Gear
This is the hardware I use on a day to day basis. As you can see, I'm not crazy about keeping up with the latest tech trends. I tend to upgrade hardware based on my current needs and try to keep machines in service as long as they can.
Main workstation
What I use to work on most of the time. It's 6 years old but it can do pretty much anything. I don't want to upgrade it because I don't want to be disapointed by how little improvement I would get. I just want to stick a current gen GeForce in it and do some Blender on it. But that requires GeForces to be available.
- CPU: i7-4790k (4 cores, 4.40GHz)
- RAM: 4x8GB DDR3 1600MHz
- GPU: Radeon RX580
- OS drive: WD Black 256GB M.2 NVMe SSD
- Storage: 8TB internal + 8TB external
- Displays: 1440p 32" BenQ + 1024p 19" Dell
- Keyboard: Filco Majestouch 2 MX Blue tenless
- Mouse: Razer Deathadder Chroma
- Speakers: M-Audio AV30 Monitor speakers
- OS: Pop!_OS 20.10
Lutris console
The reference machine for Lutris development and the machine I use to play video games. This is mainly a couch gaming console, even for keyboard and mouse games, thanks to the Corsair lapboard. The mouse and keyboard can be plugged and used on a little desk with a gaming chair. The machine was initially built for events like SCaLE. It was recently upgraded to the Radeon RX5700XT and is capable of playing pretty much any recent title like Cyberpunk 2077, Doom Eternal, Serious Sam 4, Death Stranding, Godfall, Battlefront 2...
- CPU: Ryzen 5 2600 (6 cores, 3.9GHz)
- RAM: 2x8GB DDR4 2400
- GPU: Radeon RX 5700 XT
- OS drive: 256GB SATA SSD
- Storage: 3TB internal (Steam games)
- Storage: 8TB internal (Other games)
- Display: 42" 1080p TV
- Display: 27" 1080p monitor
- Speakers: Edifier R1700BT
- OS: Pop!_OS 20.10
- Keyboard: Corsair K63 Wireless + Gaming lapboard
- Mouse: Corsair Harpoon RGB Wireless
- Controller: XBox 360 wired controller
- Controller: 8bitdo arcade stick
- Controller: Capcom arcade stick (+ SNES adapter)
- Controller: DolphinBar + Wiimote + nunchunk + lightgun
"Laptop" / tablet
I find laptops too heavy. I found the Surface Pro to be the best compromise between a tablet and a x86_64 Linux PC. Requires the Linux Surface kernel for best support. It can be used as a portable gaming device for lightweight games like Cuphead, Street Fighter IV or Hollow Knight.
- Surface Pro 6 (2018)
- CPU: i5-8250U
- RAM: 8GB
- OS drive: 128GB SSD
- Display: 2736x1824 with touchscreen and Wacom pen
- OS: Pop!_OS 20.10
- Controller: 8bit do controller
Home server
A tiny and cheap Ryzen PC that runs a multitude of services (Gitlab, Docker Registry, Salt, OBS, Wikipedia) on my local network.
- Form factor: ASRock Deskmini A300W
- CPU: Ryzen 3 3200G (4 cores, 4.0GHz)
- RAM: 16GB DDR4 2933
- OS drive: 512GB SATA SSD
- Storage: 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD
- OS: Pop!_OS 20.04
Audio workstation
Even if I don't have a lot of skills currently, I like to mess with audio software and learn how to play music. For this usage an old Thinkpad is more than powerful enough.
- Thinkpad X220
- RAM: 8GB
- OS Drive: 120GB SATA SSD
- Sound card: Focusrite Scarlett Solo
- MIDI controller: Alesis V25
- Guitar: Jackson JS Series Rhoads JS32 - Satin Gray
- Speakers: Edifier R1700BT (the same speakers I use for the Lutris console, it has 2 RCA inputs)
- OS: Manjaro KDE
Streaming setup
The streaming is done via the home server machine running OBS. This server has access to:
- The Lutris console audio/video output via an USB3 to Dual HDMI capture card
- Local video via a C920 Logitech webcam mounted on a tripod
- Voice via a Corsair Wireless headset.
- Audio output from the DAW machine via netjack (
jackd -R -P 90 -d netoneon the server)
Game audio from the Lutris console can be exported to the Corsair headset with PulseAudio: pactl load-module module-loopback latency_msec=1 source=1 sink=2
Streaming can go to either a service like Twitch/Youtube or to an Owncast instance hosted on a small OVH server in Canada.
The audio production machine is also setup to stream to an Icecast server (also on the same server in Canada) from Mixxx.
DNS server / Cloud storage
A single board computer running Pihole and Nextcloud.
- Raspberry Pi 4
- OS: Raspian 10
More devices
- Thinkpad T60: It has my first install for an audio production box I did for the X220. Despite having only 3GB of RAM, it can run Renoise or Bitwig!
- Dell Vostro 1500: A Core2 laptop with a Nvidia GPU. The only Nvidia machine I have at the moment
- EeePC 1001PX: A very old netbook.
- Pinebook 1080p: It runs Android. On GNU/Linux distros, nothing is compiled against the MALI GPU driver so everything runs at horrible performance, whether DOSBox, Retroarch or anything requiring 3D acceleration. On Android, the device can run GTA3 and other games perfectly smooth.
- Galaxy S10: Personal phone, just runs the standard Samsung OS.
- Galaxy S7: Work phone / 2FA device. Having a separate work phone is great!
- Nexus 7 (2012). Used a an alarm clock or ebook reader. Very durable tablet after all... (I had to repair the USB connector once)
- Ubuntu Touch test device: Nexus 4. This device isn't even really supported by UTouch. It currently runs an old version.
- Handheld console: GPi Case + Raspberry Pi Zero. Runs games up to the PS1 in a reduced form factor Game Boy.
- Raspberry Pi 3 in a NES case. Some Amiga games and that's pretty much it.
- Raspberry Pi 2 with a camera module.
- OLPC XO-1: The first One Laptop Per Child! The screen is all messed up because some cilantro stayed on the screen for a few hours and killed some LDC pixels...
- PowerMac PPC G5: I'd like to try installing ArOS on it. It's not getting a lot of use.
In my kitchen
I'm not going to feed myself with computers... Here are a few essential items you can find in my kitchen.
- Coffee maker: Aeropress
- Coffee grinder: Mueller burr mill hand grinder
- Chef knife: Miyabi Koh 8-inch
- Cutting board: 18"x14" acacia wood board
- Blender: Ninja Pro+
- Rice cooker
- Wok