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

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.

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), the following BIOS settings needs to be set or else the box will hang on rebooting: Advanced>ACPI Settings>Enable ACPI Auto Configuration = Enabled

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.

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

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