AI Firewall Appliance, Intelligent Soft Routing/Mini PC • Intel Core i5-1135G7 • 16GB RAM, 256GB mSATA SSD • 6 x RJ45 Ports, 4 x USB 3.0, 1 x RJ-45 COM, 1 x HDMI Support PFsense OPNsense AES-NI

This little machine has been brilliant for pfsense. I had a similar micro-pc years back that worked ok but eventually was too finicky to be my primary network router, after that I migrated to a Dell optiplex that I'd picked up used which worked well for several years until it mysteriously decided to no longer boot after a recent power outage. So I replaced that with this - I love that it's a 12v power supply, and silent. I'll be able to run it directly off a 12v backup battery - omitting the inverter part of a backup power supply, so that I can keep the network on for extended periods of time next time we have a power outage. The specs are overkill for pfsense, but that means it's not negatively impacting network speed or performance whatsoever. And the processor has all the necessary features for VPNs/etc. This is a fantastic little machine to use as a router, the 2.5gbit ethernet is a nice upgrade too, which I'll eventually benefit from when fiber eventually makes it to my neighborhood.

Runs a bit hot as others have noticed... but has proven to be stable thus far... after a few weeks of use. I would have preferred that it came with a fan once I saw how hot the case gets. What is interesting is the processor its self does not seem to run that hot, stays below 60 C, with balanced use. The seller is responsible and reasonable. I communicated the heat issue and the seller offer a couple of options, including sending a fan. The fan uses USB port, since there is no main board fan connector. But that is fine, this device does not have to look pretty, just be functional. It was easy to configure, installed Debian 12, no issues. I once I decided to keep it, I upgraded the memory just to given Debian 12 UI a bit more head room, but if you are using it as a router or firewall... 4GB is sufficient for most use cases. The case has screw holes for a 2.5in SSD and a square fan... looks like a 10MM x 40MM. But you will want to measure it, since any fan installed internal may be limited in space if you upgrade the memory, using both SDO slots.

Excellent product

I hadto return the first one and the second one came 7 days later, it worked, when you get this add your own OS I used IPFire to build the firewall appliance the way i wanted it, it worked great.

I received this as a review unit, otherwise I don't think I would have spent this much personally for a front-end for my personal home network. That being said, the price seems to be reflecting the high quality of the hardware as it is a seriously heavy-duty piece of hardware, the whole thing is a giant heatsink that looks and feels like it means business. The build quality seems good, nice 5 amp power supply should not be stressed to run this appliance. It has a fancy wall mount and provisions for a second hard drive inside (cable included). It looks like it could have been a name brand machine, but since it's not actually name-brand it is hard to be sure it's worth the money. This is an initial review, the plan is to put promox and pfsense on this unit and have it be the front-end for the network at my house, which includes multiple servers and such beyond the basic home setup, so if I don't come back here and update you can assume it's still working well for me today.

I initially set this up with just an install of PfSense. Then I took things a step further and wiped it, put Proxmox on it, and now it runs PfSense, my son's minecraft server, and a media server as well. This has way more than enough power for firewall needs. It's capable of so much more. If you buy this, don't waste its potential by confining it to a single task. Ram is upgradable, and so is storage.

The appliance is solid. The body is made of all aluminum with a giant heatsink. There isn't much to config inside other than the SSD, though it already comes with a 256gb drive. The memory is not configurable. It does include a combo sata/power cable if you want to add an additional hard drive. It also comes with an absolutely overkill power brick as well (12v 5a). There's no way this device should pull that much power. I will have to do some power draw comparisons but I believe you should be able to get away with a 12v PD USB C connection (with a barrel adapter) to make cabling easier. It has 4 2.5gb ports, an HDMI, VGA, and 2 USB 3 ports. There is no WiFi included with this model. On bootup it loads some version of Linux that then tells you to load your own OS. I loaded up Debian just to check it out with almost no issues. This device is really marketed as a network appliance for soft routing or pfsense or something else along those lines, and would be well suited for it. There really isn't any reason this can't handle those tasks and do it well. That being said, it uses a 9th gen J4125 processor which is already out of date. You can get similar machines with the same specs for less than half of this. Or if you want to stay current, you can get 12th gen N series machines with more current features for the same or less than this. If you can pick this up at a bargain it will make a fine network appliance, but I really can't recommend it when it costs more than current gen hardware.

In reality, it's just a thin client with a lot of ethernet ports. Mine shipped with a Linux install that only shows a picture of a QR code and some instructions to head to the website to download one of their OSes. The QR code sent me to a page that wouldn't load but manually going to the link worked. Because it's just a blank box I decided to just download my own OS. The hardware is pretty competent as a not-so-thin client. When idling it runs very cool but not completely silently- the fan on top is louder than an air purifier but not as loud as a desk fan. It's kind of expensive for just a thin client. I guess the gold is in the OSes that can be downloaded.