PfSense on mini Tower? - dual core 2.8 ghz, 4 gig ram, dual gig intel NIC

[Wakesk8r]

Greetings fellow pfSensors,

I am in need of a gateway firewall, and have decided to use an older machine to save doll hairs.  It's an emachine EL1352-03.  I will be purchasing a dual gig intel LAN pci-x (16) for it.

Specific uses:
-  Gateway Firewall
-  NAT
-  Routing
-  Snort
-  Squid (maybe)

Comments / Concerns:

1.  It's a dual core 2.8 ghz AMD processor.  This should give me decent firewall throughput, correct?  At least 100 Mbs (going off the pfsense hardware forum).
2.  Is 4 gigs of ram going to be a problem?  I haven't looked to see if its upgradeable, but i doubt it (considering this is a mini-tower)
3.  It has an Nvidia integrated GIG LAN chipset-  so, (a) will it work in pfsense, and (b) if it does work, and assuming it's a crappy chipset, should the decent CPU compensate for the LAN chipset latency?
4.  See below

LAN matters:
-  SETUP:  WAN -> pfSense box (emachine) -> 10 port unmanaged switch -> two (2) seperate wifi AP's
-  Question:  Assuming the onboard Nvidia LAN works in pfsense, (1) do i really need an extra dual-lan pci-x card (vs single LAN NIC), and (2) what benefits would i get from the dual-lan (vs a single pci-x gig Intel NIC)?

Sorry if this is confusing as heck; i've been studying for law school finals  :-\

Cheers
|\ Wakesk8r /|

[messerchmidt]

will work fine. you need more ram if you want to run squid. make the pfsense box the dhcp and the wifi routers dhcp forwarders/ access points.

i assume your going to install pfsense on the HD.

make sure the intel nic you buy works with pfsense