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    Budget build question

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    • V
      VAMike
      last edited by

      @Roy360:

      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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      • B
        belt9
        last edited by

        +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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        • R
          Roy360
          last edited by

          @belt9:

          +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 ssd

          Are you saying to go ssd?

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          • ?
            Guest
            last edited by

            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

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            • V
              VAMike
              last edited by

              @Roy360:

              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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              • B
                belt9
                last edited by

                My priority would be:

                SSD
                SLC Flash Drive / SATA DOM
                xLC (normal) Flash Drive
                HDD

                I 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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                • R
                  Roy360
                  last edited by

                  @belt9:

                  My priority would be:

                  SSD
                  SLC Flash Drive / SATA DOM
                  xLC (normal) Flash Drive
                  HDD

                  I 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.

                  @belt9:

                  .

                  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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                  • B
                    belt9
                    last edited by

                    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.

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                    • J
                      jgiannakas
                      last edited by

                      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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                      • B
                        belt9
                        last edited by

                        @jgiannakas:

                        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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                        • R
                          Roy360
                          last edited by

                          @belt9:

                          @jgiannakas:

                          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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                          • S
                            Stan464
                            last edited by

                            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 RAM

                            Running:

                            OpenVPN
                            Surricata protecting, WAN, LAN, TUN
                            few other bits and bobs

                            Running 80/20.

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                            • R
                              Roy360
                              last edited by

                              @belt9:

                              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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                              • B
                                belt9
                                last edited by

                                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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                                • R
                                  Roy360
                                  last edited by

                                  @belt9:

                                  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.

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