[talk] pfSense home unit

[George Rosamond]

Charles Sprickman:
> 
>> On Jan 14, 2018, at 10:02 AM, Brian Cully <bcully at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> 
>> On January 12, 2018 at 13:02:15, Isaac (.ike) Levy 
>> (ike at blackskyresearch.net) wrote:
>>> I'll second Shawn on this, there was just a thread on PCEngines
>>> this in December, here's my long ramble: 
>>> http://lists.nycbug.org/pipermail/talk/2017-December/017422.html 
>>> In short- the PCEngines people are awesome, the gear is stellar
>>> for your purposes.
>>> 
>>> PCEngines board - apu2c4 - $132 http://pcengines.ch/apu2c4.htm
>>> 
>>> Case - case1d2blku - $10.00 (Case can be black, red, blue) 
>>> http://pcengines.ch/case1d2blku.htm
>>> 
>>> AC adapter 12V 2A US plug - ac12vus2 $4.40 
>>> http://pcengines.ch/ac12vus2.htm
>>> 
>>> SSD M-Sata 16GB MLC - $17.80 http://pcengines.ch/msata16g.htm
>>> 
>>> $ 164.20 - Each Router + shipping.
>> 
>> Thanks, everyone. I did end up purchasing an apu2c4. Price was
>> higher than this (by almost $100!), though. pcengines was sold out
>> of their boards, and external vendors were more expensive. But at
>> least it all comes pre-assembled, so less waiting for parts.
> 
> Just another option to think about…  I was recently looking for a
> replacement for a personal 1U box on ebay (and I missed a good one by
> hours!), but I found quite a few people selling Supermicro 1U Atom
> boxes.  Maybe not the best, but cheap, can likely survive without a
> fan, and you likely jam more ports in there.
> 
> Example of an ended auction:
> 
> https://www.ebay.com/itm/Server-Supermicro-Intel-Atom-D525-Mini-1U-Rackmount-SATA-TESTED-Working-Great-/232596282461?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&nma=true&si=gWZ%252FyqhCG6KLYlzQFPHYl3Gdr5U%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc
> <https://www.ebay.com/itm/Server-Supermicro-Intel-Atom-D525-Mini-1U-Rackmount-SATA-TESTED-Working-Great-/232596282461?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&nma=true&si=gWZ%2FyqhCG6KLYlzQFPHYl3Gdr5U%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc>

When it comes to Atoms, I have lost my patience for most purposes,
unless it's for a specific low-power single-function.

They are so incredibly underpowered that I'd prefer a decent i386 box in
many cases.

Mark S had recommended, and I'll +1 it, to recommend Dell R210 II for
small half-depth servers.  Cheap, and pack a decent processor and RAM
maximum is good.

Of course, all this discussion makes me feel queasy with the ugly Intel
reality today.

g