A running list of the hardware I actually use. The desk I work at, the machines I build on, the peripherals I have settled on after a lot of trial and error, and the boards I break things with. This page changes whenever something on the desk does.

I have been assembling, breaking and re-assembling machines since 2006. Most of what sits on my desk today was chosen for one reason: it stays out of the way while I am thinking. Everything here is something I use, not something I own and forgot about.

Two BenQ monitors on a walnut standing desk, with a Keychron K2, a Dell keyboard, an Apple Magic Keyboard and trackpad, a key light and a webcam
The desk as it stands today.

On The Desk

What I actually work on, most days.

Item What I use
Desk ErgoYou E9 Walnut having capacity up to 125kg, 5ft × 2.5ft
Laptops MacBook M4 Pro, 24GB, 1TB SSD & MacBook Air, M4, 24GB, 512GB SSD
Tablets iPad Air M1, 256GB and OnePlus Pad 4, 512GB
Display BenQ EW2790U, 27” 4K UHD, USB-C 65W PD X 2
Webcam Logitech C920 HD Pro
Keyboard Keychron K2, and Apple Magic Keyboard with Magic Trackpad
Chair Green Soul Monster Ultimate Series S

Everyday Carry

A phone in a fabric case, a pair of AirPods and an Apple Magic Keyboard on a wooden desk
What actually leaves the house.
A Kindle Paperwhite showing a black-and-white typewriter cover image, resting on a Game Over desk mat beside a mechanical keyboard
The Paperwhite, which goes everywhere with it.
Item What I use
Phone iPhone 16 Pro, 512GB in a Spigen case
Laptop MacBook Air M4, 24GB, 512GB
Tablet OnePlus Pad 4
Reading Kindle Paperwhite (2025)
Power Ugreen 100W adapter, Belkin 200W braided cable, 2M
Watch Apple Watch Series 11 (steel) and a Whoop Peak

Entertainment Hub - Casper

The rig running a game in a dark room, RGB fans lit, beside a monitor showing a game menu
Casper doing what it was rebuilt for.
An open mid-tower case showing a dual-tower air cooler, motherboard and graphics card
Inside the case.

The rig I first built in 2012 and rebuilt from the ground up in 2023. It handles gaming, virtual machines, and anything that needs more cores than a laptop can spare.

Component What I run
CPU Intel Core i5-13600K — 14C/20T (6P + 8E), LGA1700
Motherboard Gigabyte B660M Aorus Pro DDR4
Cooler Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black — dual 140mm, air
GPU Gigabyte RTX 3080 Ti Gaming OC, 12GB
Memory 96GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-3200 (2 × 32GB + 2 × 16GB)
Storage (NVMe) 3 × Crucial P3 2TB + 3 × Samsung 980 1TB + Samsung 980 PRO 500GB — 9.5TB
Storage (SATA) 4 × Crucial BX500 2TB — 8TB
PSU Corsair RM1000x — 1000W, 80+ Gold, fully modular
Case Corsair 4000D Airflow, tempered glass mid-tower ATX
Mouse HyperX Pulsefire Core — Pixart 3327, up to 6,200 DPI, 7 programmable buttons
Also on the desk Logitech Pebble 2 combo, Dell KM3322W combo, Portronics Bubble

Portable storage

Twelve terabytes that live in a drawer rather than in a machine.

Drive Specs
SanDisk Extreme Portable 4 × 2TB — 1050MB/s read, 1000MB/s write, IP65, 3m drop rating, hardware encryption
Crucial X6 4 × 1TB

Displays

Every monitor I have bought since 2021 has been a BenQ. Not brand loyalty so much as never having had a reason to look elsewhere, the panels are color accurate out of the box and the eye-care features hold up over a long day.

Monitor Specs
BenQ EW2790U X 2, Sep 2025 27” 4K UHD — 95% P3, AI Contrast, USB-C 65W PD, 3× HDMI, treVolo speakers
BenQ GW2486TC, Aug 2024 24” 1080p IPS at 100Hz — USB-C 65W passthrough, daisy chain, 99% sRGB, noise-cancelling mic
BenQ PD2500Q X 2, Jul 2023 [Sold Out] 25” QHD IPS DesignVue, 100% sRGB and Rec. 709, Pantone Validated, daisy chain, auto-pivot.
BenQ PD2700U, May 2022 27” 4K UHD IPS DesignVue — 100% sRGB, KVM switch, Dualview
BenQ EW3270U, Feb 2021 32” 4K UHD — 95% DCI-P3, HDR10, 3000:1, FreeSync

Network

Item What I use
Switch TP-Link TL-SG105E — 5-port gigabit, VLAN, QoS, link aggregation
Routers TP-Link Archer C80 (AC1900) and Archer C6 (AC1200)
Broadband Airtel 400 Mbps and ATC 600 Mbps — two lines

Audio

Item What I use
Wired Sennheiser HD 25 — closed-back on-ear; Razer BlackShark V2 X — gaming headset
Wireless Soundcore Space One and Soundcore Q20i — both ANC Bluetooth over-ear
Earbuds Apple AirPods 4
Speakers Sony HT-S40R — 5.1ch soundbar with wireless rears and subwoofer, Dolby Audio

Camera

The kit behind the photos on Pexels.

Item What I use
Bodies Sony A7 IV (full-frame) and Sony ZV-E10 (24.2MP APS-C)
Zooms Tamron 35-150mm F2-2.8 Di III VXD, Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 Di III VXD G2, Tamron 28-200mm F2.8-5.6 Di III RXD
Primes Sony FE 85mm F1.8 (SEL85F18), Samyang AF 35mm F1.8 FE, Samyang AF 12mm F2.0 (APS-C, for the ZV-E10)
Action & film DJI Osmo Action, a GoPro, and a Kodak KB10 35mm point-and-shoot
Accessories DJI RS3 Mini and DJI RSC — 3-axis gimbals
The Sony A7 IV mounted on a gimbal with a Tamron zoom attached
The A7 IV, on the gimbal.
A DJI Osmo Action camera mounted on a grip
DJI Osmo Action.
A GoPro action camera resting on a carbon-fibre power bank
The GoPro.
A Kodak KB10 Camera 35 point-and-shoot film camera held in one hand
Where it started: a Kodak KB10, 35mm film, one fixed lens and no way to check the shot.

Tinkering

Boards and tools that live on the second desk, where things get soldered, flashed and occasionally bricked.

Three labelled panels: Arduino boards, Espressif dev boards, and single-board computers
The three families, laid out. Arduino on the left, Espressif in the middle, single-board computers on the right.
Platform What I have
Raspberry Pi Pi 4 and Pi 5 (16GB) — more than eight boards, with AI HAT+ and AI HAT 2
Arduino Every board from 2013 to 2025
ESP The whole family, ESP8266 through ESP32-S3
STM32 A collection of development boards — the Nucleo 144 is what started a whole post
TI MSP Board collection
Single-board computers stacked in an open acrylic frame on brass standoffs, each wired to the network
The Raspberry Pi cluster.
A Raspberry Pi 4 Model B held in one hand
A Pi 4, before it went into the stack.
A box of boxed boards — Arduino, ArduCam, Raspberry Pi 4 and a Pi Camera Module 3 — beside a keyboard
The unopened pile, which never gets smaller.
An Arduino robotic car with an ultrasonic sensor, servo and yellow wheels
2023 - rebuilt the robotic car.
A MacBook Air running macOS High Sierra, sitting on its own box beside a boxed copy of Office 2016
2017 — the first MacBook Air.
A Kindle showing a library of AWS, Docker and Go titles, beside a zipped accessory case
2017 — the first Kindle.
An earlier desk: an LG monitor, an open MacBook Pro showing code, a Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse, a lamp and a plant
2020 — the desk before this one.
Three MacBooks side by side, the middle one covered in developer stickers, with neckband earphones resting on the third
2020 — three MacBooks and a lot of stickers.