PC Engines APU2E0 – a tiny fanless server with Intel NICs

My earlier gateway box, the Lanner NCA-1010B decided to stop working, leaving everything as a messy chaos. I gobbled up my retired Zotac Zbox and hastily built a makeshift router.

A long term solution was however needed. I had heard good things from this no-bullshit-geeky Swiss company called PC Engines GmbH. They make a board called APU2E0, among other things. It is a AMD GX-412TC-based SOC product with 2 Intel i211AT NICs. And it does not have regular monitor connections. Instead, there is a DB9 serial port for installation purposes.

The board’s sister version is pictured below for reference.

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Reviewing Lanner NCA-1010B fanless gateway box with Intel NICs

Quest for gateway machine with dual Intel NICs

I, as well as my fellow Linux networking enthusiasts have grown to dislike any network hardware which has Realtek network interface cards (NICs). I had a personal problem with those; my Windows 7 installation refused updates when the gateway machine was running Realtek NICs with stock settings. Since then I had been searching for small form-factor computer with dual Intel NICs to serve as my home gateway machine.

Lanner Inc. NCA-1010B gateway box

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