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
• Pocket
• 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.