Firewall Mini PC N355 Upgraded N305 - 6 x 2.5GbE Fanless Appliance

Our review of the Firewall Mini PC N355 finds it best suited for small offices, home labs and network enthusiasts who need a compact, fanless appliance with robust multiport networking. The single biggest reason to consider this unit is its six native 2.5GbE Intel i226V ports paired with a lowpower 12th Gen N355 CPU, which together deliver far more LAN throughput and routing capability than a typical gigabit mini PC while staying quiet and energy efficient.

Key Features

• 6 x 2.5GbE LAN: Six Intel i226V ports provide native 2.5G connectivity for multiWAN, VLAN segmentation or switchless aggregation without external NICs.
• N355 Processor: The 12th Gen N355 twin lake 8 core CPU offers low TDP operation with enough single and multithreaded performance for firewall, VPN and IDS/IPS tasks.
• DDR5 RAM and NVMe slots: Support for DDR5 SODIMM and two M.2 NVMe slots gives room to run memoryheavy services and fast local storage for logging or caching.
• Fanless with optional fan support: The passive design keeps noise to zero in most setups, while a small 12V 4pin fan can be fitted for higher ambient temperatures.
• Triple display and TypeC output: Integrated UHD graphics enable dual HD ports plus a TypeC display, useful if the appliance doubles as a compact workstation during setup or maintenance.

Who It's For

The Firewall Mini PC N355 is ideal for small business IT administrators, prosumers and homelabbers who need multiple highspeed LAN ports in a compact, powerefficient box and who plan to run OPNsense, OpenWrt, ESXi or Linuxbased firewall software. Its 2.5GbE ports and AESNI support make it suitable for VPN gateways and throughputsensitive services.

Those who need enterprisegrade chassis redundancy, hotswap drives, or many PCIe expansion lanes should look elsewhere; this is a micro appliance focused on density of LAN ports, low noise and energy efficiency rather than modular enterprise features.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Six onboard 2.5GbE Intel i226V ports give high LAN throughput without extra NICs.
• Lowpower 12th Gen N355 CPU with AESNI provides solid performance for VPN and firewall workloads.
• Fanless design keeps operation quiet and the included cables and adapter simplify installation.
• Flexible storage with two M.2 NVMe slots plus SATA 3.0 for a 2.5'in drive.

Cons

• Not a hotswappable or rackmount solution, so it is less suitable for larger data center deployments.
• Preinstalled Windows 11 Pro may require reinstallation or configuration when deploying OPNsense or other router OS images.

Specifications

Processor	12th Gen N355 Twin Lake, 8 cores / 8 threads, up to 3.9 GHz
Network Ports	6 x Intel i226V 2.5GbE LAN
Memory	1 x DDR5 SODIMM supported (4800 MHz)
Storage	2 x M.2 2280 NVMe PCIe 3.0 slots + 1 x SATA 3.0 for 2.5'in drive
Graphics / Display	Integrated UHD Graphics (32 EUs) with 2 x HD and 1 x TypeC triple display support
Design	Fanless micro appliance, optional 12V 4pin fan cable included
OS Support	Windows 11 Pro preinstalled; supports OPNsense, Linux, ESXi, OpenWrt

Our Verdict

The Firewall Mini PC N355 is a wellbalanced micro appliance for anyone who needs multiple 2.5GbE ports, low noise and adequate CPU performance for firewall and VPN tasks. It is excellent value for small offices and home labs that want to consolidate routing and security functions into one compact box, as long as they do not require enterprise chassis features or hotswap storage.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can this run OPNsense or pfSense?
Yes, the unit supports OPNsense and other Linuxbased firewall OSes; BIOS access via the Delete key allows necessary configuration changes.

Are the 2.5GbE ports native or via adapter?
The six i226V ports are native onboard Intel chips providing full 2.5GbE UDE2.5G connectivity without external adapters.

Does it require active cooling?
It is fanless for quiet operation but includes a 4pin fan cable and supports a small 12V fan if additional cooling is needed in hot environments.