Budget build question
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Edit: found it on ebay : www.ebay.ca/itm/272879825517?
I also found the 3455 for 100$ : https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B01M7OUO62/
I couldn't find anything conclusive, will pfsense benefit from a quad core vs a dual core?
The j3355 is generally a better choice because the bottleneck tends to be single threaded performance for openvpn or pppoe, and the j3355 base clock of 2GHz is significantly higher than the J3455 base clock of 1.5GHz. More cores would help with routing multiple gigabit networks, but that's not usually a requirement in a home context.
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+1 to vamike for j3355 over 3455 for most home networks.
It's not so much that the i5 you listed was a bad deal, it's a bad deal for what it sounds like you need.
That CPU is way overpowered, like hugely so. Its newer and faster than my i5-2500 box, and my box is dramatically overpowered for what I need to do, but it was cheap.
I would recommend just shopping around SFF workstations from reputable sellers that are under USD 100. I'd look for one that doesn't include the HDD. You can boot with zfs from a pair of.flash drives and a ram disk (I do), or get a cheapo 16gb ssd.
Any second gen i3 or better will do. Some older pentiums will work. You do want AES-NI though which will probably be the limiting factor in how old of a cpu you can get. I don't remember when that came out on i3's and pentiums? That's probably why I ended up with a second gen i5 come to think of it.
If you find a workstation you like then order it and also a used server pull i340 (2 or 4 port as required) with a low profile bracket.
Put the NIC in the computer, unplug unnecessary stuff it may have come with (HDD, optical drive, etc.) and you're ready to go.That's what I would do in your shoes if you're wanting to buy used.
If you want new then definitely recommend j3355b route. It will cost you more for sure though.
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+1 to vamike for j3355 over 3455 for most home networks.
I would recommend just shopping around SFF workstations from reputable sellers that are under USD 100. I'd look for one that doesn't include the HDD. You can boot with zfs from a pair of.flash drives and a ram disk (I do), or get a cheapo 16gb ssd.
That's what I would do in your shoes if you're wanting to buy used.
.I remember reading a thread saying to use a hdd over a ssd for pfsense due to the number of writes pfsense makes.
I currently have the following in my possession:
USB key
Hdd
32gb msata ssdAre you saying to go ssd?
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I currently have the following in my possession:
this would be my personal road to walk on;
1. choice mSATA
2. choice Hdd
3. USB key for installations only -
I remember reading a thread saying to use a hdd over a ssd for pfsense due to the number of writes pfsense makes.
That thread is stupid and may safely be disregarded.
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My priority would be:
SSD
SLC Flash Drive / SATA DOM
xLC (normal) Flash Drive
HDDI wouldn't recommend using normal thumb drives as a boot disk unless you A. mirror them or better in ZFS and B. Use a RAM Disk. I use a set of thumb drives with zfs redundancy and a RAM disk and it works great.
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My priority would be:
SSD
SLC Flash Drive / SATA DOM
xLC (normal) Flash Drive
HDDI wouldn't recommend using normal thumb drives as a boot disk unless you A. mirror them or better in ZFS and B. Use a RAM Disk. I use a set of thumb drives with zfs redundancy and a RAM disk and it works great.
I'll go the ssd route then. It's just been hanging out in my laptop as a cache drive these days.
Plus I'm assuming in order to use a RAM disk you'd need ECC RAM.
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If you find a workstation you like then order it and also a used server pull i340 (2 or 4 port as required) with a low profile bracket.
Put the NIC in the computer, unplug unnecessary stuff it may have come with (HDD, optical drive, etc.) and you're ready to go. .Could I use a Monoprice USB 3.0 NIC to connect to my internet modem, and then use the onboard to connect to my Asus router (which will be running as a wireless Ap)?
The specific NIC you mention is going for 50$ used.
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You definitely don't need ECC RAM for a RAM Disk (I don't use ECC) - ECC is never needed in a home router.
But if you already have an SSD just use that.
People have used USB NIC's, it's not recommended and I've never done it so I can't say if it will work for you or not.
Personally I would get a VLAN capable switch and use that instead. -
I’ve setup a raspberi pi as a OpenVPN server to allow remote access before and it tops out at about 10-12 mbps. If your connection is under that then it will work or if you just want the occasional access to a network.
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I’ve setup a raspberi pi as a OpenVPN server to allow remote access before and it tops out at about 10-12 mbps. If your connection is under that then it will work or if you just want the occasional access to a network.
He could do that with the router he already has using xxxwrt.
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I’ve setup a raspberi pi as a OpenVPN server to allow remote access before and it tops out at about 10-12 mbps. If your connection is under that then it will work or if you just want the occasional access to a network.
He could do that with the router he already has using xxxwrt.
I've tried.
The router's CPU isn't capable of it.
Running selective openVPN bogs down all the wireless connections, even though they aren't running thru the vpn
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I had the same issue as Roy to a degree, i ran OpenVPN on 1 low end router, and 1 High End consumer Router with pretty much the same results.
OpenVPN is a Resource hog and really, has no real optimisation. so in the end i built my PFSense Router/Firewall on:
ITX Asrock SoC AMD-APU 5000 (Builtin AES-NI)
Generic 1U Case
Basic 1U PSU
40GB HDD
4GB of RAMRunning:
OpenVPN
Surricata protecting, WAN, LAN, TUN
few other bits and bobsRunning 80/20.
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Now, if you can get an old SFF i5 workstation for a price that isn't bullshit - go for it!
How about a i5 2.9Ghz 4570S, 8GB ram, 120GB Ssd for 210 (160 USD)?
I can swap out the CPU with the I3 4130 that's in my htpc
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That's certainly more better ;D
Another thought, just use your HTPC as pfSense and buy a J3355B to use as your HTPC. It does HEVC 10 bit hardware decoding. Mine plays back the higher bitrate 4k HEVC 10 bit jellyfish test files just fine.
That option might save you some $$.
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That's certainly more better ;D
Another thought, just use your HTPC as pfSense and buy a J3355B to use as your HTPC. It does HEVC 10 bit hardware decoding. Mine plays back the higher bitrate 4k HEVC 10 bit jellyfish test files just fine.
That option might save you some $$.
My HTPC doubles as a gaming rig too (it has a gtx 750ti) 8)
Steam link and Nvidia gamestream require the host to be not in use, so I've got no choice to to play games locally. Otherwise I'd definitely setup streaming, my network is mainly wired after all.