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                                         Buying New Systems



Being on a budget, we need to order systems that is capable of handling current and future investigations. On one hand, I have an investigator that wants the best machine possible. On the other, I have my supervisor limiting the amount I can spend. Therefore, I had to balance between the two. We do not need the latest and greatest systems to perform an investigation. At the same time, we cannot hold back on certain specs that we really need.

Instead of getting one big powerful machine, we instead got two mid-level systems. That way we can use both machines for two separate investigations. The machines contains an Intel 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo processor. This allows us to have better multitasking capabilities. Programs like EnCase and FTK 2.0 (not out yet as of this writing) uses threads to perform several functions. For example, with EnCase, we can search for keywords while acquiring another drive. With FTK 2.0, we can run an investigation while indexing a drive (not possible with current versions of FTK). However, in order to do this, the processor must share the work between the two processes. By having two processors, the load for each processor is reduced, speeding up the investigation. Each computer also has 4GB of RAM. If we are processing a lot of data, we do not want to run out of memory and use virtual memory, which would hinder the investigation.

Additional specs include flat panel monitors and a tower case. The flat panel is to save space in our lab. Currently, the CRT monitors take up most of the table. The tower case will allow us to expand the system as needed.

To save a little more, we sent out a bid with these specs and had several resellers try to meet our budget. One was able to and we began processing the order.

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