Okay, folks - just a quick FYI -
I was able to land a refurbished hp t740 thin client from eBay at a fairly substantial discount from quoted pricing (and as such, my existing order from my usual channel partner has been cancelled).
Downsides?
- It only comes with 8GB of DDR4 (to be upgraded to 64GB later, but I will be "borrowing" DIMMs from broken machines @ work to push it to 16 for now).
- If it doesn't do ARIFwd/ACSCtl (SRIOV), it'll just be a faster t730 but with one less Ethernet port
- What the heck am I going to do with the t730 now? (probably as an HTPC to replace my 2011 MacMini, but it'll need a Bluetooth/Wifi combo card to play that role)
Shipping is quoted for next Wednesday (April 22nd, 2020).
Right now the plan is to use it for testing purposes first, i.e. Windows 10 IoT, Debian Linux 10, Proxmox and then eventually VMWare ESXi 6.5U3, 6.7 or possibly 7.0. I am not expecting myself to replace the t730 until most things are "squared away" and to the point where it's ready as a drop-in replacement. I would want to upgrade the MSG7/N40L on the other end to use TrueNAS or something else.
Expect the following:
Rationale for replacement
Pricing analysis (versus its contemporaries)
Detailed dmesg/lspci listings and lstopo diagram
Power consumption/noise profiling (versus the t730)
Compatibility/suitability with accessories (various PCIe cards in my inventory)
Discussion regarding the t740's Windows 10 IoT build
Possibility of turning it into a Microsoft Teams Room appliance (like the Elite Slice G2)
Gaming performance analysis (I did one for the t730, why not for the t740?)
Stay tuned, folks. This could potentially be a fun one.
I was able to land a refurbished hp t740 thin client from eBay at a fairly substantial discount from quoted pricing (and as such, my existing order from my usual channel partner has been cancelled).
Downsides?
- It only comes with 8GB of DDR4 (to be upgraded to 64GB later, but I will be "borrowing" DIMMs from broken machines @ work to push it to 16 for now).
- If it doesn't do ARIFwd/ACSCtl (SRIOV), it'll just be a faster t730 but with one less Ethernet port
- What the heck am I going to do with the t730 now? (probably as an HTPC to replace my 2011 MacMini, but it'll need a Bluetooth/Wifi combo card to play that role)
Shipping is quoted for next Wednesday (April 22nd, 2020).
Right now the plan is to use it for testing purposes first, i.e. Windows 10 IoT, Debian Linux 10, Proxmox and then eventually VMWare ESXi 6.5U3, 6.7 or possibly 7.0. I am not expecting myself to replace the t730 until most things are "squared away" and to the point where it's ready as a drop-in replacement. I would want to upgrade the MSG7/N40L on the other end to use TrueNAS or something else.
Expect the following:
Rationale for replacement
Pricing analysis (versus its contemporaries)
Detailed dmesg/lspci listings and lstopo diagram
Power consumption/noise profiling (versus the t730)
Compatibility/suitability with accessories (various PCIe cards in my inventory)
Discussion regarding the t740's Windows 10 IoT build
Possibility of turning it into a Microsoft Teams Room appliance (like the Elite Slice G2)
Gaming performance analysis (I did one for the t730, why not for the t740?)
Stay tuned, folks. This could potentially be a fun one.
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