I need help picking nics for pfsense advice need?

[patriciadiaz1919]

I am building a pfsense with high end I had extra cpu I didn't use, and I got big power supply they almost cost the same in amazon and I like most that brand because it silent and gonna be running all ways and it is small home I hear everything even the walls you can hear all other rooms.

 

I am also want to get 1030 gtx cards as I want fully eufi x64 bit.

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/QTfbhk

 

I see some people link me this links of the website telling me more information of the list as they're not even links for some top 3 to get.

 

I want some one can you help me get the top 3 and version of this year or modern links I want both gig and 10 gig speed.

 

I run new and I got Comcast gig speed 1200.

 

I am also getting unifi switch flex may upgrade them as I also want unifi ax enterprise wifi 6e.

 

https://www.servethehome.com/buyers-guides/top-hardware-components-freenas-nas-servers/top-picks-freenas-nics-networking/

 

https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/list-of-nics-and-their-equivalent-oem-parts.20974/

[LIGISTX]

46 minutes ago, patriciadiaz1919 said:

I am building a pfsense with high end I had extra cpu I didn't use, and I got big power supply they almost cost the same in amazon and I like most that brand because it silent and gonna be running all ways and it is small home I hear everything even the walls you can hear all other rooms.

 

I am also want to get 1030 gtx cards as I want fully eufi x64 bit.

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/QTfbhk

 

I see some people link me this links of the website telling me more information of the list as they're not even links for some top 3 to get.

 

I want some one can you help me get the top 3 and version of this year or modern links I want both gig and 10 gig speed.

 

I run new and I got Comcast gig speed 1200.

 

I am also getting unifi switch flex may upgrade them as I also want unifi ax enterprise wifi 6e.

 

https://www.servethehome.com/buyers-guides/top-hardware-components-freenas-nas-servers/top-picks-freenas-nics-networking/

 

https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/list-of-nics-and-their-equivalent-oem-parts.20974/

You don’t need a GPU in your router… there isn’t even a GUI - pfsense is headless.

 

You also don’t really want a “big” power supply as it will be way out of its efficiency range. A pfsense box won’t use more then ~40-50 watts depending on the CPU you go with, but ideally it wouldn’t need more then 10 watts - older CPU’s will draw more because they are less efficient. 
 

If you want 10 gigabit, your going to need 10 gigabit switches….. that UniFi flex mini is not 10 gigabit.
 

For normal 1 gigabit, Intel NIC is what you want. You can find used Dell or HP branded dual or quad port NIC’s on eBay for under 30-40 dollars, and just make sure they are Intel NIC’s and your good.

 

If you really want 10 gigabit, you will need to do a lot more research… but for a normal home environment 1 gigabit is likely fine as most things won’t support more anyways. If you REALLY want fast networking between say a server/nas and your main PC, you can always do direct fiber using something like 2 melonox connectX 2 or connectX3 cards using fiber SFP+ adapters - but this is a lot more work, and unless you have an actual use case, likely not worth it…

[patriciadiaz1919]

35 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

You don’t need a GPU in your router… there isn’t even a GUI - pfsense is headless.

 

You also don’t really want a “big” power supply as it will be way out of its efficiency range. A pfsense box won’t use more then ~40-50 watts depending on the CPU you go with, but ideally it wouldn’t need more then 10 watts - older CPU’s will draw more because they are less efficient. 
 

If you want 10 gigabit, your going to need 10 gigabit switches….. that UniFi flex mini is not 10 gigabit.
 

For normal 1 gigabit, Intel NIC is what you want. You can find used Dell or HP branded dual or quad port NIC’s on eBay for under 30-40 dollars, and just make sure they are Intel NIC’s and your good.

 

If you really want 10 gigabit, you will need to do a lot more research… but for a normal home environment 1 gigabit is likely fine as most things won’t support more anyways. If you REALLY want fast networking between say a server/nas and your main PC, you can always do direct fiber using something like 2 melonox connectX 2 or connectX3 cards using fiber SFP+ adapters - but this is a lot more work, and unless you have an actual use case, likely not worth it…

Got links for this gig speed as I get 1200 as I want 10 gig one becuase I am also doing plex server and Nas also as this gonna be running unifi enterprize wifi 6e as I am power user and more extra for fun as I may get job in the It companys.

[LIGISTX]

1 minute ago, patriciadiaz1919 said:

Got links for this gig speed as I get 1200 as I want 10 gig one becuase I am also doing plex server and Nas also as this gonna be running unifi enterprize wifi 6e as I am power user and more extra for fun as I may get job in the It companys.

Plex doesn’t need 10GBe. I run a homelab with lots of Plex things happening, and standard networking is way beyond enough.

 

If you are new to pfsense and networking in general as it sounds like you are, I would first start out with a standard 1 gigabit network. Once that is working reliably and how you want, and you start to play with vlans and managed switches and managed AP’a with multiple SSID’s and firewalls takes to keep all IoT devices on their own subnet, THEN try and get into 10 gigabit. Don’t try and do this all at once, it will just result in pain and headaches. Pfsense is amazing, but it’s also amazingly easy to totally screw up your entire network. 
 

Something like this. Id just make sure this specific model doesn’t have any known issues. https://www.ebay.com/itm/363794187486?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=0qH_6hjcTlO&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=B1xTkXm_Qfe&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
 

Then down the road when you have a better idea of what you want as far as fast networking goes, do that. If you know your going to do 10 gigabit, don’t buy any switches that don’t support 10 gigabit as they will be useless once you make the upgrade. But you really don’t need to build out a full 10 gigabit setup since most devices (and 0 Wifi devices) can actually go that fast. 
 

The “main advantage” of faster then gigabit internet is so multiple devices can be going very fast at once, not really so a single device can go over 1 gigabit as very few devices (or home networks) actually can go that fast. Theoretically you will want a 2.5 gigabit NIC from pfsense to your modem to benefit at all from the above 1 gigabit internet speed. But, again. I advise trying to get used to pfsense first, then figure out how you want to build out your network. I advise doing a lot of googleing and watch a lot of YouTube videos on this topic before you start purchasing any hardware. 

[patriciadiaz1919]

26 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

Plex doesn’t need 10GBe. I run a homelab with lots of Plex things happening, and standard networking is way beyond enough.

 

If you are new to pfsense and networking in general as it sounds like you are, I would first start out with a standard 1 gigabit network. Once that is working reliably and how you want, and you start to play with vlans and managed switches and managed AP’a with multiple SSID’s and firewalls takes to keep all IoT devices on their own subnet, THEN try and get into 10 gigabit. Don’t try and do this all at once, it will just result in pain and headaches. Pfsense is amazing, but it’s also amazingly easy to totally screw up your entire network. 
 

Something like this. Id just make sure this specific model doesn’t have any known issues. https://www.ebay.com/itm/363794187486?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=0qH_6hjcTlO&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=B1xTkXm_Qfe&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
 

Then down the road when you have a better idea of what you want as far as fast networking goes, do that. If you know your going to do 10 gigabit, don’t buy any switches that don’t support 10 gigabit as they will be useless once you make the upgrade. But you really don’t need to build out a full 10 gigabit setup since most devices (and 0 Wifi devices) can actually go that fast. 
 

The “main advantage” of faster then gigabit internet is so multiple devices can be going very fast at once, not really so a single device can go over 1 gigabit as very few devices (or home networks) actually can go that fast. Theoretically you will want a 2.5 gigabit NIC from pfsense to your modem to benefit at all from the above 1 gigabit internet speed. But, again. I advise trying to get used to pfsense first, then figure out how you want to build out your network. I advise doing a lot of googleing and watch a lot of YouTube videos on this topic before you start purchasing any hardware. 

Is there quad version of this type https://www.ebay.com/itm/363794187486?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=0qH_6hjcTlO&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=B1xTkXm_Qfe&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

[LIGISTX]

20 minutes ago, patriciadiaz1919 said:

Is there quad version of this type https://www.ebay.com/itm/363794187486?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=0qH_6hjcTlO&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=B1xTkXm_Qfe&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

There are, but you don’t really want/need quad anyways. You ideally don’t want to bridge connections within pfsense, so unless you have a very specific use case where you only want certain subnets going over certain physical wires, you only need/want 1 LAN port anyways, and handle everything as vlans on that single physical interface. You can’t run a vlan on multiple interfaces FYI. 

[patriciadiaz1919]

1 minute ago, LIGISTX said:

There are, but you don’t really want/need quad anyways. You ideally don’t want to bridge connections within pfsense, so unless you have a very specific use case where you only want certain subnets going over certain physical wires, you only need/want 1 LAN port anyways, and handle everything as vlans on that single physical interface. You can’t run a vlan on multiple interfaces FYI. 

So your saying it be wiser to buy two of them one personal use and other like the smart devices tv and google home it of things.

 

 

[LIGISTX]

39 minutes ago, patriciadiaz1919 said:

So your saying it be wiser to buy two of them one personal use and other like the smart devices tv and google home it of things.

 

 

No, you only need one. And then manage the smart home IoT things with vlans and pfsense firewall rules to not allow the things on the IoT subnet to talk to things on your private subnets. 
 

I highly recommend watching a lot of this guys videos, they are extremely informative and he explains everything very well. He has many videos just on vlans and pfsense, I would watch all of them and really learn what he is talking about. 

[LIGISTX]

this as well