Tips for getting cheap used x86-based firewall with full Gbit NAT (a PC Engines APU) if you are in the US

I created a WikiDevi page for this back in May. The one I have won't power up!

voltages problem or more complexed? netgear wc7500/7600 v2 also are based on atom c2xxx cpu's , wc7600 v1 have xeon sandy bridge and 2x10gb sfp+ intel + 1gb intel copper interfaces

Found another interesting Lanner device on US eBay today.

NCA-1010, supposed to run an Atom E3815 or E3825, have three intel i221 NICs,
up to 8GB RAM, mSATA SSD, one mPCIe, and an USB3 port (yay!).

Currently ~$100, which is kind of expensive, but prices will probably drop.

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Just in case somebody wants to research that the architecture was called SandyBridge (see: https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/codename/29900/products-formerly-sandy-bridge.html)

"Products formerly Sandy Bridge"

why not go full prince on it and call it:
the architecture formerly known as SandyBridge (TAFKASB) :wink:
but I digress...

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Yeah, corrected, thanks

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Seems a passive hub solved the issue for me, very strange.

Odroid H3 (x86),
right now on sale for 195€ in Germany via pollin.de
(for Germany this is kind of considered cheap)

2x 2.5 Gigabit RJ45, N5105 Celeron, passively cooled, ram slots: 2x DDR4 SO-DIMM up to 32GB RAM

it is a single board computer, case + RAM + storage + power supply go extra.

Posted a similar box from US Amazon two weeks ago, or so, but I'm not sure the CPU is capable of handling 2.5gbit routing..

Yes it will work, you can check STH testing on other China branded 2.5G port firewall mini PC with same CPU, the NAT throughput can hit the limit of NIC, but don't expect it can handle too many different rules.

Getting one of these from AliExpress probably cheaper?

It's good to see at least one of them has dual SODIMM slots. One thing that's always put me off buying these little things is the memory bandwidth is effectively throttled by being single-slot and therefore single-channel.

Frankly speaking you won't see too much difference for single/dual channel when CPU is just....Celeron...
If your purpose is pure routing (not installing Proxmox and virtualize with many different roles), just look at whatever cheaper and it should work...

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Apparently the Fujitsu S920 paired with a PCIe NIC can verifiably handle 6 Gbps, and maybe 10. Allegedly for $50 total.

Even less, but you need to make sure you get the quad core CPU version, the dual core have issues powering the card with the additional ports.

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Have you measured the power consumption? Is it really as the video claims below 15 W?
If so, this seems like a clear winner. 10 Gbps at 15 W, for $50. That's an outlier on every metric.

I don't own one, I'm using an AMD 5650G as router, CPU alone is 65W TDP.
Try posting in the thread I linked to.

I would say, depends on your location and what you are choosing. Often not really cheaper, primarily these kind of boxes are just much smaller. Though more recent PC parts would have been more expensive. Note that I went for older generations on my custom build, yet not that old as the typical Celeron of those boxes.
I really appreciate that there are more and more variants of such ultra compact mini x86 PCs available in China without case fans and multiple nics and now even 2.5gbit. But so far unfortunately almost none of them appear in German online shops at all or for reasonable prices. Most of them are only non-cheap single NIC with fan mini PCs and really old Celeron generations. Makes me not really happy to have to pay roughly 400 bucks for that in German online shops

In the end, I went for classic PC parts with more powerful Pentium CPU from intel 8000 series plus a compact micro ATX case having space for optional disks, allows to change components at will and could even run vanilla Win11 - to me this felt like more flexibility, space and bang for the same amount of bucks and still has reasonable low power consumption. Also no worries about fan noise for the extra power, as I was able to choose the cooling system on my own. (my shelf had the required space)

Beyond that I have trust issues with Aliexpress (do you really get what you order, unclear warranty, vendor out of legal reach, 4-5 weeks until you get stuff…) and in Germany it comes with lots of hassle + extra payment regarding import tax handling.

Now it's already more choices on hardware, in older days when I built my first one in 2016, I have to ship the Jetway NF9HG-2930 (Celeron N2930 + 4x Intel GbE) + M350 case from US, but I would like to say it's expensive but really really a solid one because it's industrial grade, my box is still working today :slight_smile:

BTW I saw Amazon.de has something like this, at least if you have trouble you should be able to return it without hassle, right? Personally I have this one purchased almost 2yrs ago which I am thinking to convert it to my OpenWrt box if I plan to run more containers.

15 posts were split to a new topic: Upgrade from TL-WDR3600 towards 500/500+/SQM with x86_64

Found another discontinued Intel based SD-WAN network device selling cheap on ebay. Has 6 Gigabit Network ports, 8GB ECC DRAM and both CF card and 2.5" SATA SSD. Silver Peak EdgeConnect EC-XS is branded Lanner FW-7551A that currently has multiple listings under $50. Device details on WikiDevi

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