Evening all, had an itch to test one of these new APU2 boards. Ordered on Sunday from pc-engines direct in Switzerland and it arrived today in Colorado to it's proud new home. Figured I would post a mini-build log (ok ok, you all know me, imma bout to flood the forums w/ images lol).
First up some links. Went with this board (APU2C2) as I didn't need the 4gb model (APU2C4) seeing how my 1vcpu/1gb memory pfSense VM FLYS I figured I'd be good and save $20. Yes, I'm cheap and you KNOW this. :-D wink wink
PC Engines apu2c2 product file
Ordered the board $109, the case $10, AC adapter $4, 16gb msata ssd $17, UPS shipping $30 that got it here in three days essentially all the way from 1/2 way across the world. TOTAL damage $170. WAY better in my book than the netgate/pfSense alternatives ($299-349 if memory serves me correct). Bang for buck, value v.s. cost this is hands down in my book the best deal out there...now I KNOW I am gonna get a litany of feedback on 'you could have used this or that' but when it comes to a simple board, 3x intel nics, and a trusted vendor I'm ALL in w/ pc-engines. Used their Alix/APU1 boards in the past and have had nothing but good results out of them but the realtek nics always bugged me although no issues encountered. I can now sleep well at night knowing I now have Intel nics driving my 'DIY/on the cheap reliable/robust pfSense setups'.
Installed pfSense memstick image to usb stick, plopped bootable pfSense usb stick in device, hooked up usb to serial adapter and db9 to db9 null modem cable to that and device and fired up 'screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200' and was off to the races w/ installer. Installer laid down perfectly onto the 16GB mSATA ssd device. WIN!
YEA! Hope you all find some value in this and others can take the guesswork out of homebrew pfSense setups w/out emptying your wallets.
First up some links. Went with this board (APU2C2) as I didn't need the 4gb model (APU2C4) seeing how my 1vcpu/1gb memory pfSense VM FLYS I figured I'd be good and save $20. Yes, I'm cheap and you KNOW this. :-D wink wink
PC Engines apu2c2 product file
Ordered the board $109, the case $10, AC adapter $4, 16gb msata ssd $17, UPS shipping $30 that got it here in three days essentially all the way from 1/2 way across the world. TOTAL damage $170. WAY better in my book than the netgate/pfSense alternatives ($299-349 if memory serves me correct). Bang for buck, value v.s. cost this is hands down in my book the best deal out there...now I KNOW I am gonna get a litany of feedback on 'you could have used this or that' but when it comes to a simple board, 3x intel nics, and a trusted vendor I'm ALL in w/ pc-engines. Used their Alix/APU1 boards in the past and have had nothing but good results out of them but the realtek nics always bugged me although no issues encountered. I can now sleep well at night knowing I now have Intel nics driving my 'DIY/on the cheap reliable/robust pfSense setups'.
Installed pfSense memstick image to usb stick, plopped bootable pfSense usb stick in device, hooked up usb to serial adapter and db9 to db9 null modem cable to that and device and fired up 'screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200' and was off to the races w/ installer. Installer laid down perfectly onto the 16GB mSATA ssd device. WIN!
YEA! Hope you all find some value in this and others can take the guesswork out of homebrew pfSense setups w/out emptying your wallets.
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