What I Use

The things and technologies I use sometimes, and more often than that.

This page is inspired by Wes Bos’ uses.tech.

Because I have opinions and a good eye for quality and detail, I constantly get asked what gear and software I use in my day-to-day. Since I have my grubby hands in lots of different fields of media and tech, there’s quite a lot!

Unfortunately, I’m someone who’s intuitively drawn towards expensive things. I’m rare to stumble upon something I really like, and when I do, it often turns out to be cost-prohibitive. Well, I guess I buy less stuff that way. And I’m more inclined to go for things I expect lasting a while.

Hardware

To do my best work, I need quiet focus time. That gives me the best chance to enter flow when I’m working, and to exit flow more gracefully. So the things I’m interacting with when working must be good enough to not cause frustrations and to either mostly stay out of the way, or even to encourage me to immerse myself.

Furniture

  • Ceiling Light: LEDVANCE SUN@HOME 60x60cm
  • Desk: Ikea Trotten (160x80cm, white frame, beige tabletop)
  • Chair: Herman Miller Embody (Black on black frame, Rhythm fabric)
  • Desk Lamp: Zafferano Pina (Dark grey)
  • Camera stand: Elgato Master Mount L
  • Speaker stands: Kanto SE4
  • Under-desk cable management: Roline Cable Manager (Aluminum)

A mish-mash of black and white, because the things were purchased at different points in time, and I’m not a fan of buying the same things in a different color.

Main Computer

This computer is capable enough for the tasks I need it to do at the moment, but I’m not quite happy with it, mainly as a result of motherboard choice. The ASUS X670E-I is a beast of a Mini-ITX motherboard. I chose it because it is (at the time of writing) the only AM5 Mini-ITX motherboard with USB 4 40 Gbit/s ports that can support Thunderbolt devices. I have the luxury of a mirrored 10 Gbit/s internet connection and wanted to be able to use it fully with my PC. Sadly, the motherboard requires audible whiny fans for cooling, so the system starts out quiet and grows more and more annoying throughout the day. I’d much rather have taken an ASUS ProArt X670E-Creator WIFI - an ATX motherboard without this pitfall - and lived with a larger ATX case.

Otherwise I’m happy with the setup, though I’m looking at upgrading the monitor at some point for a higher resolution one.

Self-Assembled

  • Motherboard: ASUS ROG Strix X670E-I Gaming WiFi
  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7900X
  • CPU Cooler: Corsair H115i RGB Platinum
    • 2x Noctua NF-A12x25 with Noctua NA-SFMA1 140mm fan adapters
  • RAM: 2x16GB G.Skill Flare X5 DDR5-6000 CL30 (F5-6000J3038F16GX2-FX5)
  • Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition
    • Connected via an aftermarket PCIe 4 riser cable
    • Connected via a right-angle DisplayPort 1.4 adapter
  • Storage:
    • Western Digital WD_BLACK SN850X 4TB
    • Samsung SSD 980 Pro 2TB
    • Samsung SSD 860 Evo 1TB
  • Case: SSUPD Meshlicious (Black, all-mesh)
  • Power Supply: Corsair SF750

Peripheral Devices and Accessories

  • Mouse: Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 (Pink)
  • Mousepad: Fnatic Dash M
  • Second mousepad: Artisan Hayate Otsu (M-size, mid hardness)
  • Keyboard: Wooting 60HE
    • Case: KBDfans Tofu60 Redux (Anodized Green, with brass weight)
    • Keycaps: Drop + biip MT3 Extended 2048
  • Gamepads:
    • Sony DualShock 3 (Black)
    • Sony DualShock 4 (Black)
    • Sony DualSense (White)
  • Storage:
    • ANYOYO EC-TU41 Thunderbolt NVMe SSD case
      • Western Digital WD_BLACK SN850X 4TB
    • Orico M2PJM-C3 USB 10 Gbit/s NVMe SSD case
      • Fanxiang S500PRO 2TB
  • Networking: Sabrent TH-S3EA 10 Gbit/s Thunderbolt Nic
  • Monitor: LG UltraGear 27GL850-B
  • Speakers: KEF LSX II (Mineral White)
  • Headphone Amplifier: iFi Zen DAC V2
  • Headphones: Massdrop x Sennheiser HD 6XX
    • Connected via a custom CMYK-themed 4.4mm Pentaconn cable from Arachne Audio
  • Microphone: Røde NT-USB
  • Camera: Sony Alpha 6300
    • Connected via an AVerMedia Live Streamer Cap 4K capture card
    • Mounted on the stand via a SmallRig Quick Release Plate
    • Powered by an NP-FW50 Dummy Battery by Andoer
    • Lens primarily for webcam mode: Sigma Contemporary 16mm F1.4 DC DN
    • Lens primarily for photo/video: Tamron 17-70mm F/2.8 Di III-A VC RXD
    • Hoya Fusion CIR-PL filter
    • Tamron UV filter

Side Computers

I’ve been very interested in Apple laptops since the M1 MacBook Air, specifically for the great battery life. The M3 MacBook Air performs very well for my intended use-cases: Light web browsing, diagnosing WiFi when I visit relatives, some web development work.

The Razer Blade 15 sees little action these days, but sometimes a mobile Windows machine is necessary.

  • Apple MacBook Air (MXCR3D/A, Space Grey)
    • Protected from scratches by an Acme Made Skinny Sleeve 13” (Black)
  • Razer Blade 15 Advanced (Mid 2019, Black)
    • Replaced SSD with: Samsung SSD 970 Evo 500GB
    • Protected from scratches by an Acme Made Skinny Sleeve 15” (Black)
  • Work computer: Apple MacBook Pro 16 (MV912LL/A, Space Gray)
  • Valve Steam Deck (Model 1010, European launch model, 64GB)
    • Replaced SSD with: Kioxia BG5 M.2 2230 SSD, 512GB
    • Replaced analog sticks with GuliKit hall-effect analog sticks
    • Replaced Delta cooling fan with Huaying fan

Home Server & VR PC

This is part of my backup strategy and serves to learn more about hardware and server administration. Additionally, I use this PC for playing VR games (and working out a little). The server is running Unraid and is exposed to the internet through a VPS via Tailscale.

Self-Assembled

  • Motherboard: ASUS ROG Strix B760-I Gaming WiFi
  • CPU: Intel Core i7-13700K
  • CPU Cooler: Scythe Big Shuriken 3
    • 1x Noctua NF-A12x25
  • RAM: 2x16GB G.Skill Flare X5 DDR5-6000 CL32
  • Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition
  • Storage:
    • Transcend MTE250S SSD 4TB (Write cache)
    • 4x Western Digital WD Red Plus 12TB (WD120EFBX, Main storage)
    • 1x Western Digital WD Red Plus 14TB (WD140EFGX, Parity)
  • Case: Streacom DA2 V2
    • 4x Noctua NF-A12x15
  • Power Supply: Corsair SF750

Peripheral Devices and Accessories

  • VR Headset: Valve Index (2 lighthouses)
  • Monitor/TV: LG OLED55C27LA
  • TV Set-Top-Box: Apple TV 4K (MQD22FD/A)
  • Speakers: KEF LS50 Wireless (Gloss White/Copper)
    • Standing on IsoAcoustics Aperta stands (Silver, normal size)
  • Subwoofer: Audioengine S8 (White)

Travel Gear

I usually always have my backpack with me when going out, plus optionally some additional stuff. The backpack is old and worn at this point (though still going strong after 10 years at time of writing), but I haven’t found a worthy replacement yet. Maybe the LTT backpack.

  • Phone: iPhone 15 Pro Max (MU793ZD/A, Natural Titanium, 256GB)
    • In an Apple FineWoven case (Evergreen)
  • Backpack: Everki Beacon
    • One of the side computers
    • (optional) Steam Deck
    • Bose QuietComfort 35 II (black)
    • Knirps U.200 ultra light duomatic umbrella (Rain blue)
    • Xiaomi Mi Precision Screwdriver Kit
    • (optional) Zwilling Thermo (1l, white)
    • 1.5m HDMI 2.1 cable
    • Gigabit USB to LAN adapter
    • An assortment of USB cables
    • Apple 20W USB-C charger
  • Camera bag: Peak Design Everyday Sling 3l v2 (Ash gray)
    • The Sony Alpha 6300
    • Both lenses fit
    • Two Sony NP-FW50 batteries
    • A couple Sandisk Extreme Pro 32GB SDXC cards

Software

Though forced to use Windows primarily for game development reasons, I’m operating system-agnostic. I’ve triple-booted Windows, macOS and various Linux distros for some time in a Hackintosh setup. Over time and after upgrades to the main PC, support for the hardware in macOS went away, so I’m dual-booting now and have a macOS machine on the side.

But, having to replicate a similar dev setup on every operating system, I’m happy that web development work can happen cross-platform these days. But that’s also why, in terms of software, I’m usually going very light.

Current Operating Systems

  • Main PC: Windows 11 (latest stable), Pop!_OS (latest stable)
  • MacBook Air: macOS (latest stable)
  • Razer Blade 15: Windows 11 (rarely use it, updates when it gets the chance to)
  • Home Server: Unraid (latest stable), Windows 10 (22H2) as a VM for VR
  • Work MacBook Pro: macOS Ventura

Web Dev

I go pretty light on dev tools. For the stacks and cases I need it for, VSCode is just fine for me. And because I’m lazy, I use a pretty Git client, so there’s less plumbing to be done via the terminal.

  • IDE: Microsoft Visual Studio Code
    • Color theme: Bluloco Dark Italic
    • Icon theme: Material Icon Theme
    • Main font: Menlo
    • Extensions:
      • Project Dashboard
      • Auto Import
      • File Utils
      • Import Cost
      • npm Intellisense
      • Path Intellisense
      • SVG
      • YAML
      • NuGet Gallery
      • Live Server
      • Highlight Matching Tag
      • Plus whatever the current project needs, language servers like for TypeScript, React, Angular, C#, Typst, AsciiDoc, and other related extensions
  • Git GUI: Fork
  • Utilities:

Media Creation and Design

I’ve been using more of the Adobe suite and other commercial content creation software, like Cinema4D and ZBrush, but open source solutions like Blender really have picked up steam in the last years. Blender especially is absolutely great nowadays! The only things it doesn’t excel at yet are animations, parametric CAD and Cycles isn’t quite at the point of commercial renderers.

  • Figma
  • Affinity Designer
  • Affinity Photo
  • Affinity Publisher
  • Adobe After Effects
  • Blender
  • Substance Designer
  • Substance Painter
  • The GIMP
  • Handbrake and FFmpeg
  • Utilities:

Game Dev

  • Same as above
    • Of course, additional extensions installed in VSCode change according to the project
  • Current Game Engine: Unity