R2 Max - Fanless 10G Firewall & Proxmox VE Host for Power Users

Router works well, but beware if using with OPNSense

I didn't realize this, but there isn't drivers for the 10GB ports on this router for OPNSense. It's because OPNSense runs on FreeBSD.

However, I was able to get OPNSense to work by running it under Proxmox as a VM. The throughput through various testing was only ~5gb over the 10gb ports and I think this is a limitation of the virtualized bridge.

I would give this 5 stars if OPNSense worked natively. But for now, it serves my needs as my WAN connection is only 2gb. I bought this (instead of a 2.5gb router) for future proofing.

Thank you for your feedback! You’re correct that OPNSense and pfSense are based on FreeBSD, which currently lacks native driver support for the AQC113C-B1-C chipset, and unfortunately, this is something beyond our control. We hope that pfSense and OPNSense will soon release driver updates for the AQC113C-B1-C NIC.

If you’re open to using OpenWRT, we have compiled a custom firmware with the necessary drivers, which can be downloaded from dl.ikoolcore.com. With this setup, the router will be able to fully utilize the 10Gbps bandwidth without any issues.

Excellent OpenWrt router/firewall

Got the N150 version of the R2 Max. Fast shipping to the US (under 7 days). Running OpenWrt, this device is a perfect low power managed switch/router/firewall/NAS/lxc host. The device uses around 12 W idle (total measured at the wall). Mine has 16 GB DDR5-5600 and a 2TB SSD booting off TF with all four ports connected. Runs cool (CPU idles 40-42C with room temp being around 18C) and is silent. Well built and designed. Love the 2.5GbE (I do not have 10 GbE hardware).

The N150 has more than enough processing power to run QoS at my ISP's symmetrical 1G/1G line. Beyond routing/firewall, the system is running as a NAS serving up NFS and samba4 as well as running several lxc containers (pihole, cups, mariadb).

As stated in the specs, the NVMe is only running at PCIe2.0 1x so don't expect blazing speeds from it. In my tests on a Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2 TB using iozone, getting around 370-380 MB/s write and read. Theoretical max for PCIe2.0 1x is 500 MB/s but the measured values are faster much faster than the 2.5 GbE line speed so I am pleased with them. Also good for power consumption/heat production.

With OpenWrt snapshot (15-March-2025 as I type this) and with BIOS v1.1, I am finding that the machine hangs on a reboot. To work-around, simply add reboot=pci to your grub.cfg kernel line. A future BIOS update may fix this.

Thanks so much for sharing your experiences and those electricity consumption details!

Works as expected

I am currently using as a Debian Linux WAN router using nftables on "bare metal" with VM/Docker setup with some additional services, e.g. Bind9 and Kea as well as some other local backup web services on my home network. The unit has more than enough performance for my use. During normal use the unit CPU is loaded <5%.

It replaced an older machine that failed. It certainly is much more performant than the old machine. I was disappointed with the old machines performance as it was always slow and after 8 years of use finally failed. It had been unreliable the previous 4 years, often failing multiple times on reboot.

I have not tested the 10gb/s NICs at 10gb/s connection yet, the NICs run well at 2.5gb/s. I checked using iperf utility. During this testing I notice that my main server's 2.5gb/s NIC seems to be bottlenecked. The use of 10gb/s NICs maybe an option to de-bottlenecked in the future, so it is good that this unit has this functionality and was a consideration in purchase.

The units runs warm / hot, but not unacceptably so. It is currently summer here and running s-tui stress the unit reported <50deg.C on all sensors at all times at ambient about 30degC. Stress test fan noise was still acceptable at installed location.

The fans were initially noisy, perhaps some minor mechanical interference, however this quietened down after a couple of weeks. The normal fan noise is not a concern where the unit is located. (These unit is not installed in a bedroom or office and is barely audible only when within a few meters.)

Initial impressions are very positive. Long term reliability will ultimately determine my option of this unit.

R2 Pro Max

great little unit. Running multiple machines via Proxmox quite easily.

Poor network driver support

This is billed as a gateway router but actually using as such with something like pfSense is painful as the 10gbe ports use the marvell chip while only the 2.5G ports use the intel chips. Now I'm trying to run it inside vm on proxmox. May give up and sell it

We appreciate you taking the time to share your experience. We understand that the driver compatibility for the 10GbE Marvell chip with pfSense and other FreeBSD-based systems can be frustrating.

We apologize for the inconvenience caused by this limitation. Please note that this is primarily a limitation of the underlying FreeBSD-based operating system and not a hardware issue. The root cause of this issue lies in the upstream FreeBSD kernel's limited support for the AQC113C-B1-C chip. While we've highlighted this limitation in our product documentation, we recognize that it can still be frustrating for users with specific requirements.

Our router is designed to offer excellent performance and flexibility with a wide range of operating systems, including OpenWrt, which provides full compatibility with the Marvell chip. We recommend exploring alternative operating systems or reaching out to the pfSense community for further support.

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FAQs

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Our products come with a one-year warranty, starting from the date of delivery. Beyond this period, we also offer affordable repair services. We rigorously quality-check every product before shipment to ensure 100% satisfaction. Should you encounter any quality-related issues, please feel free to contact us at service@ikoolcore.com.

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R2 Max - Fanless 10G Firewall & Proxmox VE Host for Power Users