Things I Use

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

Because I have opinions and a good eye for quality and detail, I often 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!

Hardware

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

I’m pretty happy with the setup, though I’m looking at upgrading the monitor at some point for a higher resolution one. Preferably a MicroLED one that hopefully doesn’t suffer from burn-in. I’m also looking to get a monitor arm, though I’d like it to be a combo arm that holds a monitor, a mic boom arm and the camera simultaneously - and apparently that’s impossible.

Self-Assembled

• Motherboard: ASUS ProArt X870E-Creator WiFi
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7900X
• CPU Cooler: Corsair H115i RGB Platinum
  • 2x Noctua NF-A14x25 G2
• RAM: 2x16GB G.Skill Flare X5 DDR5-6000 CL30 (F5-6000J3038F16GX2-FX5)
• Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition
• Storage:
  • Western Digital WD_BLACK SN850X 4TB
  • Samsung SSD 980 Pro 2TB
• Case: Fractal Design North (Chalk White, Mesh)
  • 2x Noctua NF-A14 chromax.black
  • 1x Noctua NF-A12x25
• Power Supply: ROG STRIX 1000W Platinum

Peripheral Devices and Accessories

• Mouse: ASUS ROG Harpe Ace Mini (Black)
• 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
• 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

• Apple MacBook Air 13 (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 have my backpack with me when going out, plus optionally some additional stuff. Prepared for all contingencies!

• Phone: iPhone 15 Pro Max (MU793ZD/A, Natural Titanium, 256GB)
  • In an Apple FineWoven case (Evergreen)
• Backpack: LTT Commuter Backpack
  • 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

Tech Subscription Services

I try to minimize subscriptions in my life as much as possible, but there are some that are unavoidable for me.

• Kagi (Web search and translation)
• Fastmail (Email)
• 1Password (Password manager)
• Porkbun (Domains)
• NameCheap (Domains)
• Netim (Domains)
• Hetzner Storage Box (Backup storage)
• DigitalOcean (Hosting)
• Vultr (Hosting)

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.

Operating Systems

• Main PC: Windows 11 (latest stable), Bazzite (latest stable)
• MacBook Air 13: 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

General Software

An assortment of software I always install and often use. When I set up a Windows install, I usually just use winget to install everything in one fell swoop. You can find app identifiers to install using winget search or on winget.run.

Or just click the links in the table below to copy the respective winget package identifiers to your clipboard. You can then install them using winget install -e identifier1 identifier2 .... Run the terminal you’ll be running the command in as administrator if you can and the installers won’t even bother you at all.

IDE Setup

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, Vue, C#, Unity, Typst, AsciiDoc, and other related extensions

Game Dev

We’re currently using Unity to build Fey: Distant Daydream.