13 APRIL 2026 - MONDAY

i got a new pc and it's really fucking loud lmao

Yeah I know... what an astute title hahah. But with it's seven fans and liquid cooling system, this rig has got to be the loudest and most powerful machine I've ever had the pleasure of working on to date. All I'll really mention is that I finally have 12GB of VRAM, which makes me really really happy. With this, I've been having a much easier time with rendering virtual environments, specifically the ones in VRChat. There will be a few different vrblog posts coming out within the next week that I held off on posting because I have been in this locked cycle of going to and from work.

It's really fun being able to set everything up again, even if it is a bit of a pain. I'm not a fan of logging back into everything again, downloading everything I need for work and for all the fun stuff I like doing, arranging storage and so on. But it does feel really good to sit down and know that things will load /easier/ and /better/ and potentially even a little bit /faster/, and my previous pc build served me loyally for about five years. I am not going to be upgrading from this build any time soon and am hoping it'll last me as long as my previous machine, if a bit longer. Actually, it's a bit unfair to say that my previous PC has "lasted me five years" when really it's not out of service. It's been wiped completely of any trace of me, and will now be used for my younger sibling during their final year at university. Honestly it'll probably go on living for a few more years!

Admittedly in the beginning it was a bit rough. I was torn on whether or not I wanted to run a linux distro full time on my main machine and in the end I decided against it, which to be honest still really frustrates me. I like working and taking my notes on my laptop which still has CachyOS still installed, but the reality is that I still need to work in a Windows environment just for ease of access of certain pieces of software and applications that will just be a bit more tedious to run on Linux. This is especially true for anything virtual reality related, as I've talked to several individuals who daily drive Linux on their main machine AND play on virtual platforms like VRChat and Resonite and a lot of what I've heard has been "it is worth it, but it is also difficult".

I feel like a bit of a lame guy for saying that I just want my machine to work and function the way I want it to once I get home.

The reality is - it /would/ be difficult to run Linux on my rig but not /impossible/, and certainly not unheard of in the spaces that I am in. If anything, the stall against using Linux is probably just down to feelings of fear and apprehension, to avoiding issues that could possibly make me feel worse after a long day. But then my immediate counterargument to myself is... maybe that's a skill issue? LOL. Like maybe I should give myself more grace when it comes to learning new and potentially difficult things.

Having a newer PC build like this is a great opportunity to learn and move forward. I have started using Vivaldi as my main browser just to see if I would like it better than Opera or Firefox, I've been making my own custom theme for Obsidian, and I've been reading through the Krita 6 documentation to get a better understanding of the reformed text tool. It's been inspiring being on a newer machine, and maybe with time (and a lot of personal frustration with W11 lol) I'll make the switch over completely to CachyOS or some other Arch based linux distro. There are a myriad of things I have already hated about W11, namely the lack of choice for where you can put the task bar and also not a lot of customization for appearance of windows. I will live with it for now, though.

This machine is also the first one that I have personally had that has a cooling system. I was very very VERY concerned when I first powered on my PC to hear the liquid inside the tubes move loudly and the fans whirring as if they were going to launch into space and take it's own exploration around the moon like the Artemis II crew. It's also the first machine where I got a case that had a glass encasing. The previous personal computers I had were very simple back box cases... boring I know. But it was all I could afford back then! Now I am blessed with the chance to get something a lot better.