Want small form pc for pfSense … recommendations
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Thanks. Lots to think about.
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Take a look at the Intel NUC. Think there is one with dual Ethernet.
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Take a look at the Intel NUC. Think there is one with dual Ethernet.
Intel NUC5ix series, latest with 5th gen i3/i5/i7 is single ethernet only. You can mod using a different case and using pci slot to fit the second ethernet adapter.
I own NUC5i3RYH. -
Maybe this is what I saw. Not sure if this is considered a NUC, but it does have to RJ45 connections.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856205007Or I may have been thinking Thunderbolt NIC adapter.
Personally though I'd settle for single NIC and VLAN unless there is specific requirement for no VLAN or bandwidth constraints.
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Better to go with 2 seperate NIC's than VLAN's. You can always VLAN the LAN part to get things seperated…
I prefer the WAN and LAN on 2 seperate physical interfaces. Even if its running virtualized....
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The suggestions here have been helpful. I think I'm going to have to spend a few bucks but less than $400 if I'm careful. I will either build one using the suggestions here about the motherboard that has the new Intel Rangeley chip and Intel nics or explore a Jetway small form PC that will need memory and a drive. I read about them elsewhere and they appear to have some capabilities … but not all models have Intel nics so care is needed in the selection.
It's been a long time since I built a PC so it might be fun to build a router.
Is a small form case just a case or are there specs to look for?
Regarding ram, 4GB or 8GB? The cost is negligible. With a router is there any advantage to having a reserve of ram?
I have a spare 2.5" 500GB drive, but a small SSD is cheap. Any pros or cons to either? 32GB ok?
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snort and Suricata are memory hogs. Point to 8GB for that, otherwise 4GB is completely sufficient.
Personally, I don't like running HDDs in my routers as they have moving parts. A small SSD is fine even though there won't be much of a speed improvement. -
I suggest Supermicro MB with C2558 or 2758, 8GB to run Snort and pfBlockerNG. A small SSD is fine. On the market there are a lot of cases available, both fan and fanless. Such a setup will secure your future bandwidth upgrades, up to 1000Mbps. With upcoming OpenVPN supporting in full AES-NI it will be the standard.
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Umm, I used some left over computer parts from a PC upgrade to build mine. It is a larger build but then again, it is rack mounted with my server. I used a Asrock z77 board, i5 CPU, 2x2 gig ram, an old 1TB HD, 2 x Intel EXPI9400PTBLK network cards and 2 Emulex 4GB LPE 1150-E fiber cards. I am running pfsense and snort with NO memory lag as mentioned by a previous poster. Overall system performance will be determined by the quality of the hardware. If you looking for a low power system then maybe 8 gig is necessary. If not concerning with physical size then 8 gig may be overkill. Just as with an SSD which again is overkill
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Use Innodisk DOM for the drive instead of a normal HD.
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You could seek out the local electronics recyclers. 3 to 5 year old PC's can be had cheap. For me my first pfSense box was a $50 Dell 760 small form factor core2, 4gb ram. I added a 2.5 40gb hd. I scored a NC360T dual nic cheap.
Then you can decide later how much power you need and what you want to spend on low power vs hp. You may even run into a stack of old firewalls you could revive with pfSense.Unfortunately, visiting a place like that can be habit forming. I need special permission from my significant other just to drive by the place..
