Studio Tour (no Java)
By: Nicolai Parlog
Tags: Twitch, Linux, Gear, YouTuber

Desk and most gear

The connection to the world out there is established via Vodafone. I have 1Gbit/s down and 50 Mbit/s up, but my network cards and router don’t like one another and so I only have 100 MBit Ethernet. I get Gbit Ethernet for my laptop on the same cable/router and even for the same PC/cable with the laptop on the other end — I eventually gave up because it only ever matters when downloading games.

The room is great for an office, but only ok for a studio. It has no depth (wall is 80cm behind me), which makes it look boring on camera. It also keeps me from putting stuff on the walls that break echoes, so even with some sound dampening (see below), the audio isn’t great. The next step to reduce echo is probably to put more material out of sight (further above screens, on ceiling, on door), but that’s probably ugly (and/or expensive) and I have to be in that room for about 50 hours per week, so I want to keep it somewhat pleasant.

I’m really looking forward to a new office, but I can’t just rent one because then I have to put my PC there and how am I supposed to enjoy my free time then?! Speaking of the PC…

Black Circus

Because of my preference for black and my laziness to turn off all the LEDs (they occasionally turn back on on their own), I call it the Black Circus. It’s the best of late 2019:

tower: Dark Base Pro 900 rev. 2 –225 EUR

–225 EUR PSU: Seasonic Focus PX Plus Platinum 750W — 118 EUR

— 118 EUR mainboard: Asus ROG Strix X570-E Gaming — 320 EUR

— 320 EUR CPU: Ryzen 9 3900 X (3950X wasn’t available yet) — 549 EUR

(3950X wasn’t available yet) — 549 EUR cooler: Noctua NH-D15 chromax 140mm, dual tower — 100 EUR

— 100 EUR RAM: G.Skill Trident Z b/w 2 x 16GB, DDR4–3600 –157 EUR

–157 EUR GPU: MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Gaming X Trio — 1'200 EUR

— 1'200 EUR SSD: 2x Samsung SSD 970 PRO M.2 1 TB — 197 EUR + 207 EUR (bought the second one a few days later)

— 197 EUR + 207 EUR (bought the second one a few days later) HD: WD Red 10TB — 308 EUR

Inside the tower

Peripherals:

mouse: Logitech G903 Hero Lightspeed — 109 EUR

— 109 EUR keyboard: Ducky Shine 7 Blackout Edition with Cherry MX Blue (no further customization) — 203 EUR

(no further customization) — 203 EUR controller: Xbox One Controller (Model 1708, black) with charge kit — 52 EUR + 22 EUR

with charge kit — 52 EUR + 22 EUR screens

* left: Acer Predator XB3 (27", UHD, 144Hz, IPS) — 905 EUR

* right: Acer Predator XB1 (27", UHD, 60Hz, IPS) — 569 EUR

* left: — 905 EUR * right: — 569 EUR speakers: Logitech Z523 — yellowed by time (that’s what you get for buying white!), so price unknown

— yellowed by time (that’s what you get for buying white!), so price unknown printer: HP Officejet Pro 8620 (cause I’m a pro!) — 189 EUR

(cause I’m a pro!) — 189 EUR power strips: 2x Brennenstuhl Eco-Line Comfort Switch Plus, Socket Strip 6-Fold — 34 EUR

Desk with most of the peripherals

Why would I mention the power strips?! For one, because I was asked, but also because I feel pretty clever about getting them. 😁 The PC and the recording gear (see further down) used to be connected to one strip each, which I could turn off by crawling under the desk. But that’s uncomfortable. But the mixer’s A/C adapter always eats energy (it’s always warm), so I want to turn it off. But the printer is on the same strip and I need it every now and then, so I need to turn it on. I’m too old for that shit, so a few weeks ago I looked for power strips whose on/off switch wasn’t directly on the strip itself.

I found the one above, which not only has four sockets connected to the switch, but also two permanent-on ones. The left strip has the printer on permanent and recording gear switchable, the right one the tower on permanent (for sleep mode) and everything else switchable. The switches are two large blue plastic thingies that you operate by foot — I call them my grandpa switches 👴🏾 and they work like a charm. Recommend!

Cables and power strip switches below the desk

Originally, I considered getting monitor arms to keep the desk clean and free, but I have almost no space left behind the screens and exactly zero behind the desk, which doesn’t go well with many arms. So I didn’t get them, but I still kind of want to. May look into it again in the future, surely if that new office ever happens.

Other things I don’t need, but have a strong impulse to buy are a newer Ryzen and an Nvidia 3080. I could also look into another 32 gigs of RAM, but honestly, I think I never ran into a limitation there. If I keep streaming, I need another 10 TB HDD, though. 😆

Thinkpad

I have a Lenovo Thinkpad T440p (1'900 EUR), which was at my side from summer 2014 to winter 2019/2020. As my only computer it was a workhorse for development work, a gaming station, a multimedia player, my diary and travel companion for thousands of kilometers, and compiler of most of its own software (because Gentoo). I’m not kidding you when I say that during those years, there were just a few dozen days in total when I wasn’t using it at least a bit.

In said winter, Black Circus (replaced it at home) and COVID (no more not “at home”) conspired to make it nigh obsolete — now it functions as a YouTube-player connected to our TV. But it’s still going strong (except the battery, a few keys, and a bit of display lightbleed) and I’m sure I will have a lump in my throat when I’ll eventually retire it. Which should happen later this year — I’m in the market for a Thinkpad T14s Gen2 with Ryzen 5 for when conferences start up again and I’ll be traveling once more.

Software

On the main PC, one SSD runs Windows 10 for gaming, the other Gentoo Linux with KDE for everything else. Main programs:

browser:

* for browsing: Firefox

* for development: Chromium

* etc.: Chrome (for multimedia sites like Jitsi and as fall back)

* for browsing: * for development: * etc.: (for multimedia sites like Jitsi and as fall back) email, calendar, etc.: Kontact

messenger: Signal (very rarely Telegram , fuck WhatsApp )

(very rarely , fuck ) file browser: Krusader

office suite: LibreOffice , but as little as possible

, but as little as possible text editor: VS Code in UI, nano on terminal (plus the one vi instance that I can’t close)

in UI, on terminal (plus the one instance that I can’t close) terminal: Bash in Konsole

in image editor: GIMP, KolourPaint (don’t judge me!)

General workflows

First a word on the screens: Having two 4K panels side by side is the best thing since sliced bread! I use almost no scaling, so all pixels count. In most situations, I split the screen into four vertical slices with 1920x2160px (8:9) each. From left to right this is usually:

communicate: email, messenger, sometimes a popped out YouTube or Twitch tab

read: first and foremost the browser, sometimes a document I read from

write: IDE, text editor, sometimes a table or document I write

monitor: always a terminal, preview of what I’m working on if available (e.g. in a browser)

Of course I’ll shuffle things around if I have to. I’ve set up Meta + NumPad to make windows fill left or right half, top or bottom half, or one of the four corners.

Being able to look at four things at the same time and have them twice as tall as usual (compared to Full HD) is huge — literally! I wholeheartedly recommend this setup.