Firewall Mini PC N150 - Fanless 4 x 2.5GbE Micro Firewall

Our review of the Firewall Mini PC N150 finds it aimed squarely at small businesses, home labs and network enthusiasts who need a compact, low-power hardware platform for OPNsense, Linux or a preinstalled OS. The single biggest reason to buy is the combination of a Twin Lake N150 processor and four i226V 2.5GbE ports, which deliver noticeably faster LAN throughput than gigabit alternatives while remaining fanless and power efficient for 24/7 operation.

Key Features

• Processor: The 12th Gen N150 Twin Lake CPU with 4 cores and up to 3.6 GHz burst provides enough processing headroom for firewall, VPN and light virtualization tasks.
• Multi-Gig Networking: Four i226V 2.5GbE LAN ports give roughly 2.5x the throughput of gigabit ports, useful for faster LAN backbones and WAN aggregation.
• Memory and Storage Expandability: A single DDR5 SO-DIMM slot (4800 MHz) supporting up to 48GB and two M.2 NVMe slots let the unit handle larger firewall rule sets and fast system storage.
• Quiet, Compact Design: The fanless chassis runs silently in an office or home lab, with an included 4-pin fan cable should active cooling be required.
• Versatile OS Support: Ships with Windows preinstalled but supports OPNsense, OpenWrt, ESXi and Linux, making it a flexible platform for different network stacks.
• Multiple I/O: Two SATA 3.0 ports, Type-C, DP, dual HDMI and several USB ports allow for storage, display and peripheral connections.

Who It's For

This mini firewall appliance is best for small IT teams, home power users and lab builders who need a compact, energy-efficient hardware firewall with multi-gig LAN ports and expansion for NVMe storage. It works well as a dedicated OPNsense or OpenWrt box, a soft router with traffic monitoring, or a virtualization host for light VMs.

It is less suitable for very high-throughput ISP edge use where multi-core server-class CPUs or more than four ports would be required, or for users who need a fully passive, sealed industrial appliance without any option to add a fan.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Four 2.5GbE i226V ports deliver higher LAN speeds for modern networks.
• DDR5 support and two M.2 NVMe slots give strong storage and memory flexibility for firewall databases and logs.
• Fanless design keeps noise to a minimum for always-on deployment, with an optional small fan support if needed.

Cons

• Preinstalled Windows may require reinstallation for some firewall distributions and initial setup work for OPNsense or ESXi.
• CPU is low-power and capable, but heavy, multi-threaded enterprise workloads will outgrow the 4-core N150.

Specifications

Our Verdict

The Firewall Mini PC N150 is a well-balanced, compact hardware appliance for users who need multi-gig LAN performance, DDR5 memory and NVMe storage in a quiet, low-power package. It represents strong value for small shops and home labs that will benefit from 2.5GbE throughput and flexible OS support, while those needing heavy compute or more ports should consider larger server-class options.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I run OPNsense on this unit?
Yes, the unit supports OPNsense, Linux, ESXi and OpenWrt in addition to the preinstalled OS.

How many NVMe drives can it accept?
There are two M.2 2280 NVMe PCIe 3.0 slots for system or storage drives.

Is active cooling required?
The design is fanless for quiet operation and includes a 4-pin fan cable if you choose to add the small 12V fan for extra cooling.