So I could do this. Excuse the wire nest, I haven’t cleaned it up yet.
Oh lol I see. I didn’t realize you were mounting it to the back of your rack. Is that a server shelf I spy in there? I’m considering buying one so I can put my unrackable server in the server rack to keep things all clustered together.
@COZisBack How did you plug both of your Notcua fans into one fan header? It doesn’t look like you are using a splitter based on you pictures. I only have one fan header where you have your two plugged in.
Uhmmmmmm, look again. The splitter is visible.
Oh is that a Noctua splitter? No wonder I was confused.
Awesome build, @COZisBack! I was thinking about trying to fit just the mobo and titan cooler (basically sans quad port card and risers) into the Silverstone PT13 to use as a router in front of an Asus AP mesh network…
have you or anyone else here attempted this? If you haven’t, would you happen to have the measurements from the bottom interior of your case to the top of the cpu cooler so I can ballpark if it would fit before ordering?
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Thanks!
Looks like the Titan DC-155A915Z/RPW 95mm Z-AXIS Low Profile CPU Cooler (30mm height) you listed above will just fit in the Silverstone PT13 (cooler cpu <= 30mm height in specs). I’m going to give this a shot in the near-future
Hello All, are any of you have heat issues with the 1U case? Yesterday, the case felt warm to the touch, and I didn’t think that was good so I removed the lid, and everything inside, was hot to the touch.
I have the same exact setup, and I all I did was install pfsense, I haven’t even configured it.
What were your actual temps
Nope. All is well this way:
My temps said they were 27C, but as I said everything was hot to the touch. I’m going to swap out the fans, in looking at these fans and the noctuas I got mine are wayyyy thinner, and barely push any air. Right now I have my router on my workbench, with the cover off and it’s running fine. I’ll keep you all posted once I get the new fans in.
Just to update my temps, I changing the fans seemed to help out. thanks for the help. I do have another question, do you use both mobo nics, or have you disabled them and use the four port nic?
Let me preface by saying you DO NOT need to do what I did. It’s beyond overkill:
On-board:
- Used as IPMI Port to Mobo.
- Used as WAN Port (Red Intel AMT Port)
PCIE NIC: VLANs 10/20/30/60/100
- LACP Trunkport to Cisco EtherChannel Port 37
- LACP Trunkport to Cisco EtherChannel Port 39
- LACP Trunkport to Cisco EtherChannel Port 41
- LACP Trunkport to Cisco EtherChannel Port 43
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Thanks for the response @COZisBack. Right now I have the following:
(Onboard)
- Lan
- Wan (Red Intel AMT Port
PCIE Nic
- Bridged to RG
-
- 4 (Unused)
How did you get your Nic on your Mobo to be used as IPMI? Would I have to move the LAN to the Nic card? or can I use existiing port as LAN and IPMI?
What made you go with this particular motherboard/CPU combo? I’m having trouble finding the board in stock for a reasonable price. Maybe there is a comparable motherboard and/or CPU out there? I understand low power and AES-NI being important.
This is a great build, by the way! Thank you for sharing!
This combo was featured in JDM’s pfsense build guide. If you’re looking for the board, there’s actually one for sale right here on these forums:
Also, here’s a reasonably priced replacement, which you could argue is a better buy:
Thanks! I didn’t know about the guide. I’m new to this site. I will definitely check it out.
I was looking at the Protectli pre-built boxes before but I think DIY is a better way to go.
I was looking into other Thin Mini-ITX options and found this site full of info on what’s out there:
That site is not about pfSense or FreeBSD but it’s useful information about the different boards.
I also found out you can get some M.2 to PCIe adapters which I believe can be used to add a PCIe x4 slot to your board and using an extender should be able to add a NIC. I’ve never tried it but seems doable if you find a good board that only has 1 NIC and no PCIe slot.
Right now, buying a HP 290 is the best deal you’re going to find. Add a quad NIC and you’re good to go. Look into those: