"Tablet or smartphone device"
My main PC is an ever-shifting, questionably arranged agglomeration of components selected as if at random, initially designed and assembled by yours truly circa March of '22. Apparently, I have a lot to say about it.
The Ryzen 7 5700G is basically the 5800 except cheaper and you trade PCIe gen 4 support for an integrated GPU. This was important to me in case my dedicated GPU died or otherwise became unavailable. This has come in useful occasionally.
It's a couple generations old at this point, but it's still faster than I probably need. I don't see myself replacing it for a while, to such an extent that as of writing it's now on its second motherboard.
Admittedly, a bit overkill for the 65-watt chip it's attached to. I bought it because I was getting thermal throttling with the stock cooler, but when I took it off to put the new cooler on I discovered I hadn't mounted the stock cooler properly to begin with. The stock cooler, mounted correctly, would probably have sufficed, but frankly that mounting system was dogshit anyway. SecuFirm™ gang 4 lyfe.
Now that I have it, this cooler is great. Nothing specific to say, it just works and works very well. I wouldn't be surprised if I never replaced this. My one complaint is that the fan clips are kind of annoying to deal with.
It's a motherboard. I replaced my old Gigabyte B550 with this in a successful attempt to fix a strange issue with USB and audio that, after extensive troubleshooting, I can only think to attribute to a dying USB controller.
It's pretty good so far. Much more internal I/O but less rear USB 2 than the old one, and I had to bring my own wifi card. Luckily, it has a slot for an M.2 wifi module, and the random Realtek unit I had kicking around from my old laptop has been working without issue. One of my favourite little niceties is that it has USB 3 headers that aren't blocked by my highly aftermarket chassis fans.
I have had one major problem so far: when I first installed it, it recognized all my drives, but didn't see any of them as valid boot devices. Updating the four-year-old BIOS and turning CSM on fixed that.
I've also learned that you don't actually need to plug in the second CPU power connector if you're only running a 65-watt APU with no serious overclocking to speak of, which was convenient since that particular cable is currently buried in a moving box somewhere in my garage.
Bought used, this motherboard didn't come with any of the usual accessories, I/O shield included. Don't worry about that. It's fine.
Good RAM. No complaints. My old motherboard needed a BIOS update to recognize the XMP profiles, though, so maybe check for that if you're having that issue.
Used solely to store my OS and programs. Far bigger than necessary for that purpose, but no issues so far. Plenty fast and all that. I initially assumed it had DRAM, then I learned it didn't, then I learned that it's one of those drives that leeches off of your system memory instead of having an onboard cache, so make of that what you will.
This drive is mounted as /home, for convenient OS reinstalls and such-like. Also nice and zippy, but I suspect I'm not actually doing anything that would hit this thing hard enough to noticeably differentiate its performance from that of any other NVMe SSD. This one also uses your system memory as a cache, but that's fine. I've got plenty to go around.
The drive that used to fill this role was a WD Blue 1TB SATA SSD that started off serving the same purpose as an aftermarket upgrade to my old laptop, but got transplanted wholesale when I upgraded to the new system. That drive still functions, but since it holds all my most sensitive and irreplacable files, I elected to replace it for Peace Of Mind™ after my PSU exploded, and opted for a cheeky capacity upgrade while I was at it. Plus, this one was on sale for like, $90 off!
This drive is here as an overcorrection following years of gaming on laptops with tiny little SSDs in them. I mostly fill it with Legally Obtained Content™ and the dregs of my Steam library that I don't play very often. Absolutely no complaints thus far.
I seem to have accidentally gotten into building sleeper PCs. I promise I didn't mean to — I was drawn to this case for its superior expandability, greater ease of working-on, and massively increased piezo-buzzer-havingitude compared to the Corsair 110R this machine used to reside in. It just so happens to also be from 2004, back when "Pentium" was the name for Intel's flagship line of CPUs instead of their worst ones and I was learning to walk.
For all those reasons plus its absolutely charming aesthetic character, I really like this case. Unlike the last guy, I can actually get at the modular PSU without yanking it out and scratching all the paint off. It even constitutes an upgrade in terms of front I/O and airflow, after some aftermarket mods.
See, this case came with mounts for two 92mm fans, which is better than some of its contemporaries, but not nearly enough for several hundred watts of glistening, sinewy computing muscle. In order to bring it up to modern snuff, I cut a couple slightly sketchy speed holes in the bottom and 3D-printed a bracket and vent for the front drive bays, and mounted the 120mm fans out of my old case in those places. I also fitted some slightly goofy-looking aftermarket rubber feet to give the case more ground clearance to get better airflow from the bottom. Since I now have two entire fans blowing directly onto the GPU, I'd guess that it's actually getting better airflow than in the old case.
Ironically, those fans make the machine more annoying to work on by blocking access to the bottom of the motherboard, but that's fine. It should only really be an issue if I need to do a motherboard swap.
This power supply is a tad bit overkill for the system it's in — in spite of my new video card, I'm still running a 65-watt CPU. I've got so much headroom I could probably fit a second of the same GPU in here. I could probably get away with a 750-watt unit, but I've got good — or at least understandable — reasons for going this crazy.
I originally specced out this system with a much more sensible Seasonic Focus GX-650 rated for 650 watts, but despite being, by all accounts, the correct power supply for my use case at the time, it still died suddenly with a loud POP two and a half years into Seasonic's 10-year Worry-Free Warranty™. The RMA process was good, at least.
I wanted to get something less likely to suffer the same fate this time around, but having just lost a well-reviewed unit from a reputable brand with a good efficiency rating and a generous yet sensible rated wattage to nothing but bad luck, the only thing I could really do to maybe accomplish this other than just getting luckier was to buy something so overbuilt that it no longer regards my machine running at full bore as a significant load, hence this absolute goliath of a PSU. The original plan was to get a slightly more reasonable 850 watt unit instead, but this one was on a really good sale. I basically paid 850-watt money for it.
As of writing a few months after installing it in my system, my plan has yet to backfire. Time will tell if I made the right call.
It's really important to me that my computer have a disc drive, and this was the cheapest unit available that supported all the major formats. Like most of the parts in my computer, it functions reliably as advertised without significant issue and I don't have much to say on the matter. This thing isn't just for the Aesthetic™ — I have a decently large collection of CDs that I've ripped using my computer.
I used to have a WH14NS40, which is basically the same save for slightly worse performance in certain specific contexts and a weird firmware issue to do with ripping 4K blu-rays. I had no problems with it, but I had to cannibalize it from my main rig for a different build and ended up replacing it with this, the closest thing available to the exact same unit.
All perfectly fine fans. The 120mm Arctic P12s are good value at a good noise level, but in my experience the same cannot be said for their smaller fans, hence the premium Noctuas for the 92mm fan mounts.
I've also got random generic dust filters on all the intakes in a desperate attempt to sort of control the dust buildup inside my machine. It kind of works.
Fine, enough edging. Here's the part you're probably actually interested in, you filthy gamer.
I got this card used in late 2024 for circa half of its launch MSRP — I would not have been able to justify something this high-end brand new, especially at scalper prices when I was initially building this machine. I used to run an RX 6600 XT, but I had a project going which urgently required a quality video card and I'd been looking for an excuse to upgrade the one in my machine for a while, so out it came and a-scouring the eBay listings I went.
Gaming wise, the 6600 XT was about all I really needed. Frankly, I could probably get by on the integrated graphics in my CPU, but I quite like having two display outputs to complement my second monitor. This new GPU is ludicrous overkill for me in this department; it's marketed towards playing the latest triple-A titles at maxed-out settings in 4K, which means it completely pulverizes every PSX-graphics indie title I can throw at it with the overwhelming force and ruthless efficiency of the Chicxulub impactor.
The real reason I wanted this orbital nuke of a graphics processor was for Blender. If Blender Open Data is to be believed, this thing represents a more than doubling of the performance available to me in the Cycles rendering engine, which translates to a substantial improvement in render times. Of course, a mid-range Nvidia product would be better here than anything AMD is capable of, but as a known Linux user that was a no-go for me; I've heard nothing but horror stories about Nvidia GPUs and desktop Linux, and my personal experience frankly corroborates them. The venerable Mr. Torvalds said it best: fuck 'em.
There were a handful of GPUs in this performance class and approximate price bracket that I was considering — in fact, my original upgrade plan was a 7700 XT. I went with the 6800 XT because I deduced through the awesome power of spreadsheets that, with the current state of the used market, it had all the others beat in price-to-performance ratio, and it wasn't even close. I specifically went for the AMD reference model, since it was the only version with a short enough heatsink that I was confident it would fit in my case without any modifications.
I want it on record here that if I ever drop north of a grand on a 4090 or whatever the biggest baddest new this-or-a-used-car AAA-cruncher is and I haven't won the lottery, I am to be taken out back and shot like a lame horse. Frankly, I probably need some sense beaten into me if I'm buying lottery tickets to begin with.
In a previous revision of this page I said my old G602 was my "forever mouse", but I also said I'd be willing to replace it for the sake of better ergonomics, which is what this new one is for: pre-empting carpal tunnel syndrome. Besides, that mouse is in declining condition anyway, and you can only get in there with a soldering iron so many times before it becomes more trouble (and money for replacement parts) than it's worth. The old mouse is now my "on-the-go" mouse, a slot that recently opened up in my life due to my now having to take a laptop to in-person classes.
This new mouse shape was a bit of an adjustment at first, but after a month or so of daily or so use I find it significantly more comfortable than standard mice with no major downsides as far as usability is concerned. That said, although popular consensus is that this model is on the larger side, it's still a touch small for my hands. I'm currently working on getting on estrogen to maybe solve this issue.
This particular mouse is kind of a straight downgrade from its Gaming™ predecessor in a couple ways: no reassignable macro keys, and a slower sensor. In my case, I honestly wasn't using all those extra buttons anyway since the software to assign them isn't on Linux, and as for the sensor, I'm not a skilled enough gamer nor do I play the right types of games for the difference between "about as fast as my monitors" and whatever four or five digit number the esports mouse gold standard is this year to realistically be a bottleneck. Besides, if I fancied myself a Pro Gamer, a premium office mouse like this wouldn't have even been on my radar.
The original plan was to just quietly update this part and purge all mention of my previous keyboard(s) because I was embarrassed that I bought this to replace an extremely similar keyboard (which I will be selling, I'm not completely stupid), but this new one is actually different enough that I want to talk about it.
See, I used to have the tenkeyless Keychron V3 paired with a Q0 numpad to make up for the V3's lack of one, a combination that I settled on as a workaround for the 100% V6 that I wanted only being available in Keychron's stupid bluish-grey colourway. I had no problems with those keyboards, but I still bought this because I wanted to consolidate them into the same USB connection to free up a port on the 4-port USB switch I use to share these peripherals with my school laptop.
This new keyboard is nicer to an extent I wasn't expecting. I was expecting something totally identical to my old V3 but for the extra keys off to the right, but Keychron seems to have upped their build quality over the past two and half years, because this one both feels and sounds markedly... nicer. Thockier? Is that the word keyboard people use? At any rate, it feels more premium and I like it. It does flex a lot more if you push down on it hard, but that doesn't really affect normal use.
I like Keychrons, especially the V-series, for their hot-swappable switches, highly configurable open-source firmware, and the inclusion of spare keycaps for use with MacOS, which is great because it lets me replace the Windows key with Command or Option or some shit and get that idiotic branding off of my generic USB peripheral in use with exclusively non-Windows machines. It also helps that you can actually buy this, and for somewhat reasonable prices to boot, neither of which are givens in the world of enthusiast keyboards.
Admittedly, I also got this specific model for the USB dongle-based wireless connectivity. I've gone on record as saying that wireless keyboards as part of a desktop setup are the stupidest thing ever, but I think my principles can survive this one mostly intact because it's at least not fucking bluetooth — it's still a plug-and-play USB peripheral — and it can act as a wired keyboard if I decide the wireless sucks. I just wanted one less wire to deal with on my desk because, as of writing, I've had to tear down and move this setup like twice in the past three months.
I got this with the Gateron Jupiter Brown switches because, of the Cherry Reds, Keychron K Pro Browns, and Gateron G Pro Blues I've tried on previous mechanical keyboards, I liked the Keychron Browns the best, and these are pretty similar. They seem to take more force than the Keychron Browns, which I'm not sure if I like, but maybe that'll change as these get broken in. Luckily, they're hot-swappable, so if I hate them I can easily change them out! I also got some sick aftermarket keycaps for this one.
Word of warning to potential Keychron customers: If you buy from their site using a VPN, they may well flag your order as "suspicious" and hold your shit hostage until you send them a photo of your ID to prove you're a real person, like they did to me the first time around. They did accept a photo where I'd censored all the information I hadn't already given them as part of checkout, so that was nice I guess. Just something to keep in mind.
I bought this several years ago when I was still running Windows because I wanted maximum compatibility for minimum effort. It still works now that I'm on Linux, using bluetooth and with xpadneo installed. It's decent, no complaints, I'm sure it could be better but I don't use it enough to justify caring.
Another "endgame" purchase. Very good monitors, if I replace them it'll be because they broke. (Speak of the devil, one of them has been replaced under warranty since I originally wrote this section.) I truly don't care for OLEDs — they get burn-in, for god's sake, I thought we moved on from that in the early 2000's when LCDs became commonplace.
These are mounted on a pair of cheap Amazon special gas spring wall-mount VESA arms because I fucking hate monitor feet on my desk.
After a lifetime of losing headphones to frayed cables and the inevitable failure of poor quality materials, my top priority when getting my next nice pair of cans was durability, and Beyerdynamic's products fit the bill nicely. I can officially say I've sat on these without damaging them, which for me is saying something. As a bonus, they also have excellent sound quality and are supremely comfortable.
The only issue with these headphones is the non-removable cable, which is an automatic deal-breaker for me. I purchased mine through a modding company that replaced that cable with a 4-pin mini XLR jack, which has proven to be a bit of a double-edged sword as finding sanely priced replacement cables for it is nigh impossible.
I'm also rocking aftermarket cat ears. I just don't trust the quality on the cheap novelty headphones that come with them built in.
Perfectly cromulent 12-inch display tablet. It doesn't completely work out of the box, but the proprietary driver program is at least available for Linux, or there's OpenTabletDriver, which in my experience seems more reliable but is missing one feature from this specific model. I like that the stylus is completely passive and doesn't need to be charged, which, having grown up using a Nintendo DS, feels like an absurd thing for a stylus to require.
It's a USB webcam. The picture is good enough — better than most laptops — but it does some annoying auto-adjustment stuff that makes chroma-key shenanigans difficult at times. Standout features are the privacy shutter, indicator light when the camera is in use, and screw mount. I'm sure the microphone is adequate in a pinch, but I have no reason to use it.
I'll be totally honest with you, I used to have the USB version of this exact microphone and replaced it with a used XLR variant to exchange an XLR input on my audio interface for a free USB port. Both versions are equally very good, probably as good as I'll ever need. The sound quality on this sucker is so good that my friends in voice chat complain whenever they hear me on anything else.
In what is becoming a running theme, it sits on a perhaps unbefitting $20 no-name mic arm from Amazon, with matching cheap shock mount and pop filter. They work, though. The springs on the arm are loud and, as my friends are keen to point out every time, quite audible through the mic.
Also, free bit of advice from me to you: for audio hardware, buy used professional or music gear, not gaming stuff. The sound quality and build quality is almost always way better.
Nothing to write home about for the most part. It's a good quality audio interface with the amount of I/O I presently need, which is to say two mono inputs, and it mostly works fine on Linux. Bizarrely, though, between this and my Benhringer Model D, the only device with a MIDI interface that's recognized by my computer is the analog synthesizer. If I had to spend this kind of money on an audio interface again, I'd probably go for a used Behringer unit with more inputs.