Do you want to virtualize or run bare-metal? If you want to run without virtualization, the easiest method would be to buy a used Sophos appliance off eBay, like the XG 135 or SG 135, and completely erase the hard drive, or replace it with an SSD before installing Sophos.

The second easiest method would be to buy a Qotom fanless mini PC that uses the Intel i211 NIC.

The newer NICs (such as the 2.5G NICS or Intel i219+) are not supported by Sophos yet, but will work fine with virtualization such as Proxmox or VMware ESXi.

As i said in the post official hardware is very hard to get here. I want a box on which i can run sophos bare metal. Thanks for your reply!

As i said in the post official hardware is very hard to get here. I want a box on which i can run sophos bare metal. Thanks for your reply!

Hi,

you will need to locate a minicomputer with a legacy bios and does not use intel i-219, 225 or 226 series and from Alan's post the 2.5gbe series.

Ian

I wasn't aware Sophos it was difficult to get in your location.

The one on Amazon that should work would be the 

Qotom Router PC Q330G4 Intel Core I3-4005U,1.7Ghz (8Gb Ddr3 Ram 128Gb Ssd)

https://www.amazon.com/Qotom-Firewall-Q330G4-I3-4005U-4Gigabit/dp/B074XQHDRM/ref=sr_1_4?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.95zKIq3xQUJD5NFuoBLuHm7i4wAhIhCm7tFcSNmO9Hj4vHZWnlIJ1-WSV_61z5FqSfNQT1dY9o_MFuRSAIStTE11pxeSLrCtRCfoSko1AYXt7R_-23F8sDPgPlcBt7cqbRFWindScOluCgfArI3ppS52KtdbdATMazuz-rLxZa5Wo4ZDeY4levuf15RowwjJh-51TivZz5K7MBwPf7BwA2QJjuT2urd-PvvHbiPfh33l8E4icevMgRlKlUt7KaGjpq-XlsHf8E5o6pXaljJQRH8KOvoIf3DSsvc7gYiQ_NA.nSox8TbdW_UR4kP47JfqySGsA-sN7xRgw787_VdFmIw&keywords=intel%2Bi211&th=1

Anyway, this unit has the intel i210/i211 NICs and it "old enough" that it should support legacy BIOS which will certainly work with Sophos. It has a dual core, hyperthreaded CPU which makes it essentially a quad core. and it has 8Gb RAM and a 128Gb SSD which is the perfect amount.

Thanks for your reply! I wonder though if the i3 cpu will be enough for my 1gbps connection with full ips/ids?

Thanks for your reply! I wonder though if the i3 cpu will be enough for my 1gbps connection with full ips/ids?

How many users? It should be fine. Always fine-tune the IPS rules for what you need in the LAN to WAN category.