this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2024
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Hello. Many of the older thinkpads were regarded as being peak for the ability to repair and easily see into them at both the hardware and software levels.

I was wondering, what PC, if any, is similar in this regard? Aside from building your own PC ofc. Any opinions are welcome. Thank you.

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 9 months ago (10 children)

Aside from building your own PC ofc.

Are you talking about a pre-built PC that has decent repairability? If so you'd really just want to avoid brands that use proprietary or irregular parts. For example Dell Optiplex computers can be bought cheap but they use their own power supply and some have smaller cases that might not fit most graphics gards.

Is there any reason you are posting this to a privacy community? Were you hoping for something that is Libre/Core boot compatible like some ThinkPads are?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (9 children)

I was looking for something that I'm confident doesn't spy at the hardware level.

I used Thinkpads as an example because after the early 2010 ones, they got those weird i7 (I believe) processors and we don't know much of what they do but some speculate they record keystrokes and phone data home.

What PC can you trust has good hardware in privacy? I don't want to buy a PC and run Linux, trying my best, and the thing spies at the hardware level.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

How confident do you need to be? I don't think I've seen any convincing evidence of any firmware spying in PC components.

Well, except the NSA's Clipper chip, but I don't think that really ever got implemented.

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