Want to know what current hardware models are good to use?

[hysteriavalor77]

As per the topic, I'd like to recommend a hardware or CPU worth using during this period, whether it's worth investing in at this time or waiting to see the new model in 2024.

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[Seimus]

Depends on your budget.

I would advice to go for the official OPN H/W the DEC. They test throughput on it and its suited for OPN.

If however you want to save a buck or just dont want to spend so much. Currently the only embbed small form factor devices are with Intel CPU. I am using N5105 it has plenty performace on single core and its a 4c CPU.

Regards,
S.

[MoonbeamFrame]

There are AMD alternatives.

I bought a KingnovyPC Firewall Micro Appliance, 4 Lan i226 2.5GbE LAN Mini PC AMD Ryzen 7 5825U for a client earlier in the year and I was very impressed with its performance.

[Seimus]

Thats cool, when I was looking at the time for AMD based systems I couldnt find any so I ended with Intel. Do you have maybe the link to that product?

Regards,
S.

[MoonbeamFrame]

I first came across this one via a ServeTheHome YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7U4fCj_Pos

I bought via Amazon. It was also listed on AliExpress.

As per the YouTube the same board is available from a number of companies.

Just to note. This was for their home use having had FTTP installed.

[foggygray]

I'm currently running opnsense on a Beelink EQ12 with an intel i3-N305 with no issues. Way overkill for my internet and I don't do IDS/IPsS or anything like that.

[Seimus]

We could say that any modern CPU can handle OPNsense good and be future proof (just get more cores). The only problem if you are going for some miniPC Factor offbrand like me or others (from Aliexpress) is to get such box that can handle the cooling.

When I bought my miniPC from Ali it was running fine but a bit HOT, so I did small maintenance on it. You can go cheap but it will not be without "problems" sometimes those "problems" are that you need to clean and repaste. Sometimes no matter what you do its still hot.

If you want to cheap out on the miniPC form factor a lot of ppl are still buying miniPCs with the J4k SOC, its still fast enough and running cooler than the N5105 I have.

But as I advised on the start I would go now for the official DEC or go for AMD SOC as @MoonbeamFrame shared.

Also for ultimate decision between the Cheapo version I advice to check out serverthehome youtube channel, those guys are buying from Ali and testing them, they test them as well for OPNsense and Proxmox.

Regards,
S.

[cookiemonster]

There are AMD alternatives.

I bought a KingnovyPC Firewall Micro Appliance, 4 Lan i226 2.5GbE LAN Mini PC AMD Ryzen 7 5825U for a client earlier in the year and I was very impressed with its performance.

Second this. I bought one of the amd ones direct from changwang on their Ali store but often that store can't be found, just resellers like topton. Different model but absolutely fabulous. I've virtualised OPN on it as it has so many compute resources. The fan is noisy from time to time (I did repaste at the very beginning). As of last two weeks I put an external fan on, and the blower fan of the appliance doesn't come on anymore (the noisy one) and now runs almost silent.

[CJ]

IMO the cheapest solution is to grab an old desktop and use that.  You don't need much resources so you can get them for fairly cheap and they have PCIe slots in order to easily expand your network.

The only real downsides are that it takes up more space and that the power draw will be higher than a newer system.  But you can always upgrade later once you understand your needs and budget allows.

[cookiemonster]

Good point.

[passeri]

Among the passively cooled Chinese options, I found that you could get the same fundamental system of the same brand with three different cases. I checked size, wings, fins, buttresses, and bought the best-cooled rather than most compact. The boxes in question were labelled Hunsn.

[Seimus]

This counts as well other resellers. I have a TopTon they do the same. Basically they resell mobos made by  another company and just do the chassis.

Its a bit problem because you may not get exactly the chassis you ordered based on a picture so its a roulette for cooling.

Regards,
S.

[Hochenna]

I have one of the newer topton n100 boxes. So far I couldn't be happier. I have it virtualised within proxmox with PCI passthrough to 2 of the 4 2.5gb intel nics and it has been really solid and able to handle my gigabit connection without issue. The CPU runs at 44C idling at ~6% CPU usage and the chassis is hot to the touch. This is by design as it's passively cooled.