Cheap MB
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How would something like this run pfsense?
http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Product/Product_Detail.aspx?DetailID=1374&CategoryID=1&MenuID=155&LanID=0
I have Gb eth card.
I went all out on my pfsense setup at home…I can't do the same at the office :)
I don't expect much VPN use out of it. I will mostly be normal web surfing...
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@richcj10@gmail.com:
How would something like this run pfsense?
http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Product/Product_Detail.aspx?DetailID=1374&CategoryID=1&MenuID=155&LanID=0
I have Gb eth card.
I went all out on my pfsense setup at home…I can't do the same at the office :)
I don't expect much VPN use out of it. I will mostly be normal web surfing...
From what I could gather from the site, it uses a VIA CPU and a Realtek Ethernet (controller).
So the processor from what I gather would not be officially supported and neither would the onboard controller, which is a common problem with most Realtek controllers.It's rather long, but if you go by what is supported in the the hardware list for Freebsd 8.3 (which the current version of pfsense is based on) you won't go far wrong.
http://www.freebsd.org/releases/8.3R/hardware.htmlIt is soon to be upgraded to be based on freebsd 10, but I doubt support for VIA or Realtek will suddenly get much better.
Generally speaking when it comes to;
Processors, it's best to stick to Intel or AMD.
Ethernet Cards/Controllers, it's best to stick to Intel. -
So the processor from what I gather would not be officially supported and neither would the onboard controller, which is a common problem with most Realtek controllers.
They conform to standard architecture, I don't see any problem with the CPU. I have run my home router on a VIA CPU with pfsense for the last 6 months (until switching to the PC Engines APU last week) without a hitch. Also, Pfsense does support VIA's own "Padlock" crypto acceleration engine:
https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=66724.0
Padlock is probably one reason why VIA CPUs have been rather commonly used in small x86 network appliances.
Especially since AES-NI support used to be reserved for Intel's expensive i5/i7 only.Of course, if you don't expect much VPN use, one might rather prefer taking the well known path and go with Intel/AMD :)
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I won't disagree it can work, it's best to do your research yourself, I read mostly, clearly, don't post often.
Yes it does conform to the standard x86 Arch, and has the few required features in the proc, it should work.
http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Nano/VIA-Nano%20L2007.html
Not one I'd personally recommend of course, but I'm very adverse to compatibility issues.It's just the link your link you provided above just kind proved what I suspected, going outside intel or AMD, sometimes you will have the odd issue. There are some good Atom's at a similar price range, without this problem. Those have also been well used for pfsense boxes a lot.
So Rich CJ, I do recommend, you at least pick a motherboard with intel nics, if you still want to use the separate card, fair enough, but then you have options of nics to make use of, rather than limited to what is on that one card.
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you can consider this mainboard http://www.msi.com/product/server/MS96D9.html