It was suggested that I post here to gain the benefit of the collective brain trust, so here goes... hopefully someone here can lend some guidance.
Thanks in advance for reading this and also for the OpenBSD developers for their solid product. Thank you for leading me away from the windows world. That said: I have a dilemma, I need to add another Intel NIC to my embedded firewall on a micro atx board. However, I can't seem to find a solution to get another one in there. I have a BLKD2500CCE w/ Intel Atom BGA559, Mini ITX form factor w/dual intel nics, but need to add a 3rd nic to the setup. ( http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/motherboards/desktop-motherboards/desktop-board-d2500cc.html ). It has a 1 full size *PCI* Conventional Bus Connector and 1 *PCI Express Mini* Card (full/half size). The problem is that I have it in an m350 case (http://www.mini-box.com/M350-universal-mini-itx-enclosure). This keeps things very compact. I am unable to put a full size PCI card in the PCI slot as there is no clearance on the top of the case. I had thought about putting a 90 degree riser in there to push it horizontally, however, the connectors on the back would block it and I doubt the riser would fit. Perhaps I could run a ribbon extender outside the firewall and have the nic on the outside hanging there, but that is unsightly and not sure if that would cause latency or any other issues not being connected directly towards the board. Plus the issue of it coming in contact with something and frying the board... The other option is to use the onboard PCI Express Mini slot (it's horizontally flush with mobo) and maybe run some sort of extender off of there. But I can't find any. I definately can't find any intel nics that would fit the bill. Definately want to keep this a Intel NIC only box. Also OpenBSD support for said setup would be key. My em0 and em1 are lonely and need a friend. Any help would be great. Thanks Azarian!
