I have had some success using a refurbished R710 as a desktop with Debian Jessie.
The OS install was the easiest after getting the firmware-bnx2 package, extracting it and referencing it during OS install. This way the ethernet cards were recognized.
Display was successful using a VGA to HDMI converter and scaler. I am able to connect it to a Sony Bravia TV for display at 1366x768 at 60 FPS.
It's not the best display, but it works OK. Except when running the ROS Gazebo (Robot Operating System Simulator) where it gets quite choppy and slow at refresh.
Incidentally I have used TensorFlow on GPU's on AWS for Machine Learning projects. Therefore I was thinking of adding an eGPU that I can use for getting a better picture on the Sony TV and also do some TensorFlow work.
Any recommendations?
