Qotom 4 LAN Mini Pc I5 Q355G4 5Th Generation Intel Core I5-5200U AES-NI 8Gb Ddr3 Ram 16Gb Ssd, 4 Intel LAN,X86 Mini PC OPNsense

Found used via Amazon warehouse/marketplace. That’s pretty rare for these devices. A tad overpriced for what you get IMHo new but just right at a discount of 20-30%. Got the i5/8GB and the cheapo 16gb ‘ssd’ is plenty for pfSense.Running pfSense bare metal (used to run it virtualized). Overkill for my 150/50 LTE connection even with multiple OpenVPN tunnels, snort IDS, & caching proxy running with massive state tables, but I guess I’m future proof. the 4x intel gigabit ports are great... 1 WAN, “1 Green Zone”, one for WiFi mesh, 1 for IOT/“red zone”. Could do it all over vlans since I run managed switches but this lets me force certain ports onto vlans rather than tagged traffic which I like better (physical security)Was debating for a while whether to get or not... just get one you won’t regret it. Probably would run ESX/Xen just fine but I like bare metal for the extra power, thermal, etc features plus already have other virtualization servers.

This device works very well as an OPNSense firewall. Took of one star because the cables for the additional 2.5" SSD wouldn't allow me to close the bottom plate. I had to buy a SATA Data/Power extension cable (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NURHUSU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) to be able to close the bottom plate. This makes the bottom are "on top" of the memory stick and the MSATA drive pretty cramped.That said, with the extender, I have 2 drives in a ZFS mirror and the system is working for its intended purpose very well.*EDIT: Spelling* 2020/11/04 Update: This thing runs quite well. And it turns out for the SSD, it's as simple as rotating the mounting plate which puts the SSD on the other side, making the installed cable work perfectly. Updating to 5 stars based on me missing that simple fix ;)

The unit died within 7 months of purchase. The power would flash and the green light would flash intermittently. There is no support from Qotom besides "please try a different hdd and memory". After further inquiry on where I could send the unit for help, they stopped responding. I now have a $300+ paper weight.I had to get a replacement quick, so I spent the money on a Netgate device w/pfsense+ installed and supported with a 1 year warranty. Their support was phenomenal, even on a Sunday.Do yourself a favor, do not roll the dice in hopes that you won't end up like me. You might as well be spending that money on a Netgate device.

After I read a review of someone saying the unit locked up and needed to be rebooted once a week I still went ahead and took a chance on this unit considering the specs and the price. Here I am a few weeks later sending it back because it locks up at least once a week and requires me to manually reboot the locked up device. If this can't run pfsense without any plugins i'm not sure what it's good for but keep this in mind if you want to buy it.