Hardware of RouterBoard vs PC

Hardware MikroTik hardware general
1

Hi,

I have an RB450G and find it works perfectly. I was just wondering why people build machines with dual core processors and 2GB of RAM, as opposed to 680mhz processor and 256meg of RAM. Is there a need for that sort of hardware in a router?

Thanks

2

For a core router, a modern PC takes it up another level, from mostly adequate to slight overkill. Lotsa bang for the buck. If you’ve got 50 customers, an rb450g is very suitable. If you’ve got thousands, a PC is more suitable.

More ram and processor mean faster/better BGP when dealing with big upstream links, better DOS attack handling, better small packet handling. I can cripple a RB2011 with 100mbps of small packets even though it’s really nice RB. A PC CPU can handle more.

I’ve stayed away from the RB core routers; probably good, but there is nothing I can fix in them. PCs lots of people can fix. If there is a driver problem, I can change hardware to something better supported in a PC but with an RB have to wait for MT to fix the software.

3

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. So for home (100meg broadband, playing games, streaming some videos across the network and hosting teamspeak, this should be ok?

Larger scale, a PC will be better. What are people opinion on Mikrotik/RouterOS vs IPCOP?

Thanks again.

4

in addition to jp’s post:

have you tried IPSEC with your RB450G ? … you will soon find out it is not that capable …

5

Never tried IPCOP. My idea of gaming on a PC is different than most. It’s things like Spider, Freecell, shisen-sho/mahjong, [and words with friends if I want to use my mind.]
If I had a 100mbps home connection, I’d probably get a rb2011, don’t know how that compares to the 450g.

6

PC is much more efficient (depends on PC), but how it will operate outdoor ?

Standard PC boards are not designed to work outdoor in contradistinction to MikroTik RouterBoards. It’s not about waterproofing, it’s on the temperature, humidity etc. Another thing is power supply for PC, not PoE.

7

what about the extra storage (etc. H.D.D) support for the PC vs RB?

Can we say you can use a proxy cache with its internal H.D.D vs a separate USB H.D.D on RB?

Or logging both usermanager logs and Http logs to the internal H.D.D on a PC?

Does PC ROS make it possible to use all the capacity of internal H.D.D and also recognizes multiple H.D.Ds ?!

thanks.

8

All those funny boards are dying with less than 100mbps input,
without firewall / queue, so even old Pentium 4 @ 2+ GHz is easy surpassing them.

with all advanced tasks … forget any higher speeds.