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My desk setup

My Personal Computer

I thought it would be interesting to document my personal computer, the machine that I use for my daily tasks.

My main computer is a 2018 Dell XPS 13 9370:

  • i5-8350U (4 cores / 8 threads, 3.6GHz)
  • 16GB LPDDR3 RAM @ 2133MHz
  • 3840×2160 60Hz touchscreen
  • 512GB NVMe SSD

I bought it on eBay in 2023 for $235 shipped. It was in near-mint condition with no visible wear on the chassis, screen, keyboard, or trackpad. The only real issue was the battery. The laptop barely held a charge and had begun swelling, which caused the trackpad to sit unevenly.

Minor Refurbish

After some use, I decided to put a bit more money into the machine to address a few shortcomings:

  • Replaced the battery with a new OEM unit
  • Re-pasted the CPU
  • Added thermal pads between the heat pipe and chassis (Known mod for this laptop model)

After about ~$340 total, I ended up with a sleek laptop that still holds up well today.

At the time of writing, I am running Fedora on this machine. I have been running the same installation of Fedora since I purchased the laptop (Fedora 39), and have gone through all of the distro upgrades along the way. Everything has been running smoothly, and Fedora seems to require a little less maintenance when compared to the ~5 years I spent on Arch previously.

My typical usage includes:

  • Web browsing
  • Software development
  • Managing my homelab
  • Studying

Why the XPS 13?

The XPS 13 came to mind because I had actually owned one previously. A few years earlier, I bought a new base model 2020 XPS 13 9380, and I really enjoyed all of the features the computer offered. When I landed my first contract job as a software developer, I found myself needing MacOS and Xcode for iOS work, which eventually pushed me to sell the XPS 13 and purchase a MacBook Pro.

After a few years of using Macbooks, I wanted a personal machine again, something that allowed me to run the OS that I prefer. The XPS 13 came to mind with its sleek, light-weight form factor, and I found this 9370 that ended up having better specs than my 9380 had originally.

Overall, it’s been a great machine and has served me well for over two years. I may upgrade soon, but it’s been fun seeing how much value you can still get out of older hardware with a little care.