Which machine would be better for Untangle?

I

iroc409

[H]ard|Gawd
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I have a couple of machines that I am trying to decide between for my Untangle install. I want to have the lowest power consumption possible without sacrificing performance.

My current Untangle box is a Celeron 420 with 2GB RAM on an Intel G945 very basic motherboard with two 3Com 3C905-TX network cards powered by an Antec EarthWatts 380. The hard drive is a new WD 160GB "blue" laptop hard drive that came out of my new Dell laptop (upgraded).

I have an older IBM T40 laptop. It is a 1.5 Ghz Pentium M with 1.5GB RAM and an on-board Intel Pro 100 ethernet card. I was considering getting something like the Trendnet gigabit ethernet PCMCIA adapter to throw in it.

There are really only two users on my network - myself and my girlfriend. I have her laptop, my laptop and desktop, and a WHS machine. In the future I would like to have a media center PC, but I am not going to worry about that until I get a new TV in the living room. I play a lot of online games, and have no issues. I have had 16MB cable internet, but I generally max out around 12MB in speed tests - I do not know if this is the Untangle machine or the cable company.

I imagine that the desktop uses a pretty small amount of power. To make it better, I have been considering getting a Gigabyte G31 motherboard, as the G31 chipset seems to use about half the power of G945 (and even less at idle). I want to set up a test machine, and it gives me a good excuse. I can't really sell the laptop (it was a gift, and part of the terms), so I am not really sure what else to use it for.

What do you all think? Would the laptop use less power than the desktop, and be powerful enough for my uses?
 
Really depends on what you have turned on in untangle if the current pc is slowing you down but I'd think you should be fine. I have a lot of students on less hardware.

Anyway the laptop might use less power but just use the desktop. Use the laptop for something else or sell it to help fund your new tv.
 
I have all the basic stuff on. Firewall, intrusion prevention, antivirus (not the Kaspersky add-on), filters... I'm not at home but I pretty much have all the basic open source stuff running.

I had an E1200 dual-core Celeron in the machine previously, and didn't notice any difference in performance. I put WHS, and moved the 420 over. I lowered my service to 12MB, so we'll see if my performance varies. If it does, I'll know I have a system issue. I was thinking about getting newer NICs for the machine (since the 3Com's are practically antiques), but I don't think that really makes sense. If anything, I need a new network switch.
 
The Thinkpad should be enough, I haven't installed UT on a T40, but other IBMs went fine....I currently run PFSense on a T40 at home.

I'd give UT on the T40 a shot first...only 2 users, won't have much demand on it. Depending on the rpm of the hard drive in your lappy...bootup time and console launch may take a bit...but who cares....you boot it up and leave it running.
 
I think I might pick up a PCMCIA NIC and just test it out for a couple weeks. They are $20 on Newegg, and I need to order a couple other things anyway. If it works, it should be better in the long run. I can't really sell the laptop, and I can't really come up with much else to do with it.

The laptop is a bit older, so I would not be surprised if it is a 4300 RPM drive. Certainly, it is no 7200RPM. However, the Celeron is not really a quick-booting Untangle machine; even my WHS box booted faster with the 420.

I find it rather hard to find real good numbers as far as power consumption on the two machines. My guess is the laptop runs 25-35W, and the desktop 50-60W. Upgrading the chipset on the desktop might make it a wash.
 
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