The real question is, what happens if you flash a custom BIOS that just ignores the ME? Intel chips up to (I think) 2006 would happily boot without the ME enab

The real question is, what happens if you flash a custom BIOS that just ignores the ME? Intel chips up to (I think) 2006 would happily boot without the ME enabled ("ME optional"). Intel's newer chipsets have a watchdog in the ME hardware which will reset the main CPU if the ME is not initialized by the BIOS ("ME mandatory"). Combined with the as-of-yet unbroken RSA signature on any ME firmware, this has some pretty astounding implications.