X550e or 1037u based system?
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I'm currently running esxi on my main machine and virtualizing an instance of pfsense. I want to reclaim my glorified desktop pc and move pfsense to its own physical hardware. I'm considering buying a Watchguard x550e for $150 to $200 on ebay.
Or this desktop board http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135342
I have a 2GB SO-DIMM I can use with it and hard drive and PSU in the parts bin. I can pick up a used 2 port intel gigabit nic for cheap on ebay since the onboard nic probably won't work (if it would, I would pay $20 more for the Gigabyte board that has dual lan). Obviously, this would be the cheaper option, but will it be better?I'll initially just be NAT/firewalling and maybe dansguardian and squid on a 50mbps connection. I would like to add more packages later since I like to tinker. Definitely VPN at some point.
So, with an approximate $70 difference, what option would you choose?
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I would hope to pay a lot less than that for an X550e.
The ECS NM70-I will consume less power and be quieter and it probably beats the X550e in processing power unless you upgrade the CPU.
The on board RTL8111e will work (if not out of the box then with some tinkering) but it's Realtek. Intel NICs are far preferred.
Neither box will have any issue NAT/firewalling 50Mbps. If you want to run Dansguardian then you probably want a full install from a HD, that's probably easier to do on the ECS NM70-I.
Both boxes will be working hard to push 50Mbps of VPN traffic.
Steve
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Other than everything being contained in one professional looking unit (this doesn't matter for my use anyway) is there any compelling reason to go with a watchguard? And if I did get a watchguard x550e or x750e, what would be an appropriate price to pay? Local availability is scarce so I'd have to get it from ebay.
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Value for money is the single biggest reason to use a firebox. Many are discarded when companies move to a newer model. All of the value in a firebox is in the licensing which usually isn't passed with the box. Hence many people here have aquired them for nothing and that's hard to beat. :)
How much they go for on ebay depends where you are. Have a look at how much they've sold for in the past. I would not pay more than £50.Steve
Edit: Re-reading the this I see the Celeron you specced is 1.8GHz. I had assumed it was the older 1GHz type. It would be a lot faster than the single core 1.3GHz many generations older Celeron in the X550e.
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I paid $70 shipped for my SSL500 which is the same an x550e. My x750e cost a bit more, but has an extra 4 NICs.
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Just an update.
I ended up grabbing the celeron board for $59 with free shipping from Amazon prime. Picked up a mini itx case with power supply for another $45 and an intel dual gigabit pcie nic for $30 (used on ebay, the only way to buy these nics). I'll use the 2GB SO-DIMM that I already have and one of the many HD's I have laying around. So, out of pocket I into it about $145 after tax. Hopefully it will work out well.
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I run pfsense in esxi 5.1 on an Atom 330. I am looking at a pair of boards running 1037Us to run faster vm cluster with :)
I run subsonic, pfsense, pfsensedev, pfsensedevweb and a mumble server on there all low usage. The 1037U completely smokes the N 330 and not only that it has vt-x support as well.
