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    Diy hardware help UK build

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Hardware
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    • T
      Teaker1s
      last edited by

      I have quietly been reading pfsense articles and have decided that self build meets my cost and new hardware requirement.

      I did look at comparable firebox new old stock, but £200 for old hardware when I think I can do new for £150

      I have looked at the Chinese fan less duel lan aluminium pc and shipping, import duty and VAT kill the price.

      I did look at Fit pic, but out of my price range and the pfsense $300 unit not really what I'm looking at spending or support I need

      Below my list of parts, if anyone can advise, I believe quad core not implemented on pfsense and couldn't see 2ghz gigabyte fanless option in my price range as discontinued Gigabyte GA-J1900N-D3V mini-ITX Integrated Intel Celeron J1900 Quad Core 2.0 GHz CPU, DDR3, SATA II 3Gb/s

      Looking quiet, low power and relatively cheap

      Thanks

      https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01ALSQA2W/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE Duel lan motherboard

      https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00CQ35GYE/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE Kingston 4gb x2

      https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00VX82PJC/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE 30gb ssd 3year warranty

      https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0064KZ5O6/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE Case and power supply

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      • ?
        Guest
        last edited by

        Hello,

        all is depending on your use case, installed packets, offered services, turned on features, served users,
        entire network traffic and on top the Internet line speed that must be routet. You informations on this
        are very rarely! But pending on the statement in the next line I would suggest the following ones:

        Looking quiet, low power and relatively cheap

        PC Engines APU1D4 bundle from the Varia-store
        UK PSU & WiFi card or mSATA are also available
        Includes PSU, case and board.

        PC Engines APU2C4 as single spare parts
        Board ~150 €
        PSU ~15 €
        case ~12 €
        mSATA ~your choice

        Board Jetway NF9HG-2930
        external PSU ~£12
        Case M350
        2 x 4 GB
        mSATA

        The pfSense store units are also available a bit cheaper over the Netgate store and will matching also nice
        if you considering a SG-2440 or RCC-VE-2440.

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        • T
          Teaker1s
          last edited by

          Hello and thank you for reply,

          Couple of offices currently a small server and maybe 25 users shifting emails, xml files, documents.
          Sites have  80/20 megabit internet so nothing spectacular.

          Reason looking at a PC based solution is ease of swapping out parts if it goes pop- paying for this myself unless I prove it works and is manageable.

          Over the years I have collected a selection of Internet SOHO routers that fail 18 months to 2 years of use even with UPS and surge protection.

          Latest was an openwrt merlin firmware router, but billion and  draytek no more reliable

          I'd also like the flexibility of trying out pfsense and some of the other x86 router OS.

          Also like to buy in own country as import duties, tax on top and shipping kill uk imports and RMA a pain if out of country.

          Jetway is £174 in uk with no ram or storage.

          Or do I just do,an atx with several Intel or Realtek nic.

          Thank you for your time and advice.

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          • ?
            Guest
            last edited by

            Over the years I have collected a selection of Internet SOHO routers that fail 18 months to 2 years of use even with UPS and surge protection.

            The older Alix boards from PC Engines were running 5 - 6 years together with pfSense till version 2.1.5
            and since the change to 2.2.6 they are a bit slow now for many tasks.

            Latest was an openwrt merlin firmware router, but billion and  draytek no more reliable

            OpenWRt is a router solution likes his competitive brother DD-WRT, well it will be also running too on
            the Alix hardware or the newer boards called APU.

            I'd also like the flexibility of trying out pfsense and some of the other x86 router OS.

            On the APU Board and Jetway NF9HG-2930 you can run without any issues;
            Router:

            • Vyatta
            • fli4l & eisfair
            • DD-WRT (x86)
            • OpenWRT (x86)
            • MikroTik RouterOS
            • OpenBSD & Quagga
            • OpenBSD & OpenBGPD

            Gateways & other:

            • CentOS & SoftEtherVPN
            • Asterisk, Askozia
            • ClearOS

            Firewalls:

            • pfSense
            • IPFire
            • ZeroShell
            • Untangle & Sophos UTM

            OS:

            • Ubuntu
            • CentOS
            • Debian
            • OpenSUSE
            • RedHat

            OpenWRT is also running on the older Alix board really nice and together with a soekris vpn1411
            mini CPI card or miniPCI WiFi card it will be turning the router into a famous working WiFi/VPN router.

            Also like to buy in own country as import duties, tax on top and shipping kill uk imports and RMA a pain if out of country.

            I can understand your point of view for sure. But the Varia-Store is selling world wide and is really nice
            accepting RAM cases.

            Jetway is £174 in uk with no ram or storage.

            Nice price it is a really powerful hardware and sufficient enough for your case in my eyes.

            Or do I just do,an atx with several Intel or Realtek nic.

            In normal this would not be bad too, but related to silent and power saving it is not what you asked for!

            I would try out the APU2C4 or the Jetway NF9HG-2930 in your case & a mSATA & WiFi card if needed.

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            • T
              Teaker1s
              last edited by

              Thank you for your help, I shall investigate the suggestions

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • stephenw10S
                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                last edited by

                I would have to warn against that particular Gigabyte board. Though I've never run it myself there have been numerous users who had issues with it. See:
                https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=73518.0
                They may have resolved that with a bios update but I wouldn't count on it.

                Steve

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                • T
                  Teaker1s
                  last edited by

                  Thank you for heads up, I have had gigabyte and Debian problems in the past.

                  I did see a pfsense Nuc running

                  https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00B524102/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3REUBQHZ4QE2K&coliid=I2HROHQW4PSG9L

                  Using a printed case which is a neat trick.

                  I'm still working out whether I want to have a separate device or run a Virtual Machine router.

                  Also like a kid with a Meccano set I like tinkering.

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                  • ?
                    Guest
                    last edited by

                    ASUS Q87T
                    Gigabyte Q87TN
                    Running after a BIOS update also pfSense fine.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • T
                      Teaker1s
                      last edited by

                      Thank you for your kind suggestions, I wanted to look at options and looking at a case and power supply it pushed up price.

                      I would like to show you my solution has intel gigabit nic with teaming and designed for 24/7 use

                      http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01CS4ZX9S/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

                      http://global.shuttle.com/news/productsDetail?productId=2007

                      Can't wait to receive my ordered parts

                      Intel Pentium Dual-Core G4520 3.6 GHz Processor CPU as it should be plenty in excess of what is needed- going to look at various options as internet appliance

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