HYPERION

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HYPERION

Mon Dec 15, 2014 7:41 pm

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New build time and this one is going to be a Firewall/Router for my home network. I need a high performance router to handle the frequent DDoS attacks we keep getting which when they occur completely lock up my current router disconnecting all our computers, IP Cameras, Phones and Tablets.

Plus it has a lot of side benefits. Incredible performance, better security and lots of plugins which can be installed without restarting the router to further enhance functionality.

The operating system I'll be using on this computer is called PFSense. It's a free software based Firewall/Router solution that competes with $10,000 appliances from Cisco, Sophos and Juniper.

System Specifications:
1 x Asrock H97M PRO4 Motherboard
1 x Intel Pentium G3220 CPU (Includes Fan)
1 x Corsair CM 450W 80+ Gold Power Supply
1 x Kingston 4GB USB Memory Stick
1 x SanDisk 32GB Cache SSD
1 x Silverstone HTPC Case (I think, may change)
1 x Intel I340-4T Quad Port Ethernet Adapter
2 x 4GB Mushkin 1600MHz DDR3 Memory

If you've seen my previous builds you'll probably think, huh that's it? - Not many parts. Well that's because this is quite a physically small build. I want it to not use much electricity and just sit dutifully doing firewall and routing tasks in silence.

The part that really ties this build together is the Intel i340-4T quad port ethernet adapter. It's a really good bit of kit. It's remarkable in that it only uses 4.3 Watts of power maximum and in my home it will likely use less than 1 Watt on average. It came out in 2010 but that is actually quite new for network cards, they don't get new chips every year like graphics cards do.

The reason I'm mentioning this card at all is because it's very advanced and very expensive. £250-£300 in the UK but I managed to get mine for just £50 brand new by keeping my eyes peeled for good deals over the past 2 months. The reason I wanted this particular card is its low power consumption and best in class performance. You really can't get a card faster than this without stepping up to the "sell your first born" priced 10Gb cards which need heatsinks bigger than some graphics cards due to the heat they output.

Here are some picture of the components, I'll post my own photos once I get all the parts together. Of course doing a build like this so close to Christmas will mean delays. I'm not expecting to complete my build until January at the earliest.

Intel Network Card:

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And I think the other stuff is pretty self explanatory. Memory and CPU's all look very similar.

Happy Holidays :)
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Re: HYPERION

Mon Dec 15, 2014 8:58 pm

I'd bet that little box has more power than two of my desktops combined by your standards. I don't know anything about computers, but I'll still just say it looks good. :D
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Re: HYPERION

Thu Dec 18, 2014 1:05 am

I like the logo. It looks like it comes out of an underwater movie
I'm SUPPORTER and was the first Asian and youngest staff member at age 13.
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Re: HYPERION

Wed Dec 24, 2014 10:59 am

Got the CPU today the G3220. Great little processor.

I have also changed some of the build. Instead of going with the Corsair 430 Watt power supply I've changed to a 450 Watt one because it's Gold rated. So I'll get 85-90% efficiency at about 10% load or less.

I'm also changing the motherboard and case. Instead of ITX I've decided to go mATX as I want more PCIe slots. Next year I'm likely to upgrade our home network to 10Gb and if I go with an mATX board now I wont need to change it later. This change has meant I need a different case as the one I picked originally will only take an ITX or smaller motherboard and mATX is about 30-40% larger.

So the new case I've settled on is a Silverstone case which is really slim and not very deep. My intention is to turn the case on its side so it'll stand up like a book. That will actually fit better for where I want to place it and due to the configuration of the case the power supply will still be at the bottom so it shouldn't topple over easy.

So anyway the plan is to have this build complete by about January 15th but it depends when the network card arrives, being the festive period shipping around the world is quite slow. I'm not expecting the PSU to arrive until January either even though I ordered it yesterday.

Until next time, peace and merry christmas :)
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Re: HYPERION

Sat Dec 27, 2014 1:20 pm

Unexpectedly my I340-T4 networking card arrived today. I installed it in to my desktop to test it and it works brilliantly. Very happy with it.

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I also ordered my Ethernet cables today. I didn't list them in my parts because I didn't think about them at the time I made this thread but I figured I'd mention it now.

I went with Cat6a cables. These are currently the highest quality/rated ethernet cable you can purchase. Normal ethernet cables (Cat5e) are rated to 100MHz and the maximum respectable speed you can get out of them is 1Gb/s which is right at the very edge of their performance.

Cat6 though can go to 200MHz and is designed from the start for 1Gb (Cat5e isn't actually certified for 1Gb/s and it only reaches about 980Mb/s instead of the full 1Gb/s).

But the cable I've decided to use is Cat6a. This cabling can go up to 500MHz (5x more than Cat5e) and can handle speeds up to 10Gb/s over a length of 100 Meters. Needless to say that's incredibly fast. These cables are very thick as they have tons of shielding. It should result in absolute 1Gb/s speeds and when I upgrade to 10Gb next year I won't need to buy new cables.

The build is coming along nicely I still think I'll get it complete by January 15th. As always with my builds some things I've ordered are out of stock. That Corsair 450 Watt Gold power supply for example is not in stock at Amazon but they hope to get some in very soon.

And that's todays update :)
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Re: HYPERION

Tue Dec 30, 2014 6:16 am

I've now ordered the new motherboard for this build. Since I decided not to go ITX as I wanted more PCIe slots I have now chosen the board I'm going to be using. I've decided to use the Asrock H97M PRO4. The reason I've chosen this board is because it has four features I want.

1. It's mATX so it'll fit in the case I want to use.
2. Its built in 1Gb ethernet is by Intel. It uses the I218V chip which is Intels latest (Q3 2013) Gigabit chip and it uses only 0.5Watts of power
3. It has four DIMM slots so I can install up-to 32GB of RAM in to the motherboard however I'll only be installing 16GB.
4. It has two PCIe slots a v3.0 x16 slot and a v2.0 x16 slot (but it's really an x4 slot electrically)

The price on this board is really good, £64 - I was considering the Asus Gryphon Z97 TUF board because it also has the above features. But it cost £134 which is quite expensive for a non-server board so I was searching around for a board with an Intel gigabit LAN like the Gryphon when I stumbled across the Asrock board, I'm quite impressed with its low cost it's a serious bargain.

So this is what the board looks like I have placed my order today, due to the holiday season it is out of stock but I'm hopeful it will become available in early January and ship from Amazon with the PSU I already ordered (which is also out of stock).

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Re: HYPERION

Wed Dec 31, 2014 11:25 am

My Cat6a cables came today and I'm really impressed with them, they are very high quality. My Asrock motherboard came in stock and Amazon dispatched that today.

So now I just need the case and the power supply to come and this build is done.
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Re: HYPERION

Mon Jan 05, 2015 5:20 pm

Case came today. It's really nice. Bit bigger in person than I would have liked but the dimensions are accurate and I measured it before I ordered so I dunno why I'm surprised haha

Motherboard comes tomorrow so I'll probably take some pictures then. The power supply hasn't been dispatched yet unfortunately but they have ample stock. I'm hoping I get it by Wednesday. In any event the build will definitely be finished before the 10th. I may run it for a day or so to become more familiar with PFSense before I switch our infrastructure over to it. PFsense is a big dog with a lot of features and although I've used it in a virtual machine for a few months now it's not the same as running it bare metal.
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Re: HYPERION

Fri Jan 09, 2015 5:24 am

PSU came today and so I built the router. I took some pictures on my iPhone and for some reason some of them have gone walkies. I'm sure they'll turn up somewhere. But these are the ones I could find on my phone.

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It's working great. We're using it right now :)

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