Hardware for Home Install

[Phil89a]

I want to replace my current Router with a Firewall Router and have arrived at the decision to try OpnSense.

Now I need to get a suitably powered device to run it on.

My user profile is fairly heavy home use with 1GB internet connection.  Ideally I want fan-less as it will have to sit next to my ISP connection in my home office.  Also, not sure if 16gb is overkill for OpenSense or if 8gb would be okay?

Budget wise I don't want cheap, but I want value.  So far I have shortlisted 3 below.  Any suggestions if one is better than the other; or something else ?

Beelink EQ12 8G/500G Soft Router Mini PC, Intel Alder Lake-N100 Processor (up to 3.4GHz), 4K@60Hz Triple Display (Dual HDMI+Type-C), WiFi 6 BT5.2, USB3.2, 2.5G Ethernet Port, 25W TDP  (NOT FAN-LESS) - £259

Protectli Vault Pro VP2420-4 Port, Firewall Micro Appliance/Mini PC - Intel Celeron J6412, 2.5G Ports, DDR4 RAM, M.2 SSD Storage, AES-NI, 8GB RAM, 120GB SSD - £419

Protectli Vault FW4C - 4 Port, Firewall Micro Appliance/Mini PC - Intel J3710, 2.5G Ports, AES-NI, 8GB DDR3 RAM, 120GB SSD - £349

[Phil89a]

After much browsing of the internet and this forum, I decided to go for :-

Protectli Vault Pro VP2420-4 Port, Firewall Micro Appliance/Mini PC - Intel Celeron J6412, 2.5G Ports, DDR4 RAM, M.2 SSD Storage, AES-NI, 8GB RAM, 120GB SSD - £419

I know I could get similar spec for less, but I am happy that Protectli provide (reportedly) very good after-sales support and they have fully tested the spec with OpnSense.

The 8GB or 16GB question will be answered over time and if needed I can upgrade it to 16GB or 32GB (which I don't expect I will need unless I repurpose the PC away from OpnSense.

[cookiemonster]

Many happy users of Protectli from what I read.  I don't have experience with them but their site seems to suggest to go for FW6 series for Gigabit ISP connection. If FTTP is easier to get a good speed with freebsd, if PPoE it needs a high cpu clockspeed.It might be an idea to fire them and enquiry.

[saulsutherland]

I have run a FW4B with 4GB/64GB on a 1Gb symmetrical connection with no issues. If you think you are going to run IDS/IPS, Zenarmor, or other heavy packages then I would consider more CPU/RAM/SSD to keep up. When I tried Zenarmor on this system it capped my speeds at about 300Mbps and dramatically increased the latency.