[OpenIndiana-discuss] hardware recommendations for OI desktop system

[Jim Klimov]

I can't really say much, except that:

1) For accelerated video, AFAIK only NVidia drivers are available.
Intel DRM is being discussed/ported, but not yet available; Radeon
is moderately supported - i.e. there are some drivers, but for my
laptop's AMD E2 "APU" (CPU+GPU in one chip) there is no fitting
driver, so it runs as generic VESA VGA.

2) USB3 is a problem, won't work at all (currently). USB2 and USB1*
should work. So make sure your mobo/branded box includes an USB2
controller chip. My laptop's BIOS setting of USB3 ports emulating
the USB2 mode did not cut it. Also, some devices (i.e. card reader
are apparently connected to the USB3 chip internally and don't work
for me in OI also).

3) For storage, seek cheaper LSI-based non-RAID controllers or those
models which have "I/T" (initiator/target) firmware. There are some
Dell PERCs aroung $100 which fit the profile, I don't have experience
with any of them - just lots of discussions on the list; review the
archives.

4) There were some quirks with recent intel chipsets (server ones,
with some PCI buses being invisible to OI); however KVM virtualization
is available only for some newer Intel chipsets and CPUs.

This is mostly my regurgitation of rumors and discussions, but HTH,
//Jim Klimov