The starting point for our discussion on hardware requirements is the pfSense minimum specifications. As of January 2018, 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. You should also use a CPU that supports the AES-NI instruction set extensions (or another hardware crypto offload), as such a CPU will be required, starting with version 2.5. There are three separate images provided for these architectures: CD, CD on a USB memstick, and an image for ARM-based Netgate systems. The active default console ...
