DIY 10Gbit Router

Hardware Build a PC
1

I'd like to build a 10Gbit Router that has 4 or more ethernet ports (at least 2x 10Gbit). It should also have decent wifi. 300Mbit would probably be sufficient, but if 1000Mbit+ isn't too pricy, I'd like to go with that. But the most important thing for the wifi is a good range and a strong/stable connection.

This is what I was thinking so far:
OS: pfSense
Network card 1: 2x 10Gbit port
Network card 2: 4x 1Gbit port
Network card 3: Wifi card with antenna sockets for 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz
Case: Some ITX case?

But I really don't know about the other hardware.
How much RAM would I need? - 2GB maybe?
Which motherboard/CPU/PSU would be required? - maybe something with the Pentium G3258? But are the ITX sized boards with 2 PCIe slots?
What wifi antennas and/or boosters should I use to get better range than all the consumer grade routers? - I heared the Alfa stuff is pretty decent when it comes to rage? http://www.alfa.com.tw/product_category.php?pc=111

2

This looks promising for mini-itx. http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/D/X10SDV-TLN4F.cfm

8-c avaton, dual 10g on board plus dual 1g and a separate 1g for ipmi. Pcie x16 slot for another dual 10g card, then a m-pcie slot for a wireless nic.

For wireless card support in freebsd/pfsense check this doc: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AojFUXcbH0ROdHgwYkFHbkRUdV9hVWljVWl5SXkxbFE&hl=en#gid=0
Atheros nics are recommended. Range ultimately depends on the antenna.

I hope you looked up the prices of 10 nics and switches.

3

It definitely will be. Unless you make some great ebay finds.

4

Wow, that motherboard is impressive, but 1100€ is crazy expensive.
I found two interesting 10GbE cards:
ASUS PEB-10G/SFP PLUS/DUAL
ASUS PEB-10G/57840-2S
They're both 250€ here in Germany and have two 10GbE RJ45 ports each.

And here are some ideas for the rest:
CPU: Pentium G3258
RAM: 2x 2GB DDR3
Motherboard: MSI Z87I AC (7851-044R) (ac wifi, antenna sockets, 2x GBit Ethernet)
Case/PSU: Cooler Master Mini 110, 200W Flex-ATX (super small)
SSD: Kingston SSDNow S200 (30GB, 500MB/s read, 100MB/s write, SATA III)
Cooler: Dyatron K129 (passive, slim)

What do you think? Any suggestions?

5

No one?

6

hi, if you are looking for rj45 10 gig cards the cheapest I could find is :


I don`t know if its good or reliable ,
or Intel X540-T1

Asus ones you linked are for fibre optics with transceivers or direct copper (that is not a regular cat cable!), cables for them can be more expensive then card itself and copper one is limited to 10m

7

Those aren't rj45 ports, those are sfp+ ports, which means you also need to buy transceivers for them, or use direct attached copper if you only need less than 10m of cable.

I managed to get a couple of the older xfp 10gb cards on ebay really cheap, you could have a look at that. Keep in mind whatever you do that the drivers can be tricky in pfsense.