What GPU and CPU is ideal for Penetration testing role job?

[Srazario]

I want to build a workstation to polish my Pen test Skills for my Security Analyst job interviews and want to have something powerful to do the all Security related work. so I want to know that what GPU and CPU is better for such Cracking passwords and hashes plus can also handle serious workload?. Are professional GPUs better for hacking sort of work or the Gaming GPUs?. I also want to know which CPU is better to go for Xeon or i7 extreme?.

Thanks

[royce]

I can't speak to CPU (other than "generally faster is better" and "at least one core per GPU") or RAM (other than "more than 32GB for analyzing big wordlists").

For density (packing a good amount of throughput into a single chassis for the price vs power consumption), the GTX 1080 Tis - the Founders Edition made to OEM spec, not the gaming ones - are popular. FE/reference cards are strongly preferred for cracking.

[Srazario]

I can't speak to CPU (other than "generally faster is better" and "at least one core per GPU") or RAM (other than "more than 32GB for analyzing big wordlists").

For density (packing a good amount of throughput into a single chassis for the price vs power consumption), the GTX 1080 Tis - the Founders Edition made to OEM spec, not the gaming ones - are popular. FE/reference cards are strongly preferred for cracking.

Thanks for replying. So the more CUDA core the GPU have the better for password cracking?.  I also heard that AMD is better for cracking password than NVIDIA?

[royce]

More cores is good. Current state of the art is NVIDIA (because of the LOPT3.LUT instruction set, I think?)

[Srazario]

More cores is good. Current state of the art is NVIDIA (because of the LOPT3.LUT instruction set, I think?)

Are there any information regarding the GTX 1080Ti for hashcat and support it offers?

Thanks

[royce]

It is definitely supported by hashcat. Some benchmarks from @epixoip are here:

https://gist.github.com/epixoip/973da735...7527e4d073

[Srazario]

It is definitely supported by hashcat. Some benchmarks from @epixoip are here:

https://gist.github.com/epixoip/973da735...7527e4d073

Thanks for the link. I heard that PCI 3.0 x16 is good for GTX 1080Ti, is it true?

[royce]

PCI-E lanes are good for gaming, but hashcat does not care. x1 would even be sufficient for hashcat.

If you intend to use the system for multiple password-auditing purposes, a minimum of x4 might be good. Last I checked, JtR likes x4 for some workloads.

[Srazario]

PCI-E lanes are good for gaming, but hashcat does not care. x1 would even be sufficient for hashcat.

If you intend to use the system for multiple password-auditing purposes, a minimum of x4 might be good. Last I checked, JtR likes x4 for some workloads.

oh ok. thanks for info. are AMD cards not good for cracking hashes and other stuff . I heard the new AMD Vega will have around 4096 cores?

[epixoip]

Avoid AMD. And by "avoid" I mean stay far, far away.