This question has been addressed in the past. Don't go with cheap SSD unless you are using SLC type, industrial grade. Find out the write cycle life of you SSD. I've had cheap SSD die on me using Windows7. When you install the full version of pfSense it writes to the drive constantly logging the graphs and other stuff (sorry I'm no expert). When you run the nano version (compact flash & usb) it is ran from RAM. Everything is loaded from the flash drive into ram at boot and after boot, the running OS exist in RAM. So the intense disk using features of pfSense are turned OFF in nano version. There is an option in pfSense where you can offload logging into a log server. If you go with a cheap SSD, you can always turn off logging, follow the guide here: https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=34381.0

Ok, this makes sense to me, I thought the VLAN tagging was used between the PFsense interface and the modem, and couldn't understand why it would be needed. I will try to set it all up without tagging first, then if it fails I'll query the ISP regarding the VLAN tag to use. Thanks!

You can see for yourself what kind of performance you get over here. http://sourceforge.net/projects/nas4free/files/NAS4Free-ARM/ Number listed there resemble what I am seeing as well. Odroid best of the bunch at 400mb/sec for a gigabit line.

And what is now the real question here? I would suggest you to wait two month and then go with a PC Engines APU2B4 board.

@BlueKobold: even for the sites which dont use ipsec? i'll elaborate a bit about it. sites that dont use ipsec only talk to the non ipsec sites and the ipsec sites only talk to the ipsec sites. it might be that you are only looking for one or another feature, function or option now or better today, being prepared and able to do all things is the hint that makes a hardware ready to do all, or let it running longer as expected, this is my point of view. If you will be able to get your hands on the Intel Core i7 and the Intel Xeon E3-1220v3 than do it and go with this both CPUs each on one site. They have their own charm and they are really strong and right powered. So it might be nothing wrong with this suggestion from me, they both are strong with enough cores and with AES-NI also ready to run a long time. thanks a lot :)

:) Thanks for your advice. I have a quote for the 2758 + 16 GB RAM + 1 SSD Intel 240GB + a 4 ports LAN card , but the D1540 is almost twice the price. So I will see in the next days what I do.  :'(

First rule in government spending: Why build one when you can have two at twice the price?

there is GUI work that has to happen for someone to be able to enable the 'right' watchdog. factory images (because we know what the hardware is) will have the right thing happen automatically.

@stephenw10: I get 5-600Mbps through mine with the 1.7GHz CPU, or course is varies greatly by what traffic you are sending, packet size etc! Tom's test results don't appear to claim that kind of speed with that chip as he is using the SL7SM. Are you getting that performance out of the on-board ports or the expansion ports? Steve, what firmware are you using? I upgraded some of my boxes from 2.0.3 to 2.1.5 and I'm wondering if the 2.1.5 drivers fully support the hardware. I am considering upgrading to 2.2.5. Do you think its worth it? I am using WG pfSense routers for all my offices and for our datacenter gw. Should I be looking at other hardware that will run pfSense? Is what I have good enough for a commercial website(s) NAT gateway as well as a VPN portal?

Thanks BlueKobold. It looks like a nice hardware, but a bit over my budget.

Yup, ^that. "Quiet and rackable". Unfortunately these two things together are rare. Mostly because rack mount gear is expected to work in a data center jammed up against a load of other hot gear and they all have 40mm fans to fit in the 1U height so …. loud! Our own current hardware (such as this: https://store.pfsense.org/SG-4860/ ) is fanless in desktop format but we have to fit fans in the rackmount version (https://store.pfsense.org/SG-4860-1U/ ) due to the restricted cooling and potentially hotter surroundings. You might look at something that is desktop format with a rackmount option or even just use a shelf! Steve

Different parts of FreeBSD are good at using more CPU cores. The network stack is getting better and FreeBSD 10(PFSense 2.2.x) has gained some benefits, and FreeBSD 11(PFSense 2.x/3.x) will have more. The actual kernel itself can utilize a lot of CPUs for CPU bound work, but IO bound work is a work in progress.

I can get a 120GB ssd cheap enough but the msata is still quite pricey here by comparison. Yes I will be caching with squid, I am on an adsl2 line so I need all the help I can get. I was only thinking on the mSATA due to the heating inside of the case, a SSD will be also very good in this case for sure. The xeon is my preferred choice of cpu and whilst I have come across reference to it booting fine in this board, I still don't fathom how that can be so given it has no gpu built in, possibly the AMT on the lan port is being used to configure and install the OS. In any case my backup is the i3 and it should be fast enough to handle my needs just a shame it has no AES-NI. The OS will be installed then over the USB port and from a USB pen drive over the serial console you will do this really fast and secure so no GPU or screen is needed on the pfSense box side. The intel board does not support ECC memory, so its just plain old laptop ram. Would i really need more than 4GB though? Really sad to hear about that, perhaps the Intel Xeon will be running with the other ram together also well if you have luck. The onboard nics should suffice as all i need is 1 wan and 1 lan port, at least thats all i think I need for this use case, is there a situation where more ports would come in handy?

Great. Good outcome.  :) Steve

model of my pci express wifi adapter is tplink tl-wn781nd with this model pfsense have big problem thanks

Just to let you know that I am using 2 of similar HW CPU E8500 ( PC-Fujitu-Siemens ) and E8400 ( PC-Lenovo ) each with 3Gb RAM ( and 3 & 4 LAN's Gb ) connected also with OVPN site to site without any problem. At the moment I am not running Gb WAN because I need a converter from fiber to Gb UTP or an Emulex LPe11002 PCIe card but I have no idea if pfsense support this Emulex hw. Consumption is ~45W / h.

I have a 60GB MLC ssd Take it and be happy together with the rest.

but I would prefer a physical device over a VM solution as i want to protect the host, But on the PC on PCI(e) cards comes often without any storage, so where you want to connect the storage device for holding the pfSense system? If you have a special card, please post a link or a photo, so we could see if there are any connectors for storage devices. Are there any other options besides the Innominate cards? They are working well and out of the box without any issues, so there is no need to tinker the wire new. You could be also interesting in a Cloud based pfSense firewall. They look quite cool, but they seem to be aimed primarily at industrial machinery applications, and no-one lists prices. And for co or home workers with a outside locked company PC or server where is a need only to get rid of any other things such you were asking for.

Do the 4860/8860 have the same 750 Mbps limitation for PPPoE, or are they supposed to hit 1 Gbps due to higher CPU frequency? This thread here would be fr sure not matching to 100% of all cases and customers or countries or IPSs but it gives a short answer back to your question. Link 1 Link 2

Thank you! I have been searching for a while and had no idea what to call it