Looking to build a cheap but effective base rig for running PFsense and maybe expanding it into a NAS or a server later on; I wanted some advice on how much HDD space you need, ram, etc. This is what i'm looking at ATM:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/BfsGt6
I don't want to spend over 250$ USD on this system unless there is a good reason for doing so. I have some spare parts laying about as well, so some extra HDDs, added fans, wireless/wired internet adapters, so on is a non issue.
pfSense can run from a 1GB flash drive if need be using an embedded image. However you lose some nice potential features like caching also with the embedded image you need to manually backup the state tables and DHCP address.
Also you will need at least one more NIC, if you plan to run this as a firewall or gateway appliance. (you could run router on a stick, but that is pointless with pfSense). I advice looking at Intel ones. If you go on eBay you can get dual port Gigabit cards pretty cheap.
I will advise against the PSU within the case. Yes it is cheap, but that is also its main problem. Cheap PSU do not last and usually kill all the components it is connected to when it dies. Look at the CX series of PSU from Corsair, both cheap, good quality and long lasting.
As for expanding this system. No. pfSense is a gateway/firewall, as a result it sits in the wonderful realm of on your LAN and WAN. One side is open to all the nasties of the internet, as a result if this was also running server functions (which you need to virtulise to run pfSense and a Server distro) would be very insecure and ill advised.
I would recommend running 2 hard drives in raid 1, and installing pfsense to that, you don't need much, 120gb or even 80 will be fine.
Reason being is for things like squid proxy caching and fanciness cool things like that.
As for making it a nas. No. just NO. Don't. Do. It. get a dedicated machine to do that work.
If you really wanted to do that, there are so many virtualization platforms you could look into, but I still would not recommend it. Keep your router as nothing more than a router.
Realize that all PFsense is doing it a simple router/firewall, you don't need much cpu horses, you could run it on an atom just fine (in fact, most high-end sonicwalls are just embedded celerons). Just grab an old crummy box and add nics to it, maybe a couple hard drives in raid 1 if you want to do some advanced caching stuff. If you want a new system, I recommend you look into embedded apu/celeron/atom itx boards, they float anywhere from $60-150 depending on the features you want.
Ok cool That answers most of my questions how much ram does the system need? i guess 4gb inst much more money, but, still cheap and cheerful is a good thing for this.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/sK7xkL
What do you guys think of something like this its smaller cheaper and a bit less powerful but if none of that matters should be a better bet. Also what do you guys recommend as an add in Ethernet cards. I plan on using my router as a switch. I still want wireless capability for my phones and such so will I need a Mobo with the PCI slots to add in wireless cards as well or can the router still broadcast wireless and act as a switch with the adding protection and benefits of PFsense?