I want to have a pfsense box but dont want to get a sff build or virtualize pfsense, anybody know any budget minipc with dual nic or a pcie expansion slot ?
The cheapest option would be to get a used thin client like HP T620 with single NIC and use a managed switch (VLANs). This kind of an arrangement will be fine as long as you dont need gigabit speeds
I've done what @bobbyprajan suggested in the past and ran pfsense on such a Mini PC with just 1GB RAM.
The only reason I switched to OpenWRT x86 is SQM and support for USB NICs since it's linux based instead of FreeBSD (pfSense/OPNSense).
pfSense does not have CAKE SQM and only supports FQCODEL which is inferior and severely limits bandwidth per device. Anyways, I digress.
Switch you can use is TP-Link TL-SG105E (5 port). There's also an 8 port model. Make sure you get the one with "E" at the end of the model no.
