A BCM2711 has 1 PCI-E v2 lane, so that is 4 Gbps fullduplex. That matches quite well with 4x 1 Gbps ethernet ports. Usually a 4-port ethernet switch chip is used on routerboards AFAIK.Last summer I installed a 4-port soft router based on the Intel J5040 in the network panel for the doghouse. This is an enclosed space but there is enough convection that the heatsink-shaped case keeps everything cool without a fan.Some offer cheaper alternatives to N100, Celeron and Pentium. Still 6 watts. Similar peak speeds. I like the router variations with a heap of Ethernet ports and massive heatsink cases. By the time you connect a Pi 5, power supply, RTC battery, Ethernet hub, and a big aluminium heatsink case, the N100 is cheaper.
Plus you can get 16 GB of memory for very little extra cost. Plus 2.5 GHz Ethernet. What is missing is several decent fast USB 3.1 for a bunch of disks. I looked at only a dozen variations as a Pi 4 router is one of my uses for a Pi and my house is wired for 2.5 GHz.
None of the ones I looked at had Pi 4/5 style WiFi. Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Given the N100 box higher power usage at idle, I will stick with a fanless Pi 4.
I think the newer N100 is more power efficient, but going with the older processor allowed recycling some SODIMMs left over from upgrading a laptop. The J5040 has been reliable, which is fortunate because as far as I know four Ethernet ports are not something a Pi can handle, or could it?
I think for most households standard ISP provided homerouters have only 1 LAN (e.g. 192.168.1.1/24), so traffic from a NAS to a Windows PC for example stays in the switch chip. That made me decide to use some Netgear managed switch where I use 1 extra VLAN on 1 of its 8-ports where the fiber convertor is connected. The Pi4 RJ45 cable carries then normal LAN and the extra VLAN. The rest is all software (bridges, virtual machines).
This will of course hit the limit if combined traffic on the fiber would be > 1Gbps, but my contract is limited to 350Mbps.
Most people would use an extra USB-ethernet adaptor I think. My N100 box has 2x 1 Gbps ports, I did not need it, but it was the best deal at the time I bought than mini PC.
Statistics: Posted by redvli — Sat Dec 14, 2024 12:57 pm
