Pfsense build BCM5719 Quad-Port NIC?

Self-Hosted & Services pfSense/Opensense
1

I am considering ditching my asus-merlin and doing a pfsense router build on a machine I have lying around. You guys seem to love it. I used to run monowall a million years ago.

I have a couple of concerns:

  1. I am waiting on Ting to light my neighborhood with symetric gigabit to my door and I want to ensure the machine can make use of that. The machine I plan to use is a Acer Veriton x4618g because the price was right (ie FREE) and it has a Intel Core i5 (2nd Gen) 2320 / 3 GHz Quad Core. I am all but certain it can but I am here anyway asking about #2 so I thought I would verify

  2. in all your build recommendations I keep seeing the recommendation of using an Intel quad port gigabit nic for pfsense. I happen to have 2x Dell/Broadcom NetXtreme® BCM5719 Quad-Port 1GBASE-T PCIe 2.1 cards on a shelf. I would need to buy a low profile bracket to use one in there which I found on ebay for $9. Or should I just play it safe and pay a bit extra and get the Intel 4 port card instead?

Photo 20-10-30 16-41-57 1346
Photo 20-10-30 16-41-57 13464032×3024 3.13 MB

2

  1. processor/computer should work fine…power hungry but she’ll do.

  2. I have no experiences with that particular card…everything I’ve ever tried worked fine but as I’ve gained more knowledge I’ve opted for Intel. At the very least I wouldn’t let that spoil your impressions of pfSense. Given that you’ll have to spend 9 bucks on a low profile bracket…I would probably spring for the added money to get a Intel. Maybe take the bracket off and pop it in there and see if it works

3

I have tried and tried today. I just can’t get this acer machine to boot with either of these Broadcom nics I have. When I try it never posts, it just beeps and beeps and never gives me video.

I am putting them in the graphics card PCIE slot as it’s the only slot it has. Is that not backwards compatible with the cards? Maybe they’re just broken. Forgive me guys. I passed my A+ exam 21 years ago and haven’t kept up.

4

So upon further investigation I learned the PCIE card was incompatible with the only open slots I had available. I got a bit discouraged and decided buy the iboss machine from this thread to repurpose for pfsense. [Guide] Spice up your rack with these stylish & sexy chassis for your pfSense build! - #24 by JDM_WAAAT