Yes another Newbie - Yes another What hardware will work for me.

[SirWill]

Ziply 1GB fiber, thinking about upping to Ziply 2GB fiber. 
Looking for box to build a router to handle this.  My current router died, put a travel router in place (All of this is separate from my WiFi access point system. 
So I see a few boxes on Amazon with 4+ 2.5gb nics.   Barebone, I have 16gb (2x8gb) SODIMs I can put in and a 256gb Samsung SSD if there is a spot for SSD. 
Procs like Intel Celeron N4505 2 core /2 threads 2.ghz base 2.9ghz turbo  4x Intel 2.5GbE I226-V
N5105  4core  2ghz base 2.9ghz turbo 
Intel Celeron J4125 4 core 2ghz 2.7ghz turbo
N100
N305
Just need to know what I need to spec to build a system that will allow me to use my full 1gb fiber, or if I upgrade 2gb.  Internal network is all 1gb  for now.    I'd like to be able to use all the bells and whistles of Packet inspection, and traffic monitoring.  Run some Vlans, so forth. 
Some of those above boxes come with pfSense on them, but say they support opensense.   
I assume I'll get better end performance if I put a LAN switch on more than one nic, vs daisy chain a couple 8 port switches.  I could run one vlan for my NAS, VOIP box, other boxes with nics on them in the wiring closet off one nic, and the POE switch for my Access Points, and another switch for rest of the network runs in my home.  Wifi run multiple VLAN based on SSID connection.  1 for iOT things lime cameras. 

Will these boxes do what I need, or do I need to look at beefier boxes to achieve what I want?  I'm not very well versed in linux but not completely unknowledgeable. 

I thank you in advance for anyone who takes the time to help answer my questions. 

Will
8gb ram, 16gb ram?

[passeri]

Box sizing is an elastic thing, affected by our sense of comfort as well as requirements which are themselves very variable from one case to the next.

As a suggestion, read carefully the OpnSense hardware requirements guidelines, and the specs of the boxes sold by Deciso (you could even buy one  ). Get a sense of the relativities.

I do not run a network with your link speed despite having fibre. However, looking at my own experience I have noticed I usually over-size, especially CPU. Put another way, I have never under-sized or even found a ‘perfect’ fit.

4GB is ample to run a high-performing Opnsense (on FreeBSD, it’s not Linux) but intrusion stuff needs some more headroom so that and ZFS come with a suggestion of 8 GB (see guidelines again) and I find memory cheap so my perimeter firewall has 16, overkill for my setup but I like it. Storage depends on your enthusiasm for logging and other things. I am sure somewhere from 32 to 1000 GB will work. 128 and 256 seem common in well-spec’ed systems, from observation.

Hope this helps. Read around these parts. That helped me.

[SirWill]

2 issues with looking at Deciso 1) They only have 1gb nics. 2) They show dual core, quad core proc speed and whats not, but they don't say the capability of each box.  And their in lies the problem.  I don't know what example box is capable of vs the next one.  Also I'd really like to stay under $300 if possible.  Otherwise I might have to reevaluate my router solution. 

[passeri]

Did you compare their specs with the hardware requirements in the documentation? My reference was to help you scale requirements to boxes and thus to anything else you might choose.

You could always buy the cheapest AliExpress box with 2.5 Gb Intel Nics (I have no idea what that might be) with enough RAM. Its processor will probably be ample.

[meyergru]

2 issues with looking at Deciso 1) They only have 1gb nics. 2) They show dual core, quad core proc speed and whats not, but they don't say the capability of each box.  And their in lies the problem.  I don't know what example box is capable of vs the next one.  Also I'd really like to stay under $300 if possible.  Otherwise I might have to reevaluate my router solution.

Wow, two of three points incorrect:

1. Look at the DEC (2)700 series: They have both two SFP+ and three 2.5 GBps ports, which is quite a unique offering considering the price.
2. In the Deciso shop, every model has its routing and VPN speeds specified directly under the picture of the unit, so their relative performance is well documented.

Yes, the units are more expensive than your average Aliexpress box, but you get support with them.

[SirWill]

Wow, two of three points incorrect:

1. Look at the DEC (2)700 series: They have both two SFP+ and three 2.5 GBps ports, which is quite a unique offering considering the price.
2. In the Deciso shop, every model has its routing and VPN speeds specified directly under the picture of the unit, so their relative performance is well documented.

Yes, the units are more expensive than your average Aliexpress box, but you get support with them.

Well, 1) I googled Deciso, so a link for product catalog, clicked that, took me to here https://www.deciso.com/product-catalog/
All of the boxes fit what I said of being 1gb ports.   Since no link was provided, I used google search that is what I found.  Didn't realize the shop links were Deciso also Yes more expensive for that, and likely outside my budget for now.   
2) Routing and performance speeds are all great, but there is no specs on the actual processors used, to know how that my equate to other systems.   

You would think there would be a nice guide kept kind of current on how to size and hardware specs that will work for X. 

[SirWill]

Did you compare their specs with the hardware requirements in the documentation? My reference was to help you scale requirements to boxes and thus to anything else you might choose.

You could always buy the cheapest AliExpress box with 2.5 Gb Intel Nics (I have no idea what that might be) with enough RAM. Its processor will probably be ample.

Hmmm, the only hardware requirements I found were very generic.   I found this...  The grid stops at 750mb doesn't go up to 1gb or faster.  https://docs.opnsense.org/manual/hardware.html

That says that the following should do 750mb and everything.  But no clue what speed of processor they suggest. 
Recommended

The recommended specification to run all OPNsense standard features, means every feature is functional and fits most use cases.

Processor

1.5 GHz multi core cpu

RAM

8 GB

Install method

Serial console or video (vga)

Install target

120 GB SSD

so I'm thinking a dual or quad core, over 2ghz base 2.9ghz burst with 8gb or 16gb ram and 256gb SSD should probably be what to go with.  But Not sure. 

[passeri]

To start at the end first, that seems a strong set of specs and you can pick it up at low cost at various places. There are some risks, as you will find especially in discussions on heat, and Intel NICs appear to be strongly advised for driver availability.

Going back a little, googling sounds a complicated way of finding current Deciso equipment for Opnsense. I scroll to the top of the page you are now reading and click on the picture marked "Official shop".

Throughput and link speed are not the same thing, by quite a distance. Packets per seconds is a better approximation than interface speeds although you still need to be comparing same packet size, and preferably in the range 200-500 bytes for typical interactive uses. Small packets and large packets appear in or work best in different circumstances, and actual packets have a different reality, especially when you throw in rules (how many? of what nature? interfaces/traffic affected?) and intrusion software.