On 2008-12-02, nuffnough <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hey there. > > My firewalls are getting old, so I thought it would be a great idea to > replace them. I figured that a budget of around $1500 would be more > than adequate, but because no one makes mobos with 5 pci slots > anymore I am struggling to get these under $2800. > > I have requirements for 6 legs plus the carp sync (which I could do > with a usb nowadays, so that means just 6). The rest of the system > is relatively undemanding, so 4 gig RAM is overkill, and it doesn't > require huge CPU grunt either. It would be great if I could fit it > into a small formfactor case to save rackspace, but this isn't worth > $2k to me. > > Please recommend mobo/NIC combo that would fit within the budget!
Most 1U servers have at least two onboard network interfaces (dell r200, dell 1950, hp dl140, dl145, ...) and there are a few choices for 4-port PCI-X and PCIE cards. If you look harder you find 6-port ones too e.g. hotlavasystems.com (copper or SFP, Intel chips, look like rebadged solway.co.kr boards) and silicom.co.il (copper, Broadcom). Or "firewall-on-a-stick" as mentioned before is a good option in some environments (tagged VLANs to a managed switch).
