Mini-Itx Suggestions for Dual WAN (>2 Nics)
-
Hey All:
Any suggestions on a low power mini-itx board for a simple small office dual-wan pfsense setup?
I understand an ATOM based mini-itx board will likely have plenty of power for a small(er) install but I am having a hard time locking down the best board to purchase (the more I research the less narrow my selection). The two incoming connections are 150/20Mbps and 40/2Mbps (down/up) and I really do not expect to move a lot of traffic through VPN (maybe one connected client).
There are obviously a lot of solutions available including some great Supermicro board at $700 but I don't want to spend $700 when a perfect board at $150 will work great.
Any suggestions to help narrow my focus?
Thanks all!
–Chris
-
I have been using one of these for the last year with 4gb of ram and a 320 magnetic hard drive. i run snort, openvpn, ipsec etc. I am very pleased with it. I have the intel nic daughterboard.
http://mitxpc.com/proddetail.asp?prod=EKJNC9EM3505L&cat=209
I think it was around $500 shipped with all the "extras"
-
Hey All:
Any suggestions on a low power mini-itx board for a simple small office dual-wan pfsense setup?
I understand an ATOM based mini-itx board will likely have plenty of power for a small(er) install but I am having a hard time locking down the best board to purchase (the more I research the less narrow my selection). The two incoming connections are 150/20Mbps and 40/2Mbps (down/up) and I really do not expect to move a lot of traffic through VPN (maybe one connected client).
There are obviously a lot of solutions available including some great Supermicro board at $700 but I don't want to spend $700 when a perfect board at $150 will work great.
Any suggestions to help narrow my focus?
Thanks all!
–Chris
If you don't want to spend a lot, your problem is more related to what case you use than the motherboard.
You can add a regular NIC to ITX boards with a riser in some models, or fit half height in some other cases. Much easier to do it this way than deal with a custom mother+daughterboard, quad and 6 port intel 82571 nics are <$100 on fleabay.
Alternatively if you like ITX but don't care about being ultra small volume and want to re-use some standard size components lying around (ATX PSU, 3.5" drives, optical bay, full height card etc) the cooler master 120 is a really nice yet cheap case. ($35 on amazon right now)
I have been using one of these for the last year with 4gb of ram and a 320 magnetic hard drive. i run snort, openvpn, ipsec etc. I am very pleased with it. I have the intel nic daughterboard.
http://mitxpc.com/proddetail.asp?prod=EKJNC9EM3505L&cat=209
I think it was around $500 shipped with all the "extras"
Not trying to be the ants at your picnic, but a $500 DIY build can do better than atom, have 6-8 intel ports and still be ITX low profile or 1U short depth.
-
I've been using one of these for a while with pfsense 2.1 (the NICs aren't supported in 2.0.x), and it's been great. Handles 100 megabit internet service without breaking a sweat.
http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4444#ov
Would be easy enough to add a low-profile NIC to that.
-edit-
Just found out there's a new version of the motherboard out, with a newer Celeron based on Intel's 22 nm process.
http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4497