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Software I use, gadgets I love, and other things.

I sometimes get asked about the things that I use for work and play. Before I stopped being self-employed and went back to work in 2021, I did a fair amount of gaming; mostly League of Legends.

Workstation

  • Dell Precision 5570 15.6” 64GB RAM (2022)

    I did use a Mac for a while but one of my colleagues said he thought that a Windows laptop was better suited to work on our products. That laptop was sent back. In it's place came this Dell mid-range workstation.

  • 34" Monitor

    My boss was willing to provide two 27" monitors so I asked if I could get one 34" Dell instead. It does have a camera, microphone, and decent speakers.

  • 34" Curved Monitor

    I liked the 34" monitor so much that I decided to replace my older 27" monitor with a 34" curved Acer monitor.

  • Double Monitor Arm

    My two monitors are mounted on my desk on a Mount-It! Dual Monitor Arm. They reticulate and have adjustable height arms. I've had them mounted like this for about 3 years with no issues.

  • Mouse and Keyboard Switch

    Since I have my work laptop and a beefy Desktop, I wanted to be able to only use one keyboard and one mouse for both computers. I've actually owned a rackmounted KVM. I knew I didn't want to pay KVM prices and I decided to simply use each monitor's dual HDMI capabilities for the monitors. That left the keyboard and mouse. I solved that problem with a simple two computer electonic switch for up to 4 devices.

  • EVGA Z20 RGB Optical Mechanical Keyboard + EVGA X17 Gaming Mouse

    Lights are always something I've enjoyed. Particulary colored lights. The keyboard and mouse have LED lighting. Not only is it a decorative function but the lit keys help me type at night.

  • Echo Plus (2nd Generation)

    Since I love music, I usually listen to my favorites when I'm not in meetings. My preference is to streaming from an Alexa device since I can very easily give voice commands to stop or start the music.

  • Black+Decker 14,000 BTU Portable AC

    Our HVAC guy has told me that when our house was built in 1968, my "home office" (one of the bedrooms) was designed for a certain number of people equivalent BTUs. It was never designed for two large monitors, two computing devices, a snake terrarium, and a guitar amplifier. The room needed supplementing cooling to keep it below 80F.

Gaming PC

  • MSI GeForce RTX 3070 TI TRIO X

    I looked online for several months to try to buy a high performance video card without getting ripped off. This was a period of time when Crypto-mining was extremely popular - resulting in a global shortage of video cards. One early morning, I decided to take a chance and go get in line at a local computer store ("Microcenter"). I was able to get one of my top picks. I upgraded from an EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 FTW+ 3GB video card.

  • Intel Core i9-9900KF 3.6/5 GHz LGA 1151

    This was a decent selection when I originally built this gaming computer. When I did a major upgrade in early 2022, I did not change out the CPU. I'd like to upgrade the CPU in 2025.

  • Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Ultra Gaming LGA 1151 ATX Motherboard

    I'm a fan of the Gigabyte brand. The AORUS appealed to me for a variety of reasons. Great mobo for the price - loaded with lots of features.

  • 32GB Corsair Dominator Platinum (4x8) DDR4-3000

    I wanted a PC that looked as good as it performed. I like the look and performance of these memory sticks. You can change out the color of the lenses on the topic of the memory by buying the Corsair Modding kit. I'd like to upgrade to 64GB of RAM in 2025.

  • Storage

    This particular PC build has one Intel 670p M.2 2282 PCIe SSD (2TB) as well as a Toshiba P300 7200 SATA III 3.5" (2TB) disk. The SSD runs the OS for quick disk I/O. My older, less important files and data are stored on the SATA hard drive. I upgraded the SSD from a Patriot Scorch M.2 SSD (256GB).

  • NZXT S340 Elite ATX Case (white)

    I wanted a tower with good options for both cable management and cooling. Another important feature for me was a clear top. This PC has a lot of synchronized LED lighting on the video card, the motherboard, as well as a few decorative panels.

  • be quiet! Straight Power 11 650w PSU

    I find these to be very reliable and more importantly - quiet PSUs. When the computer is on and even has a lot of performance load, there's virtually no fan sound. That's also because of the Noctua cooling fans.

  • Noctua Fans w/Phantek Halo RGB Frames

    There are 3x 140mm mounted inside the case in a push/pull configuration and 2x 120mm mounted to a Nactua NH-D15 CPU air cooler. You can't hear the Noctuas - they're extremely quiet.

  • Visual Mods

    There are a bunch of subtle but cool to me visual modifications inside the case. As mentioned earlier, the memory sticks have different appearance. Next I have a V1 Tech Custom RGB PSU Shroud, GPU Support Bracket, and GPU Backplate (space themed). I use CableMod custom cables: 3x SATA and an 8+8 PCI-e kit with alternating silver, white, and black cables. Lastly, the NH-D15 has the NA-HC4 Noctua Heat Sink Cover in chromax.White.

  • Total Cost of Build

    The original build included the motherboard, CPU, and memory. Every thing else was purchased specifically for the upgrade that I did in early 2022. The cost of the original parts was $1,079.74. All of new parts cost $2,635.37. Total price: $3,715.11. Every part and visual element was researched and considered before buying anything.

Audio Visual

  • 50" Samsung LCD TV

    We have a built in cherry wood multimedia console + book/display shelves. I needed to fit the area specific wall mounted spot designed for a TV. I'm a fan of Samsung products and thought I'd try a Samsung TV. It's been a good TV with the exception of the remote control. It would randomly turn the TV back on after you'd power it off. That problem was solved with the purchase of a universal remote.

  • Soundbar System

    These modern TVs have pretty small and poor (IMO) audio. I bought a Polk Audio MagniFi Max AX SR Dolby Atmos Soundbar System with Wireless Subwoofer and Surround Speakers. It's a huge and very meaningful upgrade. Especially since I've got severe hearing loss in one ear. It's a 5 channel system with 11 drivers, Bluetooth, Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.

  • Streaming Boxes

    I was using several Roku devices. I decided to find a device that could support Bluetooth. While researching streaming devices, I found the Nvidia Shield. This thing is awesome: it supports 4K HDR, Dolby Vision-Atmos, AI-enhanced upscaling, GeForce NOW cloud gaming, Google Assistant Built-In and Alexa.

Custom Built Lights

  • Wall Mounted Beer! Sign

    I came across an idea for a wall mounted light made out of black iron. The light is the exclamation point at the end of the word beer. The idea appealed to me so I created a parts list and ordered the materials. I soaked the pipe parts in degreaser overnight before assembly. My Father helped mount the letters on the backing board. I mounted it to the wall in my home office. It's been a favorite since I built it around 2017.

  • Robot Desk Lamp

    I wanted a small lamp for my desk. I decided that I enjoyed the beer sign building experience so why not attempt to build something myself? The robot lamp was not my idea - I basically stumbled across this build. It had the characteristics I was looking for - an on/off switch and an outlet.

Smart Home Devices

  • Speakers

    My wife was originally pretty strongly against smart speakers. She's not wrong that Amazon is listening but as a Cybersecurity professional, I'm not worried about it. I believe that they do listen for marketing reasons. At this point we own four (technically 5): Echo Dot (5th generation), Echo Dot with Clock (5th generation), Echo Show 5 (2nd generation), and an Echo Plus (2nd generation). Our Ecobee SmartThermostat with voice control is Alexa powered.

  • Smart Plugs

    I've been sticking to one brand of smart plug so that I can manage all of them from one app. We have 1x Kasa Outdoor IP64 Smart plug (Christmas lights), 1 Kasa Smart plug Power Strip HS300 (snake terrarium), 2x Kasa Smart 3 Way Switches (front and back porch lights), and various Kasa Smart plug HS103P4 spread around the house.

  • Ring! Wired Doorbell Pro 2

    I decided to use a Ring doorbell to get better at avoiding door knockers and solicitors. Installation was very straightforward including the wiring into our existing hardware chime.

  • The Future

    I'd like to replace our current door keybad system with a smart system that would be connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi. I'd also like to replace our ancient garage door opener with something more modern and Internet connected.