Question 1

Strong enough for pFsense? I would like to run VPN, adblock, AV, among others.

Accepted Answer

definitely strong enough for pfSense in a home or office environment, personal testing for Enterprise and above leads me to believe it is inadequate for over 10 systems. It is also inadequate for heavy VPN traffic. If you are wanting to build something for yourself just to run pfSense and a couple add-ons this is perfect. This is precisely the same music that I purchased it for

Question 2

is it a good board to run linux?

Accepted Answer

I'm using it as a shared file server with win 10
i used Debian based q4os in vbox and it worked great '

Question 3

Does anyone know if this board supports dual displays with the onboard graphics?

Accepted Answer

Yes, but you will find the onboard graphics will actually SLOW DOWN any card you install.

I have personally tried with an R7 240, an R7 250, an HD 7570 and an HD 6450. All had BETTER results going with just the dedicated graphics card.

Question 4

How does this CPU rate against Intel Icore7. Faster ?  slower?  No difference?

Accepted Answer

this chip is slower than an i 3
equivilant to a quad-core celeron,ive bought 5 of them.
just good for e-mail checking,facebook etc,no medium to hard games can be played.it will play minecraft.

Question 5

Strong enough for pFsense? I would like to run VPN, adblock, and AV, among others.

Accepted Answer

Is great for pfsense  I am running pfsense   and vpn and is working 100%

Question 6

Has anyone used this as a plex/emby server? If so how does it perform?

Accepted Answer

I just built a new media pc using this board and it works pretty good. I haven't used plex specifically but as I understand, a raspberry pi does the trick and this board is more powerful than a raspberry pi. I'm running Linux Mint on mine and I use it primarily for streaming video. I was disappointed that the built in graphics couldn't perform well enough to stream Netflix or Youtube in a browser. I had to add a graphics card.

Question 7

What memory module required for this motherboard - looking for 16GB?

Accepted Answer

I'm running a Crucial Ballistix 16gb kit in it. 2x8gb. Runs fine.
DDR3-1600 (PC3-12800)
Get a Dual Channel Kit instead of two individual 8gb modules

Question 8

What are the power requirements?

Accepted Answer

This board with its integrated processor has extremely low power consumption.  It probably needs considerably less than 100 watts to operate it, though you will need to factor in power consumed by any additional components used in the system like storage (hard drives or SSDs), an add-in card in the PCIE slot (if any are used), and any case fans you might add for additional cooling.  Unless you install a power hungry graphics card or a lot of hard drives, however, I wouldn't think you'd need more than a 200 watt power supply for the entire thing.  If you use it in a basic system where the integrated graphics on the motherboard are sufficient, and use an SSD for storage you'd easily get way with using a power supply pumping out less than that.  One clue is just how tiny the processor's heat sink and fan are.  If it's able to keep cool with that little cooler (and it has been so far in my experience) then you know it isn't putting out much waste heat and that means it isn't using much power at all.

The power supplies that are typically integrated into the small Mini-ITX cases intended for Home Theater Computers should handle this thing without even breaking a sweat.  It does need a power supply with the standard ATX 24-pin power connector as well as one of the standard ATX 4-pin CPU power connectors to function properly, but pretty much any ATX power supply will have those.

Question 9

Does this have UEFI bios? I understand I can partition a 3TB raid array and boot off it only if I have UEFI bios, anyone know?

Accepted Answer

it does. you will have to install from an UEFI installation media if you want to do that though. it is easy under linux, i have no experience getting it to work correctly in windows but i have heard there is some GPT partition upgrader for windows that might be useful.

Question 10

Is this a good board for a Pvr/Htpc?

Accepted Answer

I currently have one serving in precisely that capacity in my mother's living room.  Keep in mind that it won't give you a 4k output, but it does 1080P just fine.

Brand	BIOSTAR
Model	A68N-5545
Combo Type	Motherboard / CPU Combo

Number of Memory Slots	2x240pin
Memory Standard	DDR3 1333
Maximum Memory Supported	32GB
Channel Supported	Dual Channel

SATA	4 x SATA 6.0Gb/s
SATA RAID	0/1/10

Audio Chipset	Realtek ALC887
Audio Channels	8 Channels

LAN Chipset	Realtek RTL8111H
LAN Speed	10/100/1000Mbps

BIOSTAR A68N-5545 AMD A8-5545 (Quad core 1.7G, turbo 2.7G) Processor AMD A70M Mini ITX Motherboard / CPU Combo

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Warranty, Returns, And Additional Information

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PS/2	1 x PS/2 Mouse 1 x PS/2 Keyboard
Video Ports	1 x VGA Port
HDMI	1 x HDMI Connector, resolution up to 1920 x 1200 @60Hz, 24bpp
USB 1.1/2.0	2 x USB 2.0
USB 3.0	2 x USB 3.0
Audio Ports	3 Ports

Onboard USB	1 x USB 3.0 Header 2 x USB 2.0 Header
Other Connectors	1 x Front Audio Header 1 x Front Panel Header 1 x CPU Fan Header 1 x System Fan Header 1 x Serial Header

Physical Spec
Form Factor	Mini ITX
Dimensions (W x L)	6.7" x 6.7"

Item#: N82E16813138448