How much hardware does backtrack need?

[imported_kiloraw]

Hey I have been fumbling around the idea of having a "beast," laptop for backtrack and Vista.....hey I know vista sucks, but in the in Windows environment(work), ya need it.(if your newb in linx)
So i have been researching on =h t t p ://backtrack.offensive= and seeing what's compatible w/ BT.
The type of laptop I would like to have must have an expansion bay or smart bay for a secondary hard drive. Now if you google expansion bays or smart bays its real hard to find a list of laptops that have them. the reason why I want this, is for the convenience of switching them(hd's). I know you can dual boot but I don't like that, because I have done it to two of my laptops and don't get me wrong they work fine- But having linx and win on same hard drive bothers me since I have ran into issue w/ Vista on dual boot.
And since I want this, it puts a pretty deep pocket price on a Laptop. I found two laptops alienware m51 and dell precision 4300. But questions came up, like do I really need a intel 3.0, 2.5, 2.6, because i know linx don't need it, (and as for vista, you know its a resource hog) but I can run off a 1.6 in Vista- of course dual processors .
I know scanning can take some processor power, but I wouldn't think that much? And as for RAM can backtrack cope with 2gb? (actually I know it could, but not sure if all tools need alot of power?)

How about some of the senior members, give me a little idea what they would run or have ran BT3 on. I give me an idea of [whats plenty enough for backtrack]

All I need is RAM and processor speed, cache, or really anything else any one can think of...besides wireless cards I got that covered.

[pmarinel]

As far as I can tell, a simple dual core processor and if you are using 2GB of RAM, you will find yourself doing quite well with it.

I've been reading the Slackware Linux Essentials, and it states that the system requirements to run Slackware are as follows:

Processor - 586
RAM - 32MB
Disk Space -1GB
Media Drive - 4x CD-Rom

Hopefully that will put it into perspective for you. Enjoy =)

[Barry]

It runs on an eeePc, so anything within the last two or three years with at least 512Mb of ram should work.

[SlipDigby]

You don't need much at all to run BT3 (or any other Linux distro fo that matter). Vista needs a lot of processing power, RAM and soforth so you will have to get a fairly decent laptop to run both ops puerly because of vista.

I've got a Toshiba Equium T5555 with 4GB RAM and 150GB HD. BT3 runs really fast on it and Vista is good too although I have just got rid of Vista and purely use my laptop with openSUSE and BT3 on USB stick when needed.

Happy Dayz.

[MrWrong]

I'm agreeing with Pmarinel, linux doesn't require much to run. The system requirements are really going to be for Vista.

I'm running BT3 on a beater P3 450 Mhz, with 256MB of ram.

[MosGuy]

As other's have stated BackTrack requirements aren't that high. I have an older Dell Precision m60 that I bought specifically for BT & pen testing. I bought a 2nd hard drive and tray. I do the swapping of hard drives been BT & Windows. That I believe you are after, it works out just fine. As does the specs: 1.7 Ghz Intel, 2 GB RAM, Nvidia Quatro FX w/128 dedicated video. Though my Dell came with XP Pro, which was a requirement I was after, since I won't touch Vista. I would base it on Vista running rather then BackTrack. Since BT will fly compared to Vista on most systems regardless of age.

[imported_kiloraw]

Thanks to all for the help, it really cleared it up and thanks for spec's. Since I am fairly new to both linux and BT, the help is greatly apperciated.