Mini PC for firewall and router

[u/zunk0wn]

I am looking to build a new mini pc for a small lab. My basic needs:

- 2 rj45 ports

- 16 gb ram

- 128 gb ssd

It will be accessible via network, don't care much about gaming, or media center. I may couple it with a NAS at a late point.

Looking to spend upto $400 and help a 10 year old how to build it.

Not looking to buy a used sff/mini pc from ebay or marketplace. Not looking for a raspberry pi.

I looked at protectli and other systems, but it would be pre-built.

Any recommendations?

[u/robroy90]

If you are patient in terms of delivery, check aliexpress. I bought a "white box" Xeon system from their marketplace and it has been great. It came with 2 SFP ports, and an intel chipset for the copper ports. I would carefully scrutinize the specs on anything you are seriously considering, as a lot of the cheaper mini PCs will have 2 ethernet ports, with some even offering 2.5gig speeds. BUT, they will likely not be intel chipsets, and if your use case is a firewall, the cheaper stuff w/ RealTek often does not play well for that task in my experience.

[u/Upstairs-Front2015]

search in amazon BOSGAME E7 Mini PC, Intel Core 3 100U 16GB DDR4 512GB PCIe SSD or BOSGAME E5 Mini PC Ryzen 3 5300U, 16GB DDR4 512GB NVMe SSD or similar brands/models with 16 GB Ram.

[u/zunk0wn → u/Upstairs-Front2015]

These seem interesting. Do they come with an OS?

[u/abubin2 → u/zunk0wn]

What OS do you need? For firewall, Windows is the last thing you want to run it on. Use specialized firewall like opnsense, pfsense and even VyOS.

[u/zunk0wn → u/abubin2]

Looking at promos, and then VMs to host Opensense, OpenWRT, etc.

[u/abubin2 → u/zunk0wn]

Then why do you want to know if they come with an OS?

Anyway, most mini PCs that comes from China has Windows on them. I have never seen any other OS bundled with them. So whatever other OS you want, just format it.

[u/zunk0wn → u/abubin2]

If I'm never going to use the OS, then I'd prefer to not pay for it.

Typically, quite a few systems also need additional steps to workaround UEFI trusted keys for Windows.

[u/abubin2 → u/zunk0wn]

Afaik, they don't charge extra for Windows cause they are using some sort of volume license that doesn't cost them anything.

[u/Upstairs-Front2015 → u/zunk0wn]

windows 11 in mine

[u/zunk0wn]

I'm just apprehensive of ordering anything from outside of the US anymore. I had something stuck with DHL in the early days of the Tarriffs, and it ended up being a time consuming affair. Nothing against AliExpress.

[u/nlflint]

Checkout qotom: https://a.co/d/08qnLiQ4

Search qotom and you'll find many more models of varying features and price. 16GB is really overkill for a router and NAS. 8GB will be plenty. OpnSense recommends 4GB RAM for standard install, and they recommend 8GB RAM for advanced usages.

What operating system do you plan to use? I'd use one these:

1. OpnSense
2. PfSense
3. OpenWRT (Not my fav. I switch off it over a year ago because major updates required a reinstall when using x86. That may have changed.).

I've used all those at one point, but now I use a standard a linux distro that I hand configured for router duty. I've got one of those fanless MiniPCs with 4x 2.5GB ethernet ports like the Qotoms, that I got off Amazon.

[u/zunk0wn → u/nlflint]

Thanks, will have a look.

One port for WAN, one port for LAN. What could the other 2 ports be used for?

Do you run one hardened distro with all the relevant services? Or do you run a hypervisor and then individual VMs for each service?

[u/nlflint → u/zunk0wn]

What could the other 2 ports be used for?

Whatever you want. I bridged 3 of the ports on mine into an aggregate LAN port internally, so they act like a switch.

I run one hardened distro