Dell Wyse 3040 would be good for OpenWrt?

Hardware Questions and Recommendations
1

Hello guys,

I was looking for a cheap hw for my new OpenWrt setup, and I found Dell Wyse 3040 device for 60$.
What do you think? Is it supported?
I don't need wifi, because I have 2 unifi AP already.

Intel AtomZ8350 1.44GHz QC
8G FLASH
2G RAM
Non-TPM

2

It depends a lot on what you want to do with it (WAN speed, sqm(?), additional features)…

Flash and RAM sizes are fine, the CPU is from the cherry-trail (Atom) tablet range, which reduces its I/O capabilities considerably - and the vendor might have gone the android/ fastboot way…

I you add shipping and ~15 bucks for a USB3 ethernet card on top, you end up with ~80 USD, imho that's a bit much for this hardware and this particular use case in mind, still leaving you with quite a few uncertainties about the hardware capabilities and the bootloader situation.

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3

The WAN speed at the moment is LTE and will be changed to 5G later...
SQM would be nice.
I need the wireguard client and VLAN settings. Not sure about additional features, I am new here...

I own a bigger server for media, torrents, and soo.
I am open-minded for other hw as well. Also, I have inter NIC card and unifi switch
too.

4

You will be among the first to try it, so there are some risks - both in terms of getting it to boot (e.g. fastboot) and the expected performance.

It is a cute device, but it only comes with a single USB3 port (two would be better, 1* USB3 ethernet, 1* LTE), while I personally would be willing to risk it, the price is imho too much for what you'd get (at 30 USD +/- this would be another topic, but for 60 USD you can find easier/ less-risky alternatives).

5

If I am correct, I already have LTE from another router with an outdoor antenna, so I would need a USB ethernet and ethernet LAN connection.
Do you have any suggestions?

6

The RPi4 crowd seems to favour realtek r815x USB3 ethernet cards for this purpose (e.g. TP-Link UE300), which should be a sensible choice. But if your uplink is going to be a 4g/ 5g USB modem, you might get along with its single onboard ethernet port (at least for starting).

7

If you're in US, you can easily find a Sophos SG/XG-1x5 devices on ebay for same amount or not much more. While maybe not being superior in computing, they at least have 5-9 ethernet ports are have been known to reliably work with OpenWrt starting from 21.02.

There are also other x86-based network appliances which most likely be a better fit for OpenWrt than an x86-based thin client.

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8

The Trustwave TS-25 is still $50 (seller will accept $40) on US eBay, might be w/o power adapter though.

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9

That price isn't far away from the first haswell based Lenovo Thinkcentre tiny systems either, 60 USD just a bit much for this piece of hardware (with a tablet Atom CPU and barely any I/O), unless you really want a dedicated thin client.

And yes, the sophos/ trustwave suggestions are spot on.

10

I am in Hungary, so my sources are limited. I am not dedicated to any thin client but would be nice to get a low energy consumption

11

Then I guess you can get a device from anywhere in EC.

The TS-25 I had, was picked up on DE eBay for 25€.
Look for Cyberoam CR15/25/35(w)ING, too.

Like https://www.ebay.de/itm/275582615306, although sold untested.

12

Thank you all,
I went to rpi4, looks okay for now.
Thank you

13

These are great little boxes, OpenWRT on 3040 for several months:

  1. Primary firewall, I use a Realtek USB3 adapter on the WAN side. I tested with iPerf at wire speed (940Mbits)
  2. Wireless bridge/router for when I need to work on something wired only upstairs (lab is downstairs) I use the internal (Azurewave) wifi as WAN. Speedtest shows only 150Mbits; don't know if it is the Azurewave or the SDIO interface.
    Minor gotcha with the install, have to edit out references to the serial console in grub.cfg or it won't boot.
14

It should perhaps be noted that in the US at least, Wyse 5070s, with Celeron J4105s, can be found for about $60 (used). IIUC, these should make pretty nice little routers (with the addition of a USB3 network adapter, etc.)

15

The Cyberoam for $25 or Trustwave for $40, using Atom 3k series CPUs are smarter buys.

16

Which Cyberoam and Trustwave models do you have in mind? I'm not seeing Cyberoams for $25 with Atom CPUs.

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17

Those prices don't last for ever, do they ?

But my memory failed me, the Cyberoam runs a quad core GX-412TC, the Trustwave TS-25 runs the Atom 3k.
I bought the CR25ING for $25 on US eBay, and the Trustwave TS-25 for 25€ (or 20) on DE eBay.

Someone's currently selling TS-25s for $50 on US eBay, but the seller will accept $40 (at least that was the offer I received).

18

Are we sure that all variants of the CR25iNG use the GX-412TC? I see that at least one variant of the CR25wiNG has the G-T30L, a vastly inferior chip.

19
20

Well, FWIW, the one "CR25" I see on eBay (US) for less than about $90 is actually a CR15 according to the pictures of the unit :expressionless: