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Hmmm.... I definitely need a "secure", separated computer like that. The presented form factor is ideal, but the price is meh. 1,177 USD for 32GB RAM and a nice
by user_agent 6y ago
Hmmm.... I definitely need a "secure", separated computer like that. The presented form factor is ideal, but the price is meh. 1,177 USD for 32GB RAM and a nice 512GB NVMe storage. That's too much. It's the same problem like with that German company that sells workstations with Coreboot, also for a little bit too much.
I need at least 24GB RAM and a good NVMe drive for Qube OS. The processor isn't that much important, though. I could live with i5 as well.
The best solution I came up with for now is an old Intel Core 2 Quad processor + old Asus motherboard (Coreboot supported) that supports 32GB of RAM. Plus an NVMe drive on a PCI slot. The good side is that it's commonly known Core 2 Quad was the last "secure" Intel processor. Yet it's old and will be a little bit to slow for extensive virtualization.
People know a thing or two about Coreboot and Libreboot, but they don't realize that's still a wild west of computing. You either go with old platforms like the one I have mentioned, or you can choose from the offerings of a couple of quirky vendors that by definition must overprice their hardware.
Those vendors and their new platforms (Purism is one of them) use some custom methods to cripple Intel Management Engine and switch UEFI to Coreboot. I'm not sure how secure the result of that process is to be honest.
With old platforms it's always problem with motherboards supporting more than 8GB RAM. Kinda sad :(
The support from Coreboot isn't that great. It fits within the abovely mentioned problems.
If you have better ideas than me (complaining for the pricing and security status of new solutions like the one from Purism vs. suffering from virtualization low performance from old processors that are IME free) - please let me know. Maybe I'm missing something.
I'd be so happy to be able to get a new mini PC with let's say an AMD processor, deprived of RAM, SSD, etc.,; but also reasonably priced and PROVEN THAT the vendor managed to kill IME and implemented Coreboot properly...