Posted By Steve Zazeski —

Tools

I always find it interesting to see what people use to get things done day to day. It is so easy to find the first thing that works and never ask is there something better. This is an in-progress list of what I use:

Gaming Rig 2019 ($1496)

  • ASRock X570 Pro4 Motherboard – $149
  • AMD Ryzen7 3800X 8-core (Matisse) – $329
    • Socket AM4 – 7nm – 105W TDP
  • 64GB DDR4-3200 Memory G.SKILL RipJaw – $220
    • 32.7GB/s | 82.3ns latency | C16-18-18-38
  • Samsung 980 PRO 2TB Gen4 SSD – $329
    • Rated 7GB/sec – Actual Read 6397MB/sec – Actual Write 4771MB/sec
  • Zotac Nvidia GeForce 2070 RTX Mini – $399
    • 2304 cores – OpenGL 86,048 | CUDA 359,131
    • 8GB GDDR6 – 1750MHz – 256-bit
  • NZXT H510 Case – $70
  • Corsair CX600 Power Supply – $58 (2013)
  • Benchmarks
    • Userbench 1 | 2
    • Geekbench 5 = 8,023 | 8,865 64GB
    • Geekbench 4 = 5,650 | 34,092 | 39.4 GB/sec memory bw
    • Cinebench R20 = 4,757pts

Replaced Parts

  • 16GB DDR4-3600 Memory G.SKILL TridentZ RGB
    • 30.9GB/s | 69.5ns latency | C18-22-22-42
  • Samsung Evo Plus 970 500GB NVMe M.2 SSD
    • Rated 3,500 MB/sec – Actual 1,670 MB/sec
  • ADATA SU800 1TB SATA3 SSD
    • Rated 560 MB/sec – Actual 398 MB/sec

Work – Macbook Pro 15in 2018

  • Intel Core i7-8750H 6-core 2.2Ghz
  • 32GB DDR4-2400
  • AMD Radeon Pro 555X (5/2017)
    • 768 cores
    • 4GB GDDR5 – 1470Mhz – 128-bit
    • OpenGL 14,790
  • Benchmarks
    • Cinebench R20 = 2267pts
    • geekbench5 – 4,785

HPE ML10 Gen9 Tower Server

  • Intel i3-6100 3.7 GHz x 2 core
    • 54W, 14nm, Socket 1151 LGA
  • 64GB DDR4-2133 Unbuffered ECC RAM
    • CAS 17-17-17 (14.0 GB/sec)
    • hma82gu6mfr8n-tf
  • 256GB NVMe hp SSD (write 836 MB/s – read ? MB/s)
  • 3x3TB ZFS array (write 2000 MB/s – read ? MB/s)
    • has a 20GB in-memory ARC (adaptive replacement cache)
    • 100M Ethernet – write 11MB/s – read 11MB/s
    • 1G Ethernet – write 103MB/s – read 76MB/s
    • 10G Ethernet – write 630MB/s – read 1000MB/s

(I want to upgrade to the Xeon E3-1225v5 which should boost the benchmark to ~12k)

ASUS VivoBook S400C

  • 14″ touchscreen laptop 1366×768
  • 1.7 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5-3317U (passmark 3089)
  • Intel HD Graphics 4000 (passmark 452)
  • 8GB DDR3-1600 RAM
  • 500/24GB Hybrid SHDD

Dell 3040 Touchscreen

Ultra thin touchscreen all in one that has been around for much longer than you would expect. A little under powered.

  • 2.16Ghz Dual Intel Celeron N3530 (geekbench4 3,195)
    • 7W 22nm
  • 8GB DDR3-1333 RAM (6.5 GB/sec)
  • 256GB SATA3 ADATA SSD (write 86 MB/s – read 82 MB/s)

Microsoft Wireless Keyboard 2000 – $30
An affordable keyboard with volume and media keys not overriding Function keys, builtin palm rest and unnoticeable wireless connectivity.

Autonomous SmartDesk (sit/stand desk)

Rigol DS1054Z – 4 channel 50Mhz oscilloscope

Printrbot Simple 2014 – 3D Printer

USCutter MH721-MK2 – 28″ vinyl cutter

Nikon D3200 – DSLR camera (24MP)

GoPro 8 Black

LG105R – 360 degree camera (16MP)

Lenovo M700 Tiny

These are great macmini-sized windows machines that are ultra low power but still pack serious punch

  •  Intel Celeron G3900T – 2.60Ghz x 2 core
    • 35W 14nm Socket 1151 LGA
    • Upgradable
      i3-6300T, i3-6400T
      i5-6400T, i5-6500T, i5-6600T – quad core $125
      i7-6700T quad core ~ $220
  • 20GB DDR4-2133 SODIMM RAM (16.7 GB/sec)
    • max 32GB – 2 slots
  • 256GB ADATA SU800NS38 M2.SATA II (358 MB/s)
  • Intel HD 510 – dual DisplayPort 4K@60fps
  • https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/21790937

I'm a 32 year old UIUC Computer Engineer building mobile apps, websites and hardware integrations with an interest in 3D printing, biotechnology and Arduinos.