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I've really love my MX204's, but they're EOL'd now
Francisco
It will entirely depend on what I want to host on my server... mostly like with high benchmark scores.
What does that even mean? Are you running yabs on your core router? How well do the juniper units do?
Francisco
Even Cisco 6500 can do it.
My bad... I was recommending about a dedicated server.
Hmm any alternative?
We exclusively use Juniper MX gear for routing. We've never looked back since. They makea variety of chassis sizes to meet your requirements:
https://www.juniper.net/us/en/products/routers/mx-series.html
I don't think that all MX204's are EOL. Some generations probably are.
https://www.juniper.net/us/en/products/routers/mx-series/mx204-universal-routing-platform.html
Do brocade gear still counts nowadays?
What model do you recommend?
Really depends on your budget.
If you can the MX lineup is the way to go. Since we switched to the Juniper MX lineup we haven't had any major issues and can't even look back to the Cisco gear.
A pair of MX204s is perfect for most small to medium operations. Couple them with a QFX or an Arista for more ports.
mx204 would be great, but as others have mentioned, they are EOL'd so you wouldn't be able to get a support contract on them, but there are plenty of stock available on ebay and other network hardware vendors. If you'd be running dual routers, you'd still have the redundancy in case of a hardware problem.
We use mx480's all over our network, but they'd probably be over-sized for your needs. mx240 is also worth looking at, but is slightly bigger than mx204 and may also be larger than you're looking for, but may not be depending upon your future expansion needs.
480/240's are insanely expensive to get 40/100G ports on. We actually dropped the 480 from our Vegas DC just because the linecards were more than what a 204 was running.
Francisco
That is a good point. If OP needs 40/100g, he may be better served with an alternate platform.
May I please ask what router do you guys think is the best choice for a free cabinet at HE? The router requirements seem to be 10G plus hardware ASIC capable of holding a full routing table. Thanks!
Why you need a full table? Assuming that you will be Single-Homed to HE in this cabinet anyway?
Just ask them to send you a default table. Enough for you. And then abuse a cheap bgp capable switch like Juniper EX4200/4300 or Mikrotik CCRs.
It will hold.
Altough EOL, you can get the EX4200 with 10G uplink module for arround $200
I understand from HE that a full table hardware ASIC 10G router was included in their requirements for a free cabinet.
Which router should I get to satisfy that requirement?
Thanks!
The requirements are idiotic, you can do 10G in software as well. If you'd be single-homed to HE, it's most likely pointless to get a full table feed. Tell them that your router does not support full tables and request them to originate a default route for you and be done with it. Get EX4200 Juniper.
You could also filter all the routes they send you, except for the default route. Just make sure they also send you a default route. From their side it will still look like you have a full table even if you’re just discarding all the routes except the default.
We're looking forward to some brand new MX304's
We use MX204 now for the most part and they are awesome.
Makes me think They probably made up this requirement so it's more unlikely that you will take the offer.
The full table is big nowdays. Getting even bigger.
There is alot of hardware though filling that requirement
But anyhow, such hardware will cost a bit. It won't make sense to take the free full rack. At least from my point of view.
I doubt I myself had much to do with the structure of the offer. I agree that the router requirement is likely to restrict the group which could take advantage of the offer. My guess is that the offer is intended to attract folks who might be start ups and most likely would want to upgrade soon from the free offer's 1 Gbps to paid 10 Gbps.
So which router should I get? At least 10G with hardware ASIC big enough to hold a full routing table. How much to budget? Is $5K enough?
Thanks!
At that budget - Juniper MX80. There are some Arista switches that can hold full table as well.
What's that offer, though?
Do you know which Arista switches?
As I recall, the HE offer was a free 42U cabinet with free 20 amp 208 volt redundant power and free 1 Gbps located in HE Fremont 2. Requirements included already having an AS number, IPs, and a 10G router with a hardware ASIC capable of holding a full routing table.
Perhaps HE sometimes might not reply to requests along the lines of, "Hey! Can you confirm this offer? I'm just asking because I'm not gonna spend the money on the router and the AS number and the IPs until you confirm the offer."
So my suggestion is not to contact HE unless you already have satisfied the conditions, even though the offer might no longer be available. 
5k is a budget to make it work. Thought we are speaking about making a lowend setup.
Juniper MX80 I never saw under 6k refurb here.
For Arista you need to check those with "R" in product name.
The R-Series. Stands for routing. They Support more routes then the others and have the appropiate RAM to hold full.
https://www.ebay.de/itm/293759468591?chn=ps&_trkparms=ispr=1&amdata=enc:19eHwpQc4S2GqAYmFg0uMxA3&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=707-134425-41852-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=293759468591&targetid=1716911580959&device=m&mktype=pla&googleloc=9115144&poi=&campaignid=17943303986&mkgroupid=140642150118&rlsatarget=pla-1716911580959&abcId=9301060&merchantid=7528462&gclid=CjwKCAjwv4SaBhBPEiwA9YzZvAXCks1VxwTeUwjtbe5mw14GG15SY5ygqqXVhz8wK1UiW8ZMG4mjLhoCadEQAvD_BwE
Might work. I think.
How about these are on eBay? Are they good? Much cheaper than MX204 and higher models
https://www.ebay.com/itm/124723282853?hash=item1d0a1643a5:g:fYQAAOSwJ1lgnY5~&amdata=enc:AQAHAAAAoCJoVY8Ohs3aWcnep0Pie709+xV3f5rFfQHmoQBWtY9ViSyFLLSAbM0D8kh42qNm4KQSb8tUg/mxxn4F6TFfeXcUtAXGJZwSnD6ZR+db3azbwjZEf3WaYPAKJeeb+D3bqa/xBJmoYRshvJD5OrRDu41A1N7yLOKRjZm/C4iZhYmHW22bV1SUDffOOHjvoyanAtlYKhrkuk1/Gu4gtEQGB8g=|tkp:Bk9SR6DV7rr3YA
https://www.ebay.com/itm/321759649686?hash=item4aea5e9f96:g:sRUAAOSwmC5a36a7&amdata=enc:AQAHAAAAoDaQY0KJFZZ1r4e9zOZ31/EvL17MPJLqkJG0p22sYrk7WXydOpH3FOltt72htBonJNSXrPe9wfHkq+AACNnI99qoDHZ50HWZVOOgK75NAGGIy8dk4BQzl8DrTszDGoVt+IBZT5W1OKFhPEe91WhPgcArgupcBaPE2/U/rS8Vu88VZCQ4hwg5DMEAYdRcedpRp5vU45XlAU8b2GGF/gyPHBA=|tkp:Bk9SR76X07r3YA
You need more recent REs and linecards. And redundancy, of course. First unit is damaged, which I'd personally avoid. Power usage is also worth noting, depending on where this will be deployed.
Those were just an example. Let me find some better ones
If your question was in regards to MX240 - they are nice units, depending on what you'd like to achieve. As @Francisco said - currently 100G+ ports linecards are not worth it, but I assume they will eventually drop in price sooner rather than later. You're also limited to 2x line cards IIRC. Having 2x REs is a plus, but I have had upgrades bring down the whole system irregardless of that. If you have the space and power budget, along with overall budget - MX480 is obviously a better choice as it has more slots.
If you have a 100G needs, I'd go for (a pair of) MX204. It's newer, 1U, low power consumption. It will be cheaper than a fully spec'd our MX240.
If you lack the budget and have smaller needs - MX80s are rock solid, considering you can live with slower re-convergence times.
EDIT:
MX240/480/960 are generally scalable units, while everything in MX204 is fixed. If you're looking at 100G+ - MX204 would be out of the question.