Custom-Built
High-Performance Routers
Bespoke networking hardware engineered for maximum bandwidth, minimal latency, and robust traffic management, specifically designed for high-demand, tech-heavy households. Built on pfSense or OPNsense, your choice.
Every layer between the line and your devices
A fast line is only the beginning. What sits between the fiber and your laptop decides whether the whole household actually feels fast, at the same time, under real load.
A CPU with hardware offload for NAT and QoS, so routing stays at line rate even when the whole house is busy and pfSense or OPNsense is doing deep inspection.
Every build ships with pfSense or OPNsense, your choice. Both are enterprise-grade FreeBSD firewalls with IDS/IPS, VPN, native SFP+ support and no telemetry.
Big heatsinks and maglev fans keep the silicon cool under sustained load. No thermal throttle, no fan whine, and pfSense or OPNsense always at full speed.
Real queue disciplines with fair sharing, configured in pfSense or OPNsense. Calls, gaming and streaming keep their lanes, and bulk traffic waits its turn.
pfSense or OPNsense, your choice
Both are enterprise-grade open-source firewalls, both run on the same hardware we build, and both come with full support from us. We help you pick the one that fits the way you want to run your network.
Battle-tested, widely documented, huge community
Netgate's pfSense is the most widely deployed open-source firewall in the world. Millions of installations, a mature package ecosystem, and a community that has already solved almost every problem you will encounter.
- ✓Largest documentation and community knowledge base of any open-source firewall
- ✓Official Netgate-backed releases with long-term support options
- ✓Mature package ecosystem, including Suricata, pfBlockerNG and HAProxy
- ✓Widest compatibility with tutorials, guides and third-party integrations
Modern UI, hardened, frequent releases
OPNsense is a fork of pfSense maintained by Deciso, with a cleaner modern interface, a hardened base system, and a faster release cadence. A great fit if you want the security-first philosophy to be visible in the day-to-day UI.
- ✓Modern, mobile-friendly UI that is easier to hand over and maintain day to day
- ✓Hardened by default, with a security-first release philosophy
- ✓Frequent releases and a fast-moving upstream, always on current FreeBSD
- ✓Strong commercial backing from Deciso, with a growing plugin ecosystem
Still not sure? · We walk through both during the survey · You pick · We build
What changes when the router is built for the load
Most households already buy good internet. The bottleneck sits in a plastic box the provider gave away, doing a job it was never designed for.
Free plastic box, single chip, one job
The provider hands over a router that barely covers its own cost. One small CPU, 512 MB of RAM, gigabit ports and firmware you cannot see into.
- ✕Connection table fills up and new sessions get dropped
- ✕Bufferbloat adds hundreds of ms of latency under load
- ✕CPU throttles and wireless starts to stutter
- ✕No real QoS, no packet capture, no per-device stats
Purpose-built silicon, tuned for the whole house
Every component picked for a reason. Multi-core CPU, 32 GB of RAM, 10G uplinks, and pfSense or OPNsense with real queue disciplines that keep latency flat.
- ✓Hardware offload keeps routing at line rate, no session drops
- ✓pfSense or OPNsense queue disciplines keep latency flat, even during big transfers
- ✓Runs cool under 24/7 load, no thermal throttle, no fan noise
- ✓Full visibility: logs, per-device stats, packet capture if needed
The numbers every build ships with
Every router leaves the bench with a signed spec sheet. These are the numbers a typical whole-home build produces, measured under real load with pfSense or OPNsense at the helm.
Single-flow routing capacity with hardware offload. The line will saturate long before the router does.
Measured while the link is saturated. Stock routers add 100 to 300 ms in the same test.
pfSense and OPNsense state table capacity. Handles every browser tab, IoT device and container in the house at once.
Suricata or Zenarmor running at line rate on the 10G uplink, without dropping packets or throttling the line.
Every device in the house, at the same time
A home that runs at once, every hour of the day. Games, calls, 4K, backups, IoT. The build is designed so the busiest room never notices the rest of the house.
Every part picked for a reason
Nothing off the shelf, nothing overspecced, nothing underbuilt. The CPU handles routing and QoS in hardware. The RAM holds the state table for pfSense or OPNsense. The storage keeps the logs. The cooling keeps the silicon at full speed. All of it documented on a spec sheet you actually get.
Latency stays flat, even during a backup
Real queue disciplines in pfSense or OPNsense, not a priority checkbox. A game keeps its lane while a 500 GB backup runs, and a video call stays clean while the rest of the house streams.
10G where the storage lives
The NAS sits on its own 10G uplink, on its own VLAN, with its own QoS class. Backups finish at line rate and never touch the gaming latency. pfSense and OPNsense both handle the VLAN routing natively.
Calls that hold, all day
Voice and video are their own queue, not just a checkbox. The uplink is shaped so no download can starve the outbound stream that keeps the call clean. Both firewall platforms support this out of the box.
Future-proof by design, not by sticker
Everything that matters is socketed and swappable. When Wi-Fi 8 lands or 25G becomes standard, we swap the module, not the whole router. The chassis, the CPU and the pfSense or OPNsense configuration stay. The upgrade path is part of the design, not an afterthought.
One network, many separated worlds
IoT devices, guests, work laptops and the NAS each get their own VLAN. pfSense and OPNsense both handle inter-VLAN firewall rules natively, so everything shares the uplink and nothing shares the blast radius.
Every part chosen for the household, not for the spec sheet
Two households with the same internet line can need very different builds. We pick components around your devices, your rooms and the way you actually use the network.
CPU platform
x86 with hardware offload, or a high-end ARM SoC for lower power. We match the platform to the workload, not the other way around.
Memory & storage
DDR5 in capacities far above what the routing table needs, plus real NVMe storage for pfSense or OPNsense logs, config backups and IDS rule sets.
Network interfaces
A mix of 10G SFP+ cages and 2.5G copper ports, sized to the household. Both firewall platforms see them as standard interfaces.
Enclosure & cooling
Desktop, small rack, or fanless. Metal enclosures, quiet thermal design, and a form factor that fits where the network actually lives.
Pick the build that fits the household
The tiers below are examples to give you an idea. Within each one, the CPU, storage, wireless and port layout are adapted to your devices, your rooms and your existing infrastructure. pfSense or OPNsense, your choice, on every tier.
Compact build
For a single-floor home with a modest device count. A compact desktop chassis, quiet cooling, and enough silicon headroom for years of use.
- CPU4-core x86 offload
- Memory16 GB DDR5
- Ports1x 10G SFP+ · 4x 2.5G RJ45
- FirewallpfSense or OPNsense your choice
Performance build
Full multi-floor household. Strong CPU, plenty of RAM, 10G uplinks, 2.5G copper and pfSense or OPNsense tuned with real queue disciplines and IDS/IPS.
- CPU8-core x86 offload + IDS
- Memory32 GB DDR5 · 1 TB NVMe
- Ports2x 10G SFP+ · 4x 2.5G RJ45
- FirewallpfSense or OPNsense + Suricata
Rack build
For larger homes, home labs and outbuildings. Rack-mount chassis, redundant power, multiple 10G uplinks and enough state table for anything you throw at it.
- CPU8 to 16-core x86 multi-tenant
- Memory64 GB DDR5 · mirrored NVMe
- Ports4x 10G SFP+ · 8x 2.5G RJ45
- FirewallpfSense or OPNsense + HA pair
Examples only · Every build is adapted · pfSense or OPNsense on every tier
From the first conversation to a signed spec sheet
A short, evidence-first process. We measure, we build, we bench, and you get the numbers before the router goes live.
Requirements & survey
We look at your devices, rooms, existing cabling and the way you actually use the network. Every assumption gets written down before anything is bought.
Component selection & build
CPU, memory, storage, radios and ports, all chosen for the workload. The build itself is done by hand, with cable routing and thermal paste done properly.
pfSense or OPNsense
We install and configure pfSense or OPNsense, your choice. VLANs, firewall rules, queue disciplines, IDS/IPS and VPNs, all configured and version-controlled.
Bench test & handover
A 24-hour soak at full load, thermal and throughput tests, and a signed spec sheet. Then the router ships, we install it, and hand over the documentation.
Four gamers, two home offices, one home lab, one stock router
This is the household we see most often at the top end. Fast fiber line, plenty of devices, and a plastic box that was never meant to keep up.
Good line. Overloaded router. Latency in every room.
The line came in at 1 Gbps symmetrical, and speed tests looked fine. But the moment the household actually used the line together, everything fell apart. Video calls jittered, game pings doubled, and the NAS backup crawled overnight. Nothing was wrong with the internet. Everything was wrong with the box sharing it.
- State table ceiling. The stock router maxed out around 4,000 concurrent connections. A single browser tab can open 30 on its own, and the household had over 200 devices.
- Bufferbloat everywhere. When the line was busy, latency added 150 to 300 ms. Voice and video had no way to jump the queue, because there was no real queue to jump.
- Single-core CPU pegged. Routing, NAT and Wi-Fi all shared the same core. Under load, everything slowed down together and wireless clients started dropping.
- Thermal throttling. The plastic case had no airflow. Sustained load pushed the SoC past 90 °C, and the router quietly halved its own performance.
- No visibility. No logs, no per-device traffic, no packet capture. pfSense and OPNsense would have exposed all of it. The stock firmware exposed nothing.
The fix was not a bigger line. It was a router with the silicon, the memory and pfSense or OPNsense to handle what the household actually did. Same internet, completely different experience.
Silicon matters more than sticker specs
A router with hardware offload routes at line rate. A router without it relies on a CPU that was never designed for this.
Queue, do not just prioritise
Priorities alone do not help when everything arrives at once. pfSense and OPNsense both ship real queue disciplines, and we tune them.
Cooling is performance
A router that runs hot throttles itself. Real heatsinks and quiet fans keep the silicon at full speed, all day, every day.
Visibility is the last mile
Without logs, per-device stats and packet capture, every future problem is a mystery. pfSense and OPNsense give you back the tools.
The line was always fine. It took one custom build to prove that the router was the problem all along.
Multi-floor householdGame pings stopped spiking the moment someone else started a download. That alone justified the whole build.
Gaming householdThe NAS backs up at 10G now, and I can finally see per-device traffic. It feels like getting the network back.
Home lab buildBefore we start a build
The things people usually ask us before the first conversation.
Why a custom build instead of a consumer router?
Consumer routers are built to a price. They are designed for a household of twenty devices, not two hundred. A custom build starts with the silicon the workload actually needs, then adds pfSense or OPNsense, cooling and ports to match. The result is not more expensive in the long run, because it lasts longer and does not need replacing every eighteen months.
pfSense or OPNsense, which one do I get?
Your choice. Both are enterprise-grade FreeBSD firewalls. pfSense has the largest community and the widest documentation. OPNsense has a more modern UI, a hardened base system and a faster release cadence. If you already use one, we build on that. If you do not, we walk through both during the survey and pick the one that fits the way you want to run your network. Either way, we build, configure and support it.
Do I need to know anything about pfSense or OPNsense?
No. We configure everything, document it, and hand it over with a plain-language guide. If you want to tinker later, both platforms are well-documented and we are always available to answer questions. If you would rather never touch it again, that is fine too, and it runs the same either way.
What about warranty and support?
Every build ships with a component-level warranty that covers the parts we selected, and a support agreement that covers the firmware and configuration. If a fan fails or a module needs swapping, we handle it. If a pfSense or OPNsense upgrade goes wrong, we roll it back. You are not left holding a box with a support number that does not answer.
Can I keep my existing modem or fiber ONT?
Almost always yes. The custom router sits behind whatever the provider installs at the wall, and treats it as the WAN uplink. In some setups we bridge the provider's box so it becomes a pure modem, which removes its routing from the path entirely. Both pfSense and OPNsense handle this cleanly, and we tell you what will happen before we start.
How is this different from a mesh system?
A mesh system is several wireless access points working together. A custom router is the thing the mesh connects to. Many high-demand households need both: a real router at the head of the network, and mesh access points for coverage. We build the router and, where it helps, we design the mesh around it.
What happens when a new Wi-Fi standard arrives?
The design is deliberately modular. The wireless radios, storage and WAN interfaces are separate from the CPU and firmware, so when Wi-Fi 8 or 25G becomes standard, we swap the module rather than the whole router. The chassis, the CPU and the pfSense or OPNsense configuration stay exactly as they are.
Ready for a router built around your household?
From the first survey to the signed spec sheet, Davidsons IT Agency designs, builds and benches a custom router tuned to your devices, your rooms and the way you actually use the network. pfSense or OPNsense, your choice.
Request a Custom Router Build