01 daily MacBook Pro M1
Everything gets written, built and shipped on this. Four years in and it has never once been the bottleneck.
Apple Silicon M1 · 8GB · 256GB SSD · 13.3" Retina
03 — gear
The Rack
Not a shopping list. Every item here is on the record because it does a specific job, and I can point at the note where it earned its place — or failed and taught me something.
52
items on the record
8
categories
13
in daily use
8
written up in notes
01 daily 
02 backup Acer Nitro 5
The Windows machine for the things macOS refuses to do. Mostly firmware flashing and vendor tools.
Ryzen 5 5600H · 16GB · RTX 3060 · 144Hz
03 in service Steam Deck
Bought as a console, kept as a Linux box that happens to have a screen and a battery.
AMD APU · 16GB · 512GB · 7" touchscreen
04 daily Anker 140W Charger
One charger for the laptop, the phone, the watch and the powerbank that once got me back into my own house.
USB-C GaN · 140W · 4 ports
05 in service Intel Core i7-13700K
The compute half of the desk. Overkill for what it does most days, which is the point.
13th Gen · 16 cores · OC 5.6GHz · LGA1700
06 in service Asus Z790 PRIME CSM
Chosen for the port layout, not the marketing. Every header on it is doing something.
Motherboard · LGA1700 · PCIe 5.0 · ATX
07 in service Nvidia RTX 3070 FE
Founders Edition because it fits the case and stays quiet. Both mattered more than the frame rate.
GPU · 8GB GDDR6 · Founders Edition
08 in service Corsair Vengeance 32GB DDR5
Low profile so the cooler clears it. The least interesting decision in the build, made carefully anyway.
2×16GB DDR5 · low profile
09 in service Corsair RM1000X
A ten year warranty on the one component whose failure takes everything else with it.
1000W 80+ Gold · fully modular · 10y warranty
10 in service Kingston KC3000 NVMe
Fast scratch disk. Nothing lives here that isn't also somewhere else.
1TB Gen 4 NVMe + 2TB SATA SSD
11 daily Samsung 49" Odyssey OLED G9
One panel instead of three. No bezels down the middle of what I'm reading.
Ultra-wide OLED · 240Hz · Dual QHD
12 daily Razer BlackWidow
The macro keys drive Home Assistant scenes. It is, functionally, a very large light switch.
Mechanical · RGB · programmable macros
13 daily Razer Basilisk V3
Eleven buttons, six of which I actually use. That ratio is better than most peripherals manage.
26,000 DPI · 11 programmable buttons
14 in service Razer Ornata V2 Gaming Keyboard
Mecha-membrane, so it types like a laptop and clacks like a mechanical when it wants to. The BlackWidow runs the automations; this is the one my hands are actually on.
Mecha-membrane switches · 16.8M RGB · magnetic wrist rest · 1000Hz
15 in service Razer Mouse Bungee V3 Chroma
A weighted hook so the cable stops dragging across the desk mid-swipe. Sounds unnecessary until the drag is gone.
Weighted base · spring-arm cable lift · Chroma RGB
16 in service Divoom Pixoo64
64×64 pixels of whatever I feel like putting on the desk that week — clock, art, or a counter for something I am tracking.
64×64 RGB LED matrix · WiFi · app-controlled · pixel art & clock
17 in service Sony PlayStation 5
The one machine here I have never had to configure. It turns on, it plays the thing, and nothing about it has ever asked me for a firmware file.
AMD Zen 2 8-core · RDNA 2 · 825GB NVMe · 4K
18 in service Sony DualSense Controller
The adaptive triggers are the one haptics gimmick I stopped noticing, which is exactly what good haptics are supposed to do.
DualSense · haptic feedback · adaptive triggers · USB-C
19 backup Valve Steam Controller (2015)
Two trackpads and a gyro, discontinued for being too strange. A decade on it still handles the games a thumbstick was never going to.
Dual trackpads · gyro · dual-stage triggers · grip paddles · 2015
20 daily Aqara Hub M3
The reason every automation in the house still fires when the internet is down. Border router, not a cloud relay.
Matter & Thread border router · Zigbee 3.0 · PoE
21 daily Aqara FP2
mmWave presence, so a room knows someone is in it even when nobody moves. PIR never managed that.
mmWave presence · zone positioning · fall detection
22 daily Aqara Lock A100
129 days on the first set of batteries, then it locked me out. The USB-C failsafe on the outside is the only spec that mattered.
Fingerprint · NFC · HomeKit Home Key · Zigbee 3.0 · USB-C emergency power
23 in service Aqara G4 Doorbell
Face recognition runs on the device. Nothing about who comes to my door leaves the house.
1080p · HomeKit Secure Video · local face recognition
24 in service Aqara G100 Camera
Wi-Fi 6, which is how it ended up on the wrong side of the concrete wall and started the whole network survey.
2K · Wi-Fi 6 · HKSV · colour night vision
25 in service Aqara Magic Switch
A screen on the wall for guests who don't have the app and shouldn't need it.
480×480 panel · 3-gang · scene control
26 in service Aqara 20A Switches
Water heaters and ACs, with power monitoring. The only devices in the house whose consumption I can actually prove.
High-power 20A · power monitoring
27 in service Aqara Dual Relay T2
Hidden behind the existing switches, so the house got smarter without looking any different.
2-channel · dry contact · in-wall install
28 in service Google Nest Hub
The Google-shaped exception in an otherwise HomeKit house. It runs kitchen timers and answers questions, and it is not trusted with anything that locks.
7" smart display · Google Assistant · touch + voice
29 in service Seeed Studio reTerminal E1001 (ePaper Display)
A wall panel that shows what the house is doing without a backlight burning all day. Refreshes when something changes, not on a loop.
ePaper display · ESP32-S3 · Home Assistant dashboard
30 daily Lenovo Mini PC
Runs Proxmox, the NAS and the ad blocker, always on, drawing less than a light bulb. The quietest important machine here.
Proxmox host · 7th Gen i5 · 8GB
31 in service Home Assistant Green
The official box, for the parts of the setup where DIY stopped being the point. Plug it in and Home Assistant is already running — no image to flash, no card to burn.
Rockchip RK3566 quad-core · 4GB LPDDR4X · 32GB eMMC · fanless · Home Assistant OS
32 in service Home Server SSDs
Two drives so one can fail. That is the entire strategy and it has been enough so far.
2TB SSD × 2
33 in service Sony Alpha A7R IV
61 megapixels is absurd for what I shoot. It means I can crop a product shot to death and it still holds.
Full frame · 61MP · 4K video
34 in service Sony 24-70mm F/4
The lens that stays on the body. Every other one is a decision I have to make first.
Standard zoom · full frame · F/4
35 backup DJI Mavic Air
Flies four times a year and justifies itself every time. The rest of the year it's a box on a shelf.
4K · 3-axis gimbal · 34-min flight
36 in service Manfrotto Befree Carbon
Light enough that I actually bring it. A heavier tripod is a better tripod that stays at home.
Travel tripod · carbon fibre · ball head
37 in service Viltrox AF 28mm f/4.5
Thin enough that carrying the body stops being a decision. The 24-70 is the lens that stays on; this is the one that gets the camera out of the house.
Full frame prime · Sony E · VCM AF · ASPH + ED · pancake
38 in service DJI Osmo Pocket 4 Creator Combo
A one-inch sensor on a gimbal, in something the size of a marker pen. It exists so that not having a camera on me stops being the reason a thing went unfilmed.
1" CMOS · 4K/240fps · 10-bit D-Log · ActiveTrack 7.0 · 107GB internal · mic + fill light kit
39 in service Canon EOS 550D
The camera I learned on. Everything I know about exposure I got wrong on this body first, and it still fires.
APS-C · 18MP · 1080p video · EF / EF-S mount
40 in service Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
The lens that came in the box, and the reason I understood why people replace the lens that came in the box.
APS-C zoom · EF-S · image stabilised
41 in service Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM
The long end, for the few times a year the subject won't let me walk closer. It has never once been the lens I regretted packing.
Full frame tele zoom · EF · IS · USM
42 in service Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM
The cheapest thing on this page and the one that changed how my photographs looked. Nothing else here has that ratio.
Full frame prime · EF · STM AF · f/1.8
43 in service K&F Concept 2-in-1 Sling Bag & Multifunction Photography Backpack
A sling bag when it is one lens for the afternoon, a backpack when it is the whole kit. Converts instead of forcing the choice upfront.
2-in-1 sling/backpack · padded camera compartment · weatherproof
44 daily iPhone 16 Pro Max
The NFC shortcuts hub. Half the automations in this house start with a tap against a sticker.
Daily driver · NFC shortcuts hub
45 daily Apple Watch Series 8
The fastest way into my own house. Wrist near the door, door opens, nothing comes out of a pocket.
Wearable · health + automation triggers
46 in service AirPods Max
Heavy, expensive, and the only headphones I can wear for a nine hour flight without noticing.
Over-ear · ANC
47 daily AirPods Pro Gen 2
In a pocket at all times. The most-used object on this entire page by a wide margin.
In-ear · ANC · USB-C
48 in service AirPods Pro (3rd Gen)
Twice the ANC of the Pro 2 and ear tips down to an XXS, which is the size that actually stays in. The heart rate sensor is the feature I didn't ask for and now use anyway.
H2 chip · ANC (2x Pro 2) · IP57 · heart rate sensor · foam-infused ear tips · USB-C
49 retired AirPods Pro Gen 1
Four years of daily use, now the pair that lives in the camera bag as insurance.
In-ear · ANC · retired to backup duty
50 in service EcoFlow RIVER 3 Max
The whole point of running Home Assistant locally is that it keeps working when the grid does not. This is the half of that promise the software cannot keep on its own.
572Wh LiFePO4 · 600W (1200W X-Boost) · RIVER 3 Plus + EB300 · 3000+ cycles
51 daily Dyson V12 Detect Slim Absolute
The laser reads as a gimmick right up until the first time you use it, and then you cannot go back to not knowing what was on the floor.
SV46 · 150AW · 60 min · 0.35L bin · 2.2kg · laser dust detection
52 in service ECOVACS DEEBOT MINI Omni 2-in-1 Robot Vacuum Cleaner
Vacuums and mops on its own schedule, then empties and washes itself. The floors stay done without being on my list.
2-in-1 vacuum + mop · self-empty & self-wash station · app scheduling
Nothing in this category yet.