My hand-me-down old Dell gamer box is having thermal issues. (It's from
2010, so not a complaint.) I have been using hand-me-down boxes for a
while, which means I accept hardware not knowing if it works with
NetBSD, and usually it does because it's 5 years old when I get it,
after my Windows-using gamer friend gets something shinier. This means
I am fairly clueless about buying modern hardware for NetBSD.
My system has a 2010 4-core CPU, 24G RAM and aside from being worried
about thermal issues, my only real complaint is that I'd like more CPU.
Once upgrading of course I want more RAM, but I'm not really bothered by
24G right now. So:
I'm looking for a mini to mid tower, with:
- fairly beefy CPU for package and base system builds
- metal case for RF noise mitigation
- UL listed power supply
- quiet when not compiling, but doesn't have to be silent
- 64G of RAM, preferably expandable to 128G, even more preferably by
adding later and not discarding
- GbE
- basic sound
- graphics sufficient to run X on a single biggish monitor, say
2560x1440, so that I can run firefox, gimp, qgis, and xterm.
- perhaps CDRW/DVDRW, but if that's USB external and works with netbsd
that's ok
- space for at least 3 2.5" SSDs. no need for spinning disks.
smaller/faster SSD slots a bonus
- works well with NetBSD 10 (am running 9, but about to upgrade
anyway)
- no need to deal with binary blobs
and questions:
In general, my impression is that Intel built-in graphics and Radeons
should just work, except they won't be really accelerated. Any advice
about which is likely to have that arrive sooner?
I see that intel 13th gen has P and E cores, and it looks like P cores
have 2x hyperthreading and E cores do not. Does NetBSD play well with
this? If I just leaving HT on, and the kernel sees the 2P+E "cpus",
will that be basically ok?
Do people think I should lean to AMD vs Intel? I'm steering for
low-grief, and low power/fan when not doing much. I realize this flips
the onboard graphics too.
I am curious if anyone has gotten one of these, and if so, if they could
post a trip report (or send it privately just to me, or for me to send
the text, if they wish to be stealthy).
https://system76.com/desktops/thelio-mira#specs
Any other place to just order a box, even if it's a screwdriver shop and
you suggest particular motherboard/cpu?
I am also considering refurb, which seems like a way to buy 5 year old
computers for $200. Any particular recommendations for that would be
appreciated. For a $200-$300 computer, I'm ok with 32G of RAM; it
doesn't need to have the lifetime of a higher-cost box. There are lots
of refurb Dells for not much on Amazon, and I'm guessing this is because
of a vast number coming out of corporate service because they are no
longer eligible for service contracts, 5-6 year fixed life thinking, or
because the CPUs won't run W11.
