pfSense Machine Recommendation

[Deleted member 83050]

Recently i have been doing a bit of digging on the internet about pfSense Firewall and planning to set it up in my home network. I have figured out the basics on how to get it working on a machine. Just had a few questions related to it and looking forward for some advice.

1. Since i am just starting out, i don't want to spend a lot of money initally. Was thinking of getting a old small form factor PC like Lenovo Mini PC or Dell Optiplex and flash pfSense on this. As per my research i have to buy a Dual/Quad Port 1GbE or 10GbE NIC PCIe card because i need minimum of 2 ports. What are the options available in the market? I am a little hesitant to import these products from China via AliExpress. Can i get it somewhere in India Itself, like LT Store?

2. Another option is to get an industrial PC something like this but this seems a bit expensive. Are there any cheaper industrial PCs available?

3. Another option which comes to my mind is to build a custom PC under a certain budget like 15-20k(with NIC) and flash pfSense on it. A noob question - Does AMD work fine with pfSense or i need to buy intel CPU only?

I am also a little worried about power consumption. What are the ways to minimize it?

My requirements:
1. I am currently on the 200 Mbps Plan but i might move to a higher plan maybe 500 Mbps with some other ISP. What things i need to keep in mind in order to remain future proof? Is it safe to get a 2.5 GbE ONU?
2. I may also want to setup two ISPs(dual wan) in failover or load balancing. What kind of NIC do i need then?

 

[vishalrao]

@rajat_ it did get pretty warm when I booted into win11 and ran updates etc but nothing of concern.

I might have posted temperatures when I had initially got the device but after that I just installed OpnSense and have yet to configure it lol it's been sitting idle for weeks now.

If I remember the temps correctly around 50c idle and 70c while running windows updates.

 

[vishalrao]

Yes @rajat_ see Router recommendation for OpenWRT? | Hardware

 

[vishalrao]

When I wrote it got pretty warm I meant the case got pretty warm to the touch on the surface... But nothing of concern

 

[Juniper]

Dell optiplex has sfp ports? @rajat_

 

[Aashish.007]

No

 

[Deleted member 83050]

@Juniper no it doesn't. I was planning to get a 10 Gig NIC and a SFP port to get that working but now it seems too much of a hassle. Industrial PCs with inbuilt SFP ports seem to be more convenient.

 

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[Juniper]

any suggestions of what you were looking for?

 

[Deleted member 83050]

Skullsaints Onyx PC is available on Amazon. I have share the link in this thread, you can check. It seems to be a good choice. @vishalrao bought it recently. It doesn't have SFP ports though. The one with SFP ports are only available on Ali Express.

I completely want to get rid of ONT that's why I am looking for SFP ports, atleast 2 of them just to be future proof if I get 2 ISPs in load balance/failover fashion.

 

[Juniper]

its a pain in the ass to import stuff from AliExpress.

 

[Deleted member 83050]

Ikr, that's why I was looking for a similar setup shown in this -- video deleted --. It's much easier to setup and affordable.