Certainly a beast of a system, but I'm finding out I actually need some more horsepower.
I'm studying Networking and Penetration Testing (Just starting out, any advice would be appreciated). I found out what virtualization was a few months ago and have been playing around with operating systems ever since. I'm starting to get into creating entire virtual networks and I just don't have the core count/ RAM to make the number of VMs I want or have them run as smooth as I'd like.
Enter the Xeon E5-2670. I found out about these 8 Core hyperthreading beauties and immediately started planning a new rig. If you don't know, these chips were dumped on the second hand market and go for $55-80 on Amazon and Ebay. I don't just want one, though. At $80 a piece, I want two.
It does, I was really considering using that board. SLI and USB 3.0, as well as possibly overclocking swayed me otherwise...though frankly I'm still not settled on a board.
If you're running VMs and you need VT-d, MAKE SURE that the 2670s you buy are the SR0KX stepping, not SR0H8. SR0H8 is the C1 stepping for the 2670, for which VT-d support is broken and turned off. They fixed it with SR0KX.
Make sure that the motherboard you get has good reviews. Supermicro boards are rock-solid but they take for-fucking-ever to post and boot because they're server boards. ASRock and Asus workstation boards are much better for more end-user-oriented systems.
And you should be fine with a couple of Hyper 212s. but make sure that whatever board you have supports standard LGA2011 mounting brackets, because some boards have the narrow ILM sockets rather than the standard square ILM sockets.
That was my issue as well, but then I realized I could sell the platform I have now. I can't find any other boards besides the Z9pe-d8 WS that has SLI and USB 3, though. USB 3 I can add with a PCI card, but SLI is defintely a thing for me.
That's what I was thinking, but at most I could only make up maybe most of the cost of the motherboard from my current platform. Wish there were more options for dual-socket motherboards... The Dell boards are cheap, but they're so barebones...
If you just now figured out what Virtualization is, you have a very long way to go before I would even begin to try penetration testing. I don't know what the big glorification of "Penetration Testing" lately is. Maybe the fact that there have been a rise in hacks lately? I mean, are you looking to make a career out of it? If so, don't bother. Unless you have a Security clearance and prior/currently in the Service. I also would not learn networking and penetration testing together. Whole different level there. Learn the systems. and I mean REALLY learn them to a point where you can manipulate them in ways they were not intended to be used. Then you can penetrate them.
If you don't even have any real SysAdmin real world experience, you're gonna have a hard time. And I mean at least 3-5 years of SysAdmin level work. Focus on the basics.
But as far as the build goes, get the v2 models because the stepping and VT-d has issues on the v1. Unless you don't care about VT-d.
Thanks for the Wisdom, that is exactly my plan. I don't plan to start pentesting for about 4-5 years, but this will help me setup, configure, mess with, break, and rebuild a crapton of networking environments.
I do care about VT-d, I wanna expiriment with some passthrough later on with multiple cards.
I plan on making a career out of it, yes. Maybe not specifically pentesting, but IT Security for sure. That and it seems like a fun/important skill to have.
Can't you guys just go out there and build infrastructure? What really pisses me off these days is you have these people who think they can just go out there and "be a hacker" and they DONT want to get their MCSE's and they DONT want to get a bachelors in Computer Science, they just want to just learn hacking.
Not saying that's your plan, but just a word of advice, if you really want to learn hacking, go out there and get a plain old PLAIN OLD Computer science degree. This will give you the necessary knowledge of how programs are written and software design. And also, get an MCSE, this will give you the expert know-how of how systems are built and industry Best Practices. You will THEN know the systems so well, you can look at how to break in.
Then if you really want to get serious, go get your CEH or whatever.
The unfortunate truth is, sure people may be looking for security people, they just don't want to pay for them. Don't plan on being an "Ethical Hacker" as a career title. Again, unless you have a Govt. security clearance (which are near impossible for Civillians) or are active Service(then they hand out clearances like candy), that's where the big bucks are in "ethical hacking" or "Penetration Testing"
Go down an IA route if you want to work with systems and patch vulnerabilities.
Unecessary rant is unecessary and could have been avoided by asking me what my career path plan was....
I just got an A+ and I'm working on a Network +. After that, MCSA and MCSE, then going after security certifications and a CCNA. I want to work on the security and prevention side of things for a while before I start pentesting. I don't want a CEH, I'm going for a CPTE and the end game is a CISSP once I have the experience.
Going back to the reason for my original post: Are they any tweaks you would make to the system I'm thinking of building? (First to learn networking and administering systems)