Custom built PC vs Netgate SG-3100

[Burner27]

Aside from the physical security concerns listed above I found it to be a pain in the ass simply because "messing" with the VM host risked taking the internet down and the associated family wrath. That's a service that's best run on dedicated hardware.

Yeah, i know it is way overkill but it beats it just sitting there. the Xeon replaced a 5820K which sucked down 140w...yuck!

 

[OFaceSIG]

You do NOT need to put a lot of money into a pfsense box. Nor do you need to buy a server mobo. The box in my SIG is my pfsense box and has been for almost a year now. My internet is connection is 85/85 and the CPU usage is nowhere, even at full tilt. I run multiple vlans as well. I have an IPsec VPN set up so I can VPN home when I'm on public wifi or traveling and again, CPU usage doesn't move because of AES-NI. Even on that low wattage T series IVY bridge I have. I'm running the dual onboard Intel gig NICs on the Intel mobo and have had zero issues.

All the parts in in it besides the case and pico PSU were bought used. It draws 17w at idle and maxes at out 35w during boot, from the wall.

 

[Burner27]

So I put that overkill box in play, and the amount of electricity it sucks down even at idle is too much. 45w vs ~7w for the sg3100. I guess that was a fruitless endeavor. My goal was to see if I could run more packages (which I did), but then taking into account what I actually NEED vs WANT was another deciding factor. I went back to the SG3100 and installed what I felt was needed. I would still consider a more powerful box, but not the machine I was going to use.

 

[CyberJunk]

There is a world of difference between "the card is recognized" and "the card performs worth a damn." Stick with Intel here.

I been running the card for about a week on that freebsd 1.96.04 driver in pfsense and it's working fine.All the features work like hardware checksum. I get really good performance and it only cost me $25. It's a good solution if you need a 2.5gbps nic.