Silk Road forums

Discussion => Newbie discussion => Topic started by: Thetruthseeker1234 on July 21, 2013, 08:29 pm

Title: What do you all think of this computer? What is your opinion on the machine?
Post by: Thetruthseeker1234 on July 21, 2013, 08:29 pm
So I am about to buy myself this machine:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/FD102LL/A/refurbished-macbook-pro-29ghz-dual-core-intel-i7

I hope to run my future vendor account off of this computer. Also I plan on running this machine for games.

Unfortunelty I am very new to most of this tech so I need to get as many opinions on this as possible.
First off I want to ask if it is possible to run tails on this machine? Or something similar. What is my best bet for 100% security or who should I speak with.
I remember an older member guru was an expert on security having to do with macs. If only he was still around.
I asked pine months ago for help, but it seemed he/she didn't know macs to well.
Any help is appreciated on this.

Also, for anyone who is into first person shooters, such as myself, will this be a good machine to run a setup out of.
Thanks everyone
Title: Re: What do you all think of this computer? What is your opinion on the machine?
Post by: schuldig on July 21, 2013, 09:09 pm
Gamer Laptops are usually 200% as expensive as a normal PC for the same hardware.

I am not experienced with macbooks but am almost certain that this is not what you are looking into playing halfway recent FPS.
First of all, as far as I know, you'll need to run a VM just to play the games and second of all the GPU won't handle the games too well.
Are you sure you want a gaming laptop? Why not buy a PC for your gaming needs?
If you are really looking into buying a gaming laptop you should consider windows based custom made laptops and I am not talking Alienware where you will be paying extra just for the name.
Look into names such as XMG or any company that uses Clevo cases.
Those things get really hot though and are really expensive.
Title: Re: What do you all think of this computer? What is your opinion on the machine?
Post by: postrex on July 21, 2013, 09:37 pm
Unless you absolutely need a portable gaming machine, you are way better off building a nice desktop gaming box, and then getting a decently cheap laptop for SR and other activity you want to keep separate.  This makes data organization a piece of cake, increases general security and all-important separation of identities, and will probably cost about the same as a nice gaming laptop anyway.
Title: Re: What do you all think of this computer? What is your opinion on the machine?
Post by: BTC King on July 21, 2013, 10:15 pm
tails is vastly overrated. just build a pc and put linux on it and go from there to make it secure. with the money you will save you will be able buy a nice graphics card for your games. a low spec refurbished macbook is the worst choice for gaming.
Title: Re: What do you all think of this computer? What is your opinion on the machine?
Post by: Thetruthseeker1234 on July 22, 2013, 08:56 am
Just to focus on the security for the vendor part. I have decided on purchasing a MacBook Air 2012 model with 4gb ram. This computer will only be for the road and other minor tasks. I plan on getting a whole separate computer for gaming.

I need to be overly secure about this. I want there to be no chance of police getting into my computer if ever confiscated. Is the FileVault system secure? What should I do to fully secure the computer and encrypt it to full safety.
Also is there a way I can boot from a USB even though it is Mac? Anyone have experience with libirte for Mac?
Title: Re: What do you all think of this computer? What is your opinion on the machine?
Post by: Annex on July 22, 2013, 09:36 am
I probably wouldn't buy a macbook for gaming at all.
Its also probably not that bright an idea to be doing your personal activities and running a vendor account on the same machine but that may just be me.

As for tails, I'm sitting here on tails running through the very same machine you listed. There are some things you can't do like set up a persistent volume but that is due to be fixed in the next release. It also pretty much forces you to run from a live disc rather that a USB drive. this sounds like it suck but if you use a non-rewriteable DVD it's more secure as nothing can maliciously write to your live disk (like say a trojan or keylogger for example)

I would probably follow the advice above though, build an SR specific machine and use a secure disti of linux like liberte or tails if you want too. Tails is nice because its very user-friendly but, as you can see, it has some detractors

Hope this helps,

Annex
Title: Re: What do you all think of this computer? What is your opinion on the machine?
Post by: Annex on July 22, 2013, 09:45 am
depending on how paranoid you are, and how badly the police might be trying to view your data, I wouldn't go for anything with SSD (solid state drive) as its very difficult to truely erase everything, even if you write over it. have a look for yourself if you don't believe me

http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/02/20/ssds-prove-difficult-to-securely-erase/

Ideally, you would have a small cheap laptop that you bought second hand and don't mind having to ditch. There are plenty of guides online
Title: Re: What do you all think of this computer? What is your opinion on the machine?
Post by: Thetruthseeker1234 on July 22, 2013, 04:37 pm
I probably wouldn't buy a macbook for gaming at all.
Its also probably not that bright an idea to be doing your personal activities and running a vendor account on the same machine but that may just be me.

As for tails, I'm sitting here on tails running through the very same machine you listed. There are some things you can't do like set up a persistent volume but that is due to be fixed in the next release. It also pretty much forces you to run from a live disc rather that a USB drive. this sounds like it suck but if you use a non-rewriteable DVD it's more secure as nothing can maliciously write to your live disk (like say a trojan or keylogger for example)

I would probably follow the advice above though, build an SR specific machine and use a secure disti of linux like liberte or tails if you want too. Tails is nice because its very user-friendly but, as you can see, it has some detractors

Hope this helps,

Annex
Well I changed what I'm buying to a MacBook Air which has no DVD drive. I would rather not have to hook up a SuperDrive.

Are there any boots I can use for my computer that will work with a USB stick?
Title: Re: What do you all think of this computer? What is your opinion on the machine?
Post by: Thetruthseeker1234 on July 22, 2013, 04:45 pm
depending on how paranoid you are, and how badly the police might be trying to view your data, I wouldn't go for anything with SSD (solid state drive) as its very difficult to truely erase everything, even if you write over it. have a look for yourself if you don't believe me

http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/02/20/ssds-prove-difficult-to-securely-erase/

Ideally, you would have a small cheap laptop that you bought second hand and don't mind having to ditch. There are plenty of guides online
Having a computer that I can throw away sounds great. Only issue would be if they bust in on me and I don't have time to ditch it, then I'm completely fucked. That happening is a huge possibility. That is why I need to secure the computer.
Title: Re: What do you all think of this computer? What is your opinion on the machine?
Post by: BTC King on July 22, 2013, 06:15 pm
depending on how paranoid you are, and how badly the police might be trying to view your data, I wouldn't go for anything with SSD (solid state drive) as its very difficult to truely erase everything, even if you write over it. have a look for yourself if you don't believe me

http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/02/20/ssds-prove-difficult-to-securely-erase/

Ideally, you would have a small cheap laptop that you bought second hand and don't mind having to ditch. There are plenty of guides online
ssds are not a problem as long as you use encryption and store the encryption key elsewhere. for example you can store it on a hdd and when you want to permanently delete all data on the ssd just overwrite the encryption key on the hdd with random data
Title: Re: What do you all think of this computer? What is your opinion on the machine?
Post by: Thetruthseeker1234 on July 22, 2013, 06:36 pm
So what is a boot that I can use with the MacBook Air?
Title: Re: What do you all think of this computer? What is your opinion on the machine?
Post by: AirshipAdmiral on July 22, 2013, 09:19 pm
So I am about to buy myself this machine:
http://store.apple.com/

NO.

Apple is NOT for video games. It is for artists, musicians and anime geeks, not gamer geeks.

If you are not confident you can build your own PC from parts, and are also not confident that you can ask a friend do built a gaming rig for you, then I'd suggest something like IBuyPower.

http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/AMD_FX_Ultimate_Configurator would be a lot more powerful for what you want to do than any apple, even a Mac Pro with all the bells and whistles.

Macs are good for artists and musicians, but I would not suggest it for playing video games.

Thank me later.

If you have a friend willing to assemble a gaming computer for you, ask him to shop for Newegg parts on your behalf, and build a gaming rig for you from parts.

If you are going to pay $4,000 for a Mac, you'll get a liquid-cooled HDTV-equipped supercomputer with three AMD Radeon graphics cards in CrossfireX and 16 cores of AMD FX for the same amount of money.
Title: Re: What do you all think of this computer? What is your opinion on the machine?
Post by: Thetruthseeker1234 on July 23, 2013, 01:31 am
So I am about to buy myself this machine:
http://store.apple.com/

NO.

Apple is NOT for video games. It is for artists, musicians and anime geeks, not gamer geeks.

If you are not confident you can build your own PC from parts, and are also not confident that you can ask a friend do built a gaming rig for you, then I'd suggest something like IBuyPower.

http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/AMD_FX_Ultimate_Configurator would be a lot more powerful for what you want to do than any apple, even a Mac Pro with all the bells and whistles.

Macs are good for artists and musicians, but I would not suggest it for playing video games.

Thank me later.

If you have a friend willing to assemble a gaming computer for you, ask him to shop for Newegg parts on your behalf, and build a gaming rig for you from parts.

If you are going to pay $4,000 for a Mac, you'll get a liquid-cooled HDTV-equipped supercomputer with three AMD Radeon graphics cards in CrossfireX and 16 cores of AMD FX for the same amount of money.
That website could be in a whole other language and I wouldn't know.

I never have had a setup on a computer. I just want to be able to play call of duty online with a Xbox 360 controller, from a computer which I can carry around. I have my iPhone set up for Internet tethering as a mobile hotspot so if I take a bus or train ride cross country, I can be playing call of duty online the whole time. 4g LTE
Title: Re: What do you all think of this computer? What is your opinion on the machine?
Post by: Annex on July 24, 2013, 01:23 pm
tails will run off your macbook air using a USB but you have to manually put it on a USB and get a patched EFI. I'm ssuming from this post that that really isn't something that you will be able to do. do yourself a favour and buy two separate machines.

Also, you're geocoded at all times with your hotspot so I'd be careful what I view :)