On 3/6/21 9:02 PM, Dan Hitt wrote:
On Sat, Mar 6, 2021 at 8:59 PM Dan Hitt <dan.hitt@gmail.com> wrote:I think that i will need to get new desktop hardware, so i'm trying to figure out what to do. When i got my last hardware, one challenge was UEFI booting, iirc. After dealing with it, i sort of lost track of what was happening in that arena. However, i don't want to get involved with that again.
UEFI and Secure Boot were hard in the past, but not so much any more. The Debian x86 installer detects if you have booted the computer in BIOS or UEFI mode, and works accordingly.
That said, I have several older computers. I put drive racks in my desktops and servers, put each OS on its own 2.5" SATA SSD, and use BIOS/ MBR. This allows me to mix and match as needed.
I'm sort of thinking about getting a Dell Inspiron but maybe i should buy from a linux vendor instead, such as 76? Presumably at least in that case at least i wouldn't have to worry about the bios.
I tend to buy/ build used Dell and Intel stuff, because it is readily available and affordable.
System 76 has their own Linux distribution that they have validated on their hardware. This should provide for pleasant OOTB and ownership experiences.
I certainly would want to get something which supported 2 or 3 internal disks, but i would also like to get something that could be booted from an external usb drive. Does that make sense?
I have seen desktops go from 5.25" HDD's to 3.5" HDD's to 2.5" SSD's to M.2 SSD/NVMe's. The available drive bays and interfaces has changed accordingly. You might want to look at workstations, servers, NAS, or homebrew chassis if you really need three 3.5" HDD's (internal and/or rack mount).
Most x86 computers made in the past 20 years can boot from USB. I maintain a Debian installation on a USB 3.0 flash drive for maintenance purposes. I ran a Samba server this way for a few years. Now, used 2.5" SSD's are cheap enough to put in every machine. If and when I do Rasperry Pi, etc., I will probably go with a high-endurance SD card.
Would it make sense to look for something where all usb ports are usb 3.0? I've never used usb 3.0 at home, so i'm kind of unclued.
Again, it depends upon the vintage of the computer and your external I/O needs. eSATA, Firewire, and Thunderbolt are other options.
In a way, i'd like to have something with 2 ethernet ports on the motherboard, although i've found that usb-to-ethernet is adequate for my purposes.
Dual Ethernet is uncommon on desktop boards/ chassis. You can find them on workstations, servers, NAS chassis, and router chassis.
HDD's, and espcially SSD's, can now saturate Gigabit. I am starting to consider upgrading my SOHO LAN to 10 Gb copper. This means PCIe x4 NIC's and a matching switch.
And i think i'd like to stick with debian, but i would consider any free OS. (So if i bought a Dell, i would add a disk drive or two, and boot off the debian disk, probably removing the windows disk.) I'd appreciate any pointers or recommendations.And i forgot to add that i would like to be able to easily run qemu or other virtual machines. How would that affect the choice of processor, amount of memory, and disks?
Get a processor with extensions that support virtualization. For Intel, that means VT-d, VT-x, etc.. A Core i5 or better should suffice for desktop virtualization. For a virtualization server, you want a Xeon.
Another important consideration is memory -- non-ECC vs. ECC. Desktop stuff has the former, workstation and server stuff done right has the latter. STFW "memory error", "bit rot" and related. I prefer computers with ECC memory.
David