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  • dgingeri - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link

    Yeah, so now we have IMEI access and security vulnerabilities through wireless integrated right into the chipset. No turning it off now. How wonderful.
  • imaheadcase - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link

    What are you on about? Its completely toggled on or off if you want. Wireless also gets updated on motherboards, so not sure if you are under a rock or what.
  • mooninite - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link

    @imaheadcase, the ME is *always* active. There is no toggle. The only solution has been to strip it out of the UEFI firmware. The most recent ME can't be completely stripped or else it bricks your CPU. Please read up on ME.

    https://github.com/corna/me_cleaner/

    I wish Anandtech would take a negative stance on ME. It's bad for consumers. Intel won't give us an option to open source it or disable it, but seems to give the NSA an option.
  • imaheadcase - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link

    Every motherboard i've ever used with WiFi i sure as hell can in Bios. It even shows it disabled if you use a app to look at wifi settings.
  • Gothmoth - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link

    who let the noobs in... lala.... kiddo you dont get it...
  • Peter2k - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link

    Intel Management Engine ≠ WiFi

    IME might even use WiFi if you disable it in the UEFI as it (IME) has it's own OS.
    We don't know and its undocumented on purpose.
  • Achaios - Wednesday, August 1, 2018 - link

    Why would you care about if the NSA or the FBI has got access to your PC? Got anything to hide or are you an ISIS son of a bitch?
  • jospoortvliet - Thursday, August 2, 2018 - link

    If you are a Trump voter the deep state is after you and if you are a democrat the Trump administration is after you. In all cases Russia and China would love a piece of you too. Also - you are an idiot if you would use a machine like this foe online banking and expect it to be secure.

    Luckily lots of idiots around so you can still hide in the masses. For now.
  • TheJian - Thursday, August 2, 2018 - link

    "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. Those Who Sacrifice Liberty For Security Deserve Neither. He who would trade liberty for some temporary security, deserves neither liberty nor security."
    Ben Franklin.

    You don't have a RIGHT to spy on me without PROBABLE CAUSE, followed by the acquisition of a REAL LEGAL WARRANT & not this fake fisa crap court junk that nobody can see (no chance to fight it).
  • halcyon - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link

    I was thinking the same (RE: IME v12 + force-integrated wifi). Time to pull out the chip/antenna I guess.

    People who don't get this, don't know the history/purpose of IME and know zero about hardware security.
  • smilingcrow - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link

    Most boards won't come with the optional WiFi chip which is needed to give a complete WiFi solution and as you say you can just remove it and use whatever network hardware you like.
  • Peter2k - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link

    And if a customer wants a board with WiFi they can buy one.
    I have a Z170 with Mu-MiMo WiFi.

    Integrating it into the chipset has zero benefit for the desktop space and basically just adds cost for everyone.
    It's only really useful for mobile as it should save a few watts here n there.

    Again if its important for you, you can get plenty of boards with WiFi.

    Btw, IME ≠ WiFi
    The complaints stem from the fact that IME might use the WiFi hardware on a low level even when you deactivate it.

    Not sure anyone knows really, it's rather undocumented for a reason.

    What's known is that Intel Management Engine can use the network and send and receive data even if your OS has a firewall.
    We also know it still runs even when the PC is switched off.
    It's always on and has its hands everywhere in the system.
    Its it's own "computer" with it's own OS.

    Integrating WiFi with IME might be a bad thing not just because of paranoid people fearing the NSA, but because IME has it's own flaws hackers might exploit.

    For ethernet, that might not be so bad, at least there is usually a router in between, but WiFi?
  • boeush - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link

    How would the IME obtain the requisite WiFi SSID and authentication info, in order to connect? I'd guess if IME wanted to use WiFi, it'd need your help to explicitly enable/configure that feature in the UEFI...
  • smilingcrow - Wednesday, August 1, 2018 - link

    The baked in WiFi in the chip-set is only half a solution so if you don't want to use it you either don't buy the optional add in chip or remove the one that is bundled with your board.
    It's really that straightforward unless IME can magically work with only half the WiFi hardware in place which does make a good conspiracy theory though! ;)
  • ikjadoon - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link

    Intel Smart Sound is listed twice in the table, FWIW.
  • abrowne1993 - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link

    It's stereo
  • FreckledTrout - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link

    lol :)
  • Dug - Thursday, August 2, 2018 - link

    Nice!
  • jcc5169 - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link

    intel continuing to rip off its customers ..... recycling old crap
  • halcyon - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link

    Hey, but you can wait another 1.25 years for their upgraded Z470 chipset, with PCIe 3.0, no more PCIe lanes, dual memory channels and DMI 3.1.

    Intel was caught down by AMD with their pants down. They had no backup plan. They had gotten very lazy.

    Thank god for competition.
  • LogitechFan - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link

    Or or... you can enjoy a 55nm X470 chipset right now, from penny pickers at ASSmedia and AMD, which can't even handle 2xM.2 drives used at ones without downgrading you PCIe slot to x8.
  • Hxx - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link

    as long as z370 supports Intel's upcoming 8 core chips in Q1 2019 then this chipset release should not be relevant to you.The moment z390 comes out, snag a cheap Z370 platform and you re gtg
  • smilingcrow - Wednesday, August 1, 2018 - link

    An upgrade to the crap that totally dominated the market for over a decade until last year.
    So can you imagine how crap the competition must have been then for over 10 years?
  • LogitechFan - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link

    Let's face it. AMD's ASSmedia 55nm X470 chipset is absolute and utter garbage. It's beyond garbage by 2018 standards. SO Z390 is still light ages ahead of the competition. Deal with it.
  • sa666666 - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link

    The trolls are out in force. Any post that contains "Let's face it" and "deal with it" can be completely ignored, as the rest is likely crap.

    Do you trolls all go to the same school? Because the responses always look exactly the same.
  • Makaveli - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link

    lol sa66666 so true.

    Almost as bad as a paid shill.
  • Cooe - Wednesday, August 1, 2018 - link

    Wow. This just might be the most worthless post I've ever seen on AnandTech over countless years. Congratulations buddy, rofl.
  • edzieba - Wednesday, August 1, 2018 - link

    Those 6 USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports are a pretty big deal for VR. 3rd party host controllers are a source of no end of latency headaches even if just present and active but unused.
  • Dr_b_ - Saturday, October 6, 2018 - link

    Z390 looks a lot like C246
  • FP | Spectrum - Sunday, October 14, 2018 - link

    Do they even support the 9th Gen Intel CPUs??

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