What I Use

What I Use
Updated Study / Harley's Palace

Ever since the first iteration of mitchellhislop.com, which has since morphed into mph.io, I have had a page dedicated to what I use, from both a hardware and software perspective. I love the 'gear' side of my job and hobbies almost as much as I like the 'doing stuff with gear' side of things.

(Updated August 2026)

Hardware

Desktop PC

  • Intel i5 14600K Processor
  • nVidia RTX 4070 Super (GIGABYTE)
  • 64GB RAM
  • 4TB SSD
  • Windows 11
  • GIGABYTE 34” UltraWide
  • Keychron Q1 HE
  • Corsair Dark Core Mouse
  • Razer Blackshark V2 Pro Headset
  • JBL Pebble Desktop Speakers
  • Saitek X52 HOTAS
  • Xbox Controller

This computer is mostly a gaming machine, but gets tapped for AI and dev work from time to time.

Laptop PC

  • iPad Pro 11”, 3rd Gen
    • Apple Pencil
    • Smart Cover

This is my main device - travels basically everywhere with me.

  • MacBook Air, M2, 2023
    • M2
    • 16GB RAM
    • 1TB SSD
    • MacOS Sonoma

Personal computer - Runs everything from OBS and Lightroom to LLMs and Python Notebooks to Magic: The Gathering Arena. Easily the best computer I’ve ever owned.

Other Stuff/EDC

Aside from the above, the rest of what I use to get things done:

EDC - What I carry every day

  • Bellroy Tokyo Briefcase / Tumi Alpha Bravo backpack / Tumi Alpha Bravo Briefcase
  • Apple AirPods 4 (ANC) / AirPods Pro / AirPods G2 (after using these since release, daily, I can confidently say they are the closest I have seen to a perfect product)
  • Sony XM3 Cans
  • Ridge Wallet
  • Bellroy Passport Case
  • Levenger International Briefcase
  • Light - Olight Baton 3 / Prometheus Beta QR
  • Pen - Kaweco AL-Sport, Pilot Vanishing Point, Lamy 2000 FP, Faber Castell e-Motion Pure Black FP, TWSBI 580, Parker 45, Parker 51, Monteverde Invincia, Tactile Turn Gist, Various Retro 51 Rollerballs
  • Knife - Benchmade Valet / Civvi Elementum / many, many others
  • Fixed Blade - Montana Knife Company Blackfoot 2.0
  • Notebook - Levenger Foldover (Junior, Bomber), Studio Neat Totebook, Midori A5
  • Keys - Atwood Area 51 Wrunt, Apple AirTag
  • iPhone 15 Pro
  • Watch - Garmin Forerunner 945, Citizen Atomic Time
  • Radios: One of several 2m/70cm HTs

Shotguns

  • Browning Citori CXS 32" - the clays gun
  • Benelli M2 Field - the birds gun

Bike Technology

  • Garmin Edge 830
  • Garmin Varia Radar
  • Garmin Varia UT800 Headlight
  • Wahoo Kickr Core

I no longer run my own servers - no real need, and I have fallen in love with the hassle-free life things like Squarespace provide. Except…

NAS

Synology DS920+

  • 4x16TB HDD, SHR
  • 40TB Storage Pool
  • Plex, Docker: paperless-ngx, Home Assistant
  • Photo/Video/Document backup, Docker host, Tailscale

I also now have a second NAS made from parts rescued from an electronics recycling program, and a Proxmox cluster of an old gaming PC (1070 GPU era) and an old decomm'd Teams Room node.

Software

Since I end up using Windows, OSX, Ubuntu, and Android on a daily basis, this is going to be a big list.

  • Mimecast, Obsidian, Todoist, Fantastical, Zed, and Zen Browser make up my "core set" of apps. These are best-in-class experiences for getting work done.
  • Dropbox - I use Dropbox to keep all my devices in sync, as well as a few of my apps. It holds the majority of my data. Currently sitting at 1TB of 2.0TB.
  • Backblaze - I used to be a die-hard fan of CrashPlan, but then they made the (absolutely stupid) decision to abandon the consumer market. I've since migrated to Backblaze, and aside from being able to back the laptops up to my desktop, everything is just as good, if not better.
  • Google - Gmail and Google Drive primarily, but I have been a user of everything from Reader (RIP) to Wallet. Despite some of the privacy worries, which are not lost on me, they seem to be on the "good guy" side of that fight.
  • Fastmail - Despite my love of Google products, I don't want to be beholden to only one platform. My personal emails run off of Fastmail and are forwarded to Gmail. With just a few short steps, I could sever them, and be off of Google.
  • Ghost - Current engine of my digital home. Newest in a long line of CMSs that I have used, going back to 2008.