However, a bump in the road I have encountered relates to disabling the Intel Management Engine (IME) on my Supermicro X11SSH-F motherboard using Coreboot.
There are several script or tool to either remove or disable Intel ME? Have you tried any of those?
- Is buying an Intel motherboard manufactured before 2006 the only way to 100% totally avoid IME? If yes doesn't such an old motherboard lack the required horsepower needed to operate a robust Bitcoin hub?
No, you can consider device which use RISC-V CPU. You can get newer and more powerful CPU at cost of limited software and OS support. Although FWIW there are few laptop/PC brand which claim their device has either disabled or removed Intel ME. But i
- Is an AMD motherboard a better foundation level security alternative to building a Bitcoin Node? If yes what particular AMD CPU generation / motherboard manufactured year should I be looking at?
No, AMD have something similar with Intel ME called AMD PSP.