diff --git a/nix/configurations/hetzner_benchmark/nixos/sane-nix.nix b/nix/configurations/hetzner_benchmark/nixos/sane-nix.nix
index 3419eae6..54f76994 100644
--- a/nix/configurations/hetzner_benchmark/nixos/sane-nix.nix
+++ b/nix/configurations/hetzner_benchmark/nixos/sane-nix.nix
@@ -1,9 +1,11 @@
 # Protect my system from running out of storage or memory
+let
+  totalStorage = 500;
+in
 {
-  # 500GB Storage
   nix.settings = {
-    min-free = 50 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024;
-    max-free = 100 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024;
+    min-free = builtins.ceil (totalStorage * 0.2) * 1024 * 1024 * 1024;
+    max-free = builtins.ceil (totalStorage * 0.3) * 1024 * 1024 * 1024;
   };
 
   systemd.services.nix-daemon.serviceConfig = {
diff --git a/nix/configurations/vanadium.nix b/nix/configurations/vanadium.nix
index 2f4bec34..99d9c96d 100644
--- a/nix/configurations/vanadium.nix
+++ b/nix/configurations/vanadium.nix
@@ -94,6 +94,7 @@ in
     ./vanadium/nixos/input.nix
 
     ./vanadium/nixos/misc.nix
+    ./vanadium/nixos/remote-builders.nix
 
     ./vanadium/nixos/display.nix
     ./vanadium/nixos/gui.nix
diff --git a/nix/configurations/vanadium/home/programs.nix b/nix/configurations/vanadium/home/programs.nix
index 32db4e26..74c8bed8 100644
--- a/nix/configurations/vanadium/home/programs.nix
+++ b/nix/configurations/vanadium/home/programs.nix
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
   home.packages = [
     pkgs.ghc # my favorite calculator
 
+    pkgs.lsr # fast ls with io_uring
     pkgs.nmap
     pkgs.stow
     pkgs.zip
diff --git a/nix/configurations/vanadium/nixos/remote-builders.nix b/nix/configurations/vanadium/nixos/remote-builders.nix
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..87a21592
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nix/configurations/vanadium/nixos/remote-builders.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+let
+  supportedFeatures = [
+    "nixos-test"
+    "benchmark"
+    "big-parallel"
+    "kvm"
+  ];
+in
+{pkgs, ...}:
+{
+  nix.buildMachines = [
+    # NOTE: these hosts need to be put in the .ssh/config of root.
+    # https://wiki.nixos.org/wiki/Distributed_build#Recommended_setup:_multi-user_Nix_local_%E2%80%93%3E_multi-user_Nix_remote
+    {
+      hostName = "pancake";
+      sshUser = "remotebuild";
+      speedFactor = 2;
+      system = pkgs.stdenv.hostPlatform.system;
+      inherit supportedFeatures;
+    }
+    {
+      hostName = "hetzner_benchmark";
+      sshUser = "remotebuild";
+      speedFactor = 12;
+      system = pkgs.stdenv.hostPlatform.system;
+      inherit supportedFeatures;
+    }
+  ];
+}
diff --git a/nix/configurations/vanadium/nixos/sane-nix.nix b/nix/configurations/vanadium/nixos/sane-nix.nix
index 83c080d8..bb710e8e 100644
--- a/nix/configurations/vanadium/nixos/sane-nix.nix
+++ b/nix/configurations/vanadium/nixos/sane-nix.nix
@@ -1,8 +1,11 @@
 # Protect my system from running out of storage or memory
+let
+  totalStorage = 930;
+in
 {
   nix.settings = {
-    min-free = 50 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024;
-    max-free = 100 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024;
+    min-free = builtins.ceil (totalStorage * 0.2) * 1024 * 1024 * 1024;
+    max-free = builtins.ceil (totalStorage * 0.3) * 1024 * 1024 * 1024;
   };
 
   systemd.services.nix-daemon.serviceConfig = {
diff --git a/nix/configurations/vanadium/overlay.nix b/nix/configurations/vanadium/overlay.nix
index 169bf13b..a73ecd0c 100644
--- a/nix/configurations/vanadium/overlay.nix
+++ b/nix/configurations/vanadium/overlay.nix
@@ -16,6 +16,14 @@ infuse {
     ./patches/helix/W-as-write.patch
   ];
 
+  btop.__output.patches.__append = [
+    (final.fetchpatch {
+      name = "btrfs-io-graph";
+      url = "https://patch-diff.githubusercontent.com/raw/aristocratos/btop/pull/1285.patch";
+      hash = "sha256-za6B1EiOV1JqKMJwrNQo43RKChw+C4mmC8pcoxLLau4=";
+    })
+  ];
+
   # TODO:
   # pinned branch of https://github.com/astrand/xclip/tree/xerror
   # use this until #43 gets resolved properly
diff --git a/nix/homeModules/common/btop/btop.conf b/nix/homeModules/common/btop/btop.conf
index 626f09c7..c1973464 100644
--- a/nix/homeModules/common/btop/btop.conf
+++ b/nix/homeModules/common/btop/btop.conf
@@ -184,8 +184,7 @@ disk_free_priv = False
 show_io_stat = True
 
 #* Toggles io mode for disks, showing big graphs for disk read/write speeds.
-# This doesn't seem to have an effect when using btrfs. I'd rather see the disk usage.
-io_mode = False
+io_mode = True
 
 #* Set to True to show combined read/write io graphs in io mode.
 io_graph_combined = False
diff --git a/nix/homeModules/common/fish/aliasesAbbrs.nix b/nix/homeModules/common/fish/aliasesAbbrs.nix
index 863510f6..8affff1d 100644
--- a/nix/homeModules/common/fish/aliasesAbbrs.nix
+++ b/nix/homeModules/common/fish/aliasesAbbrs.nix
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
   programs.fish = {
     shellAbbrs = lib.mkMerge [
       (lib.mkIf pkgs.stdenv.isLinux {
-        "," = "nix-shell -p";
+        "," = "nix-shell --command $SHELL -p";
       })
     ];
 
diff --git a/nix/homeModules/common/fish/functions/ls.fish b/nix/homeModules/common/fish/functions/ls.fish
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..785ac319
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nix/homeModules/common/fish/functions/ls.fish
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+function ls
+    if type -q lsr
+        command lsr $argv
+    else
+        command ls $argv
+    end
+end
diff --git a/nix/homeModules/common/fish/functions/nix.fish b/nix/homeModules/common/fish/functions/nix.fish
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..488220e9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nix/homeModules/common/fish/functions/nix.fish
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+function nix
+    if [ $(count $argv) -lt 1 ]
+        command nix $argv
+    end
+    and if [ $argv[1] = "build" -o $argv[1] = "shell" ] && type -q nom
+        nom $argv
+    else
+        command nix $argv
+    end
+end
+