New user, new hardware - advice sought on Pentium N4200-based setup

[johnmcallister]

I'd like advice & comment on proposed hardware for a SOHO / single-user OPNsense-based firewall/router. Single user in a home-office setting. I don't have demanding requirements for high WAN throughput or VPN use -- currently only 25MBps ADSL -- but I'd like to future-proof in case gigabit fiber comes to my location sometime in the next 5 to 10 years. My main reason for upgrading to OPNsense is to improve my network security.

I'm looking at using one of these:
 http://www.mitxpc.com/proddetail.php?prod=NML-NF692 --
Intel Pentium N4200  (has AES-NI support)
Jetway NF692G6-420 Thin Mini-ITX Motherboard
4GB RAM
120GB 2.5" SSD (SATA)
6 x Intel GB Ethernet ports

My budget is anywhere from $250-$500 USD.

Do I need to worry about FreeBSD or OPNsense putting excessive wear on the SSD, or are they now optimized to use SSDs without excessive wear (i.e. say from swap files or some such)?

Any other comments or suggestions?

[franco]

Specs look good. You can install without a swap partition and then enable swap file and /tmp and /var memory file system support.


Cheers,
Franco