We often get asked what type of computer you need to get started when you want to start your learning journey into IT or cybersecurity. In this video, Zach goes over some of the basic computer requirements you should have to make the most of your learning journey and to get the most bang for your buck.
We have included resources below from the video.
Virtual Box: www.virtualbox.org/
VMWare Workstation Player: www.vmware.com/content/vmware...
Kali Linux: www.kali.org/
Microsoft Windows Server 2019: www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalc...
Microsoft Windows 10: www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalc...
TCM Academy: tcm.rocks/academy
Pentests & Security Consulting: tcm-sec.com
Get Trained: academy.tcm-sec.com
Get Certified: certifications.tcm-sec.com
Merch: merch.tcm-sec.com
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Unless you are cracking passwords any machine that runs Linux will work
For those who love both OS environments, would you recommend WSL2.?
For real. Does Linux do windows passwords and bios
If you're using your home PC to crack passwords you're old-school. Why do that when I can rent a much more efficient GPU
@@ricolaw2571 Yes, let the NSA and CIA know what you are doing. good luck with that.
Awesome to see the Cyber Mentor and Team Zach mashup! Watched your KZhead channel years ago when I got started in IT.
Thank you for the support!! - Zach
It's always top notch content. You guys have demystified a lot of stuffs in Cyber Security and I really appreciate you guys. Thank you so much.
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.
Great video!!! My main rig is a custom build finished in 2021. i9(10 cores) 64GB RAM 932GB HD 4TB SSD Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Kraken X cooler
I like that Run CMD hang up 🤙🏼 It brings me back lol✌🏼
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.
32gb of ram??? That just wow
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.
Good stuff. Dewalt is the GOAT. You guys are great and this is very informative video Zach! Thank you TCM Security!
Dewalt is definitely 100% the GOAT, you aren't wrong. Glad you found this useful, thank you so much!
@@TCMSecurityAcademy Not a troll, nor a liar...
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.
For sure, buying used is really the best way to go when you're trying to keep things affordable.
Damn that’s a steal!
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.
For sure, it seems like they are working towards getting the virtualization issues resolved so that's always good to hear.
UTM has been working great on the new gen Mac’s for me
UTM and Parallel's works great on my m1 macbook@@frodobe_tbaggin3146
whats the effectiveness of parallels?, It seems fairly user friendly.
Is there any update on this? The SANS Institute courses still have a disclaimer that M1 Macs can't be used for their training. @@TCMSecurityAcademy
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.
This is the way right here!! Love seeing that. That MacBook will still hold strong today.
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'?
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 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.
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.
That’s a great deal!
Ryzen 5 old?
Alienware m15 - i7 12th gen, 2TB, 16GB (to be upgraded to 64)... But years ago I started with an Acer Aspire One 😊
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.
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
very helpful, thank you so much.
was looking for something like this.. now got it!
Glad to hear that, good luck to you!
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.
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.
i am currently using an intel i7 6 gen HQ laptop with 8 GB RAM and 250 Gigs of SSD and 1 TB of HDD running KALI on dual boot with my windows
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 was thinking of laptop to get for cybersecurity, then boom this video was on my notification bar thanks guys
It's like we read your mind! Good luck to you on your journey!
Thanks for your guidance...
You're welcome 😊
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?
just curious if you think running on a VM is fine or should i just go baremetal setup and a dedicated system?
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.
Nice! Glad that you found something that works for you!
Hie, I am thinking to buy Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 with ryzen 7 6800h , 16 gb 4800mhz , 512 gb ssd is it ok for PJPT ?
Great information man :-)
Glad it was helpful!
Amazingly comprehensive video. Enjoyed it. 👍+💬
Thank you very much, we greatly appreciate your feedback!
Just enrolled to PJPT few days ago and purchased a custom build desktop. Ryzen 7 5600G with 32gb Ram 1 TB SSD and 5600xt PG D3 GPU :)
You will definitely be good to go! Good luck on your PJPT!
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 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 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 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.
That’s a great deal honestly. Thank you for sharing.
Great Video!
Thanks for the visit, glad you enjoyed it!
I think i will buy an amazon firestick instead.
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?
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.
Great Thanks for sharing
You’re welcome!
Thank you!
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)
Sounds like you'll be good to go!
Ebay $300 I got an immaculate core i7 8th gen Dell Precision with 32GB Skill RipJaw RAM and a Nvidia quadro. Has NVME storage and room for a SATA Drive 6 cores 12 threads. I am no IT Pro but what ive learned in just one year with this Laptop. I also run Linux dual Boot on my 2015 MacBook Pros 16GB RAM. Several Distros run flawlessly even on my Macs. Haven't ran Linux on my M! Mac yet
is the m series good fit for cyber security because i have heard about virtualization issues
Great Content ...
I got used lenovo t480 for 100$ 16gb ram and 256 ssd. Installed kali. Works like a charm.
That is a great deal! Where did you find that deal?
@@TCMSecurityAcademymonitored eBay for a week
RAM is probably soldered, eh?
@@cacogenicistno. U can swap it
@@cacogenicist2 ram slot on t480.
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
Bro.....just today i upgraded my laptop from 8 to 16 gb ram for cyber.....awesome timing
Haha, that IS awesome timing! Good luck and have fun!
I'm riding the harsh tide of virtualization using my x230 thinkpad from mid 2012, I am using minoxidil right now cause I REALLY REALLY NEED IT...
I want Heath's build. I currently run a HP gaming laptop with 32gigs of ram. Just need to update the SSD
Old lenovo tiny with a 4th gen CPU and decent base specs are available for $50 a pop, maybe less. No need to spend more than that to start.
Can you correct the "Cali" in the timestamp please, it's messing me up.
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 ...
That sounds like an absolute monster!
I'm going purchases a mac mini m2 pro with 32GB RAM 2TB SSD is it will help me in Hacking field or should I spend on a windows machine??
That hat is litt. we need that merch
We're working on it! Thank you!
which course should I go for inorder for me to master all this
THX :)
for having windows as main os (native) nowdays sadly is at least 16GB ram , agree on that
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.
How is i9, RTX 4060 combination?
Just realized this is the big guy been watching for years
I am looking to go bare metal for cyber deployments... actual missions. I have a separate laptop with VM's for testing and learning.
Apparently all you need is a fire stick, a phone, keyboard and mouse... And autism.. according to what I read in the news..
are macbook m1 any good for virtualization?
Im on market place looking now, i think they smoked crack before pricing fr
Im thinking about getting the Acer Nitro 5 or Lenovo Legion to learn coding and ethical hacking.
Is good this laptop for cyber security ? Ryzen 5 7535HS, 16 gb ram ddr 5 5600mhz cl40, 1tb ssd m.2 nvme 4.0 , rtx 2050 .
Doing internship and using MSI gf63 intel i5-12500h with intel arc a370m GPU
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
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.
@@TCMSecurityAcademy Thank you, very handy to know.)
Don't sugar coat your answer 😅. The answer is yes. You gotta learn windows
The good news is danq, once you use Linux, Apple OS will look just as bad as windows, lol.
@@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! 😂
is it unuseful having a mac book m1 for cybersecurity
hi i would like to know if using wps are good
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
You read the minds :O
Hey bro, i have a hp elitbook g6 830 laptop. Ram 8gb, storage 256, core i 5, Will it help me to learn.
It will get you there to start out with!
The only problem i have is i want 32g of ram and 1tb minimum and that makes the laptop like 2k. Ive been looking at the dell xps15 and hp omen. dell is $1800 and the omen is $1400. i think i might go with one of those to. Asus and MSI are liek over 2k if u want those requirements. I sometimes run multiple machines and i have a dozen plus tabs at once, that's just how i work.
It gets expensive real quick! Good luck!
I bought an msi at Costco for $600 in 2020. Upgraded the ram to 32 gb and slid in a 1tb ssd for about $300. Total cost after tax was less than 1000 for everything all in. If you look I am sure you can find something for less. Also remember you don't have to buy new and can upgrade the ram and ssd. Manufacturers seem to overcharge for systems with more memory and ssd. Put that stuff in yourself.
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.
I read the title as a " Best computer hacking in 2023 " :D
Is 6 cores cpu fine in 2023 still for home virtual lab for hacking? Or would it be better to just upgrade to a more powerful cpu with 32gb ram?
6 cores should be fine. If you can afford to make some upgrades it would never hurt.
what about 4 cores? @@TCMSecurityAcademy
Would my r7 5700u with 32gb of ram be ok to start learning and even running some VMs while studying?
Why Not?
when I saw Heath has this 512GB of RAM, I thought they misspelled Disc with RAM
hahaha, your eyes were correct.
Yea a 8gb rasberri pie 5 is pretty perfect for a budget pack and go pack
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
6cores, 16gb ram, 256ssd plus 1TB hdd, ubuntu as host, aiming to add 16 gb rams soon making 32
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?
1
@@TLOZ1986 got macbook m3 max
what do you have to say towards core pc i mean is corei5= 4 core processor OR 5 core processor can anyone explain this to me please
Hey there! Intel Core i3: Entry-level, suitable for basic tasks. Earlier versions had 2 cores and 4 threads, but later models moved to 4 cores. They may lack advanced features. Intel Core i5: For mainstream users, offering better performance for moderate gaming and multitasking. They usually include Turbo Boost and have 4 to 6 cores. Intel Core i7: High-end, designed for demanding tasks and multitasking with 4 to 8 cores. They have features like Turbo Boost and Hyper-Threading
wow thanks for this @@TCMSecurityAcademy
Learning Cyber on my Maingear gaming laptop
Would a mac mini work? They start at around $600 new.
They can definitely work.
Which one should I buy a Mac or Windows laptop? Please tell me I am very confused ❤ BTW love your videos❤
Can you tell me a laptop both for computers science and cybersecurity PLEASE
This video tells you exactly what you need. The choice is up to you based on your budget. Good luck!
@@TCMSecurityAcademy which one will be better if we keep budget aside, please tell.
@DeependerSingh-co1if it is 100% a personal preference.
@@TCMSecurityAcademy is 16GB RAM enough programming and multitasking?
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.
@TCMSecurityAcademy
Purchase in place like Facebook market is totally gamble. Possible you actually have to pay more(money, time, energy, passion) at the end.
Macbook m2 air or which other laptop best for best for 2023?
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
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
Dang! Have fun with that beast!
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....
5900X 128Gb DDR4 RAM RX 6900 XT 2x 2Tb NVMe M.2 Samsung 990 Pros
I spent very little time in the discord yet and I thought DeWalt was a real person. LoL.😅
🤣
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.