Advice for hardware compatibility

[giovanni79]

I am looking for a new desktop to run FreeBSD 14 (mostly) with a desktop environment.

I am looking at Dell OptiPlex as a compromise between cost and quality, but I am having difficulties making sure the hardware is compatible with FreeBSD. Does anyone have experience with either the new Dell OptiPlex Micro or Compact or other advise on hardware compatibility please? I think I will go with the standard Intel video card as I don't think I need a dedicated one (except for potential compatibility issues with Wayland which I would like to experiment with?).

Thank you in advance.

 

[SirDice]

I think I will go with the standard Intel video card as I don't think I need a dedicated one (except for potential compatibility issues with Wayland which I would like to experiment with?).

Then the exact CPU model will be important. For the newer generations of Intel iGPU you might need graphics/drm-61-kmod, which is for now, only available for a recent 14-STABLE or 15-CURRENT. It will be available on the upcoming 14.1-RELEASE (scheduled to be released early June 2024).

Other notable hardware to watch out for are wireless and bluetooth. The rest of the hardware shouldn't matter much, most of it will likely just work.

 

[T-Daemon]

Does anyone have experience with either the new Dell OptiPlex Micro or Compact

Have a look at https://bsd-hardware.info/?view=computers&f=cpu_family&v=Intel+Core+i7&type=Desktop&vendor=Dell

Play with the search filter or look under "Find Parts" for specific CPU/iGPU.

 

[giovanni79]

Have a look at https://bsd-hardware.info/?view=computers&f=cpu_family&v=Intel+Core+i7&type=Desktop&vendor=Dell

Play with the search filter or look under "Find Parts" for specific CPU/iGPU.

Thanks, I looked at this site, but the latest OpiPlex I could find on the list are a couple of years old. I will follow your suggestion to look under “Find Parts”!

 

[giovanni79]

Then the exact CPU model will be important. For the newer generations of Intel iGPU you might need graphics/drm-61-kmod, which is for now, only available for a recent 14-STABLE or 15-CURRENT. It will be available on the upcoming 14.1-RELEASE (scheduled to be released early June 2024).

Other notable hardware to watch out for are wireless and bluetooth. The rest of the hardware shouldn't matter much, most of it will likely just work.

Mmm I might wait until June then as when I buy hardware I tend to buy the latest product and then keep it a long time. This is not an urgent project for me. Thanks.

 

[SirDice]

Mmm I might wait until June then as when I buy hardware I tend to buy the latest product and then keep it a long time.

You could go with 14-STABLE now and upgrade to 14.1-RELEASE when it's released, or keep sticking to 14-STABLE. It's a little more involved (you need to build from source to update/upgrade) but it's not that difficult to do.