I love really simple tech and gadgets. My laptop and PCs are very basic, and I run a Google Pixel 9a with Android scrubbed off of it, GrapheneOS in its place. These are basically all I daily drive along with a couple of other fun gadgets to keep my ecosystem simple and lightweight. This allows me to more easily keep up with all of the manual work (file management, manual synchronizations, etc.) that comes with self-hosting as much as I can.
Here's some stuff I like:
I warned you all. Nothing fancy. My PC hasn't been updated hardware-wise in five years. While not the best for privacy, it is a Windows machine because I do play videogames weekly. As I get older, I'm drawn much more to simple games like Old School Runescape or whatever indie game is trending on Steam. Easier on my brain after work. However, I use this PC more for projects than I do for gaming. This is where I code, flash or update little gadgets, and manage server files. For this use case, I truly don't need anything very beefy. While I do plan to upgrade some day, this all gets the job done more than fine:
Yep, I'm a proud member of the Thinkpad cult. Seriously, these machines are absolutely bananas rugged, super reliable, and incredibly easy to swap out the OS, or even turn intoa dual-boot machine. There's a reason these things have a cult following to this day.
I personally run a 2019 Thinkpad T490 as my laptop for on-the-go projects, or anything that involves Linux. This computer paired with Linux Mint Cinnamon (Linuxs' most lightweight distro) makes for an insanely speedy machine. My boot time is about 8 seconds.... yeah this thing absolutely rules. It's a great pairing to have with my Windows PC to add some variety into my software pool. For a more in-depth overview of my Thinkpad setup, check out the project I've written up. I could spend hours rambling about how it's the perfect device and setup, but instead just go browse for a few minutes over on r/thinkpad and really listen to what those freaks have to say.
My home server is run off of a HP EliteDesk 800. The PC sits nicely under my secondary monitor on my desk, and is pretty unintrusive. Its hard drive sits in an adorable miniature server rack that I got off of Etsy, along with a 1:1 clone connected to my main PC. Attached is a Tindie bb9900 and cheap Staples mouse to toss files into hot folders.