[talk] other hardware suggestions

[George Rosamond]

>>>
>>>> On Dec 6, 2019, at 18:55, George Rosamond <george at ceetonetechnology.com>
>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Not to distract from Patrick's thread, but I am looking at two needs
>>>> right now:
>>>>
>>>> * some sort of well-supported amd64 hardware comparable in price and
>>>> specs to the PCEngine APU2. More than one NIC is good, but I'm wary of
>>>> relying on mSATA SSD's as Sony deprecated their line IIRC. m.2 seems to
>>>> be the next gen of storage for that world.
>>>>
>>>> * similar hardware with four or more USB ports, for the role of a serial
>>>> console server. I assume there are still people out there not looking to
>>>> go rely on custom hardware for that role, and really assuming there are
>>>> some of us not living solely in the smog.
>>>>
>>>> I am interested in others' experiences with the ethernet to serial
>>>> dongles for remote serial...
>>>>
>>>> Not a fan of going the Intel NUC route, as closed hardware, locked down
>>>> BIOS' and endless binaries still doesn't excite me.
>>>>
>>>> Also the ARM SoC game is played for me, so long as it's relying on
>>>> microSD cards, and the BSD ARM64 platforms still lag behind amd64
>>>> support AFAIK.
>>>>
>>>> g
>>>>
>>>> ______________________________________________
>>>
>>> It is still early days yet, but the Rock64 pro might fit the bill in
>> days to come. Especially since the pro laptop has hit the market. I know
>> some folks were buzzing about the possibilities at the last BSDCan.
>>>
>>
>> Yes, but again it's relying on microSD and eMMC which I also had bad
>> experiences with.  m.2 SSD or other SSD already proved a lot more
>> reliable to me.
>>
> 
> The RockPro64 motherboard has a pcie slot that I have a nvme card in. The
> support for this is headed into FreeBSD soon. I have to boot off sd card,
> but the rest isn't bad after that. Like another post said, it is early
> days, so time will tell. It is shaping up to be a not terrible build
> machine with the limited milage I've put on it since I started testing the
> patches.

Ah, nice.

It looks like a real option in the future, once it hits stable/release.

I went heavy into arm with BeagleBones probably too early on, and
thought the pace of porting was going to be quicker, so I feel a bit burned.

But at this point, something that *just works* now like the amd64
platform still seems like the best option. I do think the APU is the
standard still.

Things like wireless are not relevant, but having a sane build and boot
 process matters.

And I'm still wary of the long-term running of the teeny SoC 24/7/365.

g