Any thoughts on the Atom processor Mini-ITX for pfsense?
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The Atom is supposed to be a lower cost solution. Curious if it would work with pfsense.
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Looks like it works with Freebsd. Problem seems to be with the NIC. Uses Realtek RTL8102EL. Got that from an article here: http://portal.itauth.com/2008/06/16/freebsd-intel-atom
Also uses "One PCI Conventional* bus connector"
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The NIC is a problem - see this thread (click). Even if it is eventually sorted out, it's still a Realtek 10/100 part. Realtek NICs have a history of not being that good in FreeBSD and aren't ideal for any sort of server load.
I believe the "PCI Conventional" description is saying it's PCI, rather than PCI-Express. If that is the case, you can use any PCI NIC - subject to the necessary space in your case, a riser card if your case needs one, and a suitably large power supply. If you only need one port (as you would if you were using 802.1q VLANs), a cheap Intel desktop Gigabit NIC will get you going, though I'd recommend an Intel server NIC if possible.
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Have you considered the new Via Processor yet?
I’m not a big fan of Via but the new “Mini”-processor looks quite decent:http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/atom-nano-review.ars
(yes, it does use more power but take a peek at the benchmarks.)