Could the pandora / pyra / or next generation model be much thinner?

[oskda]

Anyway, It seemed like a revelation when I realised that my computing needs are so low that I might as well be using old 32-bit hardware. Besides the lower costs and heightened environment friendliness, this also makes avoiding the IME much easier. It looks to me like Intel was not as invested in spyware back in a large part of the 32-bit era as they are now. 4GB ought to be enough for anybody.

On some models with 64-bit Intel Core 2 CPU you can remove IME totally: https://libreboot.org/
Of course, using 32 bit CPU old enough could be other alternative.

 

[Young Ace]

Upcycling old hardware isn't much of a real alternative and more like a stopgap measure. The way forward is with Raptor Engineering's Power9 for now and of course RISC-V in the future. When the Talos II motherboard first released, it was $2.5k and is now double that unfortunately.

 

[λ the β-Redex Reducer]

The only real downsides to me are future scarcity and missing out on things that are resource intensive by necessity.

Scarcity just will have to be counteracted by a lot of refurbishing. But because of future scarcity it is a stopgap measure.

As for missing out on resource intensive things, it does not bother me that much. I can still play AAA games but I just have to limit myself to AAA games that are a little bit older, such as rogue.

I think that right now recycling old hardware is the best solution. It may be stopgap because old hardware has to become scarce sometime, but right now it is better than RISC-V and Power9 for me. Especially since I still have my IME-less desktop from 15 years ago and all it needed was a new on-board battery.