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$88 Quad Core Celeron J4125 Desktop for Pfsense, NAS, Plex, etc. for $87.99

$87.99
$329.99
+25 Deal Score
24,157 Views
Deal Live again. Previously posted here - https://slickdeals.net/f/15938788-in-stock-again-88-celeron-with-fs-for-pfsense-project-and-other-general-shenanigans-87-99?v=1&src=SiteSearch

Placed an order last night. Plan is to somehow add two 3.5" HDD to turn this box into a low power yet efficient NAS. Will be looking for deals on WD Red Plus 6-12TB drives. Currently running a 2 SSDs NAS on a raspberry pi 4B using hardware raid switch on the USB enclosure, and drives about to be full. Plus running 7 docker containers, including NextCloud which can sometimes become unbearably slow. Hence looking at a faster NAS setup. I looked at Synology, QNAP and bunch of other NAS systems, but price and performance wise this looked like the best option, though those NAS systems look quite appealing.

Quote :
In stock again, $88 Celeron with FS for Pfsense, project, and other general shenanigans $87.99
Front page deal Alive again. Not sure how many are available but shows in stock for me to buy another one. Multiple discussions here (over 800 comments) available for your pursual pleasures.

Specs
Intel Celeron J4125 2.00 GHz Quad-Core Processor
4GB RAM
256GB Solid State Drive
Intel UHD Graphics 600
Includes Keyboard & Mouse
Windows 10 Home
https://www.ebay.com/itm/255186968611


WIki:
* The motherboard size is likely mini ITX. Meaning if you are adventurous, you can relocate the motherboard to another case, and get more bays in the process.

* System has 2 SODIMM slots. One is empty, another is occupied with 4Gig. It is possible to install 2x8Gig for a total of 16 Gigs. Regardless what Intel and Acer says, 16 Gigs (2x8) appears to work fine. This is the 8 Gig I used in mine. 8 Gig Team Memory [amazon.com]

*The system has a single SATA full length power connector. If you wish to connect a second drive that needs a full SATA power port, you will need a splicer, something like this.
SATA Power Splitter [ebay.com]

* Depends on how drives you install and what type of drives you install, the temperature in the case could be higher than desired. I modded the case to take a 140mm and spliced the 3 pin CPU fan connector. It would be useful to disable fan control in BIOS so it runs at high speed at all times. *spliced fan header [ebay.com]140mm fan [amazon.com]

* The system as shipped accommodates 1x3.5 above and beyond the DVD drive installed. If you want to change the DVD bay to accept 2.5 inch HDD< you will need something like this *a DVD caddy 3.5 9.7mm bay [amazon.com].

With all above modification, my system draws about 25Ws at peak.

Copied suggestions below for various uses.
=================================
Desktop replacement, Rating: Medicore
This is a mediocre use case as a desktop replacement because the limited CPU capability and memory. The system comes with 4Gig standard which will mean a lot of swapping on Windows 10 in default configuration. If you can up the memory to 8Gig, I think the use case becomes fair. It is a reasonable system for lite web page browsing, spreadsheets, email, YouTube and Netflix at 1080P. ie, this is a good system for your grandparents if usage case isn't aggressive.


Gaming setup, Rating: Poor
Expansion slot is half height, power supply is 65W, there is only a CPU fan. ie, if you want to game other than minesweeper, you should look for a beefier system, such as the one with I3 and 250W power?. Again, if you go that route, maybe Acer small form factor shouldn't be what you should consider. For reference, my current game setup has a 850w ps and about 7 fans.


NAS, Rating: Good
This thing draws less power and is quieter than my Synology 2 bay. CPU will be more powerful than my Synology with more possibility of expanding via standard PC peripherals. A two bay Synology is about $200 right now which means you can use this thing at about half the cost. With this said, there are only 2 SATA ports and no additional cooling fans and will only accommodate 1 3.5" and 1 2.5" drive without additional engineering. If you are okay dropping in a 10TB 3.5 WD Red Plus and call it good, you have an excellent use case here. If you are desperate, I suppose you can always use external USB 3.0 enclosures for additional drives. Hardware transcoding via Plex for a single 4K stream shouldn't be a huge issue since this Celeron has a UHD600 onboard.


pFsense, Gateway replacement, VPN server, PiHole etc, Rating: Excellent
What this system really excels is as an always on, minimal power, minimal noise internet relay device. I listed a couple use cases above. I am thinking moving my VPN server (both up and down streams), PiHole, and Firewall server into this thing. As given the system has more than enough resource to run Debian or BSD, never sipes more than 15Ws, generates no heat, and is virtually silent, I can see this thing sitting next to my cable modem and be the consolidating gateway machine that is currently being taken up by a Synology, a number of Rasperberri Pis. For $100, this is just a bargain you can't find equivalent elsewhere. Now the only decision is to buy another one as a backup in case this breaks. :-)

Store: eBay
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Joined Sep 2008
power tool FlyppR
> bubble2 16,266 Posts
4,291 Reputation
dj-3lusion
09-25-2022 at 02:23 PM.
09-25-2022 at 02:23 PM.
too long didnt read all the way, So is there a package or a build you can install and run what you put in the post OP?. or are you just assuming based on the hardware you can run these things but haven't tried?.
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Joined Jan 2011
L9: Master
> bubble2 5,798 Posts
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mrdizle
09-25-2022 at 02:44 PM.
09-25-2022 at 02:44 PM.
Trash
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Joined Sep 2008
power tool FlyppR
> bubble2 16,266 Posts
4,291 Reputation
dj-3lusion
09-25-2022 at 10:26 PM.
09-25-2022 at 10:26 PM.
Quote from mrdizle :
Trash
thanks I'll stick with my trusty undockered NASs that have been running for years without a hitch
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Joined Jul 2011
L6: Expert
> bubble2 1,154 Posts
174 Reputation
LordDrol
09-27-2022 at 09:15 AM.
09-27-2022 at 09:15 AM.
What will be next after they run out of these? It seems there's an Acer Aspire XC with N5105/4GB (Jasper Lake Atom).

Or i3-10105/8GB but that's not a comparable TDP.
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Joined Mar 2017
L2: Beginner
> bubble2 76 Posts
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sdnu
09-30-2022 at 12:36 PM.
09-30-2022 at 12:36 PM.
Quote from danjayh :
For not much more money, you can get a passively cooled one with multiple 2.5G NICs built-in from Aliexpress. Or, if you're feeling spendy, you can get an N5105 unit for ~$150-160 that's much faster (waaay overkill if you only run pfSense on it, but nice if you want to play with Windows or Linux on it). After tweaking pfSense to enable more c-states, mine idles at 9-10W (prior to that I think it was in the 13-15w range).

Edit: Not sure if slickdeals allows Aliexpress links, but if it does, here's the one I bought: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3...1802CnUQal

I played with Windows on my N5105 unit for a while before I put Windows on it. It would have been perfectly usable as a media server, albeit a bit sluggish. I would not want to run Windows on a j4125, which is significantly slower.

Have you received the N5105 from AE already, and if so how is the unit working?
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Joined Nov 2013
L3: Novice
> bubble2 103 Posts
142 Reputation
Original Poster
karma_joy
10-01-2022 at 12:15 PM.
10-01-2022 at 12:15 PM.
Looking for some expert advice on turning this machine to a pfsense+wifi router on a budget.

I currently have a ISP's modem+wifi router combo (using only as a modem) connected to TP-Link AC4000 router (which works fine, has much better wireless coverage and features, and hence is pretty satisfactory). Does anyone know/have suggestion as to how to use this box as a pfsense router to replace my TP-Link Wifi router? Is it possible or is there a way to use pfsense in this PC with just the combo modem+wifi-router? without needing second router/access point?
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