Hardware Sugesstions with Coreboot for < ~ 300€

[+DS_DV+]

Hi all (:
for over 10 years i used "NUCs" as my Firewall. Liek the Totac CI series.
They worked flawlessly and never failed to deliver what ever tasks i threw at them.

But now i got to a point where a 3rd nic would be great.
Since i have to acquire a new device (and sadly the official opnsense cost more than my homelab combined)
i am looking for a coreboot device.

i stumbled up on https://protectli.com/vault-4-port/#buynow
but the recent video from Lawrence suggests they might be failing after a few years of service
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srFPPjBPkVo)

So my question to the hivemind (community)

Does anyone have suggestions for a "cheap" coreboot device which hast at least 3-4 nics.
(light firewalling a few opvns and a few wireguard vpns).

with kind regards

[Patrick M. Hausen]

APU4D4 comes to mind:

https://www.varia-store.com/de/produkt/396854-apu4d4-systemboard-4x-lan-4-gb-ram-intel-i211-nic.html

Will easily route gigabit speeds but struggle a bit if it's PPPoE for WAN. Very robust design, I have yet to see a single one fail.

[+DS_DV+]

Thnak you!
That is indeed a very interesting alternative

[+DS_DV+]

Do you know how cooling works with this board?

[Patrick M. Hausen]

Passive via heat conduction to the case. Kits come with a heat spreader and you can buy a placement aid made from board material for proper placement of the spreader.

https://pcengines.ch/apucool.htm
https://pcengines.ch/apufix1a.htm

If you assemble more than one system I'd invest in the fixture. It's not staying in the case, it's just a tool to use for as many systems as necessary.

[meyergru]

Or, for a little more punch: https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B09PHHXN9V, don't know if it's coreboot, however.

[efahl]

Or, for a little more punch: https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B09PHHXN9V, don't know if it's coreboot, however.

Those are UEFI devices, from mine:

Code: [Select]

$ ls /sys/firmware/efi/
config_table      efivars           esrt              fw_platform_size  fw_vendor         runtime           runtime-map       systab


[+DS_DV+]

coreboot is also a uefi but its not ami its open source

sofar its pcengines vs protectli

[protectli]

Protectli here.  We take issue with Tom's video as it's unfairly characterizes Protectli hardware as unreliable.  While it's certainly possible that Protectli devices have failed, to say all our hardware fails after a few years is just untrue.    A simple look at our reputation and ratings on Amazon listings shows that Protectli stands by our products and their reliability.

OP, if you, or anyone else has any concerns about Protectli hardware, please feel free to reach out to us directly.  info@protectli.com

[+DS_DV+]

@protectli do you offer the 2 year warranty for EU customers?

[protectli]

Yes, we do.  You can find our warranty here: https://eu.protectli.com/warranty/ (this link is specific to orders on our EU store eu.protectli.com)

Please note we also have a 30 day money back guarantee. If you don't like your purchase for any reason, it can be returned for a product refund (we can't return shipping costs, but basic shipping is free) within 30 days.

[alex303]

Never had a single issue with Protectli devices and i found that youtube video from Tom kinda surprising. It seems like those are older models because they all have green PCBs. Maybe someone from Protectli can confirm this because Im just guessing. All Proteclti devices that i came in contact with have had black PCBs. I have FW4B model at my home, and FW6E in my lab. Both have core boot installed and both are running with zero issues for years now. Their technical support is just brilliant. Actually, one of the main reasons i switched to Protectli is the high failure rate on cheap Topton and Qotom appliances that my customers have been using because they thought they are saving money. I replaced all of those appliances with Protectli devices and i havent heard from those customers ever again.

The only complaint i have about Protectli is that they do not offer appliances with SFP ports.