Our current router is dying for a few years now. Here's what we're looking for:
Rack mount, ideally 1U
Either a PC (for NixOS) with IPMI or a proper router that won't need to be remote rescued
If not a PC must be able to do v4/v6 routing and do BGP/OSPF/ECMP with some sensible buffer sizes and QoS (ie. not a switch). BGP should have a non-shit filter system.
Front facing ports
Either built-in or expandable to 4xGbE and 2xSFP+ (eg. for a PC a PCIe slot for a ConnectX-6 to get 25G while we're at it)
Not a power hog (ie. not an ancient Xeon server)
Candidates
A Mikrotik CCR2004 ; if no better options appear by EOM April q3k will just buy one. It's not a proper router but it's fucking something. And it's certainly better than the courent zombie mode edge01.
Juniper NFX250 / MX150: our pick for edge02
Rejects
Supermicro offer: seemingly not updated for edge/appliance stuff, paying full price for 2019 equipment is madness
The only attractive machine is the SYS-510D-8C-FN6P but at 2700€ barebones it's way too fucking expensive for what it is.
ASRock Rack offer: nothing compact
Lanner offer: 'call us for quote'
N210/N100 mini PCs from Aliexpress: no IPMI
Aarch64 boxes with NixOS: too experimental/slow and still no IPMI
MC12-LE0 mobo: can't find a good rack enclosure for it
Old Cisco/Juniper/Arista iron: either expensive, or power hungry, or EOL