Dell Optiplexes up to 3040/5040/7040 (2015) have good BIOS support for booting DOS from USB (as HDD or ODD). I actually ran a Optiplex 7040 demo machine at VCF SoCal this year. I also had an Optiplex 9020 next to it running Quake. I had the 7040 run DOOM quite well from a USB drive (though it didn't like Quake). You'll have varying issues with VESA & VGA BIOS support in later models. Software may also balk at the semi-compliant VGA BIOS implementations, the SATA ports in AHCI mode and the large amount of RAM. There's SBEMU for sound, native NIC drivers and use UDVD2 for the ODD. Use ATA mode in the BIOS screen for 'SATA Operation'.
I also have a Optiplex 790 and I can give it a go a little later today. On Thu, May 29, 2025 at 12:39 AM Felix Miata via Freedos-user < freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net> wrote: > Ash composed on 2025-05-28 21:25 (UTC-0400): > > > I'm someone who has only recently begun diving deeper into computer > > software and hardware related topics (beyond surface level history), so > > forgive me if i'm about to ask a very basic question. > > > Essentially, I'm looking to install FreeDOS as the OS on a computer, a > 2011 > > DELL Optiplex 790 SFF to be precise. > > I can't think of a reason why not. I have a 760 and two 780s. I think I put > FreeDOS on at least one of them alongside Linux and/or Windows. > -- > Evolution as taught in public schools is, like religion, > based on faith, not based on science. > > Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks! > > Felix Miata > > > _______________________________________________ > Freedos-user mailing list > Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user >
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