Inexpensive 4x 2.5GbE Fanless Router Firewall Box Review

Inexpensive 4x 2.5GbE Fanless Router Firewall Box Review

In recent weeks, the new pfSense CE 2.6.0 has been released, which allows us to use the engine we previously purchased directly. There is now a cheap Intel i225 (B3) 4x 2.5 GbE computer with pfSense. It supports both non-adult operating systems, but Ubuntu is still running on those operating systems. Now it seems time to move to a cheaper 2.5 GbE firewall. Enter the field and see what it has to offer.

In fact, we have a small video that comes with experience and talks about comparing to routers and WiFi units provided by ISPs. You can find the video here:

As always, we encourage you to open it on your own YouTube tab, screen, or app to get the best viewing experience.

The box itself has many names. This is our device on Amazon and we note that it is very expensive for an 8 GB / 256 GB configuration. We only recommend getting more storage and RAM if you have a good reason to buy a box, but since we still want to use it on Linux until pfSense support comes, we take advantage of other options. 

The complicated part is that the same motherboard in the heart of the system is used in multiple systems with different appearances. We ordered a cheaper version of Topton with a larger cooler via AliExpress, but it seemed like a slow journey across the Pacific Ocean to fish.

Also, We have smaller heaters, but our best advice is to look at the USB, VGA, and HDMI sides to make sure this is the motherboard. You also need to make sure you have the same versions of the Intel i225 NIC and the Intel Celeron J4125 as ours. Then there is the question of cost. Now let's look at the hardware and see what we get.

Inexpensive 4x 2.5GbE Fanless Router Firewall Box Hardware Overview

Let's start with the show star. This palm-sized box (you can see my hand in the video) has four ports, ETH0-ETH3. Each of them is a 2.5GbE port, which is a significant improvement over the previous version of 1GbE used by many of our STH readers. On this side we also have status LEDs and a 12V DC input.

On the other side is the on / off button. Our devices are set to turn on AC power immediately, which is always a good thing. We also have two USB 3 ports, an HDMI port, and a VGA port. This unit has no external message, which is good.

For a note, there is also a reset button and two WiFi antenna ports. We generally use WiFi on this box, but tell our readers to use a specific AP. If you spend a few hundred dollars on the firewall gate, it is likely that you have a dedicated WiFi hotspot.

The case is not completely closed and there is a real vent on the side.

However, cooling is provided by a metal body with a small heater on top. This group is very hungry, most of our use is in a single-digit temple

The processor is an Intel Celeron J4125 CPU with a free turbo frequency of 2.0 GHz and 2.7 GHz. It is part of the Gemini Lake Refresh processor. Since it is an Atom segment, it has a maximum TDP of 10W.

We still have some components inside the system. One thing we don't know is that there is a SATA data and power configuration and the ability to collect 2.5 pulses unified on the enclosure. We still have a single mSATA on the way.

Here is a photo of the interior of the system. NICs are Intel i225-V SLNMH units, which means they do B3. The first days of the i225 required a big step forward for stability.

Here we can see our only 8GB DDR4 SODIMM and 256GB SSD. Again, this is redundant for most pfSense or OPNsense devices, but if you prefer to use Linux, it may make sense.

You can also see the SIM card slot and the WiFi card slot. Again, we recommend purchasing external WiFi.

pfSense Challenges and pfSense 2.6.0 to the Rescue

When it comes to pfSense, the biggest challenge is supporting the Intel i225. The original experience with pfSense 2.5.2 is that a network card is detected as an Intel PRO / 1000 network card. Even if these things combine and traffic passes, things like DNS will cause errors and will not work.

This pfSense 2.6.0 change detects four Intel i225-V network cards, which run out when unpacked.

The net effect is that we don't have to disable hardware checksum downloads, try to install a new driver, or something like that. It is true that many of these models have been in use for several weeks and appear to be stable. The hard part is that the i225 network card is now supported, but make sure you're using an older operating system to make sure your network card supports it; otherwise, it will be difficult to download and install the driver later.

Power and Performance

On the power supply side, we have a small 12V adapter small enough to power this machine.

No network cable is connected in operation and idle power is about 4.5 W. The system does not have a BMC like the ASPEED AST2500 or AST2600, but if available, the BMC would consume approximately the same amount of power. Instead, we take a screenshot of pfSense via TinyPilots.

The maximum power consumption is around 10W, but in practice, most users will encounter less than 10W in everyday use.

In terms of performance, the Intel Celeron J4125 is slightly faster than the Intel Atom C3558, but by most standards, it is 8-11% faster, so the differences are small. This is also a small part of the performance of the 1L PC TinyMiniMicro nodes that we have seen.

The net effect is a lower power system that can directly exceed 2 Gbps in NAT mode, but we see VPN performance in the 400-800 Mbps range, with OpenVPN being slower and IPSec being faster. Of course, it's in a simple desktop setup, not a VPN over a WAN, and without any firewall or other rules. Later this year, we're working to improve our firewall testing methods.

However, this is mentioned in the video and the biggest difference is stability. Due to problems with the i225, we set up one of them at my home with about 10 TinyMiniMicro 1L computers, NAS, Ubiquiti WiFi settings, and a few switches, just to test my WAN connection, the Spectrum cable.

I want to find out if a better router / WiFi combination is provided by my ISP. We have found that pfSense traffic provides a single-digit percentage of latency on a computer from an ISP and is highly reliable, requires no restarts, and does not interfere with unacceptable QoS periods that require restarts.

last words

Of course, for many of our readers, the Netgate 6100 is better news and doesn't come from a fresh OEM that hasn't been certified as safe or anything. It is also possible to use pfSense Plus on Netgate boxes. For example, the 10GbE to SFP (+) interface will incur additional costs. However, we realize that many of our readers prefer their help and may not have a budget for branded boxes.

At some point, for $ 250-380, it's nice to have a 2.5 GbE four-lens flash. This year we see computers with 2.5 GbE support and WiFi 6 (E) access points up to 2.5 GbE. We also see more NAS devices that use the standard. The biggest challenge is still on the side of change, but we hope that things will improve soon. Three months ago, we introduced this affordable version of the 1GbE firewall/router combination. Now that pfSense 2.6.0 has been launched after unpacking, it looks like this little box could be the winner.

Our small fleet of these units is used as an internal VPN endpoint, but so far it's working well enough for us to consider publishing a review. Of course, it is difficult to evaluate a number of companies that sell essentially the same or slightly different veneers, but at least there are some alternatives. Always make sure you have a disk with a higher B3 spacing than the Intel i225-V because silicon spacing usually means you need a newer version.