1L Pfsense/Opnsense Proxmox Box Recommendations

impoze on 27/05/2025 - 09:49
Last edited 27/05/2025 - 10:08

Hey all,

I’m planning to refresh part of my home lab and could use some advice on hardware choices.

What I’m trying to do

Replace my aging pfSense box and move some Docker containers and VMs from my Unraid server over to a new Proxmox box. I want it to be really compact—ideally a 1L system that can fit into a 3D printed 10" Lab Rax that I've already assembled.

Requirements

Dual NIC
Proxmox compatible
Quiet and power-efficient would be nice
Needs to be small enough to fit the Lab Rax enclosure - 10" mini rack

Current setup

Unraid server (stays as-is):

Fractal Define 7
i7-10700K
Runs Home Assistant, VMs, Docker, NAS - will move HA & some dockers to the proxmox box

pfSense box (replacing):

Lenovo M71
i3-2120
Intel quad NIC but using VLAN at the moment.

Options I’m looking at

Topton/CWWK N100 router box
Lenovo M720Q/M920Q with PCIe riser
GMKTek or similar mini PC with dual NIC
Open to other ideas—maybe HP or Dell thin clients?

Thanks

Computing Home Server

Comments

impoze on 27/05/2025 - 09:51

@desync any suggestions? thanks
- desync on 31/05/2025 - 10:21
  
  personally like the dell micros, they are quieter than hps, cheap and reliable
  
  with most of those ex business micros you can add an additional ethernet port via m.2 wifi slot - this works well on dells, was using $12 realtek m.2 lan cards - but not sure how well they play with pf/opsense these days
  
  another option is openwrt hardware if you don't need heavy packing checking
  - impoze on 31/05/2025 - 10:53
    
    +1
    
    Nice, that's the way I ended up going.
    
    Received my 7070 micro yesterday and waiting on the additional NIC to arrive.
    - desync on 01/06/2025 - 07:41
      
      yeah they're great, ended up replacing a topton 5800u mini pc with a older 9th gen dell, much quieter and ended up using less electricity too
      
      the topdon was really powerful but in the end i was mainly limited by ram not cpu, the old i5 6 cores were more than enough for my proxmox vms
      
      ditching opnsense and using openwrt and 2 dell micros with proxmox it only sips an average of 20w, 23w when the nas usb 14tb enterprise hdd is spinning
      
      use to fork out 80 euro a month to hetzner for a server with only 64gb!
kackstelze on 27/05/2025 - 10:07

Topton N100: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004360072281.html

I've got this box, running opnsense on proxmox. 100% stable, low power consumption and silent. I placed a 120mm fan on top to keep the enclosure cool.
- impoze on 27/05/2025 - 10:09
  
  nice, what config are you using?
  
  I'll need to wait for the next ali codes & cashbacks to compare final price
  - kackstelze on 27/05/2025 - 10:14
    
    16GB RAM, although you only need 4GB for opnsense. Got more so I can run other VMs.
    No drive, as I had some old SATA SSDs lying around.
    - impoze on 27/05/2025 - 10:20
      
      True, I can take the sata SSD from my current box
      - Boioioioi on 27/05/2025 - 10:24
        
        @impoze: I'm running proxmox on sata SSD myself. I have somewhat high wear on the SSD, even after disabling things reported to create high wear. Any tricks you are doing?
        
        impoze on 27/05/2025 - 10:30
        
        @Boioioioi: Maybe for @kackstelze
        
        My pfsense is currently bare metal
    - impoze on 27/05/2025 - 10:53
      
      Watched some videos, looks like a great option.
      
      How are you running SATA SSD though, USB?
      
      Ignore, the video on STH is the newer model.
      
      This one has 2.5" mount
- jbird84 on 27/05/2025 - 11:00
  
  +1
  
  I have the earlier version of this Topton box with a Celeron N5105 in it running Opnsense on bare metal and it's been perfectly stable for ~2 years. Great little machines.
bargaino on 27/05/2025 - 10:22

"refurb" optiplex etc, with m.2 2nd NIC added.
- impoze on 27/05/2025 - 10:29
  
  I couldn't find any confirmation of these working with the 710q
  
  https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006011059522.html
  - VishSunny on 27/05/2025 - 13:06
    
    Some of these are realtek chips and are known not to work well with opnsense and pfsense. Although in opnsense there is a updated firmware you can install via the UI.
    - impoze on 27/05/2025 - 14:05
      
      thanks, looks like it's no real issue for opnsense with realtek.
      
      https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/15r2h2g/2nd_nic_fo…
      - liquornoodlescabbage on 28/05/2025 - 09:01
        
        +1
        
        @impoze: Can confirm it works well. I am using a Optiplex 7070 micro for OPNsense with one of those 2.5g Realtek NICs, 0 issues after over a year. Can also fully saturate the 2.5g connection.
        
        impoze on 28/05/2025 - 09:29
        
        @liquornoodlescabbage: Nice, I decided on a purchase for the 7070 yesterday, already printed out the rack mount for it
        
        https://makerworld.com/models/1411388
    - bargaino on 27/05/2025 - 14:46
      
      +1
      
      The problem is that *sense are freebsd based, so what works well with Linux and proxmox might not work well with pci passthrough.
      Intel m.2 cards can be cheap. Better?

Nerdybobo on 28/05/2025 - 13:59

The NBN looks like it will be hitting 2500/200 plans by Sep this year. Not saying theyre going to be cheap or affordable for the masses, but eventually that will be.
Im looking for a light weight pc with 2.5Gb ports but i dont think the cpu like the n100 are going to be sufficiently capable or running those types of speeds especially if you use wireguard or vpn.
I was considering the Lenovo M720Q/M920Q option like you suggested but i havent found a cheap retailer option yet. But keep in mind, youd also have to get the i5/i7 version of that. Which means slighty more power but i wouldnt imagine it would be more then $10-$20 more per year.
Im looking at amazon atm and they seem to have some options but are upwards of $400.
Very curious to see what you come back with or if what anyone else suggests.

impoze on 28/05/2025 - 14:13

I ended up with an Optiplex 7070 Micro, i5-9500T, 16gb & 256gb for $219. Looks like it's gone up to $240 now.

I've ordered a NIC from aliexpress (gigabit ~$15 or 2.5gbe ~$25) from Aliexpress.

Some other options I had on the shortlist.

(Prices are after various codes)

Brand	Model	CPU	Ram	Storage	$
Dell	Optiplex 7070 Micro	i5 9500T	16	256	$219	Link
Dell	Optiplex 7040 Micro	i5 6500T	16	512	$132	Link
Lenovo	M710q Tiny	i5 6400T	16	256	$108	Link
HP	Prodesk 600 G3	i5 7500T	8	256	$126	Link
Topton	N100 2.5G	N100	16	256	$300	Link
HP	Elitedesk 800 G5 Mini	i5 9600	16	256	$219	Link
HP	Elitedesk 800 G4 Micro	i5 8500	16	256	$198	Link

Nerdybobo on 28/05/2025 - 15:12

Thanks for the links, thats really helpful. I will have a look and see.

Twix on 28/05/2025 - 14:40

+1

2500/200 isn't happening. The speed tiers are…

2000/100 HFC.
2000/200 FTTP.
2000/500 FTTP.
- Nerdybobo on 28/05/2025 - 15:12
  
  +1
  
  Thanks for clarifying. My memory isn't what it used to be. Either way, my point was the n100 would struggle.
  - impoze on 28/05/2025 - 15:24
    
    that's a lot of speed, must be servicing a lot to need those high tier plans
    - Nerdybobo on 28/05/2025 - 15:37
      
      @impoze: Servicing? Not really. But id rather have a choice if i can download somethig in a fraction of the time then to have to buy storage to keep it locally, id prefer the higher speeds.
      No one needs higher speeds, they want.