homelab

6653 readers

3 users here now

founded 4 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Looking for a small form factor PC to use as a router (self.homelab)

submitted 1 year ago by p5f20w18k to c/[email protected]

8 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I'm looking for a 1L type PC, with dual gigabit, or a single gigabit (or 2.5g) port and space to put in a PCI card with more ports on it.

Planning to use it as a router, not decided on which OS yet, probably OPNSense.

Any advice on what to buy? Don't want to spend more than 150GBP, don't mind buying second hand either.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] StrayPizza 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’ve only been running a few services like AdGuard Home so I can’t speak to very heavy loads. I’ve had no issues with it. I probably wouldn’t run my Plex server on it but any regular network services should be fine.

I have mine sitting on a wire metal shelf so it gets plenty of air flow. I did misconfigure the Unbound DNS server to recursively query itself and CPU load was at 100% for several hours. I noticed it was warmer physically but it was not hot enough to give me any concerns. Still well within what’s safe to run.

[–] Kullback 2 points 1 year ago

Thanks for the reply. Mine would need to sit in a garage and would be prone to ambient temperatures. I was thinking of using one of the USB ports to power a small laptop cooling pad/fan. Just not sure of the typical CPU temp on these. I do have a pi b3+ in the same area that runs about 47°c even with a small fan.