PFSense Build - Hardware Advice

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oxhey

New Member
Sep 16, 2017
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Below are the parts for my build.
It will be used in a small business (16 computers + mobiles phone ...) with 150Mbps internet.

Will this be okay with squid/squidguard/snort + antivirus running?
What are some things I should know when setting up PFSense?

Also can you confirm that I have the setup right:

1. Modem into PFSense build.
2. Ethernet from PFSense into switch.
3. Computers + AP in switch.

The alternative is to get a SG-2440 with the AP but that is expensive.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Pentium G4400 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor (£44.28 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: ASRock - H270M-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard (£103.97 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Crucial - 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£68.52 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Transcend - 32GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£29.20 @ Amazon UK)
Case: CiT - MTX-005B Mini ITX Tower Case w/300W Power Supply (£30.00 @ Ebuyer)
Other: Ubiquiti Networks UAP-AC-LITE WLAN Access Point (£77.11 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £353.08
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-09-16 20:20 BST+0100
 

MiniKnight

Well-Known Member
Mar 30, 2012
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Confirmed on the setup.

Prob OK. If you can get a second hand core i5 that's way better. But most of the firewalls in that case can run on atoms.
 

CookiesLikeWhoa

Active Member
Sep 7, 2016
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Are you planning to use any QoS, VPN's or extreme Firewall rules? Those can bump up the hardware requirements quite a bit.

I personally run mine on a Supermicro A1SRM-2558F with a 250mb connection. No QoS but does have a VPN Server set up with two clients regularly attached (my phone and the ladie's phone) Handles it just fine. Can push it up to about 75% when really hammering it.

You should be able to get away with 4GBs of RAM unless you really need it for caching. SSD might be a tad on the small side depending, again, on how much you're doing with it.
 
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oxhey

New Member
Sep 16, 2017
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Are you planning to use any QoS, VPN's or extreme Firewall rules? Those can bump up the hardware requirements quite a bit.

I personally run mine on a Supermicro A1SRM-2558F with a 250mb connection. No QoS but does have a VPN Server set up with two clients regularly attached (my phone and the ladie's phone) Handles it just fine. Can push it up to about 75% when really hammering it.

You should be able to get away with 4GBs of RAM unless you really need it for caching. SSD might be a tad on the small side depending, again, on how much you're doing with it.
Not planning on using VPN or QoS as this will be in a small office. Not really sure what you mean by extreme firewall rules.

Isn't the SSD just for the OS? What's the minimum size you would recommend?
 

K D

Well-Known Member
Dec 24, 2016
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Are you planning to use any QoS, VPN's or extreme Firewall rules? Those can bump up the hardware requirements quite a bit.

I personally run mine on a Supermicro A1SRM-2558F with a 250mb connection. No QoS but does have a VPN Server set up with two clients regularly attached (my phone and the ladie's phone) Handles it just fine. Can push it up to about 75% when really hammering it.

You should be able to get away with 4GBs of RAM unless you really need it for caching. SSD might be a tad on the small side depending, again, on how much you're doing with it.
Have a similar need. 300MB up/150MB down connection with just one VPN connection for my phone/laptop when I'm traveling and using public wifi. Currently using a Unifi USG and planning to move to pfsense. Will 2-4 cores on a xeon D 1518 host be sufficient? I don't want to install pfsense on bare metal as I also want to host a Windows dc, open hab and ubiquiti controller on the same box.
 

CookiesLikeWhoa

Active Member
Sep 7, 2016
112
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Not planning on using VPN or QoS as this will be in a small office. Not really sure what you mean by extreme firewall rules.

Isn't the SSD just for the OS? What's the minimum size you would recommend?
If you're not using QoS or VPN then you'll be fine with a small deployment.

It is for the OS but it also holds logs, swap tables, etc. I have a 210 GB HDD and its currently using ~60GBs of the drive.