Internet 
Router 
Main computer 
3D Printer 
Retired devices 
Main computer: HP Omen 15 (2017) 15-ce0xx
About the computer
A hand-me-down laptop from a friend of mine who was upgrading. It's fairly large, so I don't carry it around with me. There's a billion cables attached at all times anyway, so it would be a huge pain. I'd like to build my own beast of a computer someday, but it's not like I'm keeping up with any triple-A game titles these days, so what I have works fine.
Notes
- I use both the integrated and discrete GPU since I have it connected to two monitors: a Huion Kamvas display tablet and some Viewsonic monitor. The Huion is mounted to this swivel arm thingy so I can pull it from a typical monitor position down to my desk to draw on it.
- The SSD was originally a measly 120 GB boot drive, which started to fail after a while so I replaced it with a 1TB one.
- Operating System
- Arch Linux
- Central processing unit
- Intel i7-7700HQ
- Graphics
- Intel HD Graphics 630
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile
- Memory
- 16 GB
- Hard drive
- HGST Travelstar 7K1000 (1TB)
- Solid state drive
- SK Hynix Gold P31 (1TB)
Home server: Lenovo Ideapad Y50-70
About the computer
My home server is also a hand-me-down laptop, this time from my family. A laptop might be an unusual choice for a server, but I like to think of it as a server with a built in UPS and monitor*, which has come in handy every now and then. It's quiet enough that I can sleep next to it daily, which is important since I live in a microscopic studio apartment.
* I later discovered the battery had become what's known as a Spicy Pillow (technical term), so that had to go.Services
- File storage: Owncloud
- Personal wiki: Dokuwiki
- Media server: Jellyfin
- Tagged image store: Szurubooru
- Minecraft server (Aug-Nov 2023: Enigmatica 6 Expert)
Notes
- I upgraded from 8 to 16 GB of RAM when I started hosting Enigmatica 6 Expert, which wasn't enough since I needed a 6 GB swapfile. Luckily, this was the only thing I needed this much memory for.
- I previously used Airsonic for music, but I moved to Jellyfin to handle movies and TV also. Unfortunately, the Android app has problems playing back certain formats for unknown reasons, but the web interface seems to work fine.
- Operating System
- Debian Linux
- Central processing unit
- Intel i7-4710HQ
- Graphics
- Intel HD Graphics 4600
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M
- Memory
- 16 GB
- Solid state drive
- Patriot P210 (1TB)
Funputer: MNT Pocket Reform v1
About the computer
This was a gift from ~vilmibm at tilde.town. Thanks very much!
The Pocket Reform is an open-hardware ARM Linux palmtop that has a mechanical keyboard, internal I2C bus, and a separate M.2 slot for a 4G/5G/LTE modem. This one is the original model from when it was being funded on Crowdsupply. This device is so fascinating I could probably dedicate a whole review to it in and of itself. I often carry it around if I don't need to be at work (I do ML and video processing for linguistics research, which are ill suited for the Pocket Reform), and it's especially useful for distraction-free writing.
I also use it as a 3D printer controller/server with my Ender 3. I use the Klipper firmware, which allows the Pocket Reform to directly control the kinematics of the printer, and is extremely handy if I need to make configuration changes and I don't want to compile and flash new firmware (a painstaking process with Marlin firmware). Fun fact: I rescued my Ender 3 from the trash room of my apartment building, which just needed a little TLC.
My main issue with it is its poor battery life― it drains a lot of battery even when completely powered off. In theory, a better charger board and/or batteries would solve this problem, and if they existed, it would be easy to swap them in. I'm no electrical engineer, so unfortunately I just have to live with the battery life.
- Operating System
- Debian Linux
- Compute Module
- NXP i.MX 8M Plus
- Central processing unit
- ARM Cortex-A53 Quad Core
- Graphics
- Vivante GC7000 rev 6204
- Memory
- 8 GB
- eMMC
- 100GB
Seriousputer: Lenovo Thinkpad X260
About the computer
This Thinkpad was originally released in 2016, but I got it second-hand off eBay in 2019 as my main computer. It's now $currentYear, and it's still going. It's small and light enough to carry around, so even though I now main a more powerful computer, so I still carry this out-and-about and I have work to do, instead of the Pocket Reform.
Notes
- I replaced the hard drive with a 2.5" SATA SSD of some kind. The SSD was a much needed upgrade.
- The stock RAM started to fail ~3 years after I bought it off eBay, but replacing it was easy.
- Operating System
- Arch Linux
- Central processing unit
- Intel i5-6200U
- Graphics
- Intel HD Graphics 520
- Memory
- 8 GB
- Solid state drive
- Crucial(?) SATA SSD (1TB)
3D printer server: Samsung Galaxy S4 (Retired)
The Samsung Galaxy S4 used to by my daily-driver smartphone, but I have since replaced it with a Moto G Play 2021. Afterwards, it saw brief usage as a 3D print server for my Ender 3, using octo4a, a port of OctoPrint for Android. It runs very hot even when it's not doing anything, so I decided it would be safer to give up on it.
Main computer: Thinkpad L420 (Retired)
This laptop has the build quality of a tank, so much that I used to joke that if I got mugged on my way to school, I could wield this as a weapon and boot it up after the fight to e-mail my teachers why I'd be late. The trade-off there is that it also extremely heavy, akin to carrying around a whole brick. The absence of an inbuilt webcam is punctated by the conspicuous plastic insert that replaced it from the factory, though I usually cover up webcams with tape anyway.
This is one of the only devices I own with a DVD read/writer, so I installed Debian on it and occasionally use it for discs. Unfortunately, the Matshita UJ8A0A DVD-RAM drive is region-locked in a way that VLC cannot bypass, and I cannot find a region-free firmware for this drive. If you find one, please email me.