Hello everyone,
I've recently attempted to get FreeBSD working as my desktop OS, with moderate results (working, but not working great).
Most of the problems I faced were related to hardware incompatibilities because I was using hardware that was too new / unsupported.
Since I don't want to wait for FreeBSD 14.0-RELEASE (or later versions), nor do I want to work around driver problems, I want to build a completely new system.
I've found that most driver-related issues can be prevented by using hardware that is about 2 or more generations behind the latest stuff (e.g. Intel's 10th-11th Gen Intel instead of the 13th Gen).
Also things like using Intel NICs instead of Realtek are recommended for stability, which is what I've been doing for my FreeBSD physical hosts for the last few years.
But other than that, I know next to nothing about choosing hardware for a FreeBSD desktop, so I hope you can help me here.
My requirements are:
- Hardware acceleration for the desktop
- Fast loading times for applications
- Working sound for headphones/speakers
- Low power consumption (<30W idle)
- Working Suspend/Resume (optional)
- Overall stable system without random crashes
I mainly use my desktop for surfing the internet, managing my servers/network, writing notes, reading e-books and listening to music or watching videos.
For these reasons, more than a 4-6 core CPU with integrated graphics, 8-16 GiB RAM, and a 250-500 GB NVMe SSD would likely be overkill (not that this would be a problem ).
I'm well versed in building my own computers (have been doing that for the last +9 years) so no pre-built components are required.
Knowing all of this, what components would you recommend for my first dedicated FreeBSD desktop?
I've recently attempted to get FreeBSD working as my desktop OS, with moderate results (working, but not working great).
Most of the problems I faced were related to hardware incompatibilities because I was using hardware that was too new / unsupported.
Since I don't want to wait for FreeBSD 14.0-RELEASE (or later versions), nor do I want to work around driver problems, I want to build a completely new system.
I've found that most driver-related issues can be prevented by using hardware that is about 2 or more generations behind the latest stuff (e.g. Intel's 10th-11th Gen Intel instead of the 13th Gen).
Also things like using Intel NICs instead of Realtek are recommended for stability, which is what I've been doing for my FreeBSD physical hosts for the last few years.
But other than that, I know next to nothing about choosing hardware for a FreeBSD desktop, so I hope you can help me here.
My requirements are:
- Hardware acceleration for the desktop
- Fast loading times for applications
- Working sound for headphones/speakers
- Low power consumption (<30W idle)
- Working Suspend/Resume (optional)
- Overall stable system without random crashes
I mainly use my desktop for surfing the internet, managing my servers/network, writing notes, reading e-books and listening to music or watching videos.
For these reasons, more than a 4-6 core CPU with integrated graphics, 8-16 GiB RAM, and a 250-500 GB NVMe SSD would likely be overkill (not that this would be a problem ).
I'm well versed in building my own computers (have been doing that for the last +9 years) so no pre-built components are required.
Knowing all of this, what components would you recommend for my first dedicated FreeBSD desktop?