I download about 500tb of data per month using dual 1gbps connections and pfsense running on an old i7-3770k. I'm typically making 1k+ connections per second; 80% outbound get request, 20% inbound through tailscale tunnels from 10 budget VPS's.

I just upgraded my residential connection an 8gbps connection and am about two weeks out from adding another 8gbps connection. I have a combination of 10gb and 40gb connections between my servers.

Based on some reddit research I figured out that pfsense doesn't work well for 10gb L3 switching and that I need to migrate to TNSR or maybe Vyos(less preferred as I prefer GUI).

I'm trying to figure out what a decent setup would be based on my work load? I'm assuming like a xeon D1541 or any lga 3647 would be fine. Just not sure what is the best route to go, DIY 2U build or some dell/hpe setup which is hopefully cheap (less than $500). Any thoughts or suggestions?

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p.s.Before anyone says anything, I have been downloading these large amounts of data for years out of my house and have never got a single warning message from an ISP. This server will be going into a sound deadening cabinet which i picked up for cheap and is where my 1.5pb of hdd and flash live, so ideally a 1U or 2U build to conserve space.