VLAN VS Dedicated Interfaces

[OrigenAG]

Hi All,

I currently have a Ubiquiti with 4 physical interfaces that I used in my home lab with firewall rules controlling access between subnet. I am looking at building a pfSense appliance just to give it a crack and expand my knowledge of firewalls and networking as a side benefit. So I can choose an appropriate motherboard what are the main considerations and any gotcha's when using VLANS in place of a physical NIC?

e.g. Any limitation is assigning firewall rules would be a benefit to me.

I ask as finding motherboard with 4 NIC's is far less common than 2.

I have a switch that supports VLAN's (TPlink TL-SG3424) but I havent delved into the ins and out of it.

Thanks,

Adam