Situation:

Crappy PC router:

AMD AthlonXP 2000+
KT133A board
512MB CL2 PC133 SDRAM
512MB CF card
2x 3com 10/100 ethernet cards (3c905C-TX chipset)
1x Routerboard R52 in Routerboard-branded 1-slot PCI adapter, 5ghz/40mhz w/ nstream polling

Incoming connection 100mbit full duplex (to an OC3, it can max out...)

Even under the lightest of loads, I see packet loss from 0.2% to 5.0% at any given moment. Under light load its typically 0.2-0.7%. I've tried everything to eliminate this.

Tonight I try disabling connection tracking (all of the queues on this box are pfifo so conntrack isn't required) and suddenly I'm seeing no packet loss. The CPU never shows more than 50% usage (idles at 15-30% due to nstream?)

Is this a sign I need more CPU? new chipset? any suggestions?

JS

Edit: Sorry, this router has been tested with RouterOS 3.20 and 3.22. I've also tried an Intel dual-port 100mbit server adapter. I changed all queues to pfifo (of various lengths for various speed connectons).

I suspect its the cpu/mainboard/memory is either too slow or failing to maintain bus performance during high load conditions. I'm going to order a new cpu/board/ram just-in-case. This box is a combination firewall/pppoe server (110 connections, various from 768k to 10mbit)/wifi backhaul AP, and sees sustained traffic >30 mbit occasionally. I suspect we might be held back by this box during peak times - we'll see in a few days!