Used PC as OPNsense router?

[Irredio_Revancho]

Greetings People of OPNsense,
I have a 5-6 year old desktop that I planned to use with OPNsense. However it came with the infamous Intel Vpro and the Management Engine / AMT "features". A surprise bonus, not mentioned in the listing! It listed a 6 core i5-10500 cpu, 16gig ram, and 256gig NVME storage. New hardware with specs like those would be faster (not really needed), but probably 3-4 times more expensive.

Intel's CSME vulnerability detection tool reports the firmware patched, and the unit was made 3 years after the big scandal broke over the remote administration "feature." It has the most recent vendor firmware which got applied immediately after the shipping carton was opened.

How bad an idea would it be to use this system as a router?
A) A bad idea
B) A Truly Stupid idea bordering on lunacy
or
C) Maybe no worse a risk than using a cheap router made in a faraway land and sold in big electronics chain stores.

or, something else?

I just don't have the money right now for serious gear with the cost of ram, etc. I did drop $25 in the Donation jar last night.
Thanks for your thoughts.

[nero355]

Just disable whatever bothers you in the BIOS/UEFI and use it for OPNsense or Proxmox + OPNsense ?!

Also check if there are any BIOS/UEFI updates or alternatives like CoreBoot/LibreBoot/etc. for the used Mainboard :)

[petri]

" ... a 6 core i5-10500 cpu, 16gig ram, and 256gig NVME ... " - for me that sounds pretty serious gear for opnsense. Already paid for hardware vs higher wattage usage with mini pc you should consider the years the new fancy mini pc has to last in working condition before it's a breakeven just for the electricity bill. Of course you can try to sell your current in pieces or a whole package - it might get sold easily.

I used an old AMD Kabini 5350 with 60GB ocz for 7-8 years - they were still going on when they got changed to Ryzen 5600 with mirroring zfs ssd:s and yes surprisingly(?) with even higher wattage being used than an mini pc would. If I wanted/needed lower wattage I would consider Lenovos m920x tiny. The 'x' gives 2 nvme slots. But I'll be satisfied with more modern 4 ports intel nic than the current 82571.

[nero355]

If I wanted/needed lower wattage I would consider Lenovos m920x tiny.

You don't need Thin Clients or Mini PCs/NUCs for low power consumption setups : It can be done with DIY PC builds too! :)

[Greg_E]

Used PC for OPNsense, that's a large percentage of us in this forum. Mine is currently running on an old Supermicro server with approximately a gen 4 series of processor (it's a Xeon e 1200 series). The lowest performance version I have running is an old HP T620+, but it's only handling my lab now.

As said above, that computer is a pretty serious amount of horsepower, should work well enough. Certainly well enough to test and decide if you want some different hardware like an n100 or n150 based system (or higher).

[nero355]

with approximately a gen 4 series of processor (it's a Xeon e 1200 series).

Xeon E3 models from the 1200 Series (1230/1240/etc.) have v1/v2/v3/v4/v5 after their model name IIRC, so : 1230v3/1230v4/1230v5/etc.

That should tell you the exact generation :)

Examples :
- https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/75054/intel-xeon-processor-e31230-v3-8m-cache-3-30-ghz/specifications.html
- https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/88182/intel-xeon-processor-e31230-v5-8m-cache-3-40-ghz/specifications.html


The same goes for their E5 family members like the E5-2650 :
- https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/64590/intel-xeon-processor-e52650-20m-cache-2-00-ghz-8-00-gts-intel-qpi/specifications.html
- https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/75269/intel-xeon-processor-e52650-v2-20m-cache-2-60-ghz/specifications.html
- https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/81705/intel-xeon-processor-e52650-v3-25m-cache-2-30-ghz/specifications.html

[Greg_E]

I believe mine is a v2, generally too lazy to log in and check it. I've had a for many years and took it out of service as a Windows Server box a few years ago. I started to get concerned about the age of my previous firewall, and that it had pf on it. so spun up a test on an HP T740 with OPN, liked what I saw and moved it to one of these old servers. Trying to buy a DEC2770, but the price keeps going up and my request keeps getting denied.