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.

  • Extras@lemmy.today
    1·
    1 year ago

    By PC do you mean a desktop? Guess any desktop you build yourself. Are there features you want like the best Linux support or something?

  • Corroded@leminal.spaceEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    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?

    • trippingonthewire@lemmy.mlOP
      0·
      1 year ago

      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.

      • SheeEttin@programming.devEnglish
        1·
        1 year 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.

      • const_void@lemmy.ml
        0·
        1 year ago

        Lenovo uses proprietary, closed source firmware. There’s no way to know what it’s doing.

  • thayer@lemmy.caEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Honestly, any enterprise OEM will be similar, such as Dell or Lenovo. Yes, their mainboards are proprietary, but you can easily source them from legitimate parts vendors. That’s why there are so many refurbished Optiplexes and ThinkCentres on Amazon. They’re trivial to repair and most don’t even require tools.

    You cannot easily upgrade to a dedicated GPU unless replacing an existing unit, which is standard for laptops as well.