What was the latest CPU that doesn't feature the Management Engine (hardware backdoor)
 

I wanna build a new (to me) computer that doesn't have the cpu hardware level backdoors built into it. I've heard AMD has a similar backdoor management feature. I don't care which CPU brand it is, I just don't want it in there. I believe Core2Quad was the fastest CPU made with out? Just looking for confirmation.

Please and thank you :D

Why would we are you want watching you such a thing?

Lol. Subtle. I'm trying out this privacy as a right as part of my activism thing and I'd like to see what the compromises are like. Also I want a new machine which doesn't dual boot and older hardware can be had super cheap and in many cases perform just fine for average day to day use at the cost of using more power.

Maybe I should have posted in the hardware forum.

Yeah it's the core2 quad.

They do reasonably well given their age (I only upgraded mine a few months back) but to put it in perspective my replacement of an i5 7600k is over 4 times faster according to the benchmarks I ran before and after.. that's a pretty big difference and very noticeable.

I did give a lot of thought to the privacy issue, but in the end I figured it's going to be inevitable at some point anyway - that ol quad might manage today, but what about in 5 years? Eventually you'll have to upgrade anyway for one reason or another so I figured I might as well bite the bullet and do it now. A lot of the privacy concerns can be mitigated to some degree as well.