PfSense build

Gimpymoo

Gimpymoo

Gimpymoo

Soldato
Joined
31 May 2005
Posts
15,640
Location
Nottingham
Well, I finally got fed up of the Virgin Super ****, sorry, Hub and tried PfSense on a VM and fell in love so of course, needed a more "long term" solution as although hosting on VM worked, doing any maintenance on my system dropped the network for everyone else.

I did want to put it in a 1U rackmount chassis and stick in a data cabinet but decided against it for the time being. Just too restrictive (and expensive for no performance gain) and going 1U was forcing me to make concessions I did not really want to make.

Will still be getting a data cabinet in the near future for other gear but that is sorted with this build as it will still fit in the data cabinet.

Final build is:

Intel G5400T CPU
https://ark.intel.com/products/129949/Intel-Pentium-Gold-G5400T-Processor-4M-Cache-3_10-GHz
Running at 25w @ 2.1Ghz across 2 cores/4 threads.

The above will be passively cooled with a:
Arctic Alpine 11 Passive block of metal :D

r4e5OL8.jpg

https://www.arctic.ac/uk_en/alpine-11-passive.html
This will be more than adequate for the required use, especially with the CPU running at 25w.

ASRock H310M-HDV mATX Mainboard
https://www.asrock.com/MB/Intel/H310M-HDV/index.asp

uilss2R.png

For this build, a more expensive chipset gives zero benefits for what is needed so cash saved to go towards other components.

A Micro ITX board would have meant a smaller case but mITX Boards and cases seem to have a premium over even mATX components and a smaller case also limited passive cooling options.

Aerocool CS-101 mATX case
https://www.aerocool.com.tw/au/chssis/pgs-c/cs101

uKd1EkJ.png

7mcNNQ1.png

A nice cheap mATX case which looks pleasant in my opinion, not too garish and will fit inside data cabinet by itself either on the bottom or on a shelf.

SFX POWER 2 300W PSU
https://www.bequiet.com/en/powersupply/494

G06BGKo.jpg

Efficient and reasonably priced and quiet but is nowhere near going to be pushed in any way.

Kingston Fury Black RAM 4GB @ 1.2v

HDD is a WD Green 120GB SSD.

Network controller is an:
Intel® PRO/1000 PT Quad Port Server Adapter

I know the build is not everyones cup of tea and am sure many will do it different ways but for what I wanted for a PfSense build, lower power, low heat, low noise, it will get the job done.

Total build price:
£250

RAM - Members Market
Network Card - Refurbished from Ebay with warranty
Mainboard - Open box discounted

I have saved where possible.

Comparing this to a "Premium" router (Whatever that means), I am confident this will be much better at routing network traffic and running VPN than anything "off the shelf".

Relative to Netgates own SG-3100 which costs over £300 in the UK with only 8GB storage and 2GB RAM (still better than most off the shelf routers), even at over £300, persistent 1GB lan traffic might cause slowdown without adding VPN and proxy into the mix causing other issues.

Looking forward to getting her up and running :D

Will of course post pics.
 
I did consider building a more powerful server and virtualising PfSense and running other stuff on the box such as FreeNAS but settled on a dedicated box.

My primary reasoning for this was that PfSense as an operating system is ultra low maintenance unlike a host for virtualisation.

The irony is, by running separate boxes for each, I am increasing the chance of hardware failure but swings and roundabouts I guess.
 
Armageus said:
Had you looked into any other small form factors before going self build?
Click to expand...

I did.

It all depends on "what you want to achieve".

if size is an issue, I think you would do better to go with a mITX build for a few more quid.

Saying that, if you just want "something better" than your stock ISP router, then yes, I think that would be head and shoulders above anything else out there "off the shelf".

Personally, the T620 units, even at £250 (comparing new), I would feel short changed as they are such low spec and when you start using VPN and maybe a proxy with them, I think you would need a little more "oomph". I do also have my eye on 10Gb to have a play with in the future. I think 10Gb to some degree would be possible with what I have specced, on the T620, I think it would struggle.

I also have the advantage of if I want to in the future, I can re-purpose this gear/flog it. Embedded solutions like the T620s are a much harder sell.

Although, the plan is to just turn this on, shove it in the data cabinet and forget about it and it should be adequate for at least a decade.
 
Stelly said:
Did you have a look at the Ubiquiti Routers mate?
Click to expand...

Hi fella, how are you?

I did look at the Ubiquiti stuff briefly but having ran PfSense on a VM for a while to see what it was about, I found it really stable and "it just worked". I was dubious about PfSense and had put off trying it for too long. Wish I had used it sooner.

When you look at the price of the so called "premium" domestic routers, for what you get, someone is having a laugh :D
 
Steveocee said:
Any progress?
Click to expand...

Hi. Sorry for the lack of posts.

Board was received and system up and running.

Will post some pics tomorrow.

It is doing exactly what I wanted it to do and am very pleased :D

The appliance is silent which is good for something like this as you do not want it making a noise ideally which is one of the reasons for going desktop form as passive cooling in a 1U rack was not really possible.

Steveocee said:
Since your last post I took your DIY as inspiration and spun up a spare server with ESXi and have trialled pfSense and then decided to run it as a CHR as that’s what I’m most comfortable with :D
Click to expand...

Awesome. How is it performing for you? Happy with the performance?
 
Just thought I would reply in here to give a "state of address".

The thing has been ROCK SOLID.

Just sits there doing its thing, not a single crash, not had to do ANYTHING with it, it just works.

Ultra reliable and is infinitely more reliable than the Virgin hub it was built to replace.

For anyone else going the same route, one change I did make, a quad NIC is not needed. A GOOD switch is all that is needed. A dual Intel NIC is all that is required for the pFsense appliance. WAN in and LAN out to the switch. The switch does everything else. I moved the Quad NIC into my FreeNAS build :p

Currently connected devices through router are:

Virgin Media @ 370Mbps
5 x Desktops
2 x Virgin Media STB's
2 x Polycom 335 VOIP phones
1 x Wifi Router isolated from network to serve Wifi printer only.

Not a single issue.

My own summation is that where "off the shelf" routers start to crumble is the fact they are essentially two devices, a router and switch and when you try to merge things like this and knock them out for peanuts like most consumer units are, shortcuts are taken and they struggle to do both EXCEPTIONALLY well at the same time.

Comparing the PfSense appliance to an "off the shelf" Premium router is a none contest.

The PfSense appliance is rock solid and the relatively cheap TP-Link switches I am using are also rock solid.

LAN traffic performance is somehow much better than when using the "Super" hub.

Regarding setting up PfSense, it is easy if you just want a solid router. At worse, nothing common sense or a quick google will not shed light on either way. The beauty is, you discover all the cool things it can do and you actually want to play more and more and learn a little in the process. Nothing enthusiasts/hobbyists from these parts should have problems with.


PfSense, big thumbs up, glad I followed it through.
 
Last edited:
To be honest, the plan was to use as a straight up, honest and reliable router with ultra reliable QOS.

I do plan to enable full VPN in the coming days. I do think this will make it sweat a little :D
 
PanchoVilla said:
How do you find the QoS on pfsense? I have an asus router with virginmedia 100Mbps and now cannot use QoS without it struggling. I was thinking of putting a better router between the superhub and the asus router - making the router function as a switch/ap.
Click to expand...

I use the built in prioritisation and could not be happier :D

The thing is, it sits there hidden away to the point of I forget it is there.

Kind of like that printer server nobody knows exists until one day, you have a power cut and nobody can print afterwards but you find this beige box stuffed in a cupboard, forgotten by time :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom