What would you use something like this for?

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nekrosoft13

[H]ard|Gawd
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What would you use something like that for?

i5-4300
16GB ram
250gb ssd
1tb hard drive



JBC38AF542AA-front.jpg jbc38af542-rear.jpg
 
That could be a nice little HTPC, firewall, server, or NAS. Just depends on what you want to have. That's a lot of ethernet ports Could even double as a switch
 
HTPC - that debatable, with 4300, it lacks hardware acceleration for modern codecs
firewall - true, maybe a bit overkill
server - true, but for what?
NAS - not enough hard drives, to actually store anything.
 
Wired IP camera or ethernet data gathering device frontend for industrial-grade installation (sealed case as heatsink is a giveaway). Cameras/devices into the front 8 ports, storage for local caching of recent video/data, network to archival storage, media ports for local monitoring/interface, and it's industrial, so of course there are serial ports for whatever legacy stuff is definitely laying around.
 
Given the number of NICs a router/firewall distro (e.g., pfSense, OpnSense, VyOS) makes some sense. Still kinda odd, though. Better would be a build with maybe a couple 1 Gb and a couple more 10+ Gb NICs. A VLAN trunk would be run from a 10+ Gb port to a core switch, which would then handle the task of splitting up the various subnets across a number of ports. Also, given the audio, video, and USB ports, it seems they chose sub-optimal mainboard to base it around (guessing whatever was cheapest for them).

Poor choice for a NAS or HTPC, as others noted. I don't see it as a network video recorder (NVR) for IP cameras, as I doubt the NICs provide PoE.

Another scenario I can come up with for this box is as some kind of IPS/IDS setup, with each port going to a monitor/mirror port on a switch.
 
VyOS is a good suggestion... rolling your own linux router/switch ok too.. i would want to know what kind of NICs those are...
 
*If* all those ports on the front are on a switch chip or two then it would make a great PFsense system since then you have a switch built in with enough port for most homes. If they are not on switch chips and you still must do a software switch then its kinda pointless to have that many

The only other use I can see is for industrial networking. It is powerful enough to run various custom applications for data logging, it has actual serial ports built in so you can use it to talk to modbus devices, and it has enough ports to connect a PLC, remote IO, and HMIs. plus with a video out you can connect a local monitor to it to display your own data logging or SCADA systems.
 
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