Choosing A NIC For pfSense On Proxmox

Homelab
1

I got my hands on an HP ProDesk 600 G1

  • Intel Core i5 4570 3.2GHz Processor
  • 16GB DDR3-1600 RAM
  • 256GB SSD
  • Intel HD Graphics 4600
  • 10/100/1000 LAN

I want to run pfSense on this box on top of Proxmox. It has a gig network card, but I would like to add a dual port NIC to it. It needs to be low profile as this is a SFF PC. I am not concerned with 10Gig network at this time. I believe this machine is using PCIe 2.1 and it has one 16x and three or four 1x slots open. Should I concern myself with 1x 4x 8x 16x or just pic up a dual port 1gig NIC that will fit one or the other and not break the bank? I even saw an Intel I350-T4 PCI-Express PCI-E Four RJ45 Gigabit Ports Server Adapter NIC on ebay for around $45…although I can get a dual port for half that…or less.

2

Did you get this figured out? If I understand correctly a 1x PCIE v1 has a bandwidth of 250 MB/s in each direction, or 2 Gb/s. That should be enough to saturate a dual 1GB nic.

3

Thank you!! I think so. I am going to try this one:

It is x4, but I have a x16 slot it will fit in.

4

Please keep us posted. A few years ago I upgrade my network to unifi. I was sick of fiddling with consumer routers and just wanted something that worked.

Now, I am thinking of testing pfsense. pfsense on proxmox seems to be a good way to get familiar with the system.