HP Server $250 Good Untangle/PFSense box?

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MinPins

Limp Gawd
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Aug 30, 2007
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Newegg has a HP server box for $250 with free MS Home server 2011 64bit.

Curious if you think this would make a good UTM box?

I'm thinking sell the software on eBay or Craigs (get maybe $30-$45 for it) and add a dual Intel NIC in the available PCI X16 slot. I can get an Intel E1G42ET PCIE 2.0 low profile NIC from a friend for $90. The box has open x1 and x16 slots, 1 each.

Trying to do this on the cheap BTW.

Also, if I later switch to a different box for UTM I could always revert this back to server status.
 
Look at that case, there is no way you are fitting that card in there.

This is a bit more descriptive from the HP site:
1 half-height, half-length PCIe x16 Gen 21 half-height, half-length PCIe x1 Gen 2
 
These little servers are capable of so much more ... People use them to make storage systems out of them (NAS/SAN) ... Seems a bit of a waste to use them as a pfsense box. The price is right, but waste of a good mini server in my opinion. Maybe more suitable if you combine it with something like untangle.
 
timberdoodle said:
Look at that case, there is no way you are fitting that card in there.

This is a bit more descriptive from the HP site:
1 half-height, half-length PCIe x16 Gen 21 half-height, half-length PCIe x1 Gen 2
Click to expand...

Hate to burst your bubble, but I have the same card he is talking about and a Ibm BR10i installed in mine just fine.
 
I don't know...pfsense should be fine but I wouldn't put Untangle on there if it was a fast connection. I can peg two 2.66GHz X3450 cores with my 50Mb connection doing heavy transfers. An Atom wouldn't keep up.
 
Does it have video on it already? My MediaSmart from HP didn't. Made to be a headless storage box.
 
OK, so two questions:

1. The E1G42ET dual NIC dimensions are 16.74 cm long by 6.81 cm high. Does anyone know what the half height, half length x16 specifications are? I haven't yet found them on Google.

2. I am actually leaning towards Untangle. You don't think it can handle NAT + Firewall + AV + Malware and maybe VPN on a ~50Mbps internet connection with the AMD Turion II Neo and 2GB RAM? If it will swamp this processor I think I will look elsewhere. FWIW I have no experience with the AMD Turion II.

The price is definitely right however.
 
NetJunkie said:
Does it have video on it already? My MediaSmart from HP didn't. Made to be a headless storage box.
Click to expand...

Looks like it to me..

http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/13716_na/13716_na.HTML

Screen%252520Shot%2525202011-11-26%252520at%25252011.21.37%252520AM.png
 
MinPins said:
2. I am actually leaning towards Untangle. You don't think it can handle NAT + Firewall + AV + Malware and maybe VPN on a ~50Mbps internet connection with the AMD Turion II Neo and 2GB RAM? If it will swamp this processor I think I will look elsewhere. FWIW I have no experience with the AMD Turion II.

The price is definitely right however.
Click to expand...

I have 50Mb TW Wideband and if I'm torrenting or doing a usenet download it'll almost peg two cores on my X3450 host. I run Untangle in a VM and give it two vCPUs. It's doing NAT + No real fire walling + AV + Adblock + VPN. If you don't use QoS it'll drop CPU use about 10% but I use it.

I can tell when a download kicks off on sabnzbd because I'll hear the fans spin up in one of my lab vSphere hosts.
 
So if I won't be running QOS the CPU in this server should have no problem running Untangle?
 
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MinPins said:
OK, so two questions:

1. The E1G42ET dual NIC dimensions are 16.74 cm long by 6.81 cm high. Does anyone know what the half height, half length x16 specifications are? I haven't yet found them on Google.

[/SIZE]
Click to expand...

Just found this thread where a guy installed a graphics card that was 16.8 X 6.93 X 1.9 cm so it looks like a go for the card.
 
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For home or very small business it'll do OK...that little processor is just a hair better than an Intel Atom.

Not crazy about Untangle on non-Intel chipset motherboards.
Varied results on video issues with those that install *nix on those boxes.
 
I'm pretty cost conscious now so missing out on this was a bit of a bummer.
Just getting tired of my slow, aging NAT router and want something with faster LAN-WAN throughput that will also handle firewall, AV and Malware duties. Also a bit of VPN when I am traveling.
No need for QOS 95% of the time since I am the only user.
Will keep looking, might scrounge a used PC somewhere and repurpose it.
Can't be to old though, will need at least an x4 slot for the dual Intel NIC.
 
MinPins said:
I'm pretty cost conscious now so missing out on this was a bit of a bummer.
Just getting tired of my slow, aging NAT router and want something with faster LAN-WAN throughput that will also handle firewall, AV and Malware duties. Also a bit of VPN when I am traveling.
No need for QOS 95% of the time since I am the only user.
Will keep looking, might scrounge a used PC somewhere and repurpose it.
Can't be to old though, will need at least an x4 slot for the dual Intel NIC.
Click to expand...

are you building one now ?
 
Not yet, going to build my new PC first.
It's the next project on the list though.
I do have an Intel E1G42ET waiting for me when I do.
 
MinPins said:
I'm pretty cost conscious now so missing out on this was a bit of a bummer.
Just getting tired of my slow, aging NAT router and want something with faster LAN-WAN throughput that will also handle firewall, AV and Malware duties. Also a bit of VPN when I am traveling.
No need for QOS 95% of the time since I am the only user.
Will keep looking, might scrounge a used PC somewhere and repurpose it.
Can't be to old though, will need at least an x4 slot for the dual Intel NIC.
Click to expand...

Sounds like the perfect setup for an old laptop. Lots of us *nix distro fiddlers like to use old biz grade laptops....especially IBM Thinkpad T series. You can pickup some nice T-40 series for under 2 hundge,..slap in a PCMCIA NIC, and have a sweet little router platform...small pace used up, low noise, low power consumption, low heat output, built in KVM, built in battery backup. Win Win Win!
 
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