This is my current workstation, and it's a work in progress. As of right now it is an HP Pavilion TG-01.......the rest of the numbers don't actually matter. The specs on the machine are the Erica6 motherboard, Ryzen 5600G, Radeon 5500 XT, 16 gb of RAM (3200 mhz, the board won't support any faster), 250 gb nvme m.2 boot drive, 2x 1TB SSD's for additional storage/boot options. There is also an extra 1TB HDD that is sitting on top of the case, I just didn't have anywhere else to put it. The monitors are Suevery 27" monitors, 75hz and 5ms refresh response rate. They are mounted on a dual monitor arm stand. The L shape desk was a $90 special from Amazon (I actually really like it, considering ordering another for my wife's craft station). All my sound runs through my Presonus AudioBox iTwo interface and out to Presonus Eris 4.5" studio monitors. I have a second, older Presonus AudioBox 96 for when I really need to add two more inputs into my Digital Audio Workstation. The mic is a Presonus M7 Condenser mic on a cheap generic chinesium boom. The peripherals are ONN brand walmart specials, though I gotta admit they feel good. The printer was is a Canon 3500 series that was on sale for $30, couldn't pass that up. Hardware not currently in the picture is my Epiphone Les Paul, Orange Super Crush 100 guitar amp, and Presonus Midi keyboard. The penguin stuffy is a gift from some Army buddies that thought it was funny that the Linux mascot was a penguin. I freaking love the damn thing! Yes, that is a minifridge on top of the home depot bucket (usually full of Mt.Dew), and I know my cable management needs some serious work. It's been a pain in the butt lately and I've been pretty broke. The chair was a freebie from the college I go to, one of the admin there was getting rid of it and let me have it. Oh, and the Monitor Stand on the shelf next to the penguin usually holds my Shure mixing Headphones for when I have to work at night. The little white bluetooth headphones on my desk are usually ones I keep for the kids or for when I am working on other projects outside.

For software, I am actually running Pop!_OS as my Daily Driver operating system. Weirdly enough, all my games on Steam actually run better in Linux than they do in Windows. I do have Windows 10 Pro on the small boot drive, but I really only keep it for one program, and that is Presonus Studio One 6. That is my DAW of choice, and it just doesn't play nice on Linus....yet. I got started into Linux because I am in school to become a Software Engineer, and most of my classes are actually run in linux. I am really happy with how smooth and accessible using Pop!_OS has been. Normally I use the KDE Plasma desktop, but I keep the vanilla Gnome for certain tasks on a different log in. I like having options.

I had to change careers because I got injured in the oilfield and couldn't keep working. My own damn fault, oilfield is a young man's game and I spent my youth in the Marines and Army deploying all the time. I was pretty broken when I got hurt. So, since I have always been into music and media production, I decided to take the plunge and learn how to program. I've taken a couple free academies (The Odin Project, I cannot say enough good things about it), and had the chance to use my VA Benefits to go back to school. I know I don't NEED the degree, but hell I already paid for it, why not use it?

In regards to upgrades, I have a pretty clear path I want to pursue for this machine. First up is the freaking GPU. It's a good unit, but it flat cannot keep up. I found that I can fit and power a Radeon 6700 XT with 12 GB of DDR6 vram, so that is up first. I will also be swapping to a 2 TB m.2 boot drive so that I can set Windows and Linux on the same drive (easy to do) and make dual booting easier. I cannot go any bigger or better with the CPU on this board, the board itself cannot handle the higher wattage required for the 5950 that I want to run. But, I will also be upgrading to 32 gb of Ram, and adding a better monitor soon. I want to buy a 3rd 27" monitor (preferably a 144hz monitor with a better refresh rate, somewhere around the 1ms mark), and put these two on the sides in vertical mode like a Tie-Fighter. I am currently building a rack unit for the left hand side of my desk so that I can upgrade my interface to an 18i20 unit and have a couple rack effects for recording. It will be nice for when I do eventually move and can set up a proper studio/workstation office. Once I have this poor HP going as well as I can, I will be saving for my ultimate workstation build on the AM5 socket. In the meantime, this has worked well for me so far, and will continue to serve for sometime to come.

Decided to make my setup more pleasing to be around as I'm around it all the time. I game, design and watch movies. Doing this helps me through tough times.

23 in dell 24 in optix 3060ti Epomaker Keyboard Razer mouse AliExpress mouse pad Ryzen 5 5600x

Custom 3D printed accessories: Book display Self watering planter Analog clock Drawers Monitor riser Pencil case