Pfsense recommended hardware suggestions

Networking Networking Hardware
1

Existing hardware and config:

Modem: Arris SB8200
Router: Netgear NightHawk R7000 flashed with latest DDWRT and configured with nordvpn service
ISP: Wide Open West 500Mbps connection

Specific goal:

As close as I can get to 500Mbps with a pfsense box running nordvpn service.

Issue at hand:

Current setup provides <10Mbps with the router configured for the vpn, I am looking to get the fastest possible speeds with the vpn configured on a pfsense box and am looking for recommendations on CPU and Intel NIC’s as those are the only things I know that specifically matter as far as hardware is concerned.

Much obliged to any recommendations and input provided to achieve this goal.

2

Should be plenty of post around here where we have answered similar question. Search around and then get back with us with what you think you will need and we can fine tune from there.

3

Personally I bought a Qotom Firewall from Ali Express.

I got the i7 4500U variant, added a 120GB SSD and 8GB of RAM. I have a gigabit connection, run a couple of packages on it, and never use more than half of it’s potential. I have the freedom to experiment with VPNs, packages, etc. without ever needing to upgrade.

I went the overkill route, but honestly I like having a little box stuffed in a closet not wasting a lot of power or making a lot of noise.

4

What kind of speeds are you getting without the VPN?

Also, what does the NightHawk say is the CPU/Memory usage when running a speed test with the VPN turned on?

If you have low CPU/Memory usage it’s not the Router’s problem.

5

i7 is likely overkill.

CISCO ASA5506x is rated at 300 Mbps VPN throughput and they run an Atom C2000 at 1.25 Ghz

So that’s ballpark performance estimate on Atom hardware for you. Following that, an Atom at say 2.5 ghz would get you 600 megabit or so.

CPU wise, that tells me anything of this or last generation that has AES acceleration and you’ll be good.

Pentiums, i3s, etc. are probably overkill. Put your budget towards “nicer” hardware rather than faster IMHO (if you have spare cash - things like a small SSD instead of USB for better reliability and to maybe run things like caches, etc.).

Also, i’d try to get something fanless. Because fans die.

6

i7 was definitely overkill, I get my gigabit wan without a VPN (ISP Rates me at. My VPN isn’t set up correctly to use for my whole network yet so I can’t attest to it’s encryption performance. I would also like to add I use a 120GB SSD and the whole thing is fanless.

7

I’m sure you’d have no trouble with a vpn, you’d be limited by bandwidth rather than encryption performance.

My AMD 8320e can do about 10gbps encryption, although I’m not sure if that’s the encryption limit or an io bottleneck. Either way an i7, or really anything that’s not super low power would be able to handle it.

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8

VPN performance should be similar to the performance you’d get out of filesystem encryption using AES (e.g., something like filevault).

My Broadwell dual core (35 watt TDP) i5 Macbook pro can do well over 1 gigabyte per second using AES based filesystem encryption.

So you should be fine.

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9

@thro @Dexter_Kane

I did buy this setup in order to experiment with VPN connections with my network. I just wanted to emphasize I can’t guarantee anything due to my lack of hard evidence. However, in theory it should be excellent.