Re: Advice for new travelling server: Intel Z690 chipset?

[Robert Elz <kre%munnari.OZ.AU@localhost>]

    Date:        Fri, 5 May 2023 14:57:17 +0200
    From:        Johan Stenstam <johani%ihren.org@localhost>
    Message-ID:  <9A50686B-BD7C-4A00-84B9-3434395D037C%ihren.org@localhost>

  | But I’m concerned about the Intel Z690 chipset

No need, that works fine - I have a setup with that (definitely not in
a travelling system though - I can barely lift it) and it works just fine.

You said you didn't care, but if you were considering using (in any way
at all) the on-cpu graphics (assuming the CPU in the system you're looking
at has that) that is unlikely to be supported in NetBSD - not even sure if
it is recognised as a graphics device suitable for running wsfb or even a text
based console.

  | * disk performance from the multiple M.2 PCIe X4 Gen4 slots (PCH) devices?

Should be very good - for me enough that I had to add extra column width
in iostat output to make the results (transfers/sec in particular)
look reasonable...

Capacity is limited (I think there may be 4TB M.2 devices around now, but
common is just 2TB (or less, each)).

  | * networking: the NUC 12 has 10GbE (AQC113) + Intel� i225-LM.

That one I can't help with.

  | * USB keyboard: can this still be an issue?

No, that all just works.  I have used nothing else for years now (KB & mouse).
I use a wireless KB/mouse combo with just one dongle in a USB port for both.
Wired USB keyboards with a hub and a mouse plug in port on them also exist.

  | * a working console (there is no VGA, but 2xHDMI?) and 

Again, that might be an issue, depending what it is using for generating
the graphics.   But a cheap (old, perhaps even pre-loved) PCIe graphics
card is very likely to work OK, provided the system has a slot to put it
in, and sufficient power to drive it (some of the old ones were hungry).
Even if for some reason the DRM stuff doesn't work, it should at least
appear as a frame buffer, and be usable as the console, and for wsfb.

Any modern monitor/TV without HDMI support isn't worth considering, so
HDMI should be no issue (and if you need to run a VGA based old monitor,
or OHP, I think that HDMI->VGA converters exist).

I have just gone and had a look at the specs of the NUC12 Extreme -- apart
from having way less SATA availability than I have, that's almost identical
to my system.   Same CPU (or almost) (blindingly fast) and much of the rest
of the specs look similar (I could have more RAM than that supports, but I
do have just the 64GB that can have, and if anything, it is sometimes too
much - never seen any swap space used, even when doing a -j16 build of NetBSD).
The integrated WiFi is unlikely to be supported (until the new WiFi branch is
finished anyway - that's still some time away yet I believe).

In mine, I think:

Intel product 7af0 (miscellaneous network, revision 0x11) at pci0 dev 20 function 3 not configured

is probably that.   I haven't used it, but the bluetooth which is on the
same board/chipset is recognised by NetBSD).

My Intel network (LAN) chip is I219V which works fine.
I also have an rge (2.5GHz - Realtek Semiconductor Killer E3000) which I
have no current use for, but is supported.

I have the i9-12900 graphics disabled in the BIOS, so that doesn't appear
in the dmesg output.

The specs I saw are not terribly clear (I didn't bother downloading the
datasheet) but it may be there's only a single PCIe slot available, so you
might need to choose between graphics & network expansions (near term support,
if it isn't there already, I don't know, for the i225 intel LAN is more
likely than for the integrated graphics).

kre