This article is part of a series on Other Projects.

The New Computer

This desktop PC, which I built from parts in February 2023, is ridiculously awesome. Why?

Because I built it myself.
- Building my PC gave me a greater understanding of the inner workings of computers. Even though I had been working with the Raspberry Pi for over a year, I learned more from building a PC that I had from the Pi computers. I felt empowered to diagnose and fix my own computer problems. It was cool.
Because it runs Artix Linux.
- I had been running Ubuntu Desktop on my desktop PC since summer 2022, and I had tried Arch before. However, this was my first time using Arch as a daily driver.
- LARBS!
Because I learned about virtualization.
- One of the reasons why I built this computer with the parts I chose was for virtualization. I had been having trouble playing certain games on Linux because I was using container solutions and emulators to run the games, and I had heard that virtualization through a software such as QEMU could be a potential solution.
Because all of this gave me the tools to learn about Proxmox virtualization.
- While working with QEMU to set up virtual machines was useful in setting up a Proxmox server, so was building a PC. It gave me the skills to rebuild my old desktop PC and convert it into a Proxmox server.

So, for all these reasons and more, my current desktop PC is a powerhouse.

Desktop - Neofetch

A neofetch of the desktop PC at rest after running VMs for nearly 2.5 days.

The Build

Hardware:

Motherboard: ROG Strix X570-E
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
RAM: 64GB (4x 16GB) G.Skill Trident Z DDR4 3600MHz
GPU 1: 12GB AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT GDDR6
GPU 2: 8GB NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070
Storage 1: 1TB Samsung 980 Pro SSD
Storage 2: 1TB Samsung 980 Pro SSD
Storage 3: 4TB Seagate Barracuda HDD

Software:

Artix Linux
- Arch-based
LARBS
QEMU

Installed using legacy boot (BIOS) and a fully encrypted root partition.

I use LARBS, created by Luke Smith, as a desktop solution. Check out LARBS on Luke’s site or over on Luke’s GitHub. It uses a combination of dwm and dmenu to create a simple window manager solution.

One of the things I find most impressive about my desktop is not how much software it runs, but actually how little software it runs.

I used virtualization to solve some of those needs. With QEMU, I can spin up a Windows machine for any software I want to use that runs best on Microsoft software. No more Wine containers, or bottles; no more Lutris; and, no more having to stash a Windows computer for “just in case.” In fact, the performance using QEMU is so good, that I even install any superfluous Linux software on a VM first, meaning that the amount of software I install on bare metal is very little.