RAM distribution catch-22, 2 old P1 generation PCs

[Jens Ropers <ropers_(_at_)_ropersonline_(_dot_)_com>]

Emboldened by this email: 
http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=openbsd-misc&m=110829161129670&w=2
, I'm again looking into getting OpenBSD to run on some dated hardware.

I've got two old PCs here:

- an AMD Pentium I clone, 75 MHz.
  This machine has 16MB RAM (four 4MB SIMMs in four banks)
  [[and a <500MB HD.]]

- a 133 MHz Pentium I. This machine has 96 MB RAM (six 16MB SIMMs in 3 
banks--2 SIMMs per each bank).
  [[and a 1.6GB and a 4.1GB HDD, a 36xCDROM, a 52xCDRW, 2 floppies, 
etc.]]

The _second_ machine is planned to dualboot Win98 SE and OpenBSD 3.6 -- 
possibly even with X or getting as far as KDE/GNOME, though that may be 
stretching it, performance-wise.

I want to turn the _first_ machine into a plain vanilla home 
firewall/mini-router box. I seek to run pppoe and pf, but maybe not 
even sendmail or apache as I don't currently anticipate providing any 
outward-facing Internet service with it, certainly not for anybody else 
except myself. So the box will be sitting between a small home network 
(2 to--at most--5 computers) and a DSL-modem. (The DSL line is 
currently 128kbps and will at max be 1024kbps. That's a theoretical 
maximum.) The PC's job will be providing Internet connectivity and a 
degree of protection for such wondrous hurt-me-nots as Win 98 SE. And 
to let me learn stuff and play with it, and I'm not referring to Catch 
the Wumpus (not exclusively, anyway. If cave 20 leads to 18 and 3 and I 
got a bat warning when I was in cave... SORRY!).

I /could/ swap 4 SIMMs, giving the first machine 40MB (two 4MB and two 
16MB SIMMs) while giving the second machine 72MB (four 16MB and two 4MB 
SIMMs).
I would /prefer/ not to do that -- from the perspective of needing that 
RAM to run such bloated but colorful specimen as Win98 and/or maybe 
even KDE/GNOME on OpenBSD.

Which brings me to my actual question:

===> Does anyone have any experience with running pf and pppoe on OBSD 
on a slomofo, RAM-starved box such as the above 16MB rig? Can anyone 
give a qualified guess whether 16MB might just suffice? Or should I 
really go for the 40/72 setup?
(I can prolly get dmesgs should people feel its needed to answer the 
question.)

What I pretty clearly won't be doing is buying more RAM, because even 
tracing compatible RAM will cost more than a computer twice as fast and 
my main emphasis is on putting to honorable use the HW I have while 
learning a thing or two -- and not on "solving a problem" and getting 
new hardware for it.

Thanks and regards,
ropers

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www.ropersonline.com