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Hardware

Lighting

I hate decorative RGBs. They're a distraction, waste of money and energy.

Desktop

Runs Windows 11 Windows 11 and is mostly used for gaming.

  • Monitor: BenQ Zowie XL2566K

I typically play VALORANT so the 25" size and 360Hz refresh rate goes well together. I don't recommend this monitor, however, as it is 1080p and a TN panel. My dream monitor would be a 25" 1440p OLED at 360Hz.

  • Case: Fractal Torrent

I like full-sized form factor builds for expandability, ease of maintenance, and generally cheaper and more available used parts.

  • MOBO: GIGABYTE X570S AORUS Master
  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D

AM4 is more than adequate for my fidelity and performance needs right now. I don't intend to upgrade to AM5. The next platform upgrade would likely be AM6 or Intel's equivalent.

  • CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 chromax.Black
  • GPU: EVGA RTX 3080 Ti FTW3 Ultra
  • NVMe: Sabrent Rocket 4.0 Plus 1TB
  • NVMe: Crucial P3 3.0 4TB
  • PSU: be quiet! Dark Power 12 1000W

Server

Runs Unraid, the primary usage is for media archival and consumption.

See .wiki/self-hosted for my software stack.

  • Case: Fractal Meshify 2 XL

I maxed out this case with 20 3.5" drives. I'll start to rotate out older and smaller-capacity drives over the next few years. On the next platform upgrade (in ~5 years), I'll probably move to a rackmounted form factor.

  • MOBO: ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming X
  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3950X
  • CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 chromax.Black
  • GPU: PNY RTX 4000
  • RAM: 128GB (4x Micron 32GB DDR4-3200 ECC UDIMM 2Rx8 CL22 MTA18ASF4G72AZ-3G2R)
  • HDD: 186TB of mixed 3.5" drives (retail, refurb, schucked, used)

Main data array (158TB usable) is formatted in XFS and runs with 2 drives (2x 14TB) as parities.

  • NVMe Cache: 2x 1TB WD SN750

Primary cache for Docker appdata, formatted in ZFS and run in RAID1.

  • SATA Cache: 2x 2TB Crucial MX500 2.5"

Secondary cache used for temporary data and faster decompression, formatted in btrfs and run in RAID0.

  • PSU: be quiet! Dark Power 12 1000W

Mobile

  • Apple 14" Macbook Pro M3 Max, 36GB unified memory

This is my de-facto workhorse. The hardware and form factor is perfect for my use case. I plan on renewing AppleCare for it when it expires and don't intend on upgrading for the foreseeable future.

  • iPhone 14 Pro

It's an iPhone: nothing more, nothing less. It's much more powerful than what I use it for, especially since I don't care for photos. The battery life is what matters most to me. Should Apple release a new iPhone Mini, I'd likely swap to that.

  • iPad Mini 6th Gen

I use the iPad Mini to read the web, comics, mangas, and the occasional textbooks. It's also how I watch movies and shows on the treadmill.

  • Kobo Clara BW

This is my default device for reading books. And since the majority of my book-reading are before bedtime, it lives primarily on my headboard or nightstand.

Runs KOReader .

Consoles

  • Steam Deck OLED LE

I love my Steam Deck OLED. I previously had a standard Steam Deck and cannot recommend the OLED model enough. I often use it in bed, and during travel. On it, I mostly play roguelikes and emulated titles.

  • Nintendo Switch Nintendo Switch OLED

This is solely for Nintendo exclusive games. Nintendo games are particularly good for

See /favorites#games

Home Network

  • Ubiquiti UniFi Cloud Gateway Fiber

I get ~2Gbps symmetrical from my fiber provider. It's more than adequate for my household usage. So my network is designed with 2.5GbE in mind. I don't foresee upgrading to a 10GbE setup even in the far future.

  • Ubiquiti UniFi U7 Pro XG

I only use 1 AP for the house and try to keep the number of Wi-Fi connected devices to a minimum. I recently just upgraded to the U7 Pro XG and it's been stable thus far. I don't plan upgrading anytime soon.

  • Ubiquiti Unifi Flex 2.5G 5

This switch is mostly used for gaming devices. They usually saturate the speed during downloads.

  • Ubiquiti UniFi USW-Lite-8-PoE

The majority of my PoE devices are low bandwidth. As long as my setup doesn't include a PoE device that needs more than 1 gigabit. There are no reasons to upgrade.

Miscellaneous

  • Apple AirTag
  • Yubikey 5C NFC

I use the Yubikey as 2FA and/or passkey for a few critical accounts. It's also apart of my GnuPG workflow. But 1Password handles most of my daily security.

See drduh/YubiKey-Guide .