Patrick Quam

Personal Devices

Desktop

While it might be needlessly expensive, I wanted components that would support my workload for an extended period of time to reduce e-waste. Also, as a technology enthusiast, I wanted the coolest stuff.

Specifications:

NixOS with i3wm for gaming
Ubuntu mint for development
CPU: Ryzen 9 5950x - 16 cores, 3.9 - 4.9GHz, slight undervolt
MOBO: ASUS ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING
GPU: ASUS ROG STRIX / NVIDIA 3090
RAM: 4x8GB Trident Z DDR4 @ 3200MT/s, slight overclock from 3000MT/s
STORAGE: 1TB SAMSUNG 980 PRO / 500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS

Laptop

When I heard about the framework laptop, I knew it was a project I wanted to support. The durability and repairability of the system is impressive, and swappable ports is one of the most useful "gimmik" features I have seen on a device from any manufacturer.

Specifications:

OS: nixOS with i3wm
CPU: INTEL CORE I7-1165G7 - 4 cores, 2.8 - 4.7GHz
GPU: INTEL IRIS XE INTEGRATED GRAPHICS
RAM: 2x16GB SAMSUNG DDR4 SODIMM
STORAGE: 500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS

Software

I use Visual Studio Code for development on both my desktop and my laptop. For a while I was using Windows to play games on desktop, but after proton 9 released I have had no issues getting basically any game to run on linux. Despite being it's intended usecase, I prefer not to use NixOS for development because the initial work to install software and libraries is significantly greater than it is for a more common distrobution like Ubuntu or Debian. If I was deploying or testing software via VM's I could see situations where Nix would be preferrable to Docker, but for me I just like the sturdiness of the OS.

Website

This website is hosted on a Akami/Linode VM running Debian.

Specifications:

CPU: Shared, 1 Core Reserved
RAM: 2GB

Software:

NGINX - Hosts web pages, directs HTTP & HTTPS traffic.
fail2ban - Blocks connections from unwanted IPs, particularly from botnets.
Wazuh Agent - Intrusion prevention / detection & malware scans.
CertBot - Generates SSL certificates for HTTPS.
git - Manage beta and production versions of the website.

Other

General Purpose Server

Dell PowerEdge R730 rack mount server

Debian Linux
2x Intel E5-2690 V4
128GB of ECC DDR3
2x 1TB WD SAS drives in RAID 1

Monitoring software such as Wazuh, Portainer, and other applications using Docker.
Hosts a beta version of this website with the same setup as the VPS mentioned above.
Team Fortress 2, Minecraft, and Valheim game servers.

NAS

I built a 24TB NAS using some components I bought from a friend, along with some new drives. I use it for automatic backups for all my families devices. The case is from a computer that was assembled in 1996.

Specifications:

OS: TRUENas Scale
CPU: INTEL CORE I5-9600K - 6 cores, 3.7-4.6GHz
MOBO: ASUS ROG STRIX z390-e
RAM: 4x4GB SkHynix DDR4 @ 2133MT/s
GPU: RTX 2080, saved from e-waste
STORAGE:

250GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO boot drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS Read Cache
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS Write Cache
4x6TB WD Red Sata SSDs ZFS cluster

Setup:

Configured NVMe cache to improve performance and ZFS RAID Z1 to support redundancy
Configured filesharing to support Windows and Linux devices per device with ACLs
Automated backups to the NAS via rsync

Router

After dealing with very limiting proprietary software on my old Lynksys router/access point, I decided to build my own OPNsense based router using a barebones MinisForum NAB6 that I bought on clearance.

Specifications:

CPU: INTEL CORE I7-12650H - 6 P cores, 4 E cores, 3.5 - 4.7GHz
RAM: 1x16GB CORSAIR VENGEANCE DDR4 SODIMM @ 3200 MT/s
STORAGE: 25OGB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS

Software:

AdGuard - Blocks unwanted traffic
WireGuard VPN

Home Lab

Personal Devices

Desktop

Laptop

Software

Website

Other

General Purpose Server

NAS

Router