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The data centers are not employing people, least of all locals.  That's a lie.  They're bringing in experts to set them up and then they run autonomously more or less.

For those interested in such matters, this just dropped: A discussion of the experience with data centers and jobs in the state of Michigan.
https://www.techpolicy.press/michigan-offers-handouts-for-data-centers-promising-jobs-will-those-jobs-come/

They're recouping costs (for now) with layoffs.

True with the emphasis on "for now". It will only work up to a point if they continue to burn mountains of cash. Generative AI is fabulously expensive and unreliable tech. It's hard to see how they make a profit given that their costs are growing faster than their ability to generate revenues.

The data centers are not employing people, least of all locals.  That's a lie.  They're bringing in experts to set them up and then they run autonomously more or less.

They need a few people to go around replacing all the rapidly failing GPU parts! ;-)

When the bubble bursts we will have all the cheap enterprise grade RAM we need. "Yay".  ;)

Ha! It's taking its time to burst despite the economics of data centers stuffed with GPUs being utterly insane. They are in something like a trillion dollar hole and no one has figured out how to turn providing AI compute into a business that doesn't lose tens to hundreds of billions. At some point the Wile E. Coyote look down moment will happen.

@kbreit
Like you I'm still on ISC DHCP. When Kea appeared as an option I was going to switch but decided to wait. Now I think my switch will be to DNSmasq, as that is now what is recommended for my type of small, simple setup. Up to this point, at least, I have no regrets waiting for the various alternatives to appear and cook a little within OPNsense. As Meyergru says, "there is no rush". But at some point, maybe soon, maybe when it becomes a plug-in, it's going to make more sense to switch than stick with ISC.

Thanks. Next time this happens I will check this it out but, as you suggest, it may be worth getting a UPS.

This time it turned out to be more problematic than usual. I had the Asus sitting in for a couple of days and every few hours the WAN would disappear and then reappear after rebooting the Asus. Eventually I got round to swapping my OPNSense box back in and everything has been working as it was before.

This morning there was a one second blip in the power and every electronic device in the house went down. The cable modem and Opnsense box came back up but there's no Internet connection. I log into the OpnSense box and everything seems fine aside from the missing WAN address.  I reboot the cable modem (Arris SB2800) and then reboot the OpnSense box. No change. I swap the OpnSense box out for an Asus Router and I have an Internet connection.

This has happened several times before. The solution is always swap in the Asus box. Based on past experience, if I reconnect the OpnSense box in a couple of hours, everything will work fine. Any idea what's going ion here and how to fix it?

There was a bios update (0041) for the ASUS NUC 13 Rugged released on 1/16/2025. Link.

@aleco

Home Network Guy has a lot of useful guides. Maybe start here: https://homenetworkguy.com/how-to/install-and-configure-opnsense/

This was from 2 years ago so some parts may be a little dated (e.g. ZFS is now the default install).

@Greg_E You might find something on https://mitxpc.com/

I'd go with the 8GB of RAM model. Default install now uses ZFS and it will use the extra memory if it is available. My system is currently using about 6GB. And you want to use ZFS so you can use bectl.

I think Netgate 2100 uses a ARM CPU. Not sure Opnsense runs on that, at least official builds.

Why not include the Elkhart Lake CPUs as well (e.g. J6412)? The performance is similar to N5105, N5095 (Jasper Lake). Take with a pinch of salt but:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/5157vs5337vs4474vs4472vs4412/Intel-N100-vs-Intel-N97-vs-Intel-Celeron-J6412-vs-Intel-Celeron-N5095-vs-Intel-Celeron-N5105

Other thoughts. There appear to be lots of people running OpnSense on Alder Lake CPUs (e.g. N100) bought from PRC companies. You may need to do a microcode update. See:
https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?topic=36139.0

I believe Protectli machines are made in PRC as well but you get better warranty, support and product is more consistent but you pay quite a bit more for similar features. There are lots of posts here that give you some idea of the manufacturing quality control of PRC companies selling on Ali Express e.g.: https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?topic=41232.msg203797. Some people appear to buy these units and have great success and others have problems. You roll the dice...

The Taiwanese companies mentioned previously (GigaIPC, Jetway, AAEON) may also manufacture in PRC but to ISO manufacturing standards. They appear to be mostly making industrial PCs to sell to businesses rather than consumers and people who are happy to tinker. But again, you are likely to pay more. And they are slower to bring latest and greatest low-power CPUs to market compared to PRC companies selling on Ali Express and elsewhere.

You have to decide what trade-off is right for you in terms of CPU performance/features -- manufacturing quality/reliability/support -- cost. 

A thought on heat issue: I installed an NVMe drive on my last machine. Faster but I think the extra speed is unnecessary for this application and likely generates more heat than other storage options.

I couldn't find a Mini PC from these manufacturers with an N100 chip, and fanless models seem to be scarce.

https://www.jetwaycomputer.com/BFTADN1.html
https://www.jetwaycomputer.com/BFDADN1.html

https://www.gigaipc.com/en/products-detail/QBiX-Pro-ADNAN97H-A2/

These are all fanless with N97. N97 is closely related to N100. See comparison here:
https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/compare.html?productIds=231803,233090

I'd avoid the Fitlet3. The Fitlet2 was a nice machine but the built-in LAN ports on the Fitlet3 appear not to play well with BSD. See https://fit-pc.com/wiki/index.php?title=Fitlet3_Errata_Notes#FITLET3ERR005:_fitlet3_default_LAN_interfaces_are_not_recognized_by_some_-nix_based_OS

Other options that might be worth a look are AAEON and Jetway (these are both Asus companies) and GigaIPC (Gigabyte). These companies all make industrial minipcs for various purposes. They will generally be more expensive than the boxes made in the PRC but manufacturing standards are likely to be higher and you'll get better support. I'm currently using a GigaIPC with J6412 and dual Intel 1G LAN ports to run Opnsense. Barebones cost me $169 last year but cheapest I can find it for now is $240. I have no experience with Jetway boxes but you can find their J6412 barebones online with 2 to 4 i225v for under $300. They also sell a couple of Alder Lake N systems with dual i225v.

I am using a small box with a J6412 (https://www.gigaipc.com/en/products-detail/QBiX-EHLA6412-A1/), 16GB Ram, and running a paid version of Zenarmor. There's miles of headroom but the network load is not exactly demanding and I am not running either Suricata or a VPN.