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Thread: Thinking of upgrading due to spectre bug

  1. #1
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    Thinking of upgrading due to spectre bug

    Hi

    I can't remeber if its sectre or meltdown that needs the bios update for motherboard all I know is that my z97 from gigabyte will not be getting the update :/

    Is it worth upgrading just for this? My current system has a xeon E3-1231V3 equivalent to an haswel i7

    my system is fast enough from my needs but I am wondering now whether it is worth upgrading since I won't be getting a bios update.
    Last edited by rob4001; 09-05-2018 at 10:46 PM.

  2. #2
    don't stock motherhoods
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    Re: Thinking of upgrading due to spectre bug

    I'm not entirely sure if the answer is obvious but I would say if you are doing something like crypto or perhaps online banking where your browsers are saving the passwords or whatever then - Yep.
    hexus trust : n(baby):n(lover):n(sky)|>P(Name)>>nopes

    Be Careful on the Internet! I ran and tackled a drive by mining attack today. It's not designed to do anything than provide fake texts (say!)

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    Re: Thinking of upgrading due to spectre bug

    I don't think the bug is as bad as people made of it - if you could read a bit more into it, you'd realise that the information people could actually get out of the bug are fairly limited, unless you work in a top secret environment.

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    Re: Thinking of upgrading due to spectre bug

    My opinion is no although there are people on here more knowledgable than I. I have not used antivirus protection on any of my PCs for years and have found life to be far better without them. I've had FAR more issues caused by AV software than by viruses. That said, I don't go to dodgy websites and so on. Which brings me to my point. IF you are worldly wise enough to not go to dodgy websites, not open dodgy looking email attachments and so on, your odds of getting a virus are extremely slim. I occasionally do an online virus check if anything weird happens and they just keep finding stuff like cookies and telling me that as a result of them, I need to purchase their AV software.

    In my view, the vulnerabilities which were exposed are major but not really for the home gamer. I would consider upgrading on the grounds of these vulnerabilities being exposed IF:
    1) You updated and it ruined performance.
    2) You really can't stop visiting pr0n or warez sites and downloading whatever they have to offer as well as clicking on as many adverts as possible with zero protection.
    3) You have OCD which means all email attachments must be opened regardless of source.
    4) You allow random strangers amred with USB keys loaded with malware to use your computer on a regular basis.
    5) You have information on your PC relating to national security or private data covered under data protection laws.

    I seem to remember that to exploit these bugs you really do have to work with a significant level of stupid on the other end so if you're sensible, you should be fine. I certainly am not upgrading due to a lack of mobo support. I'll be running this PC into the proverbial ground.

  5. #5
    Moosing about! CAT-THE-FIFTH's Avatar
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    Re: Thinking of upgrading due to spectre bug

    Quote Originally Posted by philehidiot View Post
    My opinion is no although there are people on here more knowledgable than I. I have not used antivirus protection on any of my PCs for years and have found life to be far better without them. I've had FAR more issues caused by AV software than by viruses. That said, I don't go to dodgy websites and so on. Which brings me to my point. IF you are worldly wise enough to not go to dodgy websites, not open dodgy looking email attachments and so on, your odds of getting a virus are extremely slim. I occasionally do an online virus check if anything weird happens and they just keep finding stuff like cookies and telling me that as a result of them, I need to purchase their AV software.

    In my view, the vulnerabilities which were exposed are major but not really for the home gamer. I would consider upgrading on the grounds of these vulnerabilities being exposed IF:
    1) You updated and it ruined performance.
    2) You really can't stop visiting pr0n or warez sites and downloading whatever they have to offer as well as clicking on as many adverts as possible with zero protection.
    3) You have OCD which means all email attachments must be opened regardless of source.
    4) You allow random strangers amred with USB keys loaded with malware to use your computer on a regular basis.
    5) You have information on your PC relating to national security or private data covered under data protection laws.

    I seem to remember that to exploit these bugs you really do have to work with a significant level of stupid on the other end so if you're sensible, you should be fine. I certainly am not upgrading due to a lack of mobo support. I'll be running this PC into the proverbial ground.
    It does affect gamers though and too many review sites tested games without understanding why it would affect certain games.

    The bug patches affect I/O performance. I/O performance affects open world and modded games.

    I play Fallout 4 which is I/O dependent especially modded and the performance drop on my IB CPU was noticeable in areas which required a lot of loading or streaming of assets. Examples include the inner city areas of the world which are very densely packed.

    DF tested The Witcher 3 and saw a nearly 10% performance drop and that game is not as I/O dependent as FO4. Most websites tested newer CPUs too and not older ones which look to be generally worse affected at the time.
    Last edited by CAT-THE-FIFTH; 29-07-2018 at 09:16 AM.

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    Re: Thinking of upgrading due to spectre bug

    A couple of things to consider - from someone who works in the IT security industry.

    Typically, post Microsoft patch Tuesday, there is a delay of appx. 4 hours before there are exploits out in the wild hitting/attempting to hit those vulnerabilities. It has been over 6 months since the big announcement and there is still no exploit code out there that isn't the proof of concept code originally released. Yes, there are quite a few malware variants, however every single one of them to my knowledge uses the PoC exploit code. These vulnerabilities are extremely difficult to exploit.

    Secondly, vulnerabilities of these types will keep getting found, including on newer CPU's.

    If you're really worried still, make sure your anti virus/anti malware has features like behavior/process monitoring/script protection/exploit blocking capabilities. Note that the more features used, the higher the likelihood of false positives or a negative impact to your experience. Be prepared to understand how to correctly whitelist executables etc. Often, different capabilities have different whitelists.
    "In a perfect world... spammers would get caught, go to jail, and share a cell with many men who have enlarged their penises, taken Viagra and are looking for a new relationship."

  7. #7
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    Re: Thinking of upgrading due to spectre bug

    I'm impressed with Malwarebytes by the way. I only bought a year license (<£10) cause my brother likes to hold some crypto situate value moaney on my PC.

    It's been impressive. So, yeah, I mainly went for well over 20 years with no AV, but I'm happy with that code.
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  8. #8
    No-one's Fanboi Thorsson's Avatar
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    Re: Thinking of upgrading due to spectre bug

    Strange. My recent experience with MB, having used them for years, is that they were now causing me issues - so I switched to BitDefender.

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