Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.
I've been looking around everywhere and can't find what I'm looking for.
Ideally it would be a small compact PC like Intel NUCs with a built in mobile CPU (i3/i5) and at least 2 Intel NICs.
The few that I found have Realtek which I'd rather not use for pfSense.
Is there anything else...
I bought 2 LSI 9271-8i cards, Dell OEM versions dirt cheap. I noticed that it doesn't come with a BBU - if the machine is hooked up to a UPS can I run the card without it without jeopardizing my data?
for starting out with virtualization, scaling to 12 cores/24 threads is a bit excessive. perhaps you should save the $100 and use it for drives. 8 cores/16 threads should be plenty. remember, cpu usage is probably not as important as compared to RAM and disk IO for virtualization.
personally...
I have a i7 720QM mobile processor I want to sell. These CPUs still have the pins on them - how can I secure them for shipping? Are there any pin protectors/special cases that I can buy?
Which would be better for a ESXi home lab setup:
4 250GB WD Scorpio black drives (already own)
- OR -
2 500GB WD Caviar black drives (will need to purchase)
This home lab computer would be used for primarily learning more about microsoft server products, exchange, system center, etc...