Need advise in selecting the right hardware

fraglord

Situation: need to setup a pfSense router (NAT, Firewall, VPN client) for my internet connection which is currently 50 MBit/s and probably later upgraded to 100 MBit/s (cable). The whole traffic has to pass through an OpenVPN tunel with strong encryption (AES-256-CBC). Budget, as I'm a student, is low and also low power consumption is required.
What would you guys suggest ? Any chance to get away with an embedded device or a thin client?

DiskWizard

Is it the single connection required ?

fraglord

No more than 2 NIC's neccessary.

messerchmidt

Athlon 5350 (Aes-ni)
Asus AM1M-A AM1 (more pci-e slots for future)
8-16gb corsair ecc ddr3

or
GIGABYTE GA-J1900N-D3V Mini ITX
8gb ddr3 (so dimm @ 4gbx2) - no ecc support

ebay: intel 2port or 4 ports gigabit nic card

16gb SLC DOM (http://www.mydigitaldiscount.com/mx-technology-16gb-slc-mx-diy-series-sata-dom-ssd-mxssd2ssld16g-v/)

pick a small case

pico psu

fraglord

I have chosen an IGEL H710C thin client with 1GB RAM and 1GB SSD. Just added an Intel Pro 1000 PT Dual card (ouch, runs very hot)!
The Via Nano runs in turbo mode at 1.6 GHz and provides crypto accelerartion (Via Padlock).
This setup is easily able to max out my current connection (50Mbit/s) while cpu load stays well below 50%.
So I am happy with this cheap, powerful and silent decision :)