We've been running on a Lenovo Legion laptop - Ryzen 7 4800H, 32GB ram, 512GB nvme, GTX 1650, Win 11, VMware Workstation Pro for 2 years. Beast crunches quickly and is rock solid. $1200CAD at time of purchase.
I use a gaming PC i built in 2019 for everything 5800x3d (8 cores) 32 GB RAM 1TB NVME SSD Okay, it was originally a 3800X (which still ran everything fine.) I switched CPUs recently because a friend was changing platforms. All the TCM courses I've done I did on the 3800X. My GPU is a 2080 and has been sufficient for courses and also some real world password cracking for my day job.
If you don't mind used, consider a Lenovo ThinkStation P520. I got one earlier this year with a 6-core xeon process, 32gb ram, no hdd or gpu for $190 on ebay. I installed a 1tb nvme and 1tb ssd along with an RTX 2070 after receiving it. I'll be upgrading ram later.
I am in university right now and doing some pentesting in my internships and I recently bought an ASUS TUF A15 2022 which has 16 gigs RAM, 1 TB SSD, AMD Ryzen 7 6800H processor and an RTX 3050Ti CPU and it is working brilliantly. Also, I found it to be the most cost effective option in this configuration.
Bought a second hand MacBook Pro 2015 for 250 euro then upgraded it with 32 gb of ram when I started. And a new 1tb ssd, It got me through college pretty easily and was super snappy with virtual box running multiple VM’s.
I bought an old Thinkpad off marketplace for $180. Ram was upgradable. Now it has 512gb SSD, 32gb ram, and upgraded screen to 1080p and it has a Ryzen 5. All for less than $400 total.
I bought an Acer Aspire 5 with Ryzen 7 5700U, 24 GB RAM and 500 SSD, for about 700 dollars brand new. Works great, used it for my CCNA certification studies, had no problems loading 6-7 virtual machines at once with packettracer and GNS3. I put Linux Mint on it as my OS, and virtualbox for all my virtualization needs. Awesome machine so far. Might upgrade the RAM to 64GB at one point if i need to, it has the option.
Perfect timing for the video. The problem I have with my silicon Mac is its architecture. Especially when it comes down to docker containers that only support amd64 etc. It’s a great machine but virtualization is still a pain. Keep that in mind. Btw. I tried emulation etc. but it’s too slow to use.
I actually built a tower over the past couple of years for video editing and music production that is being repurposed to accommodate my cybersecurity degree training as well. Have a recent i7 on it, with at least 64GB of ram, plus two ssds, one a 500GB SATA and the other a 1TB NVME m.2. Also have thunderbolt and an old nvidia based graphics card. All of this along with liquid cooling for the CPU and plenty of case fans to minimize heat and keep things running efficiently. Built for another power use purpose, but will easily pull double duty.
MSI GF75 thin I've upgraded to 64Gb ram and 1.5Tb storage with i7 10th Gen and a good GPU. Got in on a black Friday sale. Have also just bought a refurbished M2 from Amazon. For daily driver.
Don't get discouraged if you're broke. When it comes to learning, literally have the bare minimum will get you super far. For a laptop I bought an old i5 5th gen 8gb DDR3 thinkpad for $100 of ebay. Runs Linux just fine. When I bought a PC, it was an i5 8th gen w/ 16gb of ram. More than enough to run my host OS and 2 VMs, although they didn't have too much juice. You don't need a lot to learn. You won't be labbing a 6 VM lab, but you don't need to. Most of these are hilariously overpowered for most pentesting related activities. It is nice to have, but not required more often than not.
I use x230 a 12 year old laptop, It got me through linux mastery, My tips for really broke people, go for ram and ssd and dual boot kali linux then virtual ram a single os on kali, that's helps me to learning newer hacking techniques.
Ebay $300 I got an immaculate core i7 8th gen Dell Precision with 32GB Skill RipJaw RAM and a Nvidia quadro. Has NVME storage and room for a SATA Drive 6 cores 12 threads. I am no IT Pro but what ive learned in just one year with this Laptop. I also run Linux dual Boot on my 2015 MacBook Pros 16GB RAM. Several Distros run flawlessly even on my Macs. Haven't ran Linux on my M! Mac yet
Because I like to play games from time to time I’m running an i9 12700K, 64GB RAM, and 10 TB of drive space. I have a good chunk of VMs. Still not the behemoth that Heath’s system is but it gets the job done without issues.
University student, I have a laptop its pretty old but it still works MSI Gp62m 7RDX Leopard config: i7-7700 HQ 16 gb ddr4 4 gb GTX 1050 128 gb M.2 ssd 1tb 7200 RPM Dual booted
XMG NEO '23 : a watercooled laptop monster (crunching the numbers is not a problem) I9 13900HX (overclocked and undervolt = 13980HX), 32GB DDR5 5600 CL45 OCed to 6600 CL40 and a NVIDIA 4080 Mobile (4070ti castrated 35 terraflops FP32/64 for cracking purpose) RAID-1 16TB SSD NVME and a waterblock AIO OASSIS ...
Dell Precision 5540, $400 refurbished. 8 cores i7, 32gb ram, 512gb ssd, thunderbolt and plenty of other ports. Also a gpu to accelerate brute forcing. Perfect for my current cybersecurity courses.
I've been using a Chromebook converted to a Linux machine for the last few months (with Parrot OS). Only has 4 GB of RAM and a dual core with no hyperthreading. It works well on bare metal but struggles when spinning up a virtual machine. So, I just got a good deal on Amazon primeday for a refurbished quad core (8 hyper threaded) with 16GB of RAM for $215. If I need something more powerful, I just use my desktop with either Kali live on a thumbdrive or VM.
If you end up with the need to crack some passwords and you are low on budget, would a cloud provider instance (AWS, Azure,...) with some beefy GPU's not be more 'economical'?
HP victus 16GB Ram 512GB SSD, 5600H processor, RX5700M GPU. Storage is the only issue I'm facing will soon be upgrading to 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage
This makes me feel a lot better about the hardware I have to learn on. One question though, doesn't apple have some issues with virtualization now that their processors are ARM based?
You will definitely find some things that you won't be able to virtualize right now. It seems like most companies are working towards ways to support the new M1 and M2s though, so hopefully sooner rather than later we'll get more support.
Yes the new M series processors are a different architecture so although you can run arm versions of linux and windows, there are a lot of limitations. An older Mac i7 might be a better option if you are going down that path. I use a M1 Mac 90% of the time doing Systems Admin, but also have a legion 5 gaming laptop, that oddly enough I often have running beside me and remote into to run virtual box. I would suggest getting as much memory as you can afford and ideally M2 or SSD drive 1Tb. This is only due to us running up to 5 Virtual Machines at once for some labs. In the home environment I use a server with Proxmox on it.
I am a cyber student. I have an MSI i7 8core 32 GB RAM and 512 GB hard drive. I have a 2nd, a Dell g7 7588 with a 6 core i7 I upgraded to 32 GB of RAM it has a Samsung 980 EVO nvme 2.0 1 TB SSD and a 1 TB HDD. I was thinking of trying to sell the Dell and get an older Mac, 2019-pre M1. Thoughts?
I run Burp on my 8 year old Chromebook all the time. Set up a swap partition with 8gb of space. It’s slower than RAM, but I haven’t been able to notice it. I have an HP laptop with 16gb and my Chromebook works just as well.
I am an absolute beginner and am trying to learn programming/coding and ethical hacking. I am also in the process of building my pc. Will a ryzen 7 7700x and 32 gb ddr5 ram be very good at running multiple virtual machines (like 3 or more) very fast?
Do you have health full build ? Honestly never gonna build something like that, Just curious of all the stuff he used for his build out of pure curiosity 😮😮😮
I brought a cheap new laptop for 250 and converted it into a badass parrot os hacking laptop. I used to convert first gen chromebooks into Kali laptops for my classmates.
I don't like Windows very much, I have Kali on Apple Silicon on VMWare. Do you need to know Windows if you want to get into Cybersecurity? Only downside I've find so far is you can't access Tor using Kali on a modern MacBook.
Windows by default tend to be one of the most exploited operating systems. Depending on the exact role you are looking for in cybersecurity it would almost always be beneficial for you to learn the Windows OS.
@@NeverDoubtMe23 I've made a start and really like it so far. Got a couple of books. Good thing with Mac is you can use the Terminal to practice without leaving Mac too.
Lenovo P52 i7 8th gen, 40GB Ram, triple booting kali, 10Pro, Server 2019, but going up to 64GB Ram. Ideally 128 would be nice. When I run aircrack to find the wifi pw my system is maxed out immediately! 😂
While I can appreciate the whole "minimalist" mindset in regards to hardware?...I believe that today?....you're pretty much future proofing yourself if you go with an i7 / i9 / AMD Ryzen 7 / Ryzen 9...and either 16 or 32GB of RAM. Sure an i5 and 8GB of RAM with a 256GB or 512GB SSD is nice and "usable"?...for Mom to check e-mails or for Dad to download custom paint photos of his favorite auto.......anything you might want to do today?...from streaming, to gaming, to calculating, to drawing etc?....is going to run smoother, display better, perform better with upgraded tech....so the "typical" or the "Ideal" setup would be: an i7 or grater a Ryzen7 or greater, a 1TB or 2TB SSD (Better even if you can get a 4TB SSD!) 16GB or 32GB of the "fastest' RAM" that will run on your system.++ / Java / Python coding...etc. And because of the larger SSD sizes?...there's no need to install or run those "Dick Tools" which are supposed to squeeze out more space for you! Just my opinions....
I have two options to go with. 1. i9 13th gen 32gb 1tb 4080 gpu 2. Macbook M3 Pro M3 Max 32GB 1TB I dont have a problem with the cost, which one should I buy?
Hello there. Having trouble choosing between intel or amd I’m new to this & hear all kind of stuff from both. But which would be better or the best choice. Thank you.
I have a HP Omen 16 Laptop, gaming spec with intel i7, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, however, I bought this once went up in my career and cost me £1650, and personally did have a Macbook Pro but struggled with VM so say stick to Windows. Also, I did but Kali on a Raspberry Pi as bare bones, its great but never do this on a laptop, Linux is great but report writing will frustrate you to point of throwing your PC/Laptop out of window lol
I have a beginner question. I just started using Cherry Tree to take notes, and love the format. However, when I save a file, I try to go back and open it and all it pulls up is xml, or SQL. Is this right??? If not, what is going on??? Do I need to try and just run the code?? And if so, how do I. Thank you so much.
I'm running a ryzen 9 5900x 12 core 24 thread (Beast of a CPU highly recommend) RX 6700XT ( which I may need to upgrade, need to test with more complex hashes) 16 GB of ram :( [ I can run 4 VMS no problem, it may lag at times for certain tasks] OS is on a 250 GB SSD, Everything else goes into 2TBs of NVME storage. Edit: I will recommend a big case, better airflow, more space for drives, cooling solutions, and leds lol
That is a solid build for sure! Are the LEDs really needed though? lol! Definitely can agree on more space for drives and cooling solutions/airflow, makes a huge difference.
pulled from a waste container - two HP Z820, both with dual Xeon 6 core/2.9Ghz, one with a Quadro 2000 and the other with a P5000, both 512GB SDD and 4TB - one with 256GB RAM and the other only 128GB RAM. DDR3 Registred ECC RAM is (nearly) dirt cheap. All I have had to pay was the RAM, less than €350 BTW as a virtual environment would it be possible with Proxmox?
Do you have Heaths full build? Honestly never gonna build something like that, just curious of all the stuff he used for his build out of pure curiosity.
Are you able to use the Tesla series cards for password cracking? Curious if something like a Tesla v100 or even the cheaper Tesla P100 would compete with 4090s in term of powers. Obviously you cant really use that for home uses (which i assume Heath is doing as well)
I’m using an 8 year old acer Chromebook with 4gb ram, 256gb NVME drive and 8gb swap partition. Seriously. It’s my favorite one, just because of how small it is. I can crack hashes with my desktop. I’m actually setting up labs with my desktop (x99 board with 64gb ram, e5 2690 v4 cpu, RX590 gpu), then I’ll use my Manjarobook to actually hack the Windows VMs I’m setting up. Literally all of my hardware is old, refurbished or second hand. You can do this shit for pretty cheap. PS, I fucking HATE Kali Linux. I use Manjaro. Setup the AUR and run the script from Blackarch for their repository and you’ll be able to set it up EXACTLY how you want it with all of the tools you’ll need. It’s easier to setup Manjaro like this and takes WAY less time than kalis million hour install.
As i played less games and virtualize more, i've gone with 32GB ram route and upgraded from 6/12 cores Intel to 8/16 Ryzen. No need to upgrade my 1070 till now, only thinking about it to use LAMA AI (12 GB prefered vram)
I just ordered a $12k pc that will definitely be sufficient. Not just for hacking, but gaming and studio shit too. Intel 13th gen rapter lake. 128gb ram... bruteforce and password spraying gonna take mere minutes
my laptop is not made for hardwork i just use it when i need a portable device but when it comes to hardwork that when my desktop comes in i have Core i5 12600 K with 10 Cores and 16 threads 32 GB RAM RTX 2080 super 1x 512 NVME SSD , 1x 512 normal SSD 3x 2TB HDD I like gaming also that's why i have this specs XD
I just got a lenovo t430 think pad for £139 so about 100 usd 16 gb ram 128 gb storage and the i5 dual core which is OK if I only use parrot os but I want to swap out to the i7 quad core and swapping out the ssd for a 1 tb then add a second as well then I want to get a dock or that ultra surface thing I think it's called but basically like a mobile friendly dock but could get one of those battery switches top
My last laptop with parrot os was a dell 630 and it was running on imaginary ram somehow both its ram cards were missing but still displaying 1 gb installed ram was missing the bios battery under the battery at least I think it was the bios battery but it still out performed my Mrs hp laptop for web development she had 8 gb ram and a 4 tb ssd and another 500gb ssd and I'm not sure what processor she had she doesn't like computers much any more but yea the only thing it couldn't really do is compile code or anything with 3d imaging but ran all the hacking tools like a charm somehow I still have it and will keep on using it I'm thinking about using it to mine some monero once I swapp out its hard drive for a 500 gb ssd I'm a poor bastard lol
That’s what I use but I run off virtual machines that are running off cloud servers. So when I am cracking passwords I’m using the cloud machines Tesla gpus
Is lenovo thinkpad e14 ryzen 5 7530u 16 gb 512gb a good choice or i can get acer nitro 5 ryzen 7 7735hs 16gb ddr5 512 gen4 ssd budget is 70 - 80 thousand INR.
I have a 4core 8 thread processor and 8 gb ram and having just 1 windows virtual machine opened severely lags my computer or even freezes it completely. How is it possible to have more than 1 vm running at the same time with these pc specs?
