Older hardware opinion
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I recently upgraded one of the kids pcs, and I am considering using the old hardware for a router now with pfSense. It has an AMD a7600 cpu (quad core, 3.1Ghz, built in GPU) and I have a 4-port intel 1Gps nic card I will put in to handle traffic. 16gb DDR3 system memory and a smaller SSD drive for the OS. This would be just for a home network with 4 users. (Light gaming, plenty of internet browsing and connected to a small NAS server) I want better control over my network and I am seriously tired of not having full access to my spectrum router.
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That system should easily handle 1Gb. IMO it is always best to step in the first time with as little cost as possible.
As you learn make backups of the config frequently. When I was learning I more than 1 time broke the internet or locked myself out. Fun times. -
@AndyRH I have an old Netgear router I keep around as a backup just in case things go south. Never hurts to have spare parts :)
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DDR3 is cheap or may already have that much. That much isn’t needed for PFSense. Also 4 users aren’t going to put that much pressure on the router.
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The pc already had 16gb of DDR3 from previous use and since I have no other use for it I simply left it in place. I'd much rather have more than necessary instead of running short.
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Finally got everything hooked up and running. Works like a champ along with the new wireless access point I picked up to round out the system. Very pleased with how configurable everything is, leaps and bounds better than the router from my ISP. I would say the system is slightly more responsive compared to how it was before as well.
