robert aaron / laboratoryHARDWARE STUDY   001 / 2026

TWO GENERATIONS. ONE LOCAL SYSTEM.

The local machine.

A small computer. A very capable old tower.
Explore the hardware, and everything that connects it.

Loading hardware…

REFERENCE MODEL · ROUTES ILLUSTRATIVE

01 / MAC PRO · MID 2010

12 cores. Still useful.

2 × Xeon X5690 · 96 GB ECC DDR3
RX 6900 XT · 16 GB VRAM · Pixlas power
Samsung 970 EVO · 1 TB NVMe

02 / MAC MINI · 2024

A different kind of compute.

Apple M4 · 24 GB unified memory
10-core CPU / 10-core GPU family
127 × 127 × 50 mm

03 / THE CONNECTION

One gigabit between them.

Current route through the LAN
0.803 Gbit/s historical measured throughput
Physical wiring and logical flow are separate.

What this twin knows — and what still needs capture +

This is an interactive reference twin built from handoff v1.2, not a scan or a live hardware monitor. Published outer dimensions and confirmed installed components are preserved. Component shapes, desk placement, cable bends and connector locations remain proxies. The exact GPU model, Pixlas wiring, RAM slot order, SATA population and network devices need actual-unit capture. Unmapped memory is displayed beside the tower; it does not imply installed slot positions.

Connection graph ↓   Full cable register ↓   Model provenance ↓