New Pfsense box with old box

maverik1

I am currently starting the process of building a pfsense box for my home to server as a dhcp server, firewall and possible snort box. I have read that you can use an older existing computer rather than purchasing new hardware. I have an older machine I build probably in 2007 or so that has a GigaByte 7NF-RZ board. As I will need a dual port gigabyte nic I will need to purchase one. However, this board is so old that the only slots I have are PCI. I assume I would get better performance from pcie. Would it be beneficial to build a whole new system? I don't want to spend too much and I don't need to go overboard.

TIA

Nullity

Be sure to pay attention to the differences between megabit, megabyte, mebibyte, etc.
Unless your WAN is gigabit, you should be fine as is. Though, you will need 2 PCI slots as PCI does not have dual-NIC cards available like PCIE.

Communication within a single LAN is usually only transmitted through the switches.
pfSense generally only needs to be capable of processing internetworking (WAN to LAN) speeds, not intranetwork (LAN to LAN).

So, rather than upgrading pfSense, upgrade your switch(es).

PCI, depending on the version, is capable of 133MByte up to 533MByte, shared among all PCI devices.

maverik1

@Nullity:

Be sure to pay attention to the differences between megabit, megabyte, mebibyte, etc.
Unless your WAN is gigabit, you should be fine as is. Though, you will need 2 PCI slots as PCI does not have dual-NIC cards available like PCIE.

Communication within a single LAN is usually only transmitted through the switches.
pfSense generally only needs to be capable of processing internetworking (WAN to LAN) speeds, not intranetwork (LAN to LAN).

So, rather than upgrading pfSense, upgrade your switch(es).

PCI, depending on the version, is capable of 133MByte up to 533MByte, shared among all PCI devices.

Yes, I am aware of the differences. Comcast is my ISP and I only have 50 meg down and maybe 10 up. I guess in that case I can go ahead and purchase two PCI nic cards. I might want to upgrade the processor. It only has an AMD Athlon at 895MHz

You could try out Soekris LAN cards with dual or quad port or their VPN cards also based on the PCI bus.