I'm now leaning towards this one most.Why should you use PfSense instead? Nowadays when people connect to the internet, they just simply use a modem/router provided to them by their ISP, plug it in and get going. HP T730 - EDIT: Seems like T620 Plus price is artificially high and about the same as T730, so this is probably a better deal.Īcer Aspire XC 830 - Seems like a steal! $99 straight from Acer, comes with KB/mouse and 2 year warranty on top. Small enough, cheap, and good performance. HP T620 Plus - EDIT: I found this a bit later, seems to be the best fit for me. Qotom Q330G4 - What I'm currently leaning on. Protectli Vault FW2B - These are excellent, but bit on the high side for cost. PC Engines APU2 - These are excellent value, but the CPU seems a bit under-powered. Netgate 1100/2100 - I feel like it's somewhat expensive for what you get. My budget is around USD $300 - $350, but could go a bit higher if it's wise to do so. Ideally, it would have enough processing power for 1G link + the aforementioned services and also low power enough to be fanless. I might fiddle with VLAN's, but that's a later project. So, I suppose my use case is a fairly simple LAN with a custom Unbound DNS that takes care of LAN DNS and ad-filtering and also Wireguard VPN. Internet (DNS) goes down during maintenance of that machine and it consumes a lot more power and is loud (It's a 1U Supermicro).

Currently, I have Unbound DNS/ad-filter running on a separate box, which is working swell except for a couple things.

My reasoning to do so is while the Asus running WRT-Merlin is rock solid, I'd like it so that I can have DHCP/DNS/Wireguard/ad filter all on the same box. The Asus router will then be repurposed as a switch/AP. I'm looking to migrate my current setup from an Asus RT-AC86U to a PFSense box.

Pfsense router reddit