Home Lab
Custom PC (2025)
My latest creation uses a Fractal Design North case with the same RTX 3070 GPU from my previous build, as well as the same storage configuration, but a brand new motherboard, CPU, PSU, 64GB RAM, and a NZXT Kraken AIO cooler. I also outfitted it with an array of Noctua fans on the front for air flow, and I’ll probably slap another one on the back of the case soon. The Noctua fans are a little loud, so needless to say I need to get into the BIOS and adjust the fan curves, but otherwise this thing runs like a dream.
I love the way this thing looks, especially how the walnut accents on the front of the case coordinate with my Ikea desk top and my Edifier speakers.
Full component list coming soon…
Custom PC (2020)
This was the first custom PC I ever built myself. I ordered the parts for this in March 2020, literally one week before the whole world went on lockdown due to COVID-19. If I had waited any longer, I might have never gotten these components because suddenly everybody decided to use the pandemic as an excuse to get into gaming, plus the crypto-bros started to buy up all the GPUs, leading to worldwide scarcity and price-gouging. Those were weird days…
I did a fair amount of gaming on this, but I also used it as my video editing/production station when I was recording all the content for my Power BI and SQL courses on edX. It served me really well until 2025 when it got replaced by my newest rig.
Component List
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 7 3700X |
| GPU | NVIDIA Founders Edition GeForce RTX 30701 |
| Memory | G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 |
| Motherboard | MSI MPG X570 GAMING EDGE WIFI ATX AM4 |
| Power supply | EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G3 750 W 80+ |
| Storage (boot drive) | Sabrent Rocket 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME SSD |
| Storage (secondary) | Samsung 970 Evo Plus 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME SSD |
| Storage (tertiary) | Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5” 7200 RPM HDD |
| Case | Corsair iCUE 465X RGB ATX Mid |
| CPU cooler | be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 |
| Case fans | 4x Corsair LL120 RGB 120mm LED PWM fans |
Footnotes
When I originally built this, it had an MSI GAMING X GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER for graphics, but I upgraded to the RTX 3070 in 2022.↩︎