On Fri, Apr 15, 2016 at 06:12:41PM +0200, Christian Weisgerber wrote:
> I bought a PC Engines APU2 this week and thought I'd write up my
> impressions.
>
> TL;DR: Recommended.
>
> The obvious point of reference is the Soekris net6501. Now, that
> comparison isn't really fair since the net6501 is several years old
> and the APU2 is a new design. Then again, Soekris canceled their
> successor model (after stringing along potential customers for a
> year), so they're without a competitive product now. Tough for them.
>
> http://pcengines.ch/apu2c4.htm
> https://soekris.com/products/net6501-1.html
>
> Here's what the APU2 lacks: It has only three Ethernet ports instead
> of four, no front-side Ethernet LEDs, no PCI-Express expansion slot,
> no LOM. On the plus side, it has two USB 3.0 ports instead of a
> single USB 2.0 one.
>
> Performance: Single-core speed of the APU2 seems to be comparable
> to the net6501-70 (the fast model), but the APU2 has four cores
> instead of two and it has AES-NI, which provides a big boost for
> many crypto applications. A "make -j4 build" took exactly 120
> minutes.
>
> Heat: The APUs have an innovative design where the CPU heat sink
> is coupled to the case. Since this is typically assembled by the
> customer, a lot of attention is drawn to it and people obsess over
> the CPU temperature. It's a nonissue. Case temperature is about
> the same as for the net6501, where people are far less concerned,
> even a "make -j4 build" didn't raise the CPU temperature much (57C
> to 64.5C), and the design ensures good heat flow. Ask me again in
> six months how it did in a 33C summer environment, but I expect no
> problems whatsoever.
>
> The firmware is still being worked on; it's cobbled together from
> coreboot, a MemTest86 module (takes about 1h45 for one pass on the
> apu2c4), and iPXE. It works. I've booted via PXE, from an external
> USB key, and from mSATA.
>
> Miscellaneous: The case is really compact. The order of the Ethernet
> ports is reversed when compared to the Soekris and not marked on
> the case.
>
> And yes, the APU2 is fully supported by OpenBSD 5.9.
>
> Overall, I like it a lot. Compared to the net6501, the APU2 is
> much cheaper and more powerful. Compared to Intel Rangeley devices,
> it is readily available in small quantities (like, one) and, to
> pick the one that you can easily buy, again much cheaper than the
> RCC-VE 2440.
>
> My APU2 is serving as my home gateway now, replacing a net6501.
> It feels good to be running an AMD CPU again. :-)
>
>
> PS: I bought mine from NRG Systems GmbH, Augsburg, Germany, who
> sell convenient board/case/PSU/SSD kits. Board and case were
> already assembled.
> --
> Christian "naddy" Weisgerber [email protected]
A dmesg! My kingdom for a dmesg!
;-)
-otto
