# Keyboard

I'm using an ASUS ROG Falcata. Its not perfect, and almost certainly not worth the money; but, its the only keyboard to meet my very specific requirements. I still want to play competitive games at a high level, but, my wrists also hurt from being a chronic programmer. In comes the Falcata, the only prebuilt split keyboard with hall effect and 2.4ghz wireless. Now, I can tear out my hair playing Overwatch without any wrist pain!

# Mouse

You should not buy the Deathadder V4 Pro. That said, its a fantastic mouse; an incredible shape that fits my massive hands perfectly, a top of the line sensor, great feeling (albeit not great sounding) clicks, and a new optical scrollwheel. Disregarding the price tag, its really all I could ask for in a mouse.

# Mousepad

While I kinda wish I bought the medium version, the Artisan Raiden Soft is still great. It is by far the fastest and smoothest mousepad I've ever used. Of course, the medium version would be a little faster and smoother but I'd never bought a firm pad before so I was cautious. My only criticisms are that it catches hair like crazy and that it wears a little fast.

# Headphones

This is where the setup begins to fall apart. The Beyerdynamic DT990 Pros are... fine, I guess. They have pretty great sound reproduction but the treble is just as harsh as people say it is. It doesn't bother me most of the time, but it can be very irritating. I'd like to upgrade but its currently not in the budget.

# Microphone

Like my audio output, my audio input in the HyperX Quadcast S is similarly mediocre. It sounds fine, but it catches dust and crumbs as readily as it captures background noise; I'm essentially required to use EasyEffects to remove background audio since the gain is impossible to tune. And, as with all gaming microphones, the software is dogshit and doesn't run on Linux. But, I've had this for 4 years and its still working, so I can't really complain nor replace it.

# CPU

I was lucky enough to buy a Ryzen 9700x, 32gbs of DDR5, and a new motherboard right before the RAM crisis. For gaming it isn't optimal, an AM4 X3D chip performs better, but its far superior for programming. It has massively reduced my compile times and has generally made my system much snappier. However, it is incredibly hot. I had to buy a new cooler for it and it still reaches temps of 95c in CPU intense games.

# GPU

Unlike with my CPU, I bought my RX 9600 XT 16GB in November of 2025, during the RAM crisis. Luckily, the prices hadn't yet hit my local MicroCenter and I was able to get it for around $350 (I don't remember the exact price and I'm too lazy to check). And in this economy? That is a fantastic price. It performs admirably in every game I throw at it, generally being able to do 1080P high settings.