The Xeon CPUs are "almost idle". 

The "old Intel 32-bit Pentium 4 2.4GHz dual core server", however is the other 
end of that IPSEC tunnel. It's unlikely to be as idle as the Xeon. 

-- Jim

> On Nov 6, 2013, at 8:04, Thinker Rix <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
>> On 2013-11-06 15:22, Vick Khera wrote:
>> 
>> On Wed, Nov 6, 2013 at 12:53 AM, Thinker Rix <[email protected]> 
>> wrote:
>>> Would pfSense use this CPU instructions so to hardware-encrypt/decrypt all 
>>> VPN traffic (openVPN)?
>>> Woud pfSense benefit from this in any other way, too?
>> 
>> 
>> pfSense lists the AES-NI as a supported option for crypto acceleration.  
>> pfSense will use it for OpenVPN and IPsec if you tell it to. There's a 
>> config setting for it.
>> 
>> As to your question of is it worth the cost, that depends on how much VPN 
>> traffic you have. The Xeon will handle a damn lot of traffic all on its own. 
>> If you are pushing more than 40Mbps on the VPN, then perhaps consider the 
>> extra cost. If it is low, like under 5 or 10Mbps, then I'd probably suggest 
>> that it is not worth the cost.
>> 
>> As a reference, between my data center and my primary office, I have an 
>> IPsec tunnel.  The office runs on an old Intel 32-bit Pentium 4 2.4GHz dual 
>> core server.  The data center runs on Intel Xeon E31220L @ 2.20GHz 
>> quad-core. Neither one has any built-in cryptodev supported devices. The 
>> IPsec tunnel maxes out at about 20Mbps during large file backups. I don't 
>> think it would go any faster with hardware acceleration, and the load on 
>> these boxes hovers around 0 still. The data center firewall is also busy 
>> pushing over 100Mpbs of regular traffic to hundreds of clients as well.
> 
> Hi Vick,
> 
> Thank you for your reference, it is very valuable for me!
> I guess I will go with a Pentium (Ivy Bridge) 2x 3.0 GHz CPU.
> 
> What do you think is the reason for your VPN traffic maxing out at 20Mpbs (I 
> assume that your connection is not the traffic bottle neck, right?), although 
> your CPUs are almost idle?
> 
> Best regards
> Thinker Rix
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