C2758 or i7-3555LE
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No problem with my A1SRi-2558 running 2.2
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I'm a pfSense n00b (haven't installed it yet) but there's something some of these guys don't seem to consider.
The c2758 processor has hardware encryption acceleration (QuickAssist) which the i7 does not have. Granted it isn't utilized in pfSense yet, or in pretty much anything else AFAICT, but it will be and at that point I'm betting VPN performance on any c2*58 processor will hands down beat any i7.
It might be worth your time to look up what QuickAssist is before you make your choice. The fw7551 and c2758 already get pretty good VPN performance when using AES encryption, the QuickAssist does that for a lot more encryption types and for compression as well. The hardware encryption features are in the CPU itself.
I just ordered one of these: http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Atom/X10/A1SRM-LN7F-2758.cfm
Unlike the earlier products it takes either ecc or non-ecc memory, up to 64g. 7 lan ports, all intel, plus an IPMI.
Edit: For that matter, when I was buying memory for this system I chose 2x8g modules, and registered ECC memory was only $4 a stick more than non-ECC memory. Is cost really that big a deal? The box cost around USD $1000, can't say for sure because I bought other hardware at the same time.
Back to QuickAssist, if you have a bigger box and want QuickAssist on it you can spend USD $1000 for a QuickAssist adapter if you want, the only one I've found is at Mouser electronics.
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For anyone that doesn't need lan bypass and wants usb 3.0, the board is also available that way.
http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Atom/X10/A1SRi-2758F.cfm
This one doesn't take non-ECC ram, but I think ECC is a better choice for a network router.
And it's ~$333 compared to ~$436 on amazon.
And thanks for the feedback, Wolf666, that there should be no install issues with 2.2.
Jay.
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I looked really hard at that board too.
I found too many reviews complaining about it freezing on boot. That's not OK for me.
I assume this sort of thing would be fixed by a BIOS upgrade but I saw no evidence of such an upgrade, and I've been burned in the past by an assumption that a bios update for what I considered a critical bug would be released which never came around. Not for networking-related hardware but for VT-d support in that case.
In my case, this box will be used for a home network which will (hopefully soon) get gigabit Internet, and which I need to have an insanely fast VPN on. The VPN will only be needed part of the time, and this box will be running a virtualization hypervisor (either kvm or VMware ESXi) and the router/vpn/intrusion prevention software will run inside one or more guests. I will also have other VMs as necessary and as the capabilities of the board permit.
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Today the i7 will be faster. But in the future, likely in less than a year, you're gonna want the cores.
Trust me. ::) :-X