[1] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/04/the-ars-guide-to-bui...
- used HP Elitedesk 800 G3 SFF (4 core i5-6500, 8GB ram, 240gb SSD, 4x PCIe slots) $170 shipped
- 2x new dual 2.5Gbe PCIe cards $40 each
- 1x used quad port Internet gigabit $30 shipped
So for $280 I have a machine that will route at 2.5Gbe for a few machines and gigabit for the rest of my network while using about 25 watts. If you don't need that many ports you can cut the cost down considerably with a smaller machine like a Prodesk 400 or 600.
I'm using VyOS but OpenWRT, Untangle, OPNsense or Sophos Home would also be perfectly fine choices.
The measured average power over 24 hours is around 12 to 13 W. The idle power is under 10 W and the maximum power consumption can be up to 60 W, but even a large number of active network services, e.g. firewall, e-mail server, Web server and Web proxy, DNS server and DNS proxy, NTP server and so on, require just a power consumption not much above the idle level.
I assume that a NUC-like computer with a Jasper Lake CPU should have an average power consumption under 10 W. At least with Intel or AMD CPUs and associated peripherals you do not have to worry about software compatibility.
There is also a router board for a CM4 module that adds a second nic through PCIe.[2] The nics still aren't super nice but they are more than good enough for a home router.
The problem is that you can't actually buy a Raspberry Pi right now due to supply chain issues, and that may not change for a while.
[1] https://forum.openwrt.org/t/rpi4-routing-performance-numbers...
