That sucks, atleast the motherboard is okay. If installing off a cd is an option it might be a good idea. I had trouble installing freenas to a USB drive from another USB drive and could only get it to work by using a cd.
If it gives you trouble look up about manually configuring the cylinders and heads. I reinstalled pfsense yesterday and I didn't have any problems but I remember having to figure out how to set it manually once before. It might have been when I was running it as a vm.
But I'd suggest using the nanobsd version anyway as it has reduced writes so it's better for running on a flash disk.
The router is amazing! The ubiquiti access point is sublime. The connection via the ubiquiti access point is better then the netgear night hawk x4 was, when I was hard wired too it. The download is more consistent going full throttle at 93 down, and 12 up, then wired on the old nighthawk. I will never buy another consumer grade router in my life. The final parts goes as follows,
Pc; AsRock Q1900-ITX, 2Gb Patriot 1333mhz ddr3 Seagate 1tb Barracude, it was lying around. Silverstone 300 Watt SFX powersupply Intel EXPI9301CT Gigabit CT PCI-e Desktop Adapter Random old ITX case that my uncle hooked me up with.
Thank you so much to @Dexter_Kane and @step1041, you guys are awesome and you've made sure I will not be spending all my money on networking gear for a long time. Pictures to come when its all moved to my room and setup permanently.
Man it is just leaps and bounds better then anything else I've ever had my hands on. I got all my vpn needs sorted in about 10 minutes flat after watching a short tutorial. I'm just floored by the capabilities of this software. Everyone should use this and everyone should have flawless wireless. The only possible problem is the isp your plugging into...
The ISP part is where I have a problem. I've got a satellite internet connection @ 5mbps down and .5 -1mbps up with a 50GB/month cap. So spending $200 on a PFsense box is a bit hard for me to justify.
Otherwise I'll probably do it in a similar way to what you have done with the Celeron board. I may get a mini ATX case though just because they are cheaper than ITX. I may be getting some old computers very soon so I'll see if I can re-purpose one of them. If I can get my hands on one of those older Dell or HP computers like what Logan used in his PFSense video, then I'll be happy.
No but yeah if you can get an old tower that is still in good order just use that. I had an Athlon X1 which I was trying to get going but it just would not cooperate.
Something must be wrong with the force when one's considering netflix the pinnacle of how one can take advantage of a router and a no cap connection.... /squint
Well of course there are other things. hosting some servers, being able to download and test Linux distros, the list goes on. Netflix was an easy one word benefit.