BackBox Linux PC Build

[ZEROF]

HI folks,

As we don't have topic about this, I wanted to share information about my new BackBox home PC build. At the time of writing all this it cost me about 1200€ +-, as i got few good deals. Let's start.

PARTS

1. PC case Zalman M1


2. Motherboard Asus Z170I Pro Gaming



3. Power Supply Thermaltake Paris 650W 80+ Gold (this is my favorit part, people don't know much about it, but it's amazing product)



4. CPU Intel i7600



5. RAM Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 32GB Kit (2 x 16GB) DDR4-2400 UDIMM



6. CPU Cooler LEPA AquaChanger 120 103.6 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (as i can see you can even get 240 version, because Zalman M1 will have place for it)



7. SSD M.2 Samsung MZ-V6E250BW SSD 960 Evo NVMe M.2 250



8. Video Card EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB SSC ACX 2.0+ Video Card (i don't play games, but for 4K screen it's always better to have one)



BUILD

1. Before all things you will need to upgrade your motherboard BIOS (to version 2002 at the time of writing)
2. Don't connect you GPU card, do that after installing drivers etc...
3. Use USB 3.0 stick to make bootable BackBox 4.6, and i used Unetbootin (reported as not working in some cases, but for me was just question of good USB 3.0 stick)
4. Before install and after BIOS update, enable in BIOS setting "UEFI mode: Other OS", if not you will have issues with system installation, i didn't touch other settings, to many of them if you ask me.
5. Now install. In BIOS you will see your USB stick twice, because BIOS will see standard and EFI install partition, click on EFI if not ...you know :)
6. After install, disable wifi (i will explain after why, use cable for internet) go to nvidia site and grab drivers for you video card, just to be sure run once "sudo apt-get remove --purge nvidia-*", then run install drivers like "sudo ./NVIDIA-....."
7. Put your card to your pc, connect all screens to video card, board outputs will not be in use anymore.

As i said there is some issue with WiFI, as motherboard comes with integrated WiFI card, and card is Atheros, with ath10k chipset. As I write this I didn't have time to install last drivers from https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/drivers/ath10k, but I will be back to this topic when I'm done with that. If you use ath10k, pls be nice to share info about it.

Hope that your New Year will start with new BackBox PC as mine :).

[ZEROF]

And ...

After few weeks I can only say that I'm happy with my new PC. Made home pentesting lab using VirtualBox, installed Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows 8.1, Windows 7, Ubuntu 16.04 and now doing some CeH challenges. Few things you need to know:

1. Before installation, you need to check in BIOS EFI boot options that you want to use "Other OS".
2. Disable WiFi card from BIOS, or your will have other issues, drivers need to be installed after installation, but you can connect PC with Ethernet cable to have clean install. After installation get Wifi drivers with information provided in this post: http://askubuntu.com/questions/607707/ath10k-installation and after ..
3. To use ath10k wifi drivers you need to use this solution https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-firmware/+bug/1520343/comments/22
4. About Nvidia, i use ppa repository and installed this version of drivers without issue for now.


In the end, only issue was this "new" type of Atheros drivers who will be supported in next version of BBox kernel.

Happy New Year and I wish you all the best.

[ZEROF]

Hi,

What to say, when i build new pc i look to have something for 4-5 years. Why I'm for Intel is because their support for virtualization is very very good and long term support. Good thing about this build is that I can use it as home lab, or one day with esxi as mini home server etc..

[GeekyNoob]

And ...

After few weeks I can only say that I'm happy with my new PC. Made home pentesting lab using VirtualBox, installed Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows 8.1, Windows 7, Ubuntu 16.04 and now doing some CeH challenges. Few things you need to know:

1. Before installation, you need to check in BIOS EFI boot options that you want to use "Other OS".
2. Disable WiFi card from BIOS, or your will have other issues, drivers need to be installed after installation, but you can connect PC with Ethernet cable to have clean install. After installation get Wifi drivers with information provided in this post: http://askubuntu.com/questions/607707/ath10k-installation and after ..
3. To use ath10k wifi drivers you need to use this solution https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-firmware/+bug/1520343/comments/22
4. About Nvidia, i use ppa repository and installed this version of drivers without issue for now.


In the end, only issue was this "new" type of Atheros drivers who will be supported in next version of BBox kernel.

Happy New Year and I wish you all the best.

<3 love the setup <3