My setup

ThinkPad · Linux

Ryzen 7 · 64GB RAM · 1TB NVMe

All serious work happens here. Native Linux, not WSL. The Ryzen + 64GB combo handles containers, heavy builds, and Prisma Studio running in the background without breaking a sweat.

External monitor

Connected to the ThinkPad · desktop mode

The laptop stays open as backup. The big screen is where the code lives.

Custom tower

i5-9400 · 64GB RAM · RTX 4060 Ti

Second machine. Gaming when I need to disconnect, and Chrome with 30 tabs when I do not.

Main monitor

ASUS ROG 27" · 185Hz

You feel 185Hz once you try it. Going back to 60Hz physically hurts.

Vertical monitors

2 x generic 24"

One for docs, one for chat/logs/Claude. Vertical because code and articles read in columns, not rows.

2.5m desk

The whole setup on one surface

I switch between the ThinkPad and the tower by turning the chair. No dock-undock ritual. Hidden cables, clearer head.

Redragon keyboard

Mechanical · one month into testing

I am testing it against my old keyboard. So far it passes: tactile switches plus honest pricing. If it does not fatigue me by month three, it stays.

Razer DeathAdder V3 ↗

A shape that fits my hand like someone copied it. The sensor is more precise than my wrist on a bad day.

Edifier monitors

Desktop studio monitors

They are not random speakers, they are monitors. The difference between bass hiding everything and hearing exactly what the compiler gives back in a technical video.

Logitech wireless headphones

When someone comes home and the Edifiers are no longer an option. Battery that lasts the day.

Redragon microphone with arm

I can remove it from the arm when needed, but 90% of the time it lives fixed there. Hard to beat for calls and podcasts at the price.

Old Motorola phone (webcam)

Recycled phone as IP camera

If a device still works, I reuse it. A virtual webcam app on Windows plus the Moto sensor beats almost any integrated webcam.

Main server

i5 (old but respectable) · 128GB RAM · 2TB NVMe + 4x 480GB SSD RAID

A machine that used to be for gaming and now runs 24/7 with VMs. 128GB of RAM sounds excessive until you start ten containers at once.

Media stack

Bazarr · Sonarr · Radarr · Plex

The series and movie library automation. Not sexy, but it turns you into the person who always has the episode first.

Local services

N8N · Grafana · Prometheus · Vault · test databases

Everything I want to try before paying for it in the cloud. My private sandbox where explosions do not hurt anyone.

SSD RAID

4x 480GB for VMs

Parallel IO for several VMs without them stepping on each other. The difference versus a single HDD is so big it feels like cheating.

VS Code ↗

My own published extensions, Claude Code integration, and fifteen years of experience compressed into shortcuts.

Claude Code ↗

AI pair programming in the terminal. It changed how I work: more direction, less typing.

Cursor ↗

Backup for large refactors that need full project context.

Zsh + starship

Fast prompt, git status always visible. The minimum I need to avoid getting lost between branches.

GitHub CLI (gh) ↗

PRs, issues, and repos without leaving the terminal. Zero friction.

tmux

Persistent sessions on the remote server. I close the laptop, open the gaming machine, and keep going where I left off.

Next.js ↗

My main web framework. App Router plus Server Components by default.

TypeScript ↗

I have not written plain JS since 2021. Typing everything catches bugs before runtime.

Java + BouncyCastle

Enterprise backend plus cryptography work. My technical base since 2008.

Python

Scripts, scraping, one-off automations. The Swiss army knife.

PostgreSQL + Prisma

Typed ORM plus a robust relational database. The combo wins almost every time.

Tailwind CSS v4 ↗

Styling without changing files. The shortest feedback loop I know.

Framer Motion ↗

Animations that do not wreck performance.

Railway ↗

Deploy and database without AWS friction. This site runs there.

Docker

Reproducible dev environments. Production with multi-stage builds. My whole homelab runs in containers.

Proxmox (in the homelab)

VM hypervisor. Decent web UI, fast snapshots, no licensing pain.

AWS (S3, SES, IAM)

Storage plus transactional email when Railway is not enough.

GitHub Actions

CI/CD for tests and automatic deploys.

Cloudflare

DNS, CDN, and the free WAF solve 80% of what matters.

Claude (Anthropic) ↗

Long reasoning and serious code. My default for technical work.

ChatGPT

Second opinion and creative content generation.

v0.dev ↗

Fast UI scaffolding when the idea is clear but Tailwind is dragging.

Ollama (in the homelab) ↗

Local models for experiments I do not want to send to an external API. Llama 3, Mistral, Qwen, and friends running on the old-but-respectable server.

Open source models

Llama, Mistral, DeepSeek, Qwen, etc.

When I can, I prefer open source. Closed SaaS is easy but locks you in; free models run on my hardware and are mine.

GitHub ↗

Code, personal projects, published extensions.

Bitwarden ↗

Passwords and secrets. Open source, self-hostable, and auditable. No reason to pay for others.

Linear

Task management with speed. Jira alternative that does not hurt.

Notion

Notes, internal docs, second brain.

Figma

Design and collaboration before code.

Bruno ↗

Git-friendly API testing: collections versioned in the repo, no cloud, no account lock-in. Postman is out.