My Tech
I like collecting a bit of tech in my free time. This page features some of it
Table of Contents
Current Hardware: Current PC, Macbook Air
Old Hardware:
Old PC (2015-2020),
Laptop (2017-2018),
Laptop (2018-2019),
MS Surface 3,
VR Headset,
Microsoft Surface Go*
CybertronPC Rhodium
Acquired: 12/13/20
Active Usage: 2020-Now
Info: Hand-me down machine, big beefy machine with good hardware. The original case was filled with layers and layers of dust and was starting to fall apart from years of usage, so I ripped out the components and mounted them in a generic Rosewill case instead. Terrible mounting brackets, hideous blue LED, but a pretty good case considering the price.
Specs: Intel Core i7 5930K, Asus X-99-E Motherboard, American Megatrends 1201 BIOS, NVIDEA GeForce GTX 980 Ti GPU, 16 GiB of DDR4 RAM.
Uses an MSI Optix G273 1080p 165hz Monitor, an E-YOOSO Mechanical Keyboard, and a Cherry Gentix Mouse. Used to use a Retro Gateway 104-Key Keyboard
M1 Macbook Air
Acquired: 7/18/22
Active Usage: 2022-Now
Info: WIP
Specs: Apple M1
Oculus Rift S
Acquired: 11/28/20
Active Usage: 2020-2023
Info: First proper VR headset I've ever owned myself. For an example of me using my headset, check out this video
As of 2023, the cable for this headset is broken, so it's as good as dead as replacements are over $100. So this coming summer I'll probably bet getting myself a new one
HP 14a Chromebook
Acquired: 8/10/20
Active Usage: 2020-2020
Info: Got this laptop for college. Only reason I bought this is because my Surface Go which I'd had planned to use for college decided to explode a couple days before I left. So at the last minute, I picked up this Chromebook. I've been incredibly impressed with the thing. Chromebooks have come a long way since what they were back when they were first introduced. They're fully fledged computers pretty much at this point, with built-in Linux support out of the box and great performance. Best netbook I've ever had.
Specs: Intel Pentium Silver N5000, Stock BIOS, Intel UHD Graphics 605, and 4 GiB DDR4 RAM.
14" Display Panel, pictured mouse is Microsoft's Surface Mobile Mouse
Panasonic LX-101 LaserDisc Player
Acquired: 1/3/20
Info: Managed to score this for $20. Was a bit dirty when I got it, but it's pretty much fully functional. The only real issue is I believe the laser inside the thing is a bit dirty and has some trouble reading discs, which I'll need to open it up and clean off the laser diode in order to fix.
Specs: NTSC; Plays Laserdisc, CD, and CD Video; Connected to computer monitor via cheap composite to HDMI converter
Microsoft Surface Go
Acquired: 11/17/19
Active Usage: 2019-2022ish
Info: Got this around my birthday as a replacement for my underpowered Netbook. Works really well and does everything I need it to do orders of magnitude better than what I had before. The touchscreen is really nice to use, the keyboard is great, and overall it's just a pleasent experience to use. Definitely would recommend it over an iPad or Android Tablet.
Had to swap it out with a replacement under warrenty on 8/9/20 due to the internal storage frying itself, which led to me purchasing my Chromebook in the meantime for college while I waited for it to be repaired. After getting it back from repairs, it returned to use as my secondary device.
Update: Since the start of 2022, the age of the thing has started getting a bit frustrating, and the battery life just isn't good enough for the daily usage I need from it at college. So I'm gonna be getting an M1 Macbook Air to replace it, which I'll be adding to this page as soon as I get.
Specs: Intel Pentium 4415Y, Surface Go Motherboard, Microsoft BIOS, Intel HD Graphics 615, 8 GiB of DDR3 RAM.
Game Boy Color
Acquired: 9/4/19
Active Usage: 2019-Now*
Info: Got incredibly lucky and found this thing at a thrift store for $3, fully functional. In order to make it more usable I bought a Tetris cartridge and battery cover for it for about $10, and with that this thing is amazing. The non-backlit screen though is a bit hard to get used to though, heh
Specs: It's a Game Boy Color
Sears SR 1000 C Series Typewriter
Acquired: 7/11/19
Active Usage: 2019-2021ish
Info: There were two avaliable at the thrift store I got this at, but this one had the top cover still. Has an internal computer, correction tape, and as of right now very cheap replacement cartridges avaliable online for this daisywheel typewriter. Works great.
Update: Eventually I decided to give this back to Goodwill, as I never ended up using it for anything. Not exactly much practical use for a typewriter for a person that writes everything online. Hopefully someone else gets better use out of it.
Mac Mini (2006)
Acquired: 6/3/19
Active Usage: 2019-2020
Info: Mac Mini I bought off of eBay for $30. Runs Snow Leopard alright, but really needs a CPU upgrade to become 64-bit so I can do real stuff on this machine. Eventually might turn it into a linux box. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Magnavox CRT TV & Nintendo Gamecube
TV Acquired: 10/18/18
Gamecube Acquired: 6/20/18
Active Usage: 2018-2018
CRT Info: Got for me by my mother from a garage sale, sadly a capacitor blew after a couple weeks of usage and the machine is now a very heavy paperweight. I no longer own this TV because of that
GameCube Info: Bought at a thrift store while visiting family in Pennsylvania for roughly $20. Fan doesn't work and didn't work even when I replaced the whole fan and power supply, so I believe something is wrong with the Gamecube motherboard itself. Because of that, like the TV, it functions as pretty much just a paperweight.
HP Stream 11
Acquired: 5/24/18
Active Usage: 2018-2019
Info: I got for roughly $100 off the Best Buy website as a replacement to my Latitude 2120. Ran Ubuntu 18.04 between January - April 2019, reinstalled Windows after an upgrade to 19.04 borked up. Works great for surfing the web and some light gaming. Was my main laptop until November 17, 2019 when I replaced it with my Microsoft Surface Go.
Sadly since then it has become non-functional and refuses to start, and in the process of trying to diagnose the issue I completely destroyed the case, so I've since thrown it out.
Specs: Intel Celeron N3060, HP 82A9 Motherboard, F.10 BIOS (Insyde - 09/02/2016), Intel HD Graphics, 4 GiB of memory, & a 32GB storage drive alongside a 64GB SD Card.
Apple iMac(2007)
Acquired: 12/3/17
Active Usage: 2017-2018
Info: iMac bought off my friend for a couple of trips to Taco Bell and $30. Screen has a yellow tinge to it, but otherwise works great. Runs Snow Leopard 10.6.8, which is great with some third party software crammed in it and iTunes ripped out.
Specs: iMac 7,1, Intel Core 2 Duo T7700, ATi Radeon HD 2600 PRO, 2 GiB of DDR3 RAM.
Dell Latitude 2120
Acquired: 10/22/17
Active Usage: 2017-2018
Info: Was my main Netbook for roughly a year and a half that I got off of eBay for $16.99. Worked amazing with a POSReady 2009 XP installation of Windows. Was an amazing little machine. Powerful enough for basic video streaming, games from roughly the mid 2000s, and for browsing modern websites with a content blocker.
I loved this thing. It's a shame to me that the thing died.
Ti-99/4a
Acquired: 3/11/17
Active Usage: 2017-2019
Info: Got this machine off of eBay for $29.99. Works perfectly, not a complaint to give about it other than peripherals are expensive.
Specs: TMS9900 16-bit CPU, Composite Video Output, w/ Tape Drive
Dell Latitude D505
Acquired: 1/11/17
Active Usage: 2017-2018
Info: Was $17.98 from ebay, and my first purchase from said site back in early 2017. Came with an installation of XP, which I then wiped and installed POSReady 2009 over. For anyone that wants a nice free installation of WinXP, look into POSReady 2009.
Powerful enough for some retro gaming and playback of standard quality 720p video. Amazing keyboard, great touchpad, and a way more practical 4:3 screen for using a computer. Sadly, due to me manhandling the thing a bit and dropping it a couple times it's not really usable anymore.
XPS 8500 (Old main PC)
Acquired: Some point before 2015
Active Usage: 2015-2020
Info: This was my old main PC. Hand-me-down from my father back around 2014. Ran most things pretty well, but barely managed to run VR and most high-end games post 2015 weren't playable on it without severely reducing the graphics settings.
Specs: Intel Core i7 3770, Dell 0NW73C Motherboard, A13 BIOS, AMD Radeon R7 360 GPU, and 16GiB of DDR3 RAM.
Used to use it with a a Xerox 5:4 monitor and an Asus 16:9 monitor, keyboard was an old Gateway Keyboard, and the mouse was a generic logitech optical mouse.
Two Raspberry Pi's (3 & 2)
Info: Currently the Pi 2 is thrown in a bin, and the Pi 3 is running Ubuntu Mate 16.04. I haven't used either of them in a very long time, as I haven't yet been able to think of anything to actually do with them.
This list will always be a WIP ;)