hardware

desktops

both my desktops are custom built! my server pc was my first one in 2017, which my dad built. i built my current pc in 2025 thanks to having a new job and wanting to finally upgrade the cpu/ram. i went a little overkill with the lcd fans...

part	main pc	server pc
mother board	asrock z890 pro rs wifi	gigabyte z390 aorus pro wifi
cpu	intel core ultra 7 265k @ 3.9ghz	intel i9-9990k @ 3.6ghz
ram	64gb ddr5-6000	32gb ddr4-3600
gpu	evga geforce rtx 3080 ti 12gb	asus geforce rtx 1080 8gb
os	endeavouros & windows10	ubuntu :(

laptops

holy shit dude i have so many of these. most are old, i don't have new laptop money and also i don't use them that often. here's a list:

framework 13 laptop (arch linux)
- this is my newest laptop. i like the screen a lot, the aspect ratio is something i've never had on a laptop before so it's super unique. the performance is pretty nice despite me getting a lower spec version. i don't really like the chassis much? it's just not as solid feeling as my macbook
apple macbook air m1 (tahoe)
- well unfortunately i ended up breaking the screen while trying to repair the screen so. new mac mini!!! anyways, the ram and storage are the worst things about this laptop. it's such a wonderful piece of hardware, and i think it's aged beautifully :D unfortunately for some reason my laptop in particular really does not want me to install asahi linux on it so that is also a problem but sigh. what can you do.
sony vaio p vgn-p90ns (void linux)
- this form factor is soooooo nice but man is the hardware awful. getting linux on here was a pain in the ass from the start cause i had to find a distro that still supported x86 architecture T___T that being said with xfce it runs pretty well! i would still like to eventually try retrofitting it with an sbc... (i have no experience with soldering though)
sony vaio p vgn-p91hs (windows 7)
dell inspiron 5555 (arch linux)
- i got this laptop in 2015!!! i still love her so much. the chassis is one of my favorite ever... it's such a solid thing. i'd also like to put a whole new board in here but i have no idea where to start with that one.
apple macbook pro 15", 2012 (arch linux)
- i bought this one just to work on it and upgrade some things. i put a new ssd in it and 16gb of ram which makes it run very nicely but unfortunately this thing LOVES to overheat. trying to compile anything on here is genuinely a struggle. plus the amd gpu is dead. love the chassis tho.
apple ibook g4 12", 2004 (mac os x)
- i got this one from a coworker of my dad years ago. it's quite the cute machine, but unfortunately, the hard drive completely died recently. i'd love to replace it with a new one, but......... there are about 30 steps just to get to the hard drive.

󰋑 : light @ corktree

OS: Windows 10, EndeavourOS, MacOS, Arch (btw)
Host: neocities.org
Resolution: 2560x1440 & 1920x1080 (somewhat)
Website Age: days old
Languages: HTML, CSS, JQuery
Coded in: Visual Studio Code
Listening to:

hello, this is the page for all my tech cause i have mega autism. i love computers very much and they have been an important part of my life for all of my 23 years on this earth 👼 i am only truly at peace when i am installing arch linux for the 40th time for no reason other than i felt like it. this page is inspired by hyprland. :D

󰋑 light@corktree ~  cat fun-fact

i chose this photo of izaya to put here because everyone who shows off their hyprland setups always has gooner art on it

want another cool fun fact ? > regenerate

󰋑 light@corktree ~  |

software

can u tell my favorite os to use is arch linux? i am quite normal about it though. it might just be because i started off with endeavouros but i find it much more simple to use than any other distro. my first time using linux was actually many years ago with ubuntu, and i didn't enjoy it all that much. turns out i just hate gnome and apt. at the risk of sounding like an annoying elitist, i kinda prefer using the terminal for stuff.

the first operating system i ever used was windows xp! that was what our family computer was running back in '04. there's actually a photo of me at our computer when i was 6 months. i was on this shit from the start. but i also used windows 98 thanks to my great uncle giving me an old dell laptop when i was 5 or so. i loved her so much!!! i used her until the screen hinge fell off. so both of those operating systems hold a very special place in my heart.

i used windows 7 for a while after that. i love this one as well! i was a beast at purble palace. the aero theme is just sooo beautiful that my framework's kde theme is a remake of it. also, the bubbles screensaver........ just pure genius. truly the last good windows version... i did not use windows 8. i did not use windows 9, either. ha ha.

i'm a little conflicted on windows 10. i do like it compared to 8 and it's definitely way better than 11, but........ it's kinda shit now. like, whenever i boot into it for something, the fans start fucking screaming at me as soon as i open explorer, and everything takes 9 years to load. do i need a fucking supercomputer to run this shit? i mean, from a ux standpoint i don't mind it. the start menu is pretty unpleasant to me though i never quite liked the tiles. action center is useless to me.

i moved to linux in 2025 because i was sooo tired of windows and i did not want to "upgrade" to win11. i wasn't really in the loop with the good distros or whatever so i just went with what my friend was using, which happened to be endeavouros. i was kinda on the fence at first bc i am weirdly bad with change but i took to it very well... i tried it on an old laptop first and then within the month, i went to best buy and bought a 2tb ssd just for it on my pc. kinda didnt take me that long to leave windows LOL

after over a year, i am really glad i made the change! coming from windows, i think linux has forced me to learn a lot of stuff, which i am very happy about. it's given me a new appreciation for computers and whatnot as well... i enjoy doing bullshit on linux as a pastime now.

a nice example of said bullshit:

󰋑 light@corktree ~  wife

i get my wife on demand! this is very useful for when i need to clear my mind while working in the terminal. this is also the best thing that i will ever create in linux and my magnum opus. it is a bash script that pulls a random photo from my izaya folder.

hardware

desktops:

i built my first pc at 14!

...er, my dad built it for me. but i helped a little. as in, giving moral support. and installing windows. regardless. it was my computer. for the time, i think it was pretty good. i had an i7 chip, 16gb ddr4 of ram, and a 1080. i had to upgrade it to an i9 chip in 2020, though, thanks to a storm striking my motherboard and cpu 💔 then, a few years later, i upgraded the ram and gpu to 32gb and a 3080ti.

i built my second pc at 21! this time, i actually built it 100%. at first, it was just going to be a simple ram and cpu upgrade, but then i realized my board didn't support ddr5 and the generation of cpu i wanted, so i had to get a new one of those... and while i was at it, i just went ahead and bought the case that i had been wanting for ages, anyways. i didn't need to buy a new gpu since my 3080ti is still amazing, so i saved about a thousand or so there. i ended up putting the 1080 back in the other pc, and now i use it as my server computer.

part	main pc	server pc
case	phanteks nv9	corsair crystal 460x
motherboard	asrock z890 pro rs wifi	gigabyte z390 aorus pro wifi
cpu	intel core ultra 7 265k @ 3.9ghz	intel i9-9990k @ 3.6ghz
ram	64gb ddr5-6000	32gb ddr4-3600
gpu	evga geforce rtx 3080 ti 12gb	asus geforce rtx 1080 8gb
storage	2tb samsung 990 pro, 1tb samsung 990 pro, 250gb samsung 970 evo plus, 2tb wd blue	1tb samsung 980, 2tb toshiba p300, 6tb wd red pro
operating system	endeavouros & windows10	ubuntu...

the photo of my main pc is a bit outdated. i was forced to install a pcie ethernet adapter after a storm killed my mobo's wifi and ethernet capabilities (although they are mysteriously back now).

laptops:

i got my first laptop at the age of... ummm, i must have been around 4 or so. i got it from my dad's gay uncle, who also gave me a cd full of popcap games (aka peak). it was this older dell laptop that had windows 9x (can't remember which os exactly) on it, and i loved the hell out of that thing. the maze screensaver was one of my favorite things BTW it was like cocomelon but actually cool.

i used the fuck out of that laptop btw. i used it up until the day i went to open it up, the hinge broke clean off... i was devastated. i don't remember what model it was, but if i ever find it, i want to buy another one, just for nostalgia's sake.

the first laptop my parents bought for me was an acer aspire back in 2010-ish. it was pretty shit. i still have it, but thanks to a bit of a rampage i went on in 2016 where i removed the hard drives from any device i could get my hands on, it's just been sitting in my room for almost a decade.

the next computer i got in 2015 was completely different, though. this one was a dell inspiron. it is Beautiful. i say is because despite being 10 years old, its design holds up so incredibly well to this day. as i said in my section about linux, i first installed endeavouros on this laptop to test it out. putting an os other than windows 10 on there reminded me just how much i loved it, and i ended up upgrading a few things.

the battery could barely hold a charge, so i bought a new one. the keyboard had issues with some keys not being recognized, so i bought a new one. dell only shipped it with 6 gb of ram (2gb and 4gb sticks... odd combo huh?), so i bought 16gb (the max this laptop supports). it's only ddr3, but it's still a big difference. and then, because i kind of knew i would love linux and because i was determined to learn it, i bought a 1tb ssd for it.

well, despite these upgrades, it (unfortunately) started to show its age the more i used it. more ram and an ssd can only do so much if the processor itself is dated, which was the case here. not to mention the fact that the screen was just barely over 720p, and cracked (accidentally stepped on it a few years ago...;;;)

to me, this is one of the best form factors in a laptop i've ever owned... the keyboard has a pleasant sensation and it just looks pretty in general. i haven't wanted a new laptop in so long because i really don't like the recent trend of making them as thin as possible, because i like both a bit of weight to my computers, along with being able to open them up and work on them.

i think if dell rereleased this laptop with upgraded specs and reduced the weight just a bit, i would happily have upgraded to that. as of now, though, i don't really know what do with this laptop. it's just kind of sitting there and looking pretty for the moment.

between 2015 and 2021, i got a desktop, so i really didn't care too much for laptops anyways. that being said, i did get something really cool:

an ibook!

this was the first apple laptop i ever owned lol. it is super old (probably about the same age as me, if not a little younger) and doesn't hold a charge anymore, but i really like it. the keyboard on here is nice as well. plus, i can look at izaya on it, so that alone makes it a very good computer.

in 2021, i actually got a new laptop, and my first macbook: a m1 macbook air. i had wanted a macbook for many years, and i finally convinced my parents to get me one since i would need a laptop for college. and honestly? it is pretty fucking cool. i took that thing to class with me every single day. writing essays on it was so much fun, especially when i could use my ipad as a second monitor and put my references on it. that being said... i don't really like macos that much. sure, it is convenient for some things, especially when i have an iphone and other apple devices, but as an operating system, it's just Okay.

plus, the amount of money i paid for the amount of ram and storage i got was, in retrospect, absurd. 256gb in 2021 might have been fine, but nowadays? i hit that limit every week... so it's certainly not a laptop i want to use on the regular.

enter 2025! i heard about this company called framework. just hearing "modular" was enough to get me excited, honestly. i was still on the fence, though, because i just... didn't really care much for laptops. but then i got into linux, and then i put it on that dell laptop, and then i told myself i really wanted to put my arch install on a laptop that would be able to properly showcase its beauty, and so, i asked for that as my birthday present.

to be honest, i don't remember the last time i had a laptop this nice. i got mine with 16gb of ram and a 1tb ssd, so i have a good amount of memory and storage. plus, it's got an operating system that i am used to and really like...! so i am very very happy with it. i have linux to thank for bringing back my love for laptops ^_^

update 11/3/2025: i have a new laptop! this time, it's a 2011 macbook pro. i really liked the form factor and it was only around $40 with shipping, so i went and got it! i'm really happy with it. i upgraded the ram to 16gb and put a 1tb ssd in it (these are both snatched from the dell laptop... sorry;;) and it runs nicely. the only issues are it tends to run hot even after repasting... and the gpu is dying :(

software

web servers

currently, i have three servers, all run from my server pc! i also have tailscale set up so i can access them from anywhere.

plex: this was the first one i set up. actually, i was using it even before i set up linux on any of my computers. i use it for my tv shows and movies, naturally... i stopped paying for hulu when i cancelled my spotify student subscription so the timing was nice. admittedly, i don't really watch tv much, but it is nice to have them all in one place now.

immich: i switched to ubuntu on my server pc for this! i would have put arch/endeavouros on it, but i think they said debian-based distros were best, so i just put the one i knew on there. it's really great. it's literally just google photos without the "dude you're almost out of storage" notification every 4 fucking seconds. being able to import my camera photos as well is just so nice. when i get a job i plan on buying it just bc i really appreciate the devs

navidrome: this is the server i use for feishin! i was actually going to try jellyfin first, but i kept having issues getting it set up on my computer, so i just tried another. i really like navidrome! it's very straightforward, and the built-in scrobbling is an important feature for me.

on my linux computers and my macbook, i use feishin, but on android, i use symfonium. i think out of all the navidrome frontends i use, this is my favorite. it's so customizable. on iphone, i use a new app called narjo.