Hobbyist Build

[z4t888]

Hello all, 

So I would like to say I have done a fair amount of research before posting. Having said that, I am building a home rig for password recovery, I am attempting to keep costs down. I don't need to crack all the passwords all the time, only some, some of the time. I have taken some inspiration from unix-ninja and epixoip, thank you!

Now, with that out of the way, please feel free to look over said build and enlighten me if I seemed to have n00bed something up or something else might be a better fit. I saw some motherboard recommendations on the forums but it appears they were older boards and at this time are outdated or hard to come by.

Build:

ASUS Z170 Pro Gaming Motherboard

Intel Core i7-6700 8M Skylake Quad-Core 3.4 GHz (I plan to use the stock fan that comes with the processor.)

G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3000
  
(2) Western Digital Black 500GB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 

CHENBRO RM41300-FS81 Black Steel Case 

(3) Delta FFB1212EH-F00 120mm Case cooler Fans

LEPA G Series 1600W PS

(3) MSI G-SYNC Support GeForce GTX 970 4GD5 OC Video Card

Once assembled, I will be using Ubuntu Server 14.04 LTS, with oclHashcat and John the Ripper installed. Hard drives will be raid one configured.

Cost without shipping from Newegg is $2,359 

Thanks in advance for your help!

[mastercracker]

Just a couple of points. You probably don't need 32 Gb of Ram but if you have the budget, it does not hurt. You probably need a fan controller for the delta fans. You probably would be better to install the OS on SSD and keep your big data on the HDD.

[epixoip]

Looks like it will be a solid build, you've definitely done your research. I will just make a few suggestions:

1. There's certainly nothing wrong with having more memory, but you may not be able to really take advantage of 32GB in a dedicated cracking rig with only 3 GPUs (depending on what you're cracking.) For 3x 970 I'd recommend 16GB. The money you save doing that can go towards...

2. SSDs. Forget the old spinny disks, grab 2x Crucial CT500MX200SSD1 instead.

3. The Lepa G1600 is a solid unit, there's no doubt about that. But it's a bit dated, and there are some better units available now. You also don't really need a PSU that big, especially with 3x 970s. Your total power draw will only be maybe 600W, and PSUs are most efficient when operating at 50% load. So instead of the old G1600, I'd recommend grabbing an EVGA 220-P2-1200-X1 or Corsair AX1200i instead.

[z4t888]

Thank you both very much for your recommendations!