What is the rule of thumb , should I go for more cores (quadcore, i7) or more speed 3.3ghz core 2 duo?
What motherboards are proofed to not have problems with ROS?


After switching from 2.4 ghz single core old celeron to 2.7ghz dual core AMD processor , i see slight improvement about 15-20% better cpu performance showed, even thought no problems detected , system shows 2 cores, and everything works good ver 3.28 i'm wondering about the complexity of load balance between cores, so is it worth to buy more cores or better speed?

It would be very helpful if people have best performance MT routers to post their exact hardware configuration cpu/motherboard/ram, so it will guide us to better hardware selection, when creating our own powerful routers.

omg this forum sucks

i'd be interested for an answer also.

i'm planning on getting some dell 1u server, xeon quad-core with 2 onboard nics and 1 intel quad port card.

omg this forum sucks

absolute BEST way to get an answer

omg this forum sucks

absolute BEST way to get an answer

I assumed I wouldn't get the answer anyway, so at least i am allowed to show my opinion.

thanks for the answers

The reason you did not get an answer is that this question has been covered in detail on these forums.

With older versions it is better to have a higher clock speed. With newer versions that support IRQ/Receive Packet steering you are better to have more cores.

i think the answer should be more detailed.
i can ask a few more clarifying questions:

1. does memory performance count?
2. does network adapter count? tcp/udp/ipv4/ipv6 offloading, ipsec offloading, and all thoose possible settings.
3. using x86 hardware you can use metarouter easily. is routeros aware of hardware assisted virtualization?
4. does network card bus count pci-x/pcie?
5. does cpu architecture count, or cpu features? does hyper-threding count (on p4/core)?
6. does qpi links count, for intra-cpu communication? -- i might be wrong here on qpi links usage.
7.硬盘性能计算(代理cache & logs)? i know the answer is obvious, but the question is valid.

i suspect it hardware config should depend on routeros usage: nat/ipsec/conn track, etc.

i can ask a few more clarifying questions:

1. does memory performance count?
2. does network adapter count? tcp/udp/ipv4/ipv6 offloading, ipsec offloading, and all thoose possible settings.
3. using x86 hardware you can use metarouter easily. is routeros aware of hardware assisted virtualization?
4. does network card bus count pci-x/pcie?
5. does cpu architecture count, or cpu features? does hyper-threding count (on p4/core)?
6. does qpi links count, for intra-cpu communication? -- i might be wrong here on qpi links usage.
7.硬盘性能计算(代理cache & logs)? i know the answer is obvious, but the question is valid.

An attempt at answers.

1. Yes, that's outside of the OS and happens on the bus.
2. Readhttp://www.linuxfoundation.org/collabor ... orking/toefor the Linux Foundation opinion on TOE and why there are no Linux drivers. While it would be interesting to know whether Mikrotik includes third party patches I would very strongly suspect that they do not.
3. I thought MetaROUTER was PPC only (I don't use virtualization), and that KVM was the only currently supported x86 virtualization option.
4. Yes, again that's a bus thing.
5. Many ROS processes are currently single processor bound. CPU features that add perceived processors can help because processes get spread around the processors, but do not help if that lowers the single processor speed as the single bound process receives fewer cycles.
6. Don't know
7.Yes, but ROS has horrible HDD performance in most processes. If you need high performance off load all tasks that require disk IO (proxy) to external machines better suited for such tasks. Logging should go to syslog and memory only. Really, this - in many ways, though not in others - makes sense as it aims at integrated routers that operate from NAND or flash and should write as little to disk as possible.

thanks.

i think a wiki page would be helpfull.

"gain from using core i7 over a core i5 was 20% using conn track" ->example from forum users/mikrotik testing maybe

there's still the question about hardware acceleratted IPSEC in intel et2 nic, and maybe other card too.

Would like to repost on this since no answer was received on QPI

If we use harpertowns 54xx range for routing gets you 8 cores but does QPI on nehalem or westemere 56xx help improve the IRQ / RPS in anyway. BEcause these days its so easy to pump in 200k packets per second which can bring a router to its knees.

Was wondering if QPI and newer architecture helps in any way on the IRQ front.

Would MT or someone care to answer?

The original message was i7 vs i5 but thats a quad core vs dual core comparison. Would like to know difference between 54xx and nehalem or 56xx cpus - do they make a big difference?

why we not try AMD Processor?

the big idea for me choosing AMD is Hyper Transport. i have test my AMD athlon II X2 with 200 pppoe client active (1 profile but 200 session no traffic), and cpu resource displays just 2%-8%, my intel atom netbook (ROS) as pppoe server cpu load 30%-80%.

Uhm, how are you going to compare those two processors? It's an Atom in a netbook.

yes, i tried it yestarday using notebook atom 1.5Ghz 1MB L2 cache, ROS run in VirtualBox as pppoe-server.

1 AMD cpu (3Ghz 1 core) as pppoe-client, but each pppoe-client are no traffic, just connected to pppoe-server.

i think for mid range price processor AMD is better than intel. just for share my experience

yes, i tried it yestarday using notebook atom 1.5Ghz 1MB L2 cache, ROS run in VirtualBox as pppoe-server.

1 AMD cpu (3Ghz 1 core) as pppoe-client, but each pppoe-client are no traffic, just connected to pppoe-server.

i think for mid range price processor AMD is better than intel. just for share my experience

running RouterOS in VirtualPC will not give you the same results as running it native on that hardware. This indicates nothing.

AMD athlon II is comparable to PEntium D or Core DUo CPus not the single core atom !

AMD athlon II is comparable to PEntium D or Core DUo CPus not the single core atom !

yes thats right, but virtualbox can use only one core.
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@Mr. Normis

i will compare my AMD and Pentium D 3.0Ghz 4MB L2 cache later. (not use virtualbox)

thanks for all.