Solana Tech Mini ITX pfSense firewall router with 4x Intel NICs and 2ghz J1900 CPU, 4gb RAM and 32gb SSD

Seems like a great little box. Should be just about perfect (or overkill) for anything I could hope to do with pfsense especially on my home network. If you get one like mine that doesn't detect the SSD, your SSD is probably in the wrong slot.I had a problem with mine as I received it - it didn't detect the SSD that came with it until i switched it to the other slot. According to the silkscreen on the motherboard, the slot that worked is labeled "msata" and the other one "pcie" so it seems that mine was just put in the wrong slot when it was assembled. See attached picture for the slot that worked. Once I switched the ssd to the other slot, I installed PFSense and tested that all the network ports are detected. I haven't done much testing under load, but while it was installing the heatsinks didn't even get warm. There is a small bracket in the box that will mount a 2.5" hard drive or ssd inside the case (see my edit below for how to enable this slot). Mine came with a LITEON UL listed power supply and Samsung memory which is great.Edit: I just added a 2.5" hard drive for a SQUID cache. To do this, you need to move the jumper block that is by the SATA/PCIe slots to the position toward the front of the motherboard (toward the network link/activity LEDs on the front). Otherwise it did not detect the 2.5" hard drive even if I didn't have the msata SSD plugged in. The RJ45 console port seems to be a standard CISCO pinout but I haven't tested it yet. If the supplier is reading these reviews, it would be good to have a manual that describes some of these features.

I have had this and have been using it for a few weeks now. It works well and I can confirm to a degree that the included SSD (mini pcie/mSATA) needs to be moved from the second slot to the first (the slot closer to the edge of the board/case). Actually, I didn't even try using it before I opened it up and moved the card. After doing so, however, it works great. As others have stated there is NO documentation whatsoever included with the device. Also another reviewer guessed that the RJ45 COM port (not a standard serial port) has a standard "Cisco" pinout. I do not know that Cisco set the standard (I don't know the history...), but I can confirm that a USB to RJ45 serial cable designed for other (Cisco) routers/switches works with this device. I do not think it will allow bios access but it does display the boot output and the standard pfSense console menu. You also can drop to a regular shell via the serial console.My biggest gripe about this device is that because it is NOT fanless it is little noisy. The fans (mounted along one side of the case) are the only moving parts in the device (as best I can tell), but to its credit it is nowhere near as noisy as most rack mount routers and switches are. Still, I prefer my devices be as quiet as possible because I like silence and I don't plan to hide this thing away in a closet or cabinet. It might not be preferable to hide it away if you want to keep it running at lower operating temperature unless your closet or cabinet is well-ventilated or actively cooled. You could always do some hacks to control the fan speed and/or cool the box (or its internal components) through some other means. I happened to have a fan speed controller that fits this device's standard 3-pin fan header so I can manually control the fan speed and thus make it quieter. Of course decreasing airflow potentially is risky. So I made another passive cooling modification that very likely voided the warranty (if inserting the fan speed controller didn't do that already). It isn't completely silent now, but it is quieter than it was before and still runs relatively cool. It runs at around 47 C on average according to pfSense in a room with an ambient temp of around 22.3 C. Watching the temperature without the top part of the case on (free air flow) showed it running just a few degrees cooler (43-44 C). Actually, it is quieter than or on-par with my (somewhat cheap) laptop or notebook computer as far as noise goes so the noise is really a small price to pay for the power and flexibility this device affords.My other gripe is that the LED lights on this thing are VERY bright. I am considering ways of reducing the brightness of the lights by putting a piece of masking tape or something like that over them. Again, this is a small problem and not one without a solution, but it would be nice to either be able to easily control the light brightness or turn them off entirely. Maybe there is a way and I just haven't figured it out yet, but it isn't my highest priority nor is it a deal-breaker.There is a small metal bracket and four screws included with this box and I am not sure but I think it is meant to be used with an optional 2.5 inch SATA disk (not-included; you'd probably want a SSD). There's enough space inside the metal case for such a disk, but I am not sure you could use both a SATA disk and one or two mini pcie/mSATA devices simultaneously. One final downside to this box is that it does not appear to have a way to mount it on a wall or in a rack of some kind. Maybe you could make one yourself but it does not come with a way to mount it easily out of the box. Also for ventilation purposes you probably don't want to stand it up on either side or block either end of the case. Both sides and the bottom of the case have vent slots. Also it does NOT come with wireless built-in but I have a separate AP for that (I have a LAN and a guest VLAN set up between it and this box).I just wanted to share my experiences and let potential buyers know what to expect from this device. It has pretty much everything you need to get started minus a monitor, keyboard (and maybe a mouse--don't need one to install pfSense), and cables (USB/network/serial). I have zero buyers remorse for purchasing this device. If you can live with all of the above, I can recommend it as a decent pfSense or other sort personal or small-business gateway/router/switch/whatever appliance. I'm sure it will last for years to come.

Great Little box. pfSense installed no problem and I have been using it for a month or so now.A few things to improve:1) pfSense does not like it when this box loses the WAN or LAN link and does not recover. It is something to do with the hardware of this box, according to the pfSense support team. Using a USB based ethernet adapter proves out this to be the case. So be aware you'll need to use a WAN VLAN or switch in between if your Cable/DSL modem reboots very often.2) The mSATA drive is shipped in slot 2. The BIOS does not allow booting from slot 2. You will have to open the unit and move the drive to slot 1 to get it to boot and install pfSense.3) There are literally zero instructions included with the unit. Not even a single sheet of paper.4) pfSense is not installed, you'll need too install it yourself off of a USB stick or a USB optical drive.

Same day delivery was awesome. However, nothing but a red light and the BIOS screen when I booted it up. BIOS didn't see any drives. Had to open the case and move the mSata drive to the adjacent slot. Subsequent boot recognized the drive but there was no image on the drive. I bought this system with the intention of installing Sophos UTM on it so it didn't bother me that much, but I was looking forward to running pfSense for a few days before making the switch.After all is said and done, it's a pretty good piece of hardware. I've been running for a day now, and the device is pushing the Sophos UTM image well. No issues with performance. The firewall has the memory (4GB) pegged at 42% constantly and the CPU at 4%. I may upgrade to 8GB and ad larger hard drive to run ESXi so I can get a couple of images going on this box.The box is great - the assembly process with the drive and image were the issue.