Done my research, now I need a review. 20 GPU cracking cluster.

[Flomac]

I reached out to Sagitta for a quote on a box with 980 TIs.  There's definitely something to be said about getting a pre-built box even if it's a tab more expensive (less overhead and hassle).

Surely a very good idea.

The processor was chosen because of the amount of PCIE lanes it has. From what I am reading, the GTX 980 TI will not run in a PCIE slot running under 8x so a compatible proc and mobo is required. Please correct me if I'm wrong here.

Never heard of it, so I guess you misunderstood something. Post a source if you have one.

Power supply was selected for the +12v rails and efficiency rating.  Each system will have two since it's never really a good idea to run a PS at full load all the time.  We'll figure out how we're going to split up the power consumption once we get the build going.

Two power supplies are a hassle and no good idea. Double chance one of them fails.

Hard drives were selected because we wanted to load up a few rainbow tables while we were at it to knock out the low-hanging-fruit.  I don't think each system needs them though, so maybe we just just load up one with a few larger hard drives.

No one uses rainbow tables anymore. Way too slow.

That's actually a good point that I didn't consider.  In your experience, has hashtopus been well-maintained?

From what I've read in the forum its a non-commercial software project so it might work well or not at all. Who knows.


Again, before your company spends 30K the questions to solve would be:
- for what purpose do you buy that hardware?
- which kind of passwords are you trying to crack?
- how many h per week shall it run?
- security monitoring, regular audits or determing PKIs?

Answering these questions is essential for the successful outcome of your project. Only then you can determine the amount of hardware needed and adress a necessary price tag. It might be much lower or way higher. Let epixoip advise you well.