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AMD A10-7870K Black Edition APU for Encase 7 (portable lab)

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traveller
(@traveller)
Posts: 3
New Member
Topic starter
 

Hi everyone

First of all, thanks a lot for all the useful information that you share in this forum.

This is my dilemma, I’m going to build a ¨portable PC¨ ( using the following case https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NOX_XTREME/lanbx/ ) for a masters in Digital Forensics that I’m starting in September. I’ll use it with EnCase 7 but I also would like to use it in the future as a portable lab for PC and mobile forensics.

Considering the advice given in this post I think that the following configuration would be good enough for my purposes

- CPU / APU AMD A10-7870K Black Edition.

- Motherboard MSI A88XI AC V2 (Max 32GB RAM).

- RAM HyperX 16GB 2133MHz DDR3 Non-ECC CL11 DIMM (Kit of 2) XMP Predator Series.

- Power Supply EVGA Supernova 650W.

- Storage 1x 240GB SSD + 1x 2TB HDD.

- Graphics Asus R9 270 2GB GDDR5 (for password cracking).

So, my question is Is this processor ( AMD A10-7870K ) powerful enough for EnCase 7 and other common tools such as Oxygen, XRY or Cellebrite? I’ve already read all the hardware requirements for all these tools and I know that this CPU is ¨good enough¨ to run the apps. However, I’m worried about its performance. Several benchmarks indicate that it’s something between an Intel i3 and an i5.

Thanks in advance.

 
Posted : 30/08/2015 6:41 am
pr3cur50r
(@pr3cur50r)
Posts: 28
Eminent Member
 

Hey there, thanks for the post, which i'm going to pick apart a little, I hope you don't mind. )

1. Have you run any password cracking on a single gpu before?

http//www.unix-ninja.com/p/Building_a_Cracking_Rig_for_Hashcat/

I think building a portable rig for this purpose is a little redundant due to the length of time it takes to crack passwords, also a single graphics card isn't enough power.

2. Have you seen the amount of kit that comes with Cellebrite/XRY?

You have a big box of cables aswell as the rugged box that comes with the Cellebrite touch, obviously you could ommit that if you were running it off your machine but my view is that a portable kit should be portable ie carried by one person.

Potentially you could be carrying on-site

Workstation, Monitor, keyboard, mouse, ufed, xry cables, cables, hard drives, writeblockers.

3. Have you considered timescale?

I'd say the issues you are most likely to run into in a "portable environment" are time, space, security at business premises or such like.

Personally, (money allowing of course) i'd build a lab workstation and a separate PW cracking rig. Use a good spec laptop for any mobile examinations and simple on-site preview examinations. I'm sure most people with experience would agree that you don't run a full forensic investigation of a computer system at a clients/subjects premises, in which case you may just end up using your rig to image devices.

As for your initial question about the processor I would just go and buy dual Xeons and get it over and done with. ) Hope this was of some help!

 
Posted : 30/08/2015 11:13 am
traveller
(@traveller)
Posts: 3
New Member
Topic starter
 

Hey there, thanks for the post, which i'm going to pick apart a little, I hope you don't mind. )

1. Have you run any password cracking on a single gpu before?

http//www.unix-ninja.com/p/Building_a_Cracking_Rig_for_Hashcat/

I think building a portable rig for this purpose is a little redundant due to the length of time it takes to crack passwords, also a single graphics card isn't enough power.

Thanks a lot for reply, pr3cur50r. D I'll try to answer all your questions.

1. Never. oops My only experience with computer forensics and security is limited to a couple of pen tests that I had to run when I used to work as a sys admin and a few investigations that I ran trying to find things like "who, why and when did that or this" on our systems.

2. Have you seen the amount of kit that comes with Cellebrite/XRY?

You have a big box of cables aswell as the rugged box that comes with the Cellebrite touch, obviously you could ommit that if you were running it off your machine but my view is that a portable kit should be portable ie carried by one person.

Potentially you could be carrying on-site

Workstation, Monitor, keyboard, mouse, ufed, xry cables, cables, hard drives, writeblockers.

2. To be honest, I didn't think about it. As you can see I'm a newbie in this field. Anyway, I'm exploring the possibility of purchasing (in the future) a Celebrate UFED 4PC instead of a UFED Touch unit. However, you're absolutely right. I didn't think about the cables, adapters, HDD's … ( oops I'm a muppet).

3. Have you considered timescale?

I'd say the issues you are most likely to run into in a "portable environment" are time, space, security at business premises or such like.

Personally, (money allowing of course) i'd build a lab workstation and a separate PW cracking rig. Use a good spec laptop for any mobile examinations and simple on-site preview examinations. I'm sure most people with experience would agree that you don't run a full forensic investigation of a computer system at a clients/subjects premises, in which case you may just end up using your rig to image devices.

As for your initial question about the processor I would just go and buy dual Xeons and get it over and done with. ) Hope this was of some help!

3. Unfortunately, I'm on a tight budget and I can't afford a Xeon based workstation. So, I think I'll build a desktop with an AMD FX-8350 (http//www.ebuyer.com/409184-amd-fx-8350-4ghz-socket-am3-8mb-cache-retail-boxed-processor-fd8350frhkbox). My girlfriend has been using this octa-core processor and a good graphics card for professional 3D rendering and she's very happy with the PC's performance.

Thanks again for your help. D

 
Posted : 30/08/2015 3:53 pm
OxygenForensics
(@oxygenforensics)
Posts: 143
Estimable Member
 

- CPU / APU AMD A10-7870K Black Edition.

- Motherboard MSI A88XI AC V2 (Max 32GB RAM).

- RAM HyperX 16GB 2133MHz DDR3 Non-ECC CL11 DIMM (Kit of 2) XMP Predator Series.

- Power Supply EVGA Supernova 650W.

- Storage 1x 240GB SSD + 1x 2TB HDD.

- Graphics Asus R9 270 2GB GDDR5 (for password cracking).

So, my question is Is this processor ( AMD A10-7870K ) powerful enough for EnCase 7 and other common tools such as Oxygen, XRY or Cellebrite?

This PC configuration is powerful enough for Oxygen Forenisc products.

 
Posted : 14/09/2015 1:31 pm
steve862
(@steve862)
Posts: 194
Estimable Member
 

Hi,

As someone who has built a lot of custom machines over the years I would say I am not a big fan of MSI motherboards. I've seen more failures than with Asus or Gigabyte. I've used Asus boards in some high end processing rigs which have been running at 100% utilisation 24/7 for more than 2 years without any faults. Asus would be my recommendation on motherboard.

As for password cracking, it is true to say AMD have outperformed Nvidia whenever there has been support for both cards. That changed when Nvidia brought out the Maxwell chipset. Now I would say they are about even but the Nvidia cards use less power, make less noise and create less heat. For the same sort of money I'd go with a GTX960 superclocked card. EVGA gets my vote on the Nvidia variants.

Just my two pence worth.

Steve

 
Posted : 14/09/2015 4:33 pm
traveller
(@traveller)
Posts: 3
New Member
Topic starter
 

Hi all

Thanks a lot for your replies.

I already ordered the components a few days ago. Some of them arrived last week and the rest have been already dispatched.

Just for your information, this is my final setup

- CPU AMD FX-8350 4GHz Socket AM3+ 8MB

- Motherboard Asrock Fat 990FX Killer/3.1 Fatal1ty Motherboard (Max 64gb).

- RAM Corsair 16GB DDR3 1600MHz Vengeance Blue Memory

- PSU EVGA Supernova 650W

- Storage 1x 240gb SSD + 1x 2T HDD

- GPU EVGA Geforce GTX 950 Superclocked + ACX 2.0 2GB GDDR5 DVI HDMI 3x DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics card.

Regarding the motherboard, I agree with you @steve862. I've built a lot of PCs in my life and I always had good experiences with Gigabyte, ASUS and Asrock. Besides this mobo has a lot of extra features, such as M2 socket or USB-C port.

By the way, I chose the NVIDIA GTX 950 (Maxwell) because it's fully compatible with GNU/Linux and other UNIX-like operating systems. I was going to buy a ATI/AMD because my girlfriend has been using a Radeon for the last 2 years with Linux without any problems.

@OxygenSoftware, @pr3cur50r and @steve862, thanks again for your answers.

 
Posted : 14/09/2015 5:53 pm
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