pfSense on ASUS NUC with a NIC External PCIe Expansion Chassis
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Hello. Has anyone ever considered installing pfSense on an ASUS NUC connected to a USBC/Thunderbolt 3,4, or 5 external PCIe expansion chassis, such as a https://www.sonnettech.com/product/echo-3-desktop/overview.html, that will house a 4 port NIC, and that NIC could be up to 10Gig? Just wondering if this would work or not? Any ideas?
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First, USB is not a networking technology. Never was, never will be. It may be okay to use ad-hoc on a client device, but in infrastructure, I wouldn't do it.
Second, do you know which drivers you would need? I don't.
Third, have you looked at the price tag? The damn thing is USD 1,200. For that kind of money, you can buy or build a lot of router... Or ditch the NUC and buy a workstation.
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@NC1 This would be for home use, not infrastructure as it applies to Enterprise environments. It seems a 40Gbps bus would be plenty fast though for a 1Gb service from your local internet provider. Anyway...
I don't know which drivers would be needed which is why I was asking if anyone has ever tried it or thought about it. Maybe someone would have some insight as to the pros and cons.
I did see the price tag. I was merely trying to give an example of an external chassis a NIC card could be used in.
As a side, I typically future proof my home builds to at least a minimum of 5 years if I can. In a configuration such as this, I could repurpose the NUC for some other future project and plug the external chassis with the NIC card into a different computer.
Just a thought.
