Is the ProDesk 600 G5 good for running FreeBSD as a daily desktop?

zoltan

zoltan

Hello, I currently have an HP ProBook 4540, which is a 3rd-gen i5 laptop, but it's about 12 years old now. It runs FreeBSD fine, but it's limited to 8GB of RAM and can't support more. I found a ProDesk 600 G5 with an 8th-gen i3-8100 and 16GB of RAM for $100. I'm on a tight budget, and this ProDesk also comes with Intel UHD Graphics 630. I'm wondering if anyone has experience with HP ProDesk computers. The ProDesk is not a laptop, it's an SSF desktop computer. But since I only used my laptop at home with things like an external monitor and keyboard, I feel like having a laptop isn't really necessary for me.
 
i have some hp thin clients and they all work ok with some minor glitches, i use them headless because cpu is rather slow and they have small storage but an 8th gen i3 should provide adequate performance for office tasks.
 
I have Gen1 and Gen2 ProDesk. I have nothing but good things to say sbout them.
I am talking the SFF Mini versions. Maybe 1" tall.
They use a steel chassis and it feels solid. BIOS is slightly limited.
I had trouble getting an NVMe working in the Gen1 but that is old haswell.
I upgraded the CPU on the G2 and it was a solid build.

On my first one the G1 ProDesk I bought it barebones and populated it. Adding memory and cpu.
The Drive Sled requires special gromets for drive. I found them for cheap.

Funky BIOS if you are not used to HP.
 
I never really caught the difference between HP EliteDesk and ProDesk Mini.
Also there is 400, 600 and 800 models of both. Not much difference to me...
They take laptop 19V power and I would limit CPU to 35W/low power models.

Why they have a desktop/flexatx chassis with the same exact name as a slim desktop is dumb.
I guess the "SFF" version is the Desktop and the "Mini" version is the 1" tall one.
I like my Mini's.
 
zoltan said:
Hello, I currently have an HP ProBook 4540, which is a 3rd-gen i5 laptop, but it's about 12 years old now. It runs FreeBSD fine, but it's limited to 8GB of RAM and can't support more. I found a ProDesk 600 G5 with an 8th-gen i3-8100 and 16GB of RAM for $100. I'm on a tight budget, and this ProDesk also comes with Intel UHD Graphics 630. I'm wondering if anyone has experience with HP ProDesk computers. The ProDesk is not a laptop, it's an SSF desktop computer. But since I only used my laptop at home with things like an external monitor and keyboard, I feel like having a laptop isn't really necessary for me.
Click to expand...
Seen many similar HP systems with strange ACPI behaviour, like not powering off, freeze at BIOS screen, power up again after power down, system down but PSU stays on, system unresponsive and waiting for something, enter boot menu or drop to PXE boot for no reason...
 
I have had a EliteDesk G5 800 for a while. Very FreeBSD friendly. Pretty much everything was working on it out of the box like suspend/resume
and sound. Never tried wifi as it is not a laptop.
I was never happy with the UHD630 graphics. Lots of screen tearing and I have spend heaps to much time to get it sorted but never made it.
In the end I put a cheap AMD graphics card in and all was good.
I also have a hp thin client and a Notebook hp Pavilion both with AMD graphics. They are also very FreeBSD friendly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top