pfSense Router/Firewall Build

[AverageHardware]

Wanted feedback on the choices of hardware I have picked for my pfSense router build. It's going to be supporting a 50 down/5 up connection, possibly a 100 down/10 up in the future. Also going to throw a few packages on it including: Squid proxy, HAVP, Snort, pfBlocker(Adblock on the router. Fancy  ), and maybe OpenVPN. May or may not serve as a DHCP server.

 

Here's the build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Celeron G1840 2.8GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($39.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Motherboard: Biostar Hi-Fi B85N 3D Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($62.98 @ Newegg) 

Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Blue 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($20.89 @ SuperBiiz) 

Storage: Sandisk SSD PLUS 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($44.98 @ OutletPC) 

Case: Mini-Box M350 HTPC Case  ($42.48 @ Amazon) 

Case Fan: Fractal Design FD-FAN-SSR2-40 4.3 CFM 40mm  Fan  ($4.99 @ NCIX US) 

Total: $216.31

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-04 17:52 EST-0500

 

PSU is going to be a pico unit with an external laptop style power brick. Would you make any changes and why?

[Altecice]

Dont do any of this. Just buy a $200 router thats built for it and will do the job alot better (or flash DDWRT on it).

[AverageHardware]

Dont do any of this. Just buy a $200 router thats built for it and will do the job alot better (or flash DDWRT on it).

But a 200 dollar router won't be nearly as powerful or offer any of the usability of pfSense.

[Altecice]

But a 200 dollar router won't be nearly as powerful or offer any of the usability of pfSense.

 

You will be surprised. Remember that routers are built to be routers they are specificity designed ASIC chips designed to do just that. Its not an x86 chip emulating router jobs.

[Gikero]

But a 200 dollar router won't be nearly as powerful or offer any of the usability of pfSense.

Agreed. If you want to build your own router, stick with this. I decided to build myself one after watching Linus's (hilariously bad) pfSense videos. Coming from years of DD-WRT based routers. It was a fun project. My next goal is to buy more energy efficient hardware and switch to that.

[AverageHardware]

You will be surprised. Remember that routers are built to be routers they are specificity designed ASIC chips designed to do just that. Its not an x86 chip emulating router jobs.

But routers aren't designed to run numerous CPU/RAM heavy packages, if they even can.