Fanless x86 PC with SFP+ slot?

Hardware Questions and Recommendations
1

Hi,

I am currently running OpenWRT on fanless x86 with N3050 Atom and it is fine but getting somewhat old and fine for shaping up to 500Mbit with SQM.

I have FTTH and I want to get rid of media converter and connect fibre directly to router so I am looking for a new fanless PC that has SFP+ slot. It should have enough oomph to SQM-shape 1Gbit and have AES-NI. No WiFi needed. SFP+ and 1Gbit (or preferably 2.5Gbit) slot is needed. I do not want mechanical fans as they tend to fail-

Surprisingly, there are very few choices. There is APU6B4 but it is questionable whether its AMD GX-412TC low-power CPU has enough grunt. There are plenty of other boxes on ebay but they are all RJ45 only.

This one fits the bill but has mechanical fan and flimsy plastic enclosure:

Any hints?

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2

Why bother ?
Isn't the media converter just that, it converts fiber to copper ?
Leaving it there, will increase the amount of available devices..

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3

I want to streamline the components and have one less thing in chain.
Also, it is not only converter...it is basically ISP supplied VLAN capable smart switch with 4 RJ45 and one SFP+ only ISP can configure. They tagged out IP TV on one port and Internet on another. I will keep it but I want fibre directly into router.

4

Then you probably shouldn't have called it media converter ... :wink:

Ok, so you're not actually getting rid of anything

Where/How does the streamlining come into the picture ?

Don't get me wrong, I'm for it, I just don't see the point...

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5

It's not questionable, it doesn't - at all. It's already with the back to the wall just routing at 1 GBit/s wirespeed (possible, but no margin left), but can't do that with sqm/
cake (far from it). Your N3050 should already beat those old AMD Jaguar cores.

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6

I will keep it on a wall (it is owned by ISP and part of wall assembly containing fibre loop) but it will not be powered or doing any VLAN'ing. I plan to have fanless x86 next to it, fed by PoE ejector from main switch, doing all routing, VLAN:ing etc.

That way I get rid of one (active) device in the chain, can tag VLAN's myself and have whole chain powered by PoE fed by UPS. No active ISP stuff left except lit fibre.

7

Personally, I would look into second hand kaby-lake (so just not Windows 11 compliant, which makes it cheaper) i3 (or i5) SFF (not tiny) systems from one of the big three (Lenovo, Dell, HP). Yes, those won't be fanless (but still rather silent), have the space for 1-4 low-profile PCIe (network-) cards and have the performance you need. Add a 2.5GBASE-T card and a SFP+/ 10 GBit/s (dual-port?) card and you're done. 4 GB RAM and 2 GB main storage (be it a USB stick, sdhc card or SATA DOM/ SSD) are plenty.

Disclaimer: Do check the idle power consumption, it may vary wildly between vendors.

If you want to gamble, you may even try going down to haswell (which is rather cheap these days), but I would expect better power-efficiency (idle power consumption) with sky-lake/ kaby-lake.
Just for reference, the ivy-bridge c1037u can do sqm/ cake at 1 GBit/s wirespeed easily while being half asleep - I would extrapolate (guess!) that it might even cope with almost 5 GBit/s (don't have the network cards to put this to a test).

Be aware that GPON ftth will need an ISP blessed ONT, so not much gained...

8

And I would get a "real" dumb media converter, to get rid of the SFP+ requirement for the
router, and then go with what @slh suggested, SFP+ port excluded, if course :wink:

9

No GPON here. FTTH is fed by switch where network owner just tags you to whatever ISP you chose.

P.S.
It is a bit complicated. ISP actually does not own FTTH hardware. Network owner does. Network owner is required (by law) to let all ISP's compete. So I can chose between dozen ISP's.

10

This guy has some videos about replacing your ONT from your ISP by cloning the stock identifiers: https://youtu.be/yD8aq4KSWko

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11

Before buying is much better to read this review.

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12

The M720Q + any dual port SFP+ card works and was something I was considering. This of course has a fan, but perhaps a more rugged build.

This was a consideration for me since the BCM57810S supports 2500 Mbps / HSGMII GPON Sticks.

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13

If the "fanless" can be omitted then there could be many options.

14

Would the Sophos XG 115 rev3 work? Those seem to be appearing at decent prices on eBay these days.

Fanless, quad-core Atom, one SFP port (which seems like it may support up to 10G according to the Sophos SFP compatibility page).

15

I read it as it supported 10gbe modules, not the speed.

Might be wrong though.

16

I got tired of searching so I bought generic x86 N5105 mini PC w/o SFP, just 2.5Gbe ports. It is totall overkill for 1Gbit. It will do almost 1Gbit speed over WireGuard with SQM and piece_of_cake shaping turned on. It draws 14W in total at full load.

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