Re: [gentoo-user] new machine : (1) which CPU ?

[Mick]

On Friday 20 Jul 2012 13:13:41 Michael Mol wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 20, 2012 at 7:40 AM,  <v_2e@×××.net> wrote:
> >   Hello!
> >
> > On Fri, 20 Jul 2012 03:24:42 -0400
> >
> > Philip Webb <purslow@××××××××.net> wrote:
> >> I plan to build a new machine in the next few months:
> >> it wb for regular desktop use, but performance is as important as
> >> price.
> >>
> >> A quick look at what was available in April suggested
> >> an Intel Ivy Bridge i7 ( 22 nm ) ; Phoronix said it works with Kernel
> >> 3.2
> >> + an Intel Z77 mobo (I usually buy ASUS) & that power/watt was
> >> excellent.
> >>
> >   If you are considering to buy an Intel CPU, I'd recommend you to pay
> >
> > some attention to such Intel' technologies as this one:
> > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Bridge#Intel_Insider_and_remote-contr
> > ol because it doesn't looks like an advantage to the end user, but rather
> > as a security (or privacy) hole in one's system.
>
> We went through this on this list a couple months ago.
>
> That tech has been part of business-grade laptops and workstations for
> a while. It's intended as a tool for a corporate IT department, not
> the direct user of the machine.
>
> I'm not saying it's something I'd necessarily like to have on my
> personal devices, just that it's not exactly new.

I didn't know my laptop came with this <aheam> 'Intel rootkit' feature until I 
posted here a few weeks ago.  I haven't done any research on this, but found 
these spooky pages:

http://communities.intel.com/community/vproexpert/blog/2012/01/19/configuring-
intel-vpro-with-linux-in-user-control-mode

http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/download-the-latest-intel-amt-open-
source-drivers/

I'm not sure how vulnerable my machine may be as supplied by Dell - I assume 
that unless the system is enabled first no out-of-band attempts will work.
-- 
Regards,
Mick