[Finished] Another pfSense build

Hardware Hub Networking
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Background:

I'm ready to replace overpowered pfSense rig (my previous gaming rig).
It too much power and heats up the room. Now that summer is approaching, I don't need this extra heater and I want to replace with something lower power and quiet.

Requirements:

Reusable parts (what I already have for a build):

Please recommend parts!!!

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  • If you want fanless, just go embedded
  • Find cheap old crap on ebay
  • Make future-proof build with new mini-itx

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Best I could come up with in short time of research. Check out 8GB crucial dimm with combo and a little bit cheaper than the pfsense version.

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Once I do testing on the Up² as a router, I'll let you know how it performs. Base model is half the price of the embedded solution you listed. It should work well. It does have a fan, but you can't hear it. It uses such a low-power SoC that if you really need it to be fanless, just stack a larger heatsink on it. power consumption under load, I figure to be around 5-10W if you connect no peripherals.

One alternative is finding an Atom-based machine or something based on an AMD E-series CPU. Those will run you a lot less than $150, especially considering you have a lot of the other parts you need. Slightly higher power consumption for sure, but far below 70W.


This one doesn't have a fan.

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I got an old amd e-300 it worked well for me with a dual gigabit intel nic.

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These look great!

My parts should fit into this build well.

Will these tiny processors have enough juice? They shouldn't be a bottleneck, right?

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from looking at the old video Tek Syndicate did back in the day, they introduced very briefly an ALIX box which runs off an AMD Geode processor, so I imagine if that can push gigabit, an E-350 should be able to as well, but I don't actually know.

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I looked up the Alix boards and they are only 10/100.

These the atom processor boards?

(wait, that has regular PCI slot so my nic wouldn't work.)

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:confused: 10/100, that... kinda... sucks...

in that case, I don't know.

Also, yeah, those are the atom boards. They're pretty dated, so that's why I lean towards the AMD boards, but I haven't used one. my last router used a 1.86GHz Core 2 Quad, so...

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I guess an atom is enough....

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An atom is enough for most things, on a high traffic connection it may not cut it, or high bandwidth vpn traffic, that sort of thing.

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Update:

Got the new Asus E35M1-I mobo swapped in. The change went off without a hitch! No need to reinstall or anything! (I love linux)

My power usage went from 108 watts to just around 35 watts. It's also fanless now so it's muy quite.

@KemoKa73, thanks for the recommendation on this mobo!

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I should have gotten that build because of this:

https://www.netgate.com/blog/more-on-aes-ni.html

To future proof your builds, get CPUs that support AES-NI.

I bought one of those j1900 based builds- Its nice, I like it, but its not going to be able to update as new pfsense versions come along.

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wow, that's really good to know!

That sucks though cause to have peace of mind you'll need to upgrade...

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