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    DIY pfSense hardware recommendations for gigabit wan - celeron, atom, i3?

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    • J
      jds580s
      last edited by

      Thank you all so much, that is great information and I feel like I can make a better decision knowing what to expect from given hardware and what would be pushing the limits.
      I will price out a few variations of builds to see what the best build I can create for my budget.

      Thanks!

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • M
        mir
        last edited by

        You could also consider an AMD E-350 based board.
        Pro:
            Lots of SATA3 ports
            Supports up to 16GB RAM
            Low power consumption
            Works out of the box with pfsense 2.x
            Has a PCIe 16 (4x electrical slot)
            Small form factor (MiniItx)
        Con:
            Not the highest performer (2x1.6 Ghz)
            No AES-NI

        Plugin a quad-port nic and you have 5 nics.

        I have such a board in which I have added this: http://www.intel.com/support/network/adapter/1000vtquad/sb/CS-029502.htm
        works out of the box. Off-loading everything to the nics works even for the on-board realtek so even under heavy network load CPU is never loaded more than 20% and total power consumption never exceeds 35W but most of the time it is only 15W due to powerd.

        My board is this: http://www.asrock.com/mb/amd/e350m1/
        Asus also has a board: http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/E35M1I/

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        • M
          messerchmidt
          last edited by

          Athlon 5350 (AESNI, low power)
          Asus AM1I-A
          16gb crucial ECC ddr3 1.35 (8gbx2)
          microatx case
          Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D Green 380W
          Intel EXPI9301CTBLK pcie (x2)

          pick a HD, SSD, compact flash,etc to run PF sense from.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • K
            Keljian
            last edited by

            @messerchmidt:

            Athlon 5350 (AESNI, low power)
            Asus AM1I-A
            16gb crucial ECC ddr3 1.35 (8gbx2)
            microatx case
            Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D Green 380W
            Intel EXPI9301CTBLK pcie (x2)

            pick a HD, SSD, compact flash,etc to run PF sense from.

            1. There is absolutely zero reason to get 16gb of ram for a pfsense box at home, or even in most small businesses. Heck 6-8 Gig is more than most need. ECC is definitely not required.
            2. The power supply is greatly overrated for the box, which means it will be low efficiency, consider picopsu or equivalent with ~100W
            3. 2x network cards will consume more power than 1x, consider how many ports you need, as for a home user you rarely need more than 2. A switch is a much better option if you need more ports (generally)

            You would be better off with an i3, with less ram, than the AMD chip.

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            • A
              asterix
              last edited by

              Get a used 2nd/3rd generation i3 with 4GB RAM from fleebay. The extra RAM will help in case u add Snort or other memory intensive package. Simple HDD is just fine.

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              • M
                messerchmidt
                last edited by

                @Keljian:

                @messerchmidt:

                Athlon 5350 (AESNI, low power)
                Asus AM1I-A
                16gb crucial ECC ddr3 1.35 (8gbx2)
                microatx case
                Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D Green 380W
                Intel EXPI9301CTBLK pcie (x2)

                pick a HD, SSD, compact flash,etc to run PF sense from.

                1. There is absolutely zero reason to get 16gb of ram for a pfsense box at home, or even in most small businesses. Heck 6-8 Gig is more than most need. ECC is definitely not required.
                2. The power supply is greatly overrated for the box, which means it will be low efficiency, consider picopsu or equivalent with ~100W
                3. 2x network cards will consume more power than 1x, consider how many ports you need, as for a home user you rarely need more than 2. A switch is a much better option if you need more ports (generally)

                You would be better off with an i3, with less ram, than the AMD chip.

                The said asus board does ecc, and its about the same price, so I would go for same.
                16gb vs 8gb = not even $100, and better to add it now than wanting to add it at a later time, and not being able to find same.

                psu you can got for less, but I do not see any on newegg.com

                if you can get a dual intel nic card cheap, go for it. otherwise, just use two x1 pice gigabit ones.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • K
                  Keljian
                  last edited by

                  @messerchmidt:

                  @Keljian:

                  @messerchmidt:

                  Athlon 5350 (AESNI, low power)
                  Asus AM1I-A
                  16gb crucial ECC ddr3 1.35 (8gbx2)
                  microatx case
                  Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D Green 380W
                  Intel EXPI9301CTBLK pcie (x2)

                  pick a HD, SSD, compact flash,etc to run PF sense from.

                  1. There is absolutely zero reason to get 16gb of ram for a pfsense box at home, or even in most small businesses. Heck 6-8 Gig is more than most need. ECC is definitely not required.
                  2. The power supply is greatly overrated for the box, which means it will be low efficiency, consider picopsu or equivalent with ~100W
                  3. 2x network cards will consume more power than 1x, consider how many ports you need, as for a home user you rarely need more than 2. A switch is a much better option if you need more ports (generally)

                  You would be better off with an i3, with less ram, than the AMD chip.

                  The said asus board does ecc, and its about the same price, so I would go for same.
                  16gb vs 8gb = not even $100, and better to add it now than wanting to add it at a later time, and not being able to find same.

                  psu you can got for less, but I do not see any on newegg.com

                  if you can get a dual intel nic card cheap, go for it. otherwise, just use two x1 pice gigabit ones.

                  If your box is going to cost $200-300, then $100 is 1/3 of the price, therefore it is significant enough to warrant consideration, considering that in OP's original post said he was looking for a low cost solution.

                  PSU wise, $10-20 can get you a Picopsu style power supply on ebay, and for another $20-30 you can get an adapter to run it.  $25-30 will get you a used dual intel PT nic also.

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                  • M
                    messerchmidt
                    last edited by

                    you can salvage parts off ebay.

                    trust me, add more ram and use ecc (as long as the board supports it) as the price difference is less than the headache of not having enough

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • K
                      Keljian
                      last edited by

                      @messerchmidt:

                      you can salvage parts off ebay.

                      trust me, add more ram and use ecc (as long as the board supports it) as the price difference is less than the headache of not having enough

                      Give me one good reason to use more ram, and another for ecc (in this instance, noting OP's requirements)

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • K
                        Keljian
                        last edited by

                        Just a follow up, I now run pfsense in a VM with the aforementioned hardware. I'm only giving it 2 gig of ram and 2 cores, generally speaking it doesn't use more than 60% of the memory, and (assuming memory compression in the VM), it's only using 254 meg overall in the ESXI dashboard.

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