Please move if this is wrong section - testing hardware compatibility

[Waqar.UK]

I have seen a

Core i5, 3.30ghz Processor (Note: Quad Core i5) Sandybridge
8 gb Ram
1TB Harddrive
DVD, HDMI OUT
2 x USB3, 4 x USB2
Ethernet, DVI
Separate Network Card
Comes with Keyboard and Mouse
Windows 7  - I will erase the hard drive as I do not need this.

according to the seller, motherboard Ethernet & separate network card are from Intel (good sign). I want to buy this for myself, as I cannot afford a entire new build. If I burn onto a cd-rw pfsense 2.3 then boot from this, can I see if both Ethernet cards are recognised?  how do I test this? So then if they are recognised, how do I know pfsense will work from them? Both according to seller are gigabit.

[Jailer]

With Intel NIC's the likelihood is high that they will be compatible but unless you can find out exactly what specific model the NIC's are no one can give you a definite answer.

[Waqar.UK]

:)

Thanks a lot. As far as I know, pfsense can be run from a CD, so from a running CD , can I determine the compatibility?

[Jailer]

Older versions yes. The live CD feature was removed in the current 2.3 version.

[Waqar.UK]

Does that include Intel 82579LM? (pfsense 2.30)

[edwardwong]

The igb driver will work for this chip, actually this chip is supported by FreeBSD for long, I saw people using it with FreeBSD 8 and no issue, so I don't really see any problem on 10.x

[Waqar.UK]

Brilliant - thanks a lot  ;D