I have been asked a few times what gear I use, for work and for personal use.
Hardware
I use three computers on a regular basis, a personal laptop/tablet, work laptop and then my gaming rig.
Firstly there is my simply fantasic Surface Pro 2 (128GB SSD, 4GB of RAM), this is one of the most amazing devices I have used, I am simply surprised by how much I can do with it.
I have my tweaked out HP EliteBook Folio 9470m, this is my work device. It isn't spec-ed out how you would get it normally from the shop, or even HP internally. Featuring a similar CPU as the Surface Pro 2, but with 256GB SSD and 16GB of RAM. Compared to all other work devices I have had over the years, it is by far the best. It is quite light, and packs a very nice 15 inch screen. The only limitation is there is no ESATA, but it has an abundance of USB3 ports.
Finally I have my gaming rig, not much to say but I7, 24GB of RAM, tonnes of storage and a beast video card to boot all on a Gigabyte Sniper 2 motherboard. I game and code on this thing on a regular basis.
Software
Must Haves
- Windows 8.1 X66
- Office 2013
Development/PowerShell
- PowerShell (obviously)
- Visual Studio 2013
- PrimalScript 2012
- Notepad++
- Winmerge
- GitHub for Windows
- Tortise SVN
Networking/Security
- Bitvise SSH Client
- Virtualbox
- Tor
- CCLeaner
- GPG
- Putty
- F Secure AV
- Inssider
- NMap
- WireShark
- EMET
- OpenVPN
- Keepass
- SMAC
Media
- VLC
- Winamp
Communications and Social Media
- Hexchat
- Line
- Skype
- Lync
And the Rest...
- Wunderlist
- Firefox
- Feedly
- Kindle
- 7Zip
- Cashplan
- Foxit Reader
- Steam
Peripherals
Nothing really special here. I like a good keyboard and mouse, preferably gaming gear like G510 etc.
My Partner bought me some fantastic Sony headphones for Christmas, the Sony MDR-1RBT Mark2. Quite amazing, Bluetooth, NFC and 30 hour battery life!
So that is pretty much it. I will try and keep this updated as I change what I am using.