For a couple years now I have been getting by my compute needs with laptops.
The main driver of this was my start to college and FE, where the portability of a laptop made a lot more sense as most of my work was going to be done on a computer from now on.
This was the right play, as prior to me selling my previous desktop I had no reasonable laptop to daily-drive.
But after two years, the stars aligned beautifully to make it so I can return to having large amounts of compute resources at my disposal; and my oh my is it nice to have.
my previous desktop
My previous desktop is one that I had initially built when I was 12, and had been saving for it for about a year prior, with the money I recieve on my 12th birthday being what allowed me to finally go-ahead with the build.
In it's first iteration, it featured a Ryzen 5 3400G, 2x8GB 3200MHz DDR4 RAM, and 500GB SSD storage. Yes, that truly was it.
Christmas just a few months later then allowed me to get a GPU, a Gigabyte RX 590 8GB; which was a significant boon to my integrated graphics on the 3400G; which weren't bad for an iGPU, it's a gaming-focussed iGPU, but it could only really do light games like Minecraft, Roblox, and E-sports titles.
While the RX 590 was not the end to all my limitations, it was a big improvement.
In the years that followed I upgraded to quite a high-end rig, upon it's departure it featured a Ryzen 7 5800X3D (I fucking loved that CPU), an MSI RX 6800XT (I fucking loved that GPU), 2x16GB + 2x8GB 3200MHz DDR4 RAM, and several terabytes of storage between NVMe, SATA SSD, and HDD mediums.
Now, I've said elsewhere on this website just how much I love Star Citizen, and that is why I loved that CPU so much, the 3D-vCache technology basically solved performance in Star Citizen for me; it was a fantastic experience, and the 16 threads gave me a lot of compute capacity outside of gaming.
I sold that PC to a friend at the time for about 1,100 GBP; which you may think an undersell until I tell you I got the GPU in a half-price sale, yes, I got a 1,200+ GBP GPU for just under 700 GBP.
Prices all according to what they were at the time mind you.
The original sin
Now, you must understand that during this time of my life (late-2024 to mid-2025), I was in a very confused and dark place mentally.
I bought a MacBook.
Not only did I buy a MacBook, I went all-in normie. I switched to an iPhone (that I still use as a second phone), AirPods (that I still use), and almost all the software I used was proprietary.
To clarify on my desktop prior I did use Linux, I cannot exactly remember the distro, but it was probably some instance of Arch Linux.
Actually, wait no, at the very tail-end of my time with that desktop, I actually ran a hackintosh!
Ignore the cereal bowl.
The hackintosh did technically work, I was able to use macOS "fine", however this was during the Apple M2 era so a lot of apps were now being compiled for Apple Silicon (ARM) only; so my choice was limited.
Just so that the last memories of this desktop aren't it running Tim Apple OS, here is a small collection of some other photos.
Windows being as stable as ever.
The size diff between the GPU prior to the RX 6800XT (actually was a GTX 980 not the RX 590) and the RX 6800XT itself. The difference was much greater in-person.
Playing and watching Elite: Dangerous, with a themed Windows 11 install. I swear this box did run Penguin OS most of the time.
the new desktop
My return to the desktop PC form-factor is being done so with the following hardware:
| Component | Model |
|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 5600 |
| RAM | 2x16GB @ 3200MHz |
| GPU | MSI AMD RX 6600XT |
| Boot Drive | 500GB Crucial NVMe |
Now, the eagle-eyed among you will realise that this is a downgrade compared to the final iteration of my previous desktop. But fret not, as with the years of ongoing development of the Linux kernel, Steam Proton & WINE, and the emergence and my switch to CachyOS, this desktop perceptually performs only marginally below my previous.
Furthermore, I no longer game on >FHD resolutions as I have decided that their monetary and compute costs are not currently worth the extra fidelity they provide; this is a massive contribution to my desktop's achievement of most games at high graphics settings and 60 FPS.
Star Citizen has, of course, been dealt the biggest blow to performance; in space, low-detail and low-pop environments (space stations, planetary outposts, etc) I do experience a stable 60 FPS. However in busy or large places such as capital cities, transit networks, etc, that can drop to ~30 FPS. The loss of the 3D-vCache technology has been felt.
Still playable, especially as with my playstyle I spend most of my time in the former sorts of locations. And as always with Star Citizen, nothing quite works as you'd expect, and the actual server FPS can have an impact on your client's performance, meaning that no-two sessions are the same.
looking forwards
As time goes on, I will of course be improving my new desktop. One of the first things for me to do is a better CPU cooler, as currently it only uses the stock AMD one. I have my eyes on an NH-D12 or NH-D15, both of which are overkill for an R5 5600, but I'm future-proofing.
However, I currently have quite high-profile RAM thanks to... sigh, RGB.
So I need to source from low-profile DDR4 memory, preferably the same 2x16GB, but I may consider slightly faster memory such as 3600MHz or breaking on 4000MHz depending on market conditions and my wallet.
Also, yes, RAM prices are fucking ridiculous right now.
So I may actually consider seeing if I can replace the heatsinks on the DIMMs that I have now instead.
Other future upgrades include a top-of-the-line AM4 CPU, either the 5800X3D or a 5950X, 2TB NVMe for my games (currently on a 1TB SATA SSD), some Noctua case fans, and potentially a better GPU though that'll be one of the last things I upgrade.
Being on last-gen, AM4, a platform that has reached the end of it's development is actually quite a nice place to be. Every day more and more parts are going on the used market, prices are dropping, and there's a clear end-goal; I'll be staying on AM4 for a very long time, probably only switching to AM5 when that platform also reaches the end of development.