Laptop suggestion for kali?

[tnraines]

I am considering purchasing another laptop for which sole purpose will be pentesting. As addressed in another thread going to do a desktop for heavywork of password cracking. I currently have a toshiba satellite running i7-3610QM running at 2.30GHz with 16gigs of RAM, its a 3rd gen i7 but does most things decently, however it is my main computer for my college courses for at least another 3 months and I can not sacrifice it.

Or should I consider putting in a 1TB or larger hard drive and dual booting it? Also they make adapters that I can replace my optic drive for another hard drive. (Both would be cheaper then a new laptop )

The only option is to buy something else. I am not asking what laptop is best for hacking etc. Just asking for more experienced opinions on what to look for with that in mind far as features, brands and I will go from there.

[staticn0de]

I use a cheap (about $650) laptop which is a couple of months old. It's a toshiba satellite running an i5 @ 2.6Ghz with 16Gb of RAM (I installed the 16gb myself, it came with 4gb).

I also installed a new wifi card (wireless AC 5Ghz intel 7260) and an SSD (256GB) which is dual boot windows 8.1 and kali 1.0.9a.

I could have spent the money outright and have the SSD ect but I went with the cheaper model and was not happy with it after some use. In the end, its a decent computer. I don't need super high specs.

I'd just install a 512GB SSD in what you have now and be happy with it. Even a super powerful laptop, top of the line, thousands of dollars, can not compare with a middle range desktop with some moderately priced graphics card.

You don't need huge power to pentest. If you are brute forcing, nothing you will find in a laptop will come close to a desktop so unless your pockets are heavy, it's not really worth the money.

But hey, that's just my 2c.

[tnraines]

That would be easiest and cheapist route

[lianna]

I use a cheap (about $650) laptop which is a couple of months old. It's a toshiba satellite running an i5 @ 2.6Ghz with 16Gb of RAM (I installed the 16gb myself, it came with 4gb).

I also installed a new wifi card (wireless AC 5Ghz intel 7260) and an SSD (256GB) which is dual boot windows 8.1 and kali 1.0.9a.

I could have spent the money outright and have the SSD ect but I went with the cheaper model and was not happy with it after some use. In the end, its a decent computer. I don't need super high specs.

I'd just install a 512GB SSD in what you have now and be happy with it. Even a super powerful laptop, top of the line, thousands of dollars, can not compare with a middle range desktop with some moderately priced graphics card.

You don't need huge power to pentest. If you are brute forcing, nothing you will find in a laptop will come close to a desktop so unless your pockets are heavy, it's not really worth the money.

But hey, that's just my 2c.

I have it installed on a top of the line alienware laptop that was worth a ridiculous amount of money when i bought it. This is because I literally own no other computer and as this guy said it still doesn't compare to a regular mediocre desktop. So I would say if you have a desktop available to you for password cracking and whatnot get something cheap and easy to carry around - mine is also ridiculously bulky and heavy - if I had options I would not have chosen this for my kali install, especially if I could have a desktop for the brute forcing stuff and use the laptop as something easy to carry around and maintain Being lightweight and easy to carry around is more important than you'd think - every time I have to move this one from my room which is daily I want to cry and it eats up battery power ridiculously fast. Don't go for top of the line super powerful laptop if it's not necessary, go cheap and efficient. If I had known this would be my hobby when I was buying this laptop I'd have a desktop and a laptop for the same stupid price, blah.

[Saturbo]

I will be repurposing an ASUS Zenbook (Ivy Bridge i-5, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD). My next steps are to repurpose an old Windows gaming PC with a Sandy Bridge i-7 and Crossfired Radeon 6870s as my workhorse and getting my hands on a OnePlus One along with some fixins as a Nethunter device.

I'm a cyber enthusiast with an advanced degree and some certs with a few years before I am allowed to break into the industry, so I am getting into some research in the meantime.

[tnraines]

I want to thank those who have commented on this and my other post. Seems I don't need a new laptop, not really

[undersc0re]

Like one guy said, if your going to be capturing files and run wordlists against them, you would be better off using the old desktop with a decent video card or cards to do that(waayyy faster), everything else your average laptop is just fine in my opinion, I am still very new at all this though. Your average laptop is not good for running wordlists, and if you did it would be running pretty hot and slow for lengthy periods.