I’m looking to upgrade CPU, and limited to this socket. Wanting to stay with integrated graphics. Two that I am currently looking at are the i9-10900, and the i9-11900. I don’t know if either will work with Qubes, or if they will, if one would work better for the OS. I’m not against trying out others that will fit the socket. These were just two that I have looked at.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.
Also, apologies if this is in the wrong category or not forum material.
I’m going to bump this once and let it die. I guess my main question is what makes a good CPU for Qubes? I’m going to be getting one to try out regardless of whether there are any suggestions. One has 10 cores and 20 threads, the other 8 and 16. Cache is larger on the one with 10 cores, but most of the other specs are the same between them. The 10 core uses the UHD 630 while the 8 core uses the UHD 750.
So assuming I get either to work with Qubes, would one stand out as performing better with the OS?
Is there any reason why you don’t want an FCLGA1700?
The MSI Z690-A is used in the certified hardware, given you some guarantee of continued support, and it can be used with the Dasharo open source firmware.
The MSI Z790-P is an updated version of the Z690, it’s not used in certified hardware but has the same open source firmware options as the Z690.
Trying to use the existing motherboard in this particular machine. If I go with another one, I’ll also need just about everything else, and think if I do that it would be better to just buy a whole desktop.
I do like and use MSI stuff in another system, and it works great. I just have this other desktop I’d like to keep using, but want to see if another CPU would give me better performance with Qubes. It currently has an i5-11400 in it.
so I someone bought one of these boards, what would be suggested for a basic user to do, in order to be as blob-free as possible?
Flash it with the Dasharo firmware, it’s not a very complicated operation and can be done only using software, without using an eprom programmer.
https://docs.dasharo.com/variants/msi_z690/releases/
You can also buy boards with Dasharo installed from 3mdeb, the company making Dasharo.
https://shop.3mdeb.com/product-category/dasharo-supported-hardware/
If you buy a board without Dasharo installed, you might need to buy a Dasharo support subscription to get access to precompiled ROM files. The firmware is open source, and you can compile it yourself if you don’t want to buy a support subscription, but unless you have experience with compiling Coreboot, it’s probably worth it paying for support.
There will be a free community edition of Dasharo for the Z790, but I don’t think it has been released yet.
actually looks massively complicated process for an average user, to sort out the media creation, obtain the ROM and decypher the terminology. I can’t even really find the support group on Matrix, lol.
shipping from the UK a preinstalled Dasharo, all in, adds about $150 + to obtaining the z690;
Maybe I’ll just go with a z790 and some day in the future Dasharo will be for an “average user”.