[Asterisk-Users] Performance (Cisco AS5350) or Price (Wildcard TE410P)

[Matthew Crocker]

I'm looking to build an Asterisk system to place in front of my call 
center switch.  My plan is to eat up 4 PRIs in one office, send to my 
other office and convert back to PRI for my legacy switch.  Voice 
quality is critical,  would I be better off going with a Cisco AS5350 
using hardware DSPs for the g.729 codec or is the Digium g.729 codec 
just as good with enough CPU to throw at it.   The lack of dedicated 
DSP concerns me

Option 1

PSTN PRI -> AS5350 -> (2 x T1) IP(SIP,g.729) -> AS5350 -> PRI -> PBX

I would have 1 Asterisk server handling SIP, Conference, IVR, Voice 
Mail.  I would purchase a bunch of g.729 codec licenses

Option 2

PSTN PRI -> Asterisk -> (2x T1) IP (IAX2, g.729) -> Asterisk -> PRI -> 
PBX

The first Asterisk would handle SIP, Conference, IVR, Voice Mail


If the voice quality of the software g.729 codec is as good as the 
Cisco hardware codec I would *much* rather give my money to Digium, buy 
their hardware and licenses.  If the quality isn't as good I may be 
forced to spend $40k on AS5350s

I'm thinking 2.8 Ghz P-IV HT with 2 GB RAM for each Asterisk server.

-Matt