This can be very frustrating when installing and troubleshooting the box! Some boxes included VGA, HDMI, or both. Many pfSense boxes don’t even have a video output, instead coming with only a serial port. This is a feature that is often overlooked. THE BEST PFSENSE BOX WITHOUT AES-NI SUPPORT In this rundown we will only included boxes that support AES-NI. If future proofing your box is important, this is another reason to look for boxes that have AES-NI support. Indeed, pfSense has considered at least once requiring AES-NI for pfSense compatibility, and then reversed course at the last minute. This functionality drastically speeds up cryptography processes for SSL and VPN services. Simply put AES-NI is encryption service that are included in the die of most new processors. And though they are compatible, they may not be the best pfSense box if they lack support for AES-NI. There are a lot of boxes out there that claim to be pfSense compatible (and they technically are ). Any x86 device or PC is generally compatible with the pfSense firewall software. Mike Murray – Founder, The Geek Pub Understanding AES-NIĪ quick technical detail we need to cover. We have detailed hands on experience with them. NOTE: We actually use these boxes in our home, our families’ homes, and production small business environments. If you’re interested in a business pfSense box check out our article on enterprise pfSense boxes. We’re going to assume for the purposes of this article that we’re talking about home networking. Updated: We update this article quarterly to make sure the latest and greatest hardware is reflected! What is the Best pfSense Box?

The goal of this recommendation article is to help the community find the best pfSense box for the money! The biggest issue we have is that although pfSense is community based and open sourced, it is ultimately still owned by Netgate and they are pushing their hardware to pfSense users at what I feel is a steep premium (and unnecessary).

We’ve been running it our environment(s) for several years and its just rock solid and reliable. If you follow The Geek Pub regularly, then you know we are a huge fan of pfSense.

Opnsense arm