This is the Future of Routers. Fanless, 10GbE Ports and CPU power and RAM to spare.

[K-2SO]

All the 1U I have heard are loud but I have to say I have not been in a data center for many years.

It's cold there. The A/C only is in kW. 60W server? Baby server...

 

[Yesgeek]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this but what do you guys think about this box for pfsense.

Qotom Mini PC with i5 processor 4 Gigabit NICs, AES-NI, RS232, Fanless Mini PC PFSense Firewall Router? 8gb ram 128 ssd. The reviews are great and it's only $300 and it has a small form factor. I've read it runs very hot but I just need it to experiment with PFsense and connect a couple of devices to it max 10. I also wanted to run OpenVPN so that my router doesn't have to handle itit.

 

[K-2SO]

It's more than you need on a home network. It will handle >100 clients with heavy traffic processing. Expect >300Mbps with OpenVPN.

 

[Cake]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this but what do you guys think about this box for pfsense.

Qotom Mini PC with i5 processor 4 Gigabit NICs, AES-NI, RS232, Fanless Mini PC PFSense Firewall Router? 8gb ram 128 ssd. The reviews are great and it's only $300 and it has a small form factor. I've read it runs very hot but I just need it to experiment with PFsense and connect a couple of devices to it max 10. I also wanted to run OpenVPN so that my router doesn't have to handle itit.

Do this, you will never bother with consumer routers again. May I entertain a OPNsense install on it.
My Qotom has zero problems, (mine also runs hot - tropical climate in a cabinet) for 3-4 years now. Using dnscrypt package to block domains for the whole home, social media, windows, etc. I also introduce lag sometimes to prevent online gaming, I find that to be a handy tool at times. When my 68u broke it was the best thing to happen to my home network.

 

[Yesgeek]

Do this, you will never bother with consumer routers again. May I entertain a OPNsense install on it.
My Qotom has zero problems, (mine also runs hot - tropical climate in a cabinet) for 3-4 years now. Using dnscrypt package to block domains for the whole home, social media, windows, etc. I also introduce lag sometimes to prevent online gaming, I find that to be a handy tool at times. When my 68u broke it was the best thing to happen to my home network.

Nice! Thanks for the advise. What’s the difference between OPNsense and Pfsense?

 

[avtella]

They're both monowall spin offs, FreeBSD based. At some point OPNSense was forked from pfSense. Either should be ok, but I lean towards pfSense due to pfBlockerng (a PiHole like function but more powerful in someways).

 

[K-2SO]

but I lean towards pfSense

Better community support as well.

 

[ddaenen1]

Supermicro SuperServer E302-9D Review: A Fanless 10G pfSense Powerhouse

www.anandtech.com

With this piece of kit, I could see myself wading into the pfSense end of the pool again (at least to test it), even if it is a very inefficient routing OS.

Expensive? Yes.

But for some, the features will offset the disadvantages by a considerable margin.

I like it a lot. I have become a pfsense fan after trying out Mikrotik and Ubiquity Edgerouter Lite-3. Pfsense is rockstable, fast and very customizable. The only thing that is bugging me right now is that it runs on an Dell R210 server that is somewhat a powerhog which doesn't support AES-NI.