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    Budget build question

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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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