Fortinet FortiGate FG-60F Internal Hardware Overview
Removing the cover reveals a neat custom board.
First, we can see a large heatsink.
Under that one is the Fortinet FortiSOC4. Fortinet makes its own ASIC to accelerate its networking, which is just neat. We could not find real photos of these before we did the FG-40F review.
Next, there is another big heatsink that hides something fascinating underneath.
Pulling this off, we get a Broadcom PHY.
You can also see Broadcom chips next to it. The reason this is so interesting because the FG-40F used Marvell chipsets.
There are a few more components we are not going to go through, but figured we would show.
There are missing components likely for a WiFi version.
Here is the board with the two big heatsinks off.
Since we had the board out, here is the other side.
If you were wondering where the battery is, it is on the other side of the PCB.
Next, let us get to the software experience.
Speaking of updates, fortigates can’t be directly updated to every version – you have to go in their required sequence. The ideal use case for the 60F might be, in addition to the extra ports, the ability to do a couple more things unlicensed than the 40F does. If you maintain a license, it matters less, of course. But then if you’re buying new, maybe you’ll be considering the G series anyway. And for other purposes you might jump directly to a used 100F or something depending on what you want. BTW the connector these and the sonicwalls use is a known standard which I’ve forgotten, but while YMMV I have found it to be cross compatible. Saves cost if you’re buying used ones and running unlicensed.