this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2023
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Looking for a small form factor PC to use as a router (self.homelab)
submitted 1 year ago by p5f20w18k to c/[email protected]
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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.

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[–] StrayPizza 1 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I personally use a Qotom PC. Not sure if it fits your exact requirements since you can’t get a PCI card into it, but it does have 4x1Gb ports. Works really well with opnsense.

[–] Kullback 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I've been eyeing one of these. Just haven't pulled the trigger. Been looking at these and other 'lesser known' brands. How do they handle heavy workloads? Any temperature issues being that they are passive?

[–] 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.