Ryzen Router Build [pfSense]

So I’m building a router this week, and finally getting rid of my NetGear router (it actually served me pretty well).

Here is the build: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/FCR6MZ

What do you guys think?

May be better off with a normal AP instead of a WiFi card.

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Having messed with using pfsense with a usb wifi to make an AP (was trying to do a travel vpn router with both wireless and ethernet on both sides), for home use just get some APs.

Any AP you’d recommend in particular?

At home I use some inexpensive TP Link wa901nd parts. They’re old now and I’m thinking about updating to AC hardware.

I don’t have any recommendations on new equipment but when I search for something, typically I look for 3rd party software support (like openwrt) then find the features I’d like within those results. Finally check the reviews on your top pics.

I have been keeping an eye out for WPA3 support but nothing yet and maybe not for a while.

Unifi AC lite

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I believe there are still issues with Ryzen under FreeBSD at the moment (at least according to recent messages - this week - on the freebsd-stable mailing list), and PFSENSE tends to lag freebsd-stable by some time.

I’d confirm with the Pfsense forum/mailing list that Ryzen is stable on pfsense before building a box for it.

if it’s only a home user pfsense box, you may be better off even bulldozer or even something smaller - i currently have pfsense running my home network on a Celeron N3000 (fanless NUC style box with a second USB nic for hooking up to the VDSL2 modem) running at 1 Ghz and it is plenty fast enough to keep up with VDSL2.

Ryzen for a home pfsense box is massive overkill.

So i guess in summary: going older cheaper hardware is probably more than fast enough and likely more stable at this point. Save the money!

edit:
i even have it running things like squid, bandwidth stats, etc. and the CPU is nowhere near pressed at 75 megabit… Cisco use things like the Atom in the low end ASAs to do encryption at 300 megabit… so yeah. Ryzen. massive, massive overkill unless you’re on something like 10 gig ethernet.

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I haven’t tried them myself (yet) but from what I heard about them, they seem to be a very solid choice. You basically get enterprise performance for prosumer prices.

But if your budget allows for it and you have a use case for it, you might also want to check out the other options they have. I am planning to get the AC Pro in the near future :smiley:

In my experience, they’re really good until they’re not.

They do all the basic stuff, but in order to really have fun with them, you need to buy into the whole ecosystem.

There are also minor instabilities that pop up once every couple of years. That said, they do patch relatively quickly.

Lol well I built the box a few hours after posting this, and I haven’t had a single issue so far!

Good stuff.

You’ll probably be fine.

The issues i’ve seen with Ryzen on freebsd-stable are mostly when under heavy load compiling things, etc.

Given you’re throwing a Ryzen at a home user internet connection, you’re definitely not going to be putting the CPU under load.

62 days later, and everything’s been super solid. I’ve basically done everything Wendell has showed through their videos, and it’s handled everything with ease. So far so good.

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I would go for the upcoming unifi nanohd, if you can wait a few weeks for it to officially launch.
https://unifi-nanohd.ubnt.com/