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Help Choosing Hardware for Heavy Home Use

technitect

Hi everyone,

I've been reading threads and researching the Sophos XG firewalls for some time now, but I keep running in circles in regard to my hardware choice.

I'm an IT professional, who works from home, but also has a family that heavily utilizes the internet (tons of web traffic and media streaming, upwards of 1TB+ per month). I also run a Plex media server and an ESX rig with multiple heavily utilized guests that have applications which are externally accessible. An average number of users is 4, but can be 10+ on many occasions. Wireless is also not an issue, as I have multiple Unifi AC-PRO's already in place.

Currently, my internet connection is 60/10, but there's a real chance I'll have access to synchronous 1Gbps in the near future, so I'm trying to future proof. From a module perspective, I'm looking to run basically all of the available modules, except for maybe Security Heartbeat. I'm not sure if I could really utilize it since most of my users are using tablets, phones, and other smart devices, and it was my understanding that was more desktop/server focuses (could be wrong, though?).

Anyway, I think my best option would be an XG-115 if I bought the hardware (about $750 with a 1-year license from CDW), but I didn't know if that was overkill. I was considering the XG-85 (about $550 from CDW with 3-year license) but didn't know if that was enough horsepower.

The other option is to build a mini-ITX machine with the following specs, and then load up the home edition:

Intel Core i5-7500. 4-cores (8 threads) @3.4Ghz

8GB of DDR4-2400 (I know home version can only run 6GB)

128GB Samsung EVO m.2 SSD

Dual Intel GigE NIC's

Cost - about $600

Thanks for all your help everyone!!

- J



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  • 0 in reply to Grammaton

    Hi,

    thank you for your thoughts and explanation.

    I have many small MBs from upgrades to reduce power usage, this one is currently the best bang for buck. The CPU hits about 3% on dashboard after all my recent network changes.

    Also in AU the costs of any upgrades is a bit more expensive that your suggested prices.

    Ian

Children
  • 0 in reply to rfcat_vk

    Yeah I wasn't going for power saving I was going for throughput.

     

    So with IPS on MAX and AV on Dual Scan, App filter on and Ad Blocker On I get 340-350 Mbits on my gigabit.  If I kill IPS I get the full bandwith.

  • 0 in reply to Grammaton

    Hi,

    My XG has a high speed cpu, 3.3ghz with for speed and power saving.. IPS on the XG is supposed to be better than the UTM but very hard to tell. I have some features of IPS enabled.

    You can tune the IPS so it does not affect your downloads, would need a faster link to do the testing. I supposed across the internal nics would tell.

    Ian