SATA ports so you can easily connect decent storage. Plus USB and video ports. Some boards have stupid whitelists for the mPCIe slots, so a bit of research is desirable. Or just steer clear of HP/Dell/Lenovo. Low power netbook chips can be passively cooled, and power bricks and connectors aren't as much of a problem as you'd think. They can be had for as low as $10 on eBay since barely anyone buys them. Kind of a shame.