# DIY Linux Gateway



## Geofrancis (Feb 22, 2013)

*DIY Linux Gateway Super Router!!!*

i was having trouble with my netgear WNDR3300 rangemax with DDWRT lagging out if more than 1 person ran a bit torrent client so i needed a faster solution. what i tried the first time was running DDWRT on my ESXi server and it worked. it was fast but i now had the problem where i needed to be in the building to get the internet back on if the server went down. this turned into a pain so i wanted to build a small low power pc to handle the routing so i went on ebay and found a small 1ghz via industrial motherboard with dual 100mbit realtek network ports for just £20! 
http://www.boser.com.tw/detail_product.asp?Model=HS-2613




CPU:
VIA V4 Eden processor 1GHz
FSB:
400MHz FSB
BIOS:
Award PnP Flash BIOS
System Chipset:
VIA CX700(M)
I/O Chipset:
Winbond W83697UF
System Memory:
1 x 200-pin SO-DIMM, DDR2 533MHz, Max. 1GB
Storage:
1 x Type II CF socket
Expansion Interface:
1 x PCI-104 slot
DIO:
8-bit input/output port
Watchdog Timer:
Software programmable time-out intervals from 1~255 sec. or 1~255 min.
H/W Status Monitor:
Monitoring temperature, voltages, and cooling fan status
Power Function:
+10~30V DC IN
Operating Temperature:
0~60 degrees C
Operating Humidity:
0~95%, non-condensing
Board Size (LxW):
145 x 102 mm
I/O Port:
3 x RS-232
1 x RS-232/422/485
5 x USB2.0 (1 x external)
1 x IDE
1 x SATA
1 x PS/2 for KB/MS
Chipset:
VIA CX700(M)
Display Memory:
32/64/128MB video memory
LVDS:
24-bit single/dual-channel
DVI:
VIA CX700(M)
TV-Out:
Provides PAL or NTSC TV systems
Resolution:
VGA Mode: 1920 x 1440
LVDS Mode: 1600 x 1200
Chipset:
VIA VT1708A
Audio Interface:
MIC In, Line Out
Chipset:
Dual RealTek RTL8100C Ethernet
Ethernet Interface:
2 x RJ-45


when it arrived it had 2 wires soldered to the bottom of the router for testing plus power, reset and a pair of LEDs on the front panel header. i am testing it with installing windows to a ancient 1gb hard drive!






I got DDWRT running no problem after putting the public x86 build onto a CF micro drive after i lost my 1gb card











I ordered a plastic project box and i plan on taking my netgear router apart and fitting it into the box along with this motherboard and wire them to a single power supply it only uses 8.4W at idle and 10w under load so i should be able to run it and the netgear router from the 12v 3a power supply i have.


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## Geofrancis (Feb 22, 2013)

i ordered this box from ebay it should be big enough to fit everything inside





Running DDWRT for the moment i think im going to install PFsense


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## Geofrancis (Feb 22, 2013)

this is a picture of the pcb of a netgear wndr 3300 i am going to solder 5 new new rp-sma antenna connectors to the pcb and mount them to the outside of the box 3 for the 2.4/5ghz N radio and 2 for the 54g radio so i can cut away most of the pcb around the edges untill i am left with the red square that should sit nicely below the via board.





i also found this interesting a 12v ups 
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PicoUPS-1..._UPS_Batteries_Components&hash=item2ead670729

its rated for 10a so it should have no problems powering the via motherboard, netgear router and my cable modem. i should get 6 hours with my 12v17a battery.


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## Easy Rhino (Feb 22, 2013)

this is pretty cool! subbed


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## Geofrancis (Feb 22, 2013)

i am going to order 5 of these 






along with 3 of these dual band antennas 




and 2 of these TP-link 5dbi antennas








i was thinking i wonder if i could fit my cable modem in along with them....


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## Wrigleyvillain (Feb 23, 2013)

Definitely cool. What search terms did you use on eBay? "VIA industrial" something or other?


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## Geofrancis (Feb 23, 2013)

I was just searching dual LAN motherboard when I seen it at auction with no bidders.
If you search for 3.5 motherboard or pc104 motherboard
You should find one the same size but few have dual LAN. If I didn't find this it would have been a socket 479 itx board with a pentium m i would have got.


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## Aquinus (Feb 23, 2013)

VIA has a list of all of their products on their website.
http://www.viaembedded.com/en/

Maybe you can find something that looks decent on there and search for it on Google? Long term I want to get a VIA Quad 1.2Ghz to take over as a gateway. The Phenom II is fast but it eats more power than a VIA would.

I personally like the idea of this: http://www.viaembedded.com/en/products/boards/1893/1/EPIA-M920.html with a VIA Quad core, but its a big on the pricey side if you can manage to find one. For a low power platform, it's looking pretty nice.


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## Geofrancis (Feb 23, 2013)

Aquinus said:


> VIA has a list of all of their products on their website.
> http://www.viaembedded.com/en/
> 
> Maybe you can find something that looks decent on there and search for it on Google? Long term I want to get a VIA Quad 1.2Ghz to take over as a gateway. The Phenom II is fast but it eats more power than a VIA would.
> ...



yea its a nice processor but the issue i have with it as a router is that you cannot use more than 1 core with most router os's and if you max one core to 100% then you will end up having performance issues.  thats why i got rid of my dual core atom itx board . i used to use it as my file server with 4x external usb hard drives but just copying files maxed out one of the 4 HT cores so i replaced it with a mobile 2ghz core 2 duo that ran passive on just 1v. it actually used less power becasue it used the mobile version of the 945 chipset on its motherboard rather than the desktop one that the atom used and sucked 25w on its own.

the new atoms are marginally better with the integrated memory controller and graphics for power consumption and performance but its still underpowered.

my 1ghz via chip will beat most atom cpu's in single threaded performance and thats why i just went the single core route.

what would be interesting with that via quad is having it in a laptop there i could see it being far more usefull.


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## de.das.dude (Feb 23, 2013)

subbed. looks really interesting. didnt know you could get industrial motherboards like these!


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## Geofrancis (Feb 24, 2013)

ok the case arrived yesterday and i done the first test fit to see if my plan would work and it was almost perfect.




the posts in the case obstruct the board slightly for lying flat. but i think i can grind out 2mm off the board so that it fits snug.






 stripped down my netgear wndr3300 and sat it on the case to give me a better idea of how it would fit and how much i would have to take off it and its a better fit than i expected.

so next step is trim the motherboard so it sits flat then trim the router so it fits on to the bottom of the case and fit the antennas.


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## Geofrancis (Feb 24, 2013)

all the antennas and and sp-sma leads are ordered so i can chop the router as soon as they arrive.


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## Aquinus (Feb 24, 2013)

de.das.dude said:


> subbed. looks really interesting. didnt know you could get industrial motherboards like these!



VIA makes a lot of really cool products if you're not in the market for high performance x86 chips. They make good low power components. Great for projects that don't require a ton of compute like a home server or a router or something along those lines. It gives you the flexibility of x86 while still being low power. It's probably a good reason why VIA has been able to hang on. The markets that VIA serves is really only threatened by AMD and bobcat/jaguar. I honestly believe that VIA has a good one up when it comes to SoC components.

All the motherboards I had in the past that used VIA chipsets worked great. I've never been disappointed with a VIA product knowing what that product is intended to be used for.


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## Geofrancis (Feb 24, 2013)

(pic from ddwrt.com)

this is what i need to solder the pig tails to on the netgear router in order to do the antenna mods.


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## Wrigleyvillain (Feb 24, 2013)

Aquinus said:


> VIA makes a lot of really cool products if you're not in the market for high performance x86 chips. They make good low power components. Great for projects that don't require a ton of compute like a home server or a router or something along those lines. It gives you the flexibility of x86 while still being low power. It's probably a good reason why VIA has been able to hang on. The markets that VIA serves is really only threatened by AMD and bobcat/jaguar. I honestly believe that VIA has a good one up when it comes to SoC components.



Totally. I do remember when they were a bit more "mainstream" and consumer-oriented as well, though. An old gaming rig or two had VIA chipsets and used their "4-in-1" driver. Ah, memories...


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## Geofrancis (Feb 24, 2013)

Wrigleyvillain said:


> Totally. I do remember when they were a bit more "mainstream" and consumer-oriented as well, though. An old gaming rig or two had VIA chipsets and used their "4-in-1" driver. Ah, memories...



I had a few of the via chipsets back in the day when it was all you could get for socket A other than the expensive nForce boards. The only thing that held it back from enthusiasts was the lack of pci frequency lock.


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## Aquinus (Feb 24, 2013)

Geofrancis said:


> The only thing that held it back from enthusiasts was the lack of pci frequency lock.



Mmmmm. I remember it well. Their newer chipset didn't have that problem though. I used to have an ASRock P4V88 that did an okay job many years ago with a 2.53Ghz P4 with a nVidia GeForce 6800 OC. That was some time ago.


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## Geofrancis (Feb 24, 2013)

yea the p4 chipsets didnt have the pci lock issue just the amd ones. but they had other issues like compatibility with pci-e 2.0 graphics cards. i have a board upstairs and of the graphics cards i tried in it only a couple would work. i tried - 8400gs 8600gs HD5450 HD4850 9800GX2 and only the 8400gs and HD5450 will work in it.


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## Geofrancis (Feb 26, 2013)

I am going to try just cutting the sides of the router off to begin with until the antennas arrive. This will leave me with 2 antennas on the N radio and a single antenna on the G radio located at the front of the router that should work well enough for me to use till the antennas arrive and allow me to make the router small enough for it to fit into the enclosure.


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## Wrigleyvillain (Feb 26, 2013)

Right on.


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## Geofrancis (Feb 26, 2013)

i used a small hacksaw and a pair of snips to trim the router down to the size i wanted. i needed to keep some of the antennas to keep the router operational untill the new ones arrived.




this is my first test fitting to see how the router would go together and i found that the holes on the motherboard line up perfect with the case support posts all i had to do was trim one down slightly to leave clearance in the case for the motherboard to be held in place 




as you can see there is still alot of pcb sticking out the side of the case but this is just temporary 













all plugged in and being tested. i am running it with just the back exposed just now to see how much it heats up i might have to install a small fan and drill some holes if it gets too hot.


things still to do=
solder the power cables of the motherboard to the routers DC jack'
drill cooling vents and possibly install a fan
cut back panel to expose ports
solder pigtails to fit external antennas
install new switches for the router/motherboard 
rewire the router and motherboard leds into a custom front panel.


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## de.das.dude (Feb 26, 2013)

its epic


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## brandonwh64 (Feb 26, 2013)

Geo how did you order that board? I looked on their website but could not find a place that had an order form?


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## Geofrancis (Feb 26, 2013)

i found it used at auction on ebay with no bidders i got it for £20 and £6 p&p

its a 3.5 inch motherboard or pc104 motherboard


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## brandonwh64 (Feb 26, 2013)

Awww none show up for me on ebay


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## Geofrancis (Feb 26, 2013)

just search for 3.5 inch motherboard, there are a lot of them on ebay but they are usually 486 or amd geode . this was the first one i saw that had a cpu over 800mhz for under £50 and dual lan


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## t_ski (Feb 26, 2013)

Geofrancis said:


> things still to do=
> *solder the power cables of the motherboard to the routers DC jack'*
> *drill cooling vents and possibly install a fan*



For these two items, I'd like to offer a couple of suggestions:

1. instead of soldering the wires directly, consider using some kind of connector in-between, just in case you need to work on it in the future.

2. an easy way to go about this might be to cut a large hole for the fan and use some acrylic or other custom fan grills like this:

http://www.frozencpu.com/cat/l3/g47...s-Fan_Grills-80mm_Laser_Cut_Grills-Page1.html


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## PopcornMachine (Feb 26, 2013)

Very cool stuff.  I knew one could build a linux router, but not with this hardware.


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## Geofrancis (Feb 26, 2013)

t_ski said:


> For these two items, I'd like to offer a couple of suggestions:
> 
> 1. instead of soldering the wires directly, consider using some kind of connector in-between, just in case you need to work on it in the future.
> 
> ...



1. good idea i could probably butcher a molex connector together to use as a power connector but i would like something a little more robust like a deans connector from my rc boats. 

2. i had not got as far as thinking about bling yet lol. but i do like the fan grille idea even if i didn't have to use a fan it would be a big enough opening for the heat to rise up and out the top of the case. the only thing that would worry me about that setup would be stuff falling inside the router thats why i was thinking about small holes.


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## t_ski (Feb 26, 2013)

Geofrancis said:


> the only thing that would worry me about that setup would be stuff falling inside the router thats why i was thinking about small holes.



This would work well then, if it's not too big:

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/1...eycomb_Fan_Mesh_Grill_-_Black.html?tl=g47c221

Or this one:

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/1...Air_Filter_-_Black_PT-AF12-1B.html?tl=g47c221

There's more on that site, but I imagine you want to shop local since you're across the pond.


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## Geofrancis (Feb 26, 2013)

my internet just started freeking out it was the router overheating so i have a 50mm fan blowing in it just now till i work out my next move.


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## Geofrancis (Feb 26, 2013)

i think i am going to heatsink the cpu on the router so that it dissapates the heat better and once some vents are cut in the case it should be able to vent the heat out of the case without a fan.


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## de.das.dude (Feb 26, 2013)

i think MNPC tech has good modders mesh with 1mm dia holed stuff!

let me link...

http://www.mnpctech.com/120mm_Aluminum_Computer_Fan_Grills.html


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## Wrigleyvillain (Feb 26, 2013)

This is one of the cooler as well as informative threads here in some time.


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## Geofrancis (Feb 28, 2013)

ordered some new parts:
dual illuminated 12v rocker switch
10x 4 pin red green blue leds.
2x push button switches for power, reset and router reset.
25mm fan and guard for the overheating problem.


The dual 12v rocker switch is to allow me to turn both the Netgear router and VIA board on and off independently and its blue so its looks cool.

The RGB leds will be going onto the front panel along with the switches. 

some of these will be wired to the router to replace its onboard leds. they will replace the dual colour green and orange leds for 10mbit and 100mbit and power status with red and blue. 

the rest will be used on the via board one for the power and hard drive status and 2 for the lan ports blue for lan connected and blinking red when its transmitting.

the fan will be mounted somewhere near the front and will just be powered from one of the via boards thermally controlled fan headers. i will be heat sinking the Negear router's CPU so that it should run a lot cooler than with nothing.


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## Geofrancis (Feb 28, 2013)

my power switch




Fan guard


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## Nordic (Feb 28, 2013)

When you are finished, could you please make a complete list of parts with prices.


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## Geofrancis (Feb 28, 2013)

james888 said:


> When you are finished, could you please make a complete list of parts with prices.



so far its:
£30.00    netgear WNDR3300 router
£26.00    Via Motherboard'
£ 5.39     Project box
£ 8.31    3x 5ghz antennas
£ 2.38     2x 2.4ghz antennas
£ 4.95     5x rp-sma leads
£ 4.44     2x push button switches
£ 1.42     25mm fan
£ 1.69     fan guard 
£ 3.39     10x RGB LEDs
£ 2.50     rocker switch

£90.47

plus a 12v power supply i already had.


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## Geofrancis (Mar 1, 2013)

is there a firewall/router operating system that would run ok on my hardware but still has a gui with a bandwith monitor? i want to mount a 4.8" lcd monitor to the case so i can watch the internet speed, latency and system performance something like the Belkin N1.


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## Wrigleyvillain (Mar 2, 2013)

IPFire maybe? Haven't used it myself yet but I believe it meets your requirements (been ported to ARM even and will run on a Raspberry Pi etc).


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## Geofrancis (Mar 3, 2013)

i think its only basic config in ipfire via vga. something like the damn small linux gui would be nice


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## Geofrancis (Mar 3, 2013)

i found some nice motherboards on ebay if anyone is looking to build something similar.




http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Via-Epia-...aptopMotherboards_CPUs_CA&hash=item20ce97dbd6




http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TEAN-MB89...aptopMotherboards_CPUs_CA&hash=item53e623bb55

both are socket 479 pentium M ITX dual LAN for just £30





http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-Asus-M...754681591?pt=Motherboards&hash=item5652b37af7

for those wanting a little more power the HP Asus MOCA it will take a socket M core duo or core 2 duo and 3gb ddr2. and has a pcie 16x slot that will let you use a raid controller or network adapter. you also need a power supply adapter from ebay that costs $5

i used to have one in my old server runninga passive 2ghz core 2 duo.


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## Aquinus (Mar 3, 2013)

I thought that this looked pretty cool but it's a little pricey. You don't see many ITX boards with 5x1Gbps ports though.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Jetway-NF9D...001934732?pt=Motherboards&hash=item19d83b1b8c






There is a much more expensive one that comes in a case and everything but has a mobile i5 in it instead. The atom isn't 64-bit.


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## Geofrancis (Mar 3, 2013)

i dont like the atom dual core chips but the i3 would be nice! shame about the price.


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## Aquinus (Mar 3, 2013)

Geofrancis said:


> i dont like the atom dual core chips but the i3 would be nice! shame about the price.



That's how I feel but a gateway really doesn't need to have much power. It needs to consume as little as possible and for network routing, I'm sure a 2550 is more than up to the task.


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## Geofrancis (Mar 3, 2013)

one of the i3 based celeron single cores would be plenty and give much more reliable performance.


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## Wrigleyvillain (Mar 3, 2013)

You sure about IPFire and the GUI? Says it is based off Damn Small Linux.


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## Aquinus (Mar 3, 2013)

Geofrancis said:


> give much more reliable performance.



Less heat would mean that the atom would be more reliable because it has a lower TDP and it consumes less power. So the only thing that would turn me off from the atom is 4Gb limitation, otherwise a dual-core with hyper-threading and a 10 watt TDP isn't too shabby. So all in all the claim that Atoms are less reliable is crap. A very real consideration is speed but a G2020 is going to consume that much more power for that speed and for a gateway it really isn't necessary.


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## Geofrancis (Mar 3, 2013)

Aquinus said:


> Less heat would mean that the atom would be more reliable because it has a lower TDP and it consumes less power. So the only thing that would turn me off from the atom is 4Gb limitation, otherwise a dual-core with hyper-threading and a 10 watt TDP isn't too shabby. So all in all the claim that Atoms are less reliable is crap. A very real consideration is speed but a G2020 is going to consume that much more power for that speed and for a gateway it really isn't necessary.



i just mean that a powerful low TDP single core will give more predictable performance than trying to finely thread it so it runs over 4 virtual cores that will lag if one reaches 100% utilisation.


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## Aquinus (Mar 3, 2013)

Geofrancis said:


> i just mean that a powerful low TDP single core will give more predictable performance than trying to finely thread it so it runs over 4 virtual cores that will lag if one reaches 100% utilisation.



You'll never reach 100% on network traffic alone on an Atom. At work we have a 2.0Ghz Xeon dual-core skt771 and it barely even registers load during peek hours. That power really in unnecessary and 100% utilization isn't realistic under normal operation. So as a gateway and a gateway alone, it's a waste of power and money. Also I don't think there are any 1 core skt1155 chips.


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## Geofrancis (Mar 4, 2013)

For pure routing alone your right an atom would be plenty but who wants to build a Linux router just for that?


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## Wrigleyvillain (Mar 4, 2013)

Fair enough.


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## Aquinus (Mar 4, 2013)

Geofrancis said:


> For pure routing alone your right an atom would be plenty but who wants to build a Linux router just for that?



An Atom would handle an iptables firewall, DNS, DHCP, and OpenVPN just fine as well. The point is that basic network services like these don't use a ton of resources unless you have a ton of users a a crap ton of bandwidth. You should notice this with your VIA and this Atom is considerably faster than that as well.


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## ste2425 (Mar 4, 2013)

I don't follow allot of what is being talked about here, i do however like the pictures 

So on that note more pictures please!!


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## Geofrancis (Mar 4, 2013)

i am waiting for parts at the moment but some have arrived like my 3 colour leds and 5ghz antennas











i need the rp-sma pigtails to arrive before i can mount the antennas and chop down the pcb.


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## Geofrancis (Mar 4, 2013)

still to wire on the front panel

via board :
12V power switch
power button
reset button
power and HDD LEDs wired into a RGB LED blue for power, red for HDD
LAN 1 connection and transmit leds wired to a RGB led so it is blue for connected and blinks red when transmitting
LAN 2 connection and transmit leds 

Netgear Router:
De solder power socket and replace with wire to main power switch
Wire a RGB LED to the 10 and 100 mbit LEDs for the WAN and 4 LAN ports
Wire RGB LED to power light 
de solder reset button and relocate to front panel

i am going to use an ide extension cable cut in half and plugged into its self as a front panel connector so i can disconnect the boards from the case if i have to


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## Aquinus (Mar 8, 2013)

I saw this on NewEgg. I'm debating getting it for a gateway. The price is right.

GIGABYTE GA-C847N-D Motherboard/CPU/VGA Combo  Mot...


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## Wrigleyvillain (Mar 8, 2013)

Yeah... I was looking at this Asus for the same; not dual nic tho (extra bonus if the ones on the Gigabyte are Intel...but probably not). Passively cooled and has six SATA ports so it's fairly popular as a NAS, however. Also got a PCI-e slot so can toss in a nice RAID card. 

ASUS C60M1-I Motherboard/CPU Combo  Motherboard/CP...


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## Aquinus (Mar 9, 2013)

Wrigleyvillain said:


> Yeah... I was looking at this Asus for the same; not dual nic tho (extra bonus if the ones on the Gigabyte are Intel...but probably not). Passively cooled and has six SATA ports so it's fairly popular as a NAS, however. Also got a PCI-e slot so can toss in a nice RAID card.
> 
> ASUS C60M1-I Motherboard/CPU Combo  Motherboard/CP...



It's not good for a gateway unless you're planning on using that slot for ethernet. PCI is at least fast enough to drive some wi-fi.

There is this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/200687415150?hlp=false

It costs almost twice as much but it has PCI plus two PCI-E mini slots. So you could run dual lan, have wireless and use a PCI-E SSD for boot.

Also don't torture these machines with a RAID card. 1.1Ghz dual-core isn't a lot of power. In some cases the Atom is even faster.


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## Geofrancis (Mar 9, 2013)

Aquinus said:


> It's not good for a gateway unless you're planning on using that slot for ethernet. PCI is at least fast enough to drive some wi-fi.
> 
> There is this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/200687415150?hlp=false
> 
> ...



i agree the new amd chips need a high clock speed to be useful for much of anything i have used a laptop with a 1Ghz dual core apu and it was too slow. 

hp make some interesting boards if you can live with a restricted bios and the need to use a power supply adapter. 

search ebay for:

Asus MOCA-AR                     
socket 479  2 x ddr2 sodimm 
pcie 16x
its compatible with socket 479 core duo and core 2 duo and will run with up to 3gb of ram. 
not compatible with pci-e 2.0 ati graphics cards.
you will need to custom build a heatsink. i used a zalman north bridge cooler modified my bending the clips to fit.

Foxconn Irvine-GL6E
socket 775 2x ddr2 
pcie 16x + pcie 1x
nvidia chipset.

Asus M2NC51-AR 
socket am2 2x ddr2
pcie 16x + pci


or a normal foxconn board 
Foxconn G31S                   
socket 775 1x ddr2 
pcie16x pcie1x
2gb ram and 65w cpu max


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## Aquinus (Mar 9, 2013)

Geofrancis said:


> i agree the new amd chips need a high clock speed to be useful for much of anything i have used a laptop with a 1Ghz dual core apu and it was too slow.



It would be doing very different tasks than a laptop would though so it most likely would be enough. If it's only going to be a gateway, size and price is what is important. Any modern x86 processor is going to handle being a gateway just fine. It's when you want it to do other things such as acting as a NAS or hosting something off of it where performance becomes a concern, but at that point you're better off having the resources of a full ATX board.

The thing is for 80 dollars, the Celeron sips power and could easily just use an eSATA RAID enclosure and you'll be cooking with gas. The problem with that is the cost of the eSATA raid enclosure so I'm in this perpetual state of trying to figure out what is better for my purposes, weather that is optimizing for cost, size, power consumption, and performance.


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## Wrigleyvillain (Mar 9, 2013)

Yeah...for the record though you could convert one of the internal to eSATA; port multiplier does work according to some guy's post somewhere. Kind of moot though due to all the other points made primarily re. CPU speed and such. Bottlenecking has definitely been noted by some trying to use it as a NAS. 

Though hasn't there just been a refresh of this low power platform by AMD (such as powering that Zotac ZBOX just reviewed here--or is that just a higher end offering of the same chipset as the Asus I linked to)?


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## Geofrancis (Mar 10, 2013)

another cheap one i found £19
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mini-ITX-...205?pt=Komponentenbundles&hash=item43b6eea215


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## Wrigleyvillain (Mar 10, 2013)

Damn...the one avail in the States linked by Aquinis above is like 250 pounds.


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## Geofrancis (Mar 11, 2013)

There's lots of cheap itx boards on eBay. Finding one with dual LAN is the hard part.


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## Aquinus (Mar 11, 2013)

Wrigleyvillain said:


> Damn...the one avail in the States linked by Aquinis above is like 250 pounds.



That Celeron 847 on the gigabyte board is still on newegg for 80 USD.
GIGABYTE GA-C847N-D Motherboard/CPU/VGA Combo  Mot...

Just keep in mind that it's only a bit faster than the Atom 330. An Atom 525 with dual lan would probably be more power considering it's also a dual core, clocked higher, and has hyper-threading. The only thing the Celeron has that the Atom doesn't is a dual-channel memory controller, which really doesn't do the celeron any good.


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## Geofrancis (Mar 11, 2013)

Aquinus said:


> That Celeron 847 on the gigabyte board is still on newegg for 80 USD.
> GIGABYTE GA-C847N-D Motherboard/CPU/VGA Combo  Mot...
> 
> Just keep in mind that it's only a bit faster than the Atom 330. An Atom 525 with dual lan would probably be more power considering it's also a dual core, clocked higher, and has hyper-threading. The only thing the Celeron has that the Atom doesn't is a dual-channel memory controller, which really doesn't do the celeron any good.



http://www.hartware.de/review_1587_7.html

the Celeron based on a Sandy Bridge i7 core and is faster than a dual core atom in every benchmark the dual core atom only comes close in the multithreaded benchmarks when it can use all 4 hyperthreaded cores. in single threaded benchmarks the atom is down by 25%-50% depending on the program and the power consumption is the same 25W load.


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## Wrigleyvillain (Mar 11, 2013)

Can you answer my AMD question? Is the platform reviewed in the machine here newer/better than the combo I linked here?


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## Geofrancis (Mar 11, 2013)

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Bobcat/AMD-C Series C-60.html
Aug 22, 2011
Microarchitecture	         Bobcat
Platform	                 Brazos
Processor core  ? 	 Ontario

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Bobcat/AMD-E Series E2-1800.html
June 5, 2012
Microarchitecture	           Bobcat
Platform	                   Brazos 2.0
Processor core  ? 	   Zacate


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## Wrigleyvillain (Mar 11, 2013)

Thanks. That's what I thought. Cool; hopefully some attractive new "Brazos 2.0" m-itx combos are forthcoming...

Edit: Ah now I see the integrated GPU diff too--62xx vs 73xx series.


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## Geofrancis (Mar 12, 2013)

i chopped up the back panel to fit the ports. i dont care how it looks at the moment.





added 2 power switches for the router and VIA board along with power and reset.





cooling system




back up and working





this is still just temporary until i get the antennas fitted then i will sort out the exterior.


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## Wrigleyvillain (Mar 12, 2013)

Looking good!


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## Geofrancis (Mar 12, 2013)

Pentium M itx with dual LAN £30
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Via-Epia-...aptopMotherboards_CPUs_CA&hash=item20ce97dbd6


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## Wrigleyvillain (Mar 12, 2013)

Yo yo post some options from this side of the pond yo!


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## ste2425 (Mar 12, 2013)

Finally more pictures


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## Geofrancis (Mar 12, 2013)

Wrigleyvillain said:


> Yo yo post some options from this side of the pond yo!



i had a look on ebay us and there really is not much in the way of itx boards. you would probably be cheaper getting something new.


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## Aquinus (Mar 12, 2013)

Geofrancis said:


> i had a look on ebay us and there really is not much in the way of itx boards. you would probably be cheaper getting something new.



Yup, that is why I keep mentioning that Gigabyte board with the Celeron 847, which I'm considering getting by the way. 80 USD isn't a bad price compared to everything else I've been seeing. Pair it up with some low voltage memory and an SSD and you have yourself a very low power machine.


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## Geofrancis (Mar 12, 2013)

i am wanting more physicalization instead of virtualisation starting with the router OS hence this project. 

i want to have a dedicated computer for each task instead of everything on one computer.
one for the router, one for my UNRAID server, one for encoding and everything else. 

and i found this for you Americans wanting ITX on the cheap 

ZOTAC 880G-ITX $54!!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ZOTAC-880...487149676?pt=Motherboards&hash=item53eeb5606c


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## Aquinus (Mar 13, 2013)

Dual on-board LAN is a requirement for any mainboard I decide to go with since the expansion slot won't have any room to be used with the chassis I'm planning on using and I need two Ethernet ports for it if it is to replace my current over-powered gateway.


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## Geofrancis (Mar 13, 2013)

I'm thinking of putting the x6 from my server into that board along with 8gb of ram for my encoding box. I also seen a 1155 board and celeron for cheap that would run unraid.


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## Aquinus (Mar 13, 2013)

If money was less of a concern, I personally kind of like this Intel motherboard with an i5-3470S. There aren't many SATA ports but that is where that 4-lane PCI-E slot comes in handy. 4xUSB 3.0 ports is pretty nifty too. The spec says it has one full length mini-pci-e and one half-length mini-pci handy on the board too.


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## t_ski (Mar 13, 2013)

There's a pico-itx on the TPU home page


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## Nordic (Mar 13, 2013)

I could make my spare lga775 system into a router. It is a matx board and has a core 2 duo 6300. I could stick a dual lan card in there to supplement the single onboard lan. I could even downclock the cpu. It uses about 100 watts.


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## Wrigleyvillain (Mar 13, 2013)

Yeah, sure...


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## Geofrancis (Mar 16, 2013)

finially got the last of the parts ! 5x antenna connectors and a power socket.






il fit them soon..


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## Geofrancis (Mar 26, 2013)

got some work done to it tonight

hot air gunning the antenna connectors.





soldered pig tail leads to router LED's and antennas






RP-SMA connectors mounted on the case and router pcb chopped down.





2.4ghz antennas





5Ghz antennas






still to mount the fan, front panel LED's and a power socket.


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## Geofrancis (Apr 2, 2013)

got a fan and some led's mounted on the front. i ended up going with a big 50mm fan rather than the 25mm one this way its running on 5v and still pushing enough air to keep everything cool. the led's are not wired in yet im just waiting for some different ones as the 3 colour ones i was planning on using wont work due to having a singe + and multiple - and the router outputs the opposite.





[/IMG]


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## Wrigleyvillain (Apr 2, 2013)

That is one funk-ay lookin' box, yo.

Nicely done.


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## ste2425 (Apr 2, 2013)

looking very cool, couldn't you use some form of relay to switch the negative of the LEDs?


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## de.das.dude (Apr 2, 2013)

i got a bunch of those 50mm fans! AVC ones right?


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## FreedomEclipse (Apr 2, 2013)

I'll take one of these to go, with a large fries and shake please.


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## Aquinus (Apr 2, 2013)

Very clean. I like I a lot.


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## Nordic (Apr 2, 2013)

FreedomEclipse said:


> I'll take one of these to go, with a large fries and shake please.



I second that but extra salt.


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## Geofrancis (Apr 4, 2013)

i have ordered a 256mb CF Western Digital Silicone drive for £6.50 to replace the 8gb Seagate microdrive i am using just now. i dont want the microdrive running 24/7 because i think it will just get worn out where as flash memory can pretty much run forever as long as your just reading from it.


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