My Gear List

I curated this list due to my friends and coworkers constantly asking me what I hardware I use for writing, gaming, blogging, photography, or whatever else. It’s equipment I trust and if you’re under a tight budget, it won’t break the bank.

All of these are affiliate links, so if you’re interested in purchasing them, it would throw a few bucks my way.

Asus Vivobook Series: My wife and I both have Asus Vivobooks and are very happy with them. Both of our models are out of production, but this Amazon link goes to the latest and greatest. The lower end models we have do a decent job of running Windows 10. If you choose to wipe the hard drive and run LinuxMint, they’re great machines for writing and blogging and won’t break your budget. If you splurge on the higher-end models ($500+) you may even get a decent gaming machine.

Cooler Master HAF 912 PC Case: I bought this case on Black Friday 2015 and this is STILL the PC case to beat. It’s still in the newer style, so the PSU slot is on the bottom. There’s TONS of room inside and a multitude of bay options for 5″, 3.5″, and 2.5″ drives.  There’s also TONS of small holes in the chassis for zip-tying cables out of the way. I’m extremely happy with the air flow I get on this case. There’s also a double-fan grate on top if you make use of liquid cooling (which I do not as of this post).

AMD Ryzen 5 1600: I’ve come to prefer AMD versus Intel due to getting more bang for your buck. This particular processor is in my PC build because at the time, it was the fastest desktop processor that did not require liquid cooling. It’s come down in price significantly since I bought it on Black Friday 2017.  

SanDisk 1TB SSD: I bought the 960GB version on Black Friday 2015, but the 1TB version is now cheaper. Once you get a solid state drive, you’ll never want to go back. Video editing, video games, and bootup load times are quicker when you go solid state. They’re also more durable if they’re installed on a laptop. 

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Paste: When building your own computer, Arctic Silver thermal paste can shave a few degrees off your processor temperatures. Just make sure you properly clean the stock paste from your heatsink and look up the thermal paste dot formation for your particular processor. 

Onkyo 5.1 Surround System: I’ve had this setup in my living room theater since 2011 and it’s served me very well. It’s much cheaper than a Bose (though I’m not crapping on the quality of a Bose setup; it IS superior). I LOVED the abundance of ports on the 2011 model. The linked model is newer than the one I have so they completely got rid of the legacy video ports such as RCA and composite. Other features have been added such as 4K support.

Canon DSLR Cameras: I currently have a Canon T3i which appears to be out of production, but it’s still a great camera. I paid $450 for the body and extended battery only (used in 2013) if you were wondering what my budget was when I bought it. The same amount of money will get you an even better package today. Canon makes great products and I continue to be satisfied with my T3i. 

JLab Neon Headphones (black): I use these wireless headphones predominately at my home workstation. I used to think I couldn’t get a lot of range on these, but when I moved the Bluetooth adapter to the front of my workstation, I can use these from the other side of my house. $30 sure as hell beats $200 for AirPods or Beats.

iPazzPort Wireless Mini Keyboard: This is an absolute essential for anyone with a media center PC. Using a full-size mouse/keyboard setup for a media center is just goofy to look at. It’s slightly larger than a Samsung Galaxy Note phone and it’s ultra-convenient. Even better, all of the shortcuts work great with Kodi. 

V-Kits Raspberry Pi Retro Gaming Computer: I use this as my media center PC in the bedroom. It comes with three operating systems preinstalled on the SD card and two video SNES-style controllers for playing games. FULL REVIEW HERE