Recommended Gear
This is not a fake review farm. Gear on this page must be labeled by evidence level.
Evidence labels
| Label | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Owned / current | In the active lab right now. Notes can include firsthand failures and fixes. |
| Owned / previous | Used before, replaced, retired, or moved to another role. |
| Rejected / avoid | Tested or considered and intentionally rejected. Explain why. |
| Researched candidate | Not personally tested yet. Listed only because it matches a known requirement. |
| Needs Josh confirmation | Draft placeholder. Do not treat as a recommendation yet. |
Affiliate links may be added later, but they do not change the label. If something is only researched, it stays marked as researched.
Local AI / GPU compute
| Item | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA RTX 4090 | Owned / current | Practical local-AI card because 24GB VRAM can run useful quantized models, but it should be treated like one shared model service rather than a zoo of resident large models. Read the 4090 local-AI guide. |
| NVIDIA RTX 5090 | Owned / current | Used in the high-end VR / workstation lane. Needs a separate, current page before being treated as a general AI recommendation. |
| Ollama | Owned / current | Local model serving layer. See the field note on NVIDIA persistence mode for a real failure/fix. |
| Qwen3 30B-class quantized model | Owned / current | Used as the local utility model lane for memory/compression experiments. Exact public recommendation needs a dedicated versioned page. |
Homelab storage / networking
| Item | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ZFS media storage | Owned / current | Public pages should focus on dataset layout, snapshots, failure modes, and recovery discipline rather than vague NAS advice. |
| 10GbE networking | Owned / current | Useful for media, backups, and workstation/server workflows. Needs a parts-list page before individual NIC/switch recommendations are added. |
| UniFi network stack | Owned / current | Good candidate for practical VLAN/routing pages because configuration screenshots and caveats matter. |
VR / sim racing
| Item | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Pimax headset lane | Owned / current | Needs refreshed docs to distinguish current headset, tracking mode, and experimental hardware. |
| Quest 3 | Owned / current | Secondary/standalone/PCVR comparison material. |
| Sim racing cockpit / controls | Owned / current | Good buyer-guide candidate because ergonomics and compatibility matter more than generic rankings. |
Draft buyer-guide queue
These are good monetizable pages because they can be useful without fake testimonials:
- RTX 4090 local AI server: what 24GB VRAM actually buys you.
- 10GbE homelab networking: what to buy before you blame ZFS.
- ZFS media server parts: drives, HBAs, cooling, and backup mistakes.
- Pimax + sim racing VR checklist: where stutter actually comes from.
- Ollama on NVIDIA: persistence mode, loaded models, and avoiding idle hangs.
Editorial rule
A page can say “I have not tested this yet.” That is better than pretending.