So You Want To Be A Hacker
There are many good and bad reasons to hack. Since you’re here, I’m pretty sure you want to hack for the right reasons. Ethical hacking is a necessity in this day and age. And with malicious coding on the rise, we need more white-hat computer wizards than ever before.
Whether you have lofty corporate ambitions or just want to keep you and your family safe, you’ll need to have the right equipment to be an effective hacker. And that means getting a high-powered laptop to be effective. As the title implies, the purpose of this post is to familiarize the reader with the most important specs to hack effectively without costly delays.
Of course, you’ll need a hefty suite of software tools to get the job done, but that’s outside the scope of this article. You can find a definitive guide to the necessary ethical hacking tools at https://www.tutorialspoint.com/ethical_hacking/ethical_hacking_tools.htm. Continue reading to learn about the most important computer specs for hackers.
Here’s What You Need To Know
It’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty. White-hat is a specific set of activities. Deviation from these activities can put you at risk with the law. You can even become a certified ethical hacker! It’s best to get informed(and even certified) to protect yourself and define your practices. You can learn more about white-hat activities and C|EH certification at https://www.eccouncil.org/ethical-hacking/.
First off, you’re going to need to do some serious data crunching. Hackers need to gain access to data. This means you’ll be trying to crack passwords and decrypt some of the highest level encryptions available.
Next, you’ll need to be able to run virtual machines. You’ll even need to imbed virtual machines within virtual machines. This all adds up to lots of processing power.
Finally, you’ll need a machine that can utilize all programming environments and in all languages. You may also want to run some different hacking games. This is so you can get some much-needed practice in without causing any damage to a real system.
If you don’t want to labor over data about processing threads and front-side bus speeds, you might want to just define your budget and start looking in the right places for your machine. Once you have a good idea of how much you want to spend and what you need, you can start shopping. For a budget of around $1000, the experts over at https://www.laptopblogger.com/ would suggest the following model MSI GF 65 for example but there are many more to choose from. Regardless of whether or not you are ready to buy, it helps to have a good understanding of the basic specifications and some popular laptop models that meet them. So let’s continue.
The Essential Specs
These are the things that are most important for any ethical hacker:
- CPU processing power
- GPU processing speed
- Lots and lots of RAM
- SSD Storage
It’s worth noting that the following specs are the absolute minimum that you need to do the job comfortably. It’s likely that if you only get the minimums, you’ll find yourself pretty frustrated. So consider beefing up these minimums substantially.
CPU
The AMD Ryzen or Intel i9 is what you need. The work you will be doing is very processing intensive. And you’ll be multi-tasking all the time. So make sure you spend a little extra on a high-quality CPU.
GPU
Any high-end gaming card will do. You’ll need the extra processing power to brute force those passwords and to help out with the many other processing tasks you’ll be doing.
RAM
The bare minimum is 8GB, but if you spend your hard-earned cash anywhere, spend it here and max out your laptop RAM.
SSD Storage
SSD storage is much faster than traditional hard drive technology. With an SSD you have almost no wait time on boot up or after waking up your computer. It’s also important to use SSD memory with fast computers or else the HDD will create a bottleneck of performance and all your high-powered chips will be waiting around for the hard drive to catch up.
There are so many things to consider, but this should be enough to get you started. Don’t forget to research and gather a robust set of software tools to accompany your new computer. Whatever you choose, don’t skimp on your RAM or CPU. Buying high-quality equipment will save you lots of time and frustration later. Good luck and happy hacking!
