Thoughts on Dell Dimension E521 running pfsense?
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I have a Dell Dimension E521 - Athlon 64 X2 5000+ 2.6 GHz - just sitting on the floor in a closet and thought about loading pfsense on it, and buying a 4 port gig nic card for it, but wanted some input if it is even worth it. I have looked at some Watchguard firewalls but didn't want to spend that much right now and figured if it would work maybe try this old PC out. I'm wanting to use this as a main router running OPEN vpn client and server both, plus run multiple VLANS to my Netgear r7000 with DDWRT for the WIFI for now. My R7000 is ok but doesn't have the power I want to keep up with my 100Mbps with OPENVPN.
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That AMD machine won't cut it either. It will be faster than any ARM or MIPS machine, but it probably won't get you 100Mbit either.
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well I certainly appreciate the honesty. That will prevent me wasting time with this pc. I will wait and maybe invest in a Watchguard later, I really like the idea of having one or get a thin client and run Pfsense on it.
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If you want 100Mbps OpenVPN you'll need something beefier than a basic x86 machine. I believe an Atom or Core series CPU with AES-NI is the lowest you can go.
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Do you think this thin client could keep up? https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-T620-Quad-Core-5-Port-Gigabit-Firewall-Router-64Bit-4GB-RAM-16GB-SSD-pfSense/322856400583?hash=item4b2bbdb6c7:g:MQoAAOSwJ4hY8s86
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It should be sufficient, the CPU, QX-420CA, has AES support and at least two fast cores.