I regularly build my own PCs for various use-cases.
For example, I like to do most of my computer work on my high-end PC.
2023 › October
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For over 10 years now, I run two self-built NAS (Network Storage) devices which serve media (currently via Jellyfin) and run daily backups of all my PCs and servers. In this article, I describe my goals, which hardware I picked for my new build (and why) and how I set it up. Read more →
2023 › July
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For the last 10 years, I have been interested in hi-DPI monitors, and recently I read about an interesting new monitor: Dell’s 32-inch 6K monitor (U3224KBA), a productivity monitor that offers plenty of modern connectivity options like DisplayPort 2, HDMI 2 and Thunderbolt 4. Read more →
2022 › October
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I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to make it possible to push a PC’s power button remotely via MQTT by wiring up an ESP32 microcontroller, a MOSFET, a resistor, and a few jumper wires. While a commercial solution like IPMI offers many more features like remote serial, or remote image mounting, this DIY solution feels really magical, and has great price performance if all you need is power management. Read more →
2022 › August
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For the guest WiFi at an event that eventually fell through, we wanted to tunnel all the traffic through my internet connection via my home router. Because the event is located in another country, many hours of travel away, there are a couple of scenarios where remote control of my home router can be a life-saver. Read more →
2022 › January
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I finally managed to get my hands on some DDR5 RAM to complete my Intel i9-12900 high-end PC build! This article contains the exact component list if you’re interested in doing a similar build. Usually, I try to stay on the latest Intel CPU generation when possible. Read more →
2021 › November
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You most likely have heard that Apple switched from Intel CPUs to their own, ARM-based CPUs. Various early reviews touted the new MacBooks, among the first devices with the ARM-based M1 CPU, as the best computer ever. This got me curious: after years of not using any Macs, would an M1 Mac blow my mind? Read more →
2021 › August
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Since March 2020, I have been using my work computer at home: an HP Z440 workstation. When I originally took the machine home, I immediately noticed that it’s quite a bit louder than my other PCs, but only now did I finally decide to investigate what I could do about it. Read more →
2021 › July
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init7 recently announced that with their FTTH fiber offering Fiber7, they will now sell and connect you with 25 Gbit/s (Fiber7-X2) or 10 Gbit/s (Fiber7-X) fiber optics, if you want more than 1 Gbit/s. While this offer will only become available at my location late this year (or possibly later due to the supply chain shortage), I already wanted to get the hardware on my end sorted out. Read more →
2021 › June
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For many of my school and university years, I used and liked my ThinkPad X200 ultraportable laptop. But now that these years are long gone, I realized my use-case for laptops had changed: instead of carrying my laptop with me every day, I am now only bringing it on occasion, for example when I travel to conferences, visit friends, or do volunteer work. Read more →
2019 › October
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One of my two NAS builds recently died, so I bought a new one until I find some time to debug the old one. Since a couple of people have been asking me what I would recommend nowadays based on my November 2016 article “Gigabit NAS (running CoreOS)”, I figured I would share the new hardware listing: Read more →
2017 › December
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Background Ever since I first used a MacBook Pro with Retina display back in 2013, I’ve been madly in love with hi-DPI displays. I had seen the device before, and marvelled at brilliant font quality with which scientific papers would be rendered. Read more →
2016 › November
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tl;dr: I upgraded from a qnap TS-119P to a custom HTPC-like network storage solution. This article outlines what my original reasoning was for the qnap TS-119P, what I learnt, and with what solution precisely I replaced the qnap. A little over two years ago, I gave a (German) presentation about my network storage setup (see video or slides). Read more →
2016 › May
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Context For the last 3 years I’ve used the hardware described in my 2012 article. In order to drive a hi-dpi display, I needed to install an nVidia graphics card, since only the nVidia hardware/software supported multi-tile displays requiring MST (Multiple Stream Transport) such as the Dell UP2414Q. Read more →