I picked up one of these https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804612026765.html w/ i5-1135G7 6x i225v 2.5gb

Mostly to use as a Plex transcoder. That was the cheapest chip I could find with the Intel Xe integrated graphics. I have an unRAID NAS but it has a 2700x/1050TI and during transcodes of 4k x265 it was struggling pretty hard and that was with my VM’s turned off.

I was also considering running opnsense on it. So proxmox as the base OS with a opnsense VM and some form of plex.

I have a 2.5gb nic in my unRaid server, so I’d like to have the minipc and my unraid server communicating at 2.5gb because my media will remain on the NAS. In my research it seems like using the extra ports on the minipc as a switch isn’t really recommended due to opnsense not really being meant for that and switches have chips designed for switching.

2.5gbe switches are expensive though. I’d love something that could handle VLANs because I plan on setting up some POE cameras at some point, and I’ll need POE WAPs at some point as well, so if I go with wifi 6E or 7 then 2.5gb might be good there too.

The rub is a POE managed 2.5gb switch is pretty pricey. I’ve considered 10gb since some of the stuff is similar price, but I don’t really need it and the power consumption kind of concerns me.

Then I found this: https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Tri-Band-Archer-BE550-HomeShield/dp/B0CJSNSVMR?th=1 which has 4 2.5gb ports built in, so I could hook up my transcoder, nas and possibly my gaming PC with one port for a manged gigabit only switch and say screw opnsense and 2.5gb waps. $299 is less than I’m going to pay for a non-chinese managed 2.5gbe POE switch anyway, but since its a router is it going to have the same drawbacks as this chinese minipc I bought running opnsense?

I don’t really need any of this, I only have a 1gb internet connection, but I’ve got the 2.5gb ports so I figured I might as well take advantage for the NAS -> Transcoder connection and because fuck it, I can. Total devices are the chinese mini pc, unraid nas, gaming pc, laptop, phone, couple tablets, couple smart tvs. Eventually 2-4 POE IP Cams and 1 or 2 waps (depends on if I end up going with a router with built in wireless or use the minipc).

I’m just not sure whether my usage is enough that the drawbacks of not having a proper switch chip in the minipc are really going to be that big of a deal for my throughput needs.

Thank you for reading.

Edit: So after sleeping on it, I think I’m going to just get a 2.5 gbe 5 port unmanaged switch to plug into my opnsense chinabox, I can setup that downlink port to my “personal” subnet and then when I’m ready for IP cams I can get another 2.5gb POE 5 port unmanaged switch that will only have the IP Cam subnet. Not really vlan tagging, but will still get me separated networks and switching for much cheaper than a managed switch and this way I don’t need to buy that beast of a TP-Link router. This means POE injectors for WAPs if I end up going that route, but not the end of the world.