As to the initial question, I'd suggest Supermicro with the new AMD EPYC Rome CPUs (I should receive them in november-december when NVMe-native models are ready). Much better than Intel+Dell, though still proprietary.
If you are ok with something more exotic but more open and in server class, you have Talos II from Raptor Computing: https://secure.raptorcs.com/content/base/products.html, but to run OpenBSD on it ppc64 arch support would be needed. Some 2 years ago I was thinking about buying a Talos II Entry-Level Developer System and sending it to some dev to get the support, but then I learned about RISC-V (though it's not in the server class even in mid-term plans). On 7/9/19 17:30, James Huddle wrote: > I recently purchased a Dell T-330 server that I had intended to > install OpenBSD on and use as a serious web server. My goal was to > have more control than would be (naturally) given with, say an AWS VM. > And by control, I mean what is *not* running on the box - security-wise. > > Apparently, Dell ships these with an abundance of "security features" > already on the box. And not a lot of obvious opt-outs. And a proclivity > not not understand that "no means no" in regard to turning off these > features. > One of which used 60% of (one of 8) processors, all the time. Constantly > running > one of my processors at 60% - as long as it was powered up. > > I understand that there are times when good security requires such measures. > I do. And if I trusted Dell with 100% of my security needs, I'd be ok if > it phoned > home a lot, or repeatedly powered up my external HD after a total power > down, > etc. > > But I am under-educated and over-paranoid, and so I'm hoping that the > people on this list can offer some suggestions of machines that they use > as internet servers. I'm looking for *more* power and *less* stuff running > in the background when booting from a newly-installed OS (like obsd). > I can and will go with a 10-yr-old desktop model, if that's what it takes to > achieve "radio silence" when I'm not running anything. > > Can you tell me what you like to use? > Thank you in advance. > -Jim Huddle >
