Intel Atom D525 Quad GBE LAN Networking Mini PC w/ 4GB, MX500, NF9HQL-525 & Wifi

RoTalk

I am in dire need of a way to control who's using the net and to find out how much they are using.
I am on cable right now that the cable modem has 4 ports and wifi and some do connect via rj45 so,
I needed that option. I always need/must have WiFi as well and wanted to see if anyone running these,
with the addon cards using – Dual Band Wireless AC & Bluetooth will it work with PfSense.

MITXPC Intel Atom D525 Quad GBE LAN Networking Mini PC w/ 4GB, MX500, NF9HQL-525

Intel Atom D525 Dual Core Processor
Quad LAN Ports
Bootable CompactFlash Slot
Includes 4GB DDR3L SODIMM Memory
Supports a full size mSATA slot
On-board 12V DC-IN
Includes Wall Mount Brackets and VESA Screws

** Added 128gb SSD Drive
** Added Ultra Silent NoiseBlocker BlackSilentFan 40mm Case Fan
Link/Source: MITXPC / EKJNF9HQLMX500

Hope any feedback and suggestions can put my questions to rest and hopefully it will work and I can pull the trigger
and buy it.

Thank you in advance.

I would thing once more about your wish and chose because it is a pretty old CPU and not really
powerful in my eyes. For nearly the same Price you will get much more power and 100% running pfSense.
You CPU is from 2010 and the N2930 is from 2014 and comes with 4 cores and supports 8 GB of RAM.

The Board itself is only $204, the M350 case ~$40 and the PSU is for ~$10 + 8 GB RAM for ~$50 and
a mSATA for $50 you will cut your hardware choice and on top with much more power.

I am in dire need of a way to control who's using the net and to find out how much they are using.

You could use Squid with a user authentication and a MAC/IP based logging to find it out.

I am on cable right now that the cable modem has 4 ports and wifi and some do connect via rj45 so,

Never! A pure modem needs only 1 Port for the wall plug and aother one to the router or firewall!
So with 4 LAN Ports and together with WLAN it is more a router that you are using, with doing SPI & NAT
and nothing more. If you are able to set it in the so called "briged mode" it will acting as a pure modem.

I needed that option. I always need/must have WiFi as well and wanted to see if anyone running these,
with the addon cards using – Dual Band Wireless AC & Bluetooth will it work with PfSense.

AC WiFi isn´t supported in pfSense jet, with bluetooth might be asnwered by other users.

MITXPC Intel Atom D525 Quad GBE LAN Networking Mini PC w/ 4GB, MX500, NF9HQL-525

This is from 2010 and prety old and on top to get for ~$279, but really lazy or slow, here is another one
from Jetway that is really f***ing fast and able to realize nearly a full UTM device with pfSense.

firewall (packet filter pf)
Snort (IDS)
Squid & SquidGuard (HTTP caching Proxy)
pfBlocker-NG (IP country blocking)
Intel Atom D525 Dual Core Processor from 2010 vs Intel Quad Core N2930 from 2014
Quad LAN Ports vs 4 Intel Quad GB LAN Ports
Bootable CompactFlash Slot vs bootable mSATA, SDCard via adapter and USB pen drive
Includes 4GB DDR3L SODIMM Memory vs up to max. 8 GB RAM
Supports a full size mSATA slot vs 2 miniPCIe slots + SIM Slot
On-board 12V DC-IN vs dito. the same
Includes Wall Mount Brackets and VESA Screws vs not available
1,8GHz vs 1,8GHz - 2,4GHz
Dual Core vs Quad Core

** Added 128gb SSD Drive - can be added also
** Added Ultra Silent NoiseBlocker BlackSilentFan 40mm Case Fan vs fan less and no noise

Link/Source: MITXPC / EKJNF9HQLMX500 / here are some links to different versions
Jetway N2930 ~$204
Please see under the "Frequently Bought Together" section and at the bottom for suggested spare parts.
Board ~$204
PSU ~$10
Case ~$39
RAM ~$39
SSD ~$90 or
mSATA ~$50
WiFi ~$50

Or as an alternative and if you want or you can wait the new PC engines APU2 is coming out this days,
actual it is in the Beta phase and it comes with;

Quad core CPU
AES-NI support
4 GB ECC RAM
3 Intel LAN Ports
3 miniPCIe + SIM slot

For nearly $220 (PSU & case & Board)

RoTalk

Firstly I want to thank you for the detailed response and suggestions. You have saved me not only money but
time :)

I have bookmarked the amazon link and I will hold off for about a week or so to see if any APU2 boxes appear.

I also noticed that MITXPC is selling the Jetway NF9HG-2930 for the $299 but only 2gb of ram and some case but if I buy myself I am at $289.73 with 8gb of RAM, which should be a plus.

So Far I'm Getting:

M350 Universal Mini-ITX PC enclosure PicoPSU compatible;
Crucial 8GB Kit (4GBx2) DDR3 1600 MT/s (PC3 - 12800) CL11 SODIMM CT2KIT51264BF160B / CT2CP51264BF160B
Sabrent AD-LCD12 LCD Monitors 12V 6A 72W AC Adapter Power Supply
Jetway NF9HG-2930 Thin mini-ITX Network Motherboard

The only thing now would be a decent 64-128gb SSD drive to use a squid/cache and to save bandwidth.
I have a 32GB CF card that I tried to get a Firebox x750e box to work and got stuck mounting the CF in write
mode after I flashed the BIOS to use for PfSense but darn that box is mighty noise even with the Fan on Low.

Thank you again and what you think of the above specs.

I have bookmarked the amazon link and I will hold off for about a week or so to see if any APU2 boxes appear.

PC Engines APU2

Don´t buy it until the problems are solved and the status is set to ready on their website!
_Product status BIOS is not feature complete yet, in particular -

• No boot from SD card.
• ECC not working yet.
• iPXE module not included yet._

I also noticed that MITXPC is selling the Jetway NF9HG-2930 for the $299 but only 2gb of ram and some case but if I buy myself I am at $289.73 with 8gb of RAM, which should be a plus.

For sure I will consoder I would be also assembling the single spare parts together for a better
suited pfSense box and less problems.

M350 Universal Mini-ITX PC enclosure PicoPSU compatible;

One of the best enclosures or cases to get your hands on for a mini-ITX set up.

Crucial 8GB Kit (4GBx2) DDR3 1600 MT/s (PC3 - 12800) CL11 SODIMM CT2KIT51264BF160B / CT2CP51264BF160B

The board is only accepting a maximum 8 GB of DDR3L-1333, 1,35V low voltage memory, so you can
safe money once more again.

Sabrent AD-LCD12 LCD Monitors 12V 6A 72W AC Adapter Power Supply

OK

Jetway NF9HG-2930 Thin mini-ITX Network Motherboard

If you need somedays some more ports you can easily buy another case and this addon cards here.
shown under the link in the next line. Jetway Intel Celeron N2930 website

The only thing now would be a decent 64-128gb SSD drive to use a squid/cache and to save bandwidth.

Go with a 120 GB model that supports TRIM for sure! So you will be able to activate the TRIM support
in pfSense for your mSATA and you goit more space if Squid should be acting as a caching proxy!

Wireless miniPCIe cards:
Compex WLE200NX a/b/g/n miniPCI Express Radio Card Full-size
Ubiquiti (UBNT) SR71-E a/b/g/n miniPCI Express Radio Card Full-size

mSATA miniPCIe cards:
Kingston Digital 120GB SSDNow mS200 mSATA (6Gbps)

Things you should do after installing pfSense:

Activating TRIM support in pfSense
Activating the PowerD (hi adaptive) option in pfSense
System > Advanced > Miscellaneous > PowerD (hi adaptive)
change from the AHCI mode to the IDE (SATA) mode in the BIOS after installing
high up the mbuf size to 1.000.000 for a faster responding NIC and lower latencies
create a loader.conf.local file to prevent the loss of all custom settings after an update/upgrade

Must have´s:

serial null modem cable or
serial to USB adapter or cable
Windows PC with Putty for SSH connections
The connections speed should be on all three devices (board, pfsense and Putty) set to 115200 1/8/N
to get a proper output during the boot time and on the Putty screen.

Nice to have:

pfSense book 1 from Amazon
pfSense book 2 from Amazon
Squid performance tuning book from Amazon
The website of the Squid book is showing up some really interesting tips for free that could be
used to tune and pimp your Squid installation, that you might be having more fun with it. Link

Good luck and success with your new pfSense box.

pahowart

I know people sh*t on older CPU's but IMHO if you can get a board with an older CPU for the right price it and it meets your requirements go for it.

My pfsense box with an Atom D525, dual wan, and squid doesn't break 20-30% as a home router with heavy duty streaming.

![Atom D525 speedtest.jpg](/public/imported_attachments/1/Atom D525 speedtest.jpg)
![Atom D525 speedtest.jpg_thumb](/public/imported_attachments/1/Atom D525 speedtest.jpg_thumb)

I know people sh*t on older CPU's but IMHO if you can get a board with an older CPU for the right price it and it meets your requirements go for it.

And exactly the price and other numbers was the turn around point for me to prevent from this one!
Jetway Intel Atom D252 based boards are at $198 - $214, but the Intel Celeron N2930 is also able to
get hands on and also from Jetway for $199 - $204!!!
D252 N2930
Q1/2010 Q/2014
2C/ 4T 4C/4T
4 GB max. 8GB max.
13 Watt 7,5 Watt
1,8GHz 1,8GHz - 2,16GHz

My pfsense box with an Atom D525, dual wan, and squid doesn't break 20-30% as a home router with heavy duty streaming.

And what now might be false to go with the same price range but getting more power and less power using
on top for the same money? The N2930 is able to route 1 Gbit/s at the WAN interface and able to run Snort,
Squid and pfBlocker-NG.