ideal computer

[debitto]

Hi, all, I hope that this is the right section, anyway, I bought a wifi pineapple, because I'm interested in this kind of things and recently I decided that I want study( and work) in the fields of Information security! I want buy a laptop, in which install Kali linux and do a little of practice. So I want buy a pc with the price around the 400$( If less, than better , also because I don't need a "super pc" :)) did you have some pc that can be ok for me?

[cooper]

I'm not going to recommend anything since this is your money and, as such, your responsibility. However:

- Since you want to use it for work aswell, you want it portable, so get a smallish, thin one.

- You could get one with a kick-ass graphics card to aid in cracking passwords, but I'd recommend you set up your home PC for that and just VPN into it when you want break some password hash. That way you can let that machine chew on a hash while you continue your investigation.

- If you want to do wifi attacks from the laptop directly, research what chip is used by the onboard wifi adapter and see how well-supported it is by Kali/Linux. On the other hand, you can always just use the Pineapple so this is probably less of a biggie.

- Larger screens can provide you with more information, but they eat more juice. Most laptops are Full HD (1920x1080) but I personally prefer WUXGA (1920x1200). Those 120 additional lines make a lot of difference in my experience. Lower resolutions tend to feel cramped really quickly, higher resolutions provide a lot of additional detail you probably won't be able to make out (like that whole retina crap) but will cost you a nice premium.

- Function over form. What does it do, and how well does it do it? Nice, shiny white plastic cover might look awfully snazzy, but it scratches at the first sign of trouble, bends like you wouldn't believe and breaks if you close the lid too quickly. That ugly, massive solid black cover on this other one that is difficult to open but allows you to beat an elephant to death while you're working on writing up an essay is probably the better choice. If you want to impress people with your laptop, spend more money and don't use it for work because it'll get beaten up quite a bit.

- See if there's a way to (get an) upgrade(d) battery to extend the runtime and really research how long the laptop can last on a full charge doing actual stuff (meaning not something like playing a movie, as this does not represent your expected workload). There's a good chance there's a wall socket nearby whenever you're doing something, but it's so much easier when you don't actually need one, for instance because you can simply replace the battery.

- If at all possible, buy something you've actually touched a bit. You're only going to notice the crap keyboard when you work on it. My HP ZBook 17 (a beast of a laptop. 3.5 KG in weight with a price starting at $1700 - very much NOT the laptop for you) has a truly CRAP keyboard. The space bar needs to be hit in the center otherwise the keypress doesn't register. I always use an external keyboard so it's no fuss, but if I worked on it directly, I'd be pretty pissed. Similarly, *ALL* laptop advertisements you will see will have a high-res image edited in where the screen is. *LOOK* at the actual screen or one with similar resolution to see the level of detail it provides. Flex the laptop a bit. Does it feel sufficiently sturdy?

- When you buy a laptop online that you've never handled yourself, make sure you've read reviews that take the time to discuss such features as described in the previous point since this is something you'll be using rather intensively for quite some time to come.

As an example for that last point, I currently own 3 Das Keyboard keyboards:

They were, at the time, about 120 euro each and the current model retails for about 100. When I show it to people who don't work in IT, they don't understand. "Why pay all that money for a keyboard that doesn't even have any letters on them?!?" The answer is because, to me, there simply is no better keyboard. Which is also why I bought 3 of them - one for work, one for at home, one spare. Yes, they cost a pretty penny, but when you're a carpenter, do you buy the cheap chisel and hammer that goes dull in a heartbeat and falls apart shortly after that, or do you get the expensive quality brand item that will last you close to a lifetime? I do everything with that keyboard. I don't know how many characters I type on an average day (might be an interesting statistic to keep track of...) but it's a considerable amount. I don't want to second-guess if I hit a key or not. This keyboard is intentionally noisy. When it clicks, the key press is registered so I know I can move my fingers to the next keys even if the machine hasn't caught on to it just yet. One of the leet consequences of that is that if someone walks up to me and asks me a question, I can look up to them and interact with them while still writing code (they hate it when I do that, thinking I'm not really paying attention. It's AWESOME!)

So I guess the point of this story is: spend your money on the things where you can get the most benefit from it. If there's something in your laptop which you're not going to use, you're wasting money purchasing it and it'll waste battery power idling while the machine is on. Know what your needs are and buy a machine with that in mind.

Feel free to come back with machines you're considering and why. Maybe people here have personal experience with them.

[JoeChip]

Just passing by, thanks for wise advice Cooper, for those who are intersted, i've Just found some Das Keyboards on amazon. but it's seems different that the one on your pic. I guess it's a new version.

[digip]

Kali runs ona WIDE variety of stuff these days, including micro arm devices and phones, so depending on what you want to do, you could probably go really cheap on this if just going for a kali test machine:

http://docs.kali.org/category/armel-armhf

The other option, is if you're machine you are using right now is beefy enough, install it in a VM, save money on hardware, and just purchase a WiFi USB adapter to pass to the machine, but if you own a desktop, then not portable like the items I linked above.

Edited January 2, 2015 by digip

[badbass]

See what epc has they have plenty of stuff. You may have to put a hard drive ram and an

o/S on it.