Minimum requirements

The starting point for our discussion on hardware requirements is pfSense's minimum specifications. As of January 2016, the minimum hardware requirements are as follows (these specifications are from the official pfSense site, https://www.pfsense.org/):

  • CPU: 500 MHz (1 GHz recommended)
  • RAM: 512 MB (1 GB recommended)
pfSense requires a 64-bit Intel (x86-64) or AMD (amd64) CPU. pfSense 2.5 will require a processor that supports AES-NI encryption and decryption, so take that into account when choosing a CPU. There are three separate images available: CD, CD on a USB memstick, and an image for the Netgate SG-3100 system. The active default console for the CD and USB memstick images is VGA, while the active default console for the Netgate image is serial. The NanoBSD images (for embedded systems, which had the serial console as their default) were deprecated with the release of pfSense 2.4. The serial console can be enabled on images which default to VGA via the web GUI by navigating to System | Advanced.

A pfSense installation requires at least 1 GB of disk space. If you are installing to an embedded device, you can access the console either by a serial or VGA port. A step-by-step installation guide for the pfSense Live CD can be found on the official pfSense website at: https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Installing_pfSense.

Version 2.3 eliminated the Live CD, which allowed you to try out pfSense without installing it onto other media. If you really want to use the Live CD, however, you could use a pre-2.3 image (version 2.2.6 or earlier). You can always upgrade to the latest version of pfSense after installation. 

Installation onto either a hard disk drive (HDD) or an SSD is the most common option for a full install of pfSense, whereas embedded installs typically use CF, SD, or USB media. A full install of the current version of pfSense will fit onto a 1 GB drive, but will leave little room for installation of packages or log files. Any activity that requires caching, such as running a proxy server, will also require additional disk space.

The last installation option is installation onto an embedded system using the Netgate ADI image. Netgate currently sells the SG-3100, which is advertised as an appliance that can be used in many deployment scenarios, including firewalls, LAN or WAN routers, VPN appliances, and DHCP or DNS servers. It targets small and medium-sized businesses and may appeal to home and business users seeking a reliable firewall appliance with a low total cost of ownership. Storage (without upgrading) is limited to 8 GB of eMMC flash, which would limit which packages could be installed.

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