Software I use, gadgets I love, and other things I recommend.
I get asked a lot about the things I use to build software, stay productive, or buy to fool myself into thinking I’m being productive when I’m really just procrastinating. Here’s a big list of all of my favorite stuff.
PC #1
Computer
This thing is a beast. It’s a custom-built desktop with a Ryzen 9 5900x, 64GB of RAM, RTX 4090 OC Strix GPU, 1TB NVMe SSD, and a 4TB HDD. It’s a little overkill for my needs, but I like having the power to run anything and everything I will ever need to run concurrently.
Dual 32 inch 4k Samsung Displays
I LOVE having two monitors, I cannot imagine going back to just one. The 4k resolution is also a huge plus, I can fit so much more on the screen at once. I will regularly have 3-4 windows open at once, and I can still see everything.
Corsair K95 Cherry MX Blue
A full-size mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX Blue switches. Moving from a 60% MX Brown Ducky one2 mini and the wrist rest on this thing is a godsend. Can type for hours without any wrist pain, and the macro keys allow me to quickly launch all my IDEs in the morning when I turn the PC on.
Logitech MX Master 2s
Its a mouse. It’s wireless. It’s got a scroll wheel. The infinite scroll is okay, I guess.
Secretlabs Titan 2020 Chair
If I’m going to slouch in the worst ergonomic position imaginable all day, I might as well do it in an expensive chair.
PC #2
Computer
This is my old PC. it was initially in my parents house but I brought it over as I would never use it there. It is my first custom built PC, with an i9 9900k, 32GB of RAM, RTX 2070 Super, 500GB Sata SSD and a 2TB HDD. The SSD is a little small, and quite slow, but it does the job if I ever have any friends over to play games on.
Dual 27 inch 1080p Philips Displays
This is where my love for dual monitors started. I got one of these monitors with a prebuilt PC I was given to do homework on, and as I modified that PC, and added dedicated graphics I saved up and bought a second one. The difference was night and day. Even for playing games after school, I was able to have discord open on the 2nd monitor and chat with friends so much easier that before.
Cheap Membrane Keyboard
This is a cheap keyboard that I got with the prebuilt. It feels awful compared to my main keyboard, but it works. My Ducky one2 mini is a much better keyboard, but it has started registering single key-presses as double key-presses, so I have to use this one for typing to be legible.
Cheap Mouse
This is the cheap gaming mouse I got with the PC. It does the job perfectly, but switching from a wireless mouse to one that is wired can sometimes be a pain, getting the cord tangled.
ARGOS Gaming Chair
This is a cheap gaming chair I got years ago. It looks tatty now, but still works as a chair.
Laptop
Dell XPS 15
it a laptop doe
Development tools
JetBrains IDE Suite
I get the JetBrains tools for free, through the github education pack. I used to use VS Code but I've got so used to the JetBrains IDEs that I can't go back. Currently, I use ToolBox, WebStorm, CLion, DataGrip, PyCharm, Android Studio, Rider and IntelliJ Ultimate.
Windows Terminal
The new Windows Terminal is great because everything launches through it now, instead of separately. Not sure what features it has that others don't, but it's my goto now.
GitKraken
GitKraken is a great git client, and I also get it for free with the github education pack. I use it for things that the Jetbrains IDEs don't support, or to clean up my mistakes.
MobaXterm
MobaXterm is a great SSH client, and I use it to check up on my servers. I have been looking into ways of moving away from using it and integrating my ssh client into my IDEs
Productivity
Discord
I have a few servers that I use for gaming with friends. I also have a few bots that I have created that I use to keep track of my work, and other things.
Spotify
I use Spotify to listen to music, which I can't work without. I also sometimes use it to listen to podcasts.