ThinkCentre M720 Tiny M720q

The ThinkCentre M720q/M920q Tiny is very similar to the M900 you mentioned, but it has a riser that allows you to install a standard PCIe card. https://norbertas.com/blog/lenovo-m720q-router/ is an example from 5 years ago. Because it works well and is a little newer, the M_20q is in fairly high dem

I'm not sure if there's any low-zero cost ways to 'test' this out first but some threads mentioned running the setup on a old laptop first or something like that. If you have a laptop laying around, slap Rocky Linux on it, it is more or less identical to RedHat Linux, which is the industry standard,

The Lenovo ThinkCentre M720q/M920q Tiny has a PCIe riser available so you can put a standard NIC in it. With a server pull Intel X550 or X710 card, it's about US$250-300 total to make a nice little dual-port 10Gb router.

I am late to the party, but I hope you read this, OP. For $250, what should I actually be hunting on the used market? 1L Tiny/Mini/Micro PCs are great, but they make better "compute" nodes IMO. One of these can be a good starting point with the understanding that storage will be limited initially, a

The R Pi is kinda expensive these days. You can find a used older generation computer and run one of the open router OS's. Then use WAP'S (Wi-Fi Access Point) where needed from like Unifi or Omada etc OpnSense is also another great option for an OS. OpnSense or any open router hardware options Netga

The solution was to move away from beelink. I got a Lenovo ThinkCentre M720Q. Solid and reliable.

OK, one at a time... Sophos... Passively cooled desktop models (105, 106, 115) run on dual-core Atoms (1.3-1.7 GHz), except the 115 Rev 3 running on a quad-core Atom. Actively cooled desktop models (125, 135) run on quad-core Atoms (1.6-2.2 GHz). Rack-mountables: 210: Dual-core Celeron (~3 GHz) 230: