What Mac have you got?

[mosfet]

Definitely worth investing. Since having them I've enjoyed listening to music and watching films far more.

[phoenix198]

After six months in the sandpit I figure I deserve a treat, so I now have brand spanking new MacBook Pro 17" with the 2.8GHz processor and the glossy screen.

Yeah, I know I should have held off for Snow Leopard, but where's the fun in that?

[burble]

I've got:

- 16Gb iPhone 3G
- 1.6GHz Core Duo Mini
- 2.2GHz MacBook
- Dell Mini 9 running 10.5.8

Until a few days ago the Mini was dead - I was told the logic board was knackered but it turns out it was just a failed HD so I've replaced that and it's all good! I've now got the Mini coupled up to my Drobo (filled with 4 x 2Tb HD's) and once I've finished copying stuff over it'll be replacing my TeraStation pro.

[Jay]

[watercooled]

[Stoo]

/rotten egg @Jay

My collection:

iBook G4 (Broken & in bits somewhere in the loft)
Macbook 2.2Ghz
Mac Pro Dual 2.8Ghz Xeon (as per my profile)
8GB iPhone Classic
16GB iPhone 3G
32GB iPhone 3G S

I might upgrade my macbook to a 13" pro later in the year, or early next year as all the plastic is starting to break on my white one, and the display annoys me with the lack of consistent colours..

[watercooled]

My Collection:

512MB Gen1 (I think) iPod shuffle, used maybe twice...

[Gordy]

Well I've finally pulled my finger out and taken some shots of my new office.

My previous office was one of the largest rooms in the house and was a complete waste of such a large space. It also was our spare bedroom so I had to work around chaos when people were staying. So the plan was to create an all new office in what was the nursery.

I took everything back to the floorboards and laid all new cabling and completely redecorated. It was a royal pain in the backside, but well worth the effort. I wanted the end result to have as few cables and other rubbish on show as possible. I'm very happy with the results.

To answer as many of the questions you may have I've put some info by all the pics.


A general shot of the desk, it's an Ikea Mikael. After building two desk for my previous office I decided to go down the ikea route this time as it was quicker and had a better ability to hide the cables.


A bit of a wider shot showing the Ikea besta cupboard on the right it stores lots of my files and other odds and ends. The Car on the top is actually a computer. It's one of several I've built, this being the final and most perfect one. It certainly catches most guests eye first.


Here you can see my setup. It's a unibody Apple Macbook hooked up to a 20in cinema display (Mounted on a Humanscale M7 Vesa mount). I've also got the superb apple keyboard and logitech mx revolution mouse. The irreplacable Apple iPhone 3G, along with a BT Reveal telephone


A great shot of my custom made seat using a Cobra clubman car seat and an old office chair base. The picture is a panoramic shot of Clifton Suspension bridge in Bristol


In this shot you can see the cables all hidden behind the desk along with usb hub, tv card and external hard drive.


Look ma no cables!


An ordinary cupboard? No....


Behind the right hand door is a hidden testing station for clients computers.


A closer up shot of this, you can see the monitor stand I built to allow the keyboard and mouse to slide underneath.


With both doors open you can see the filing cabinet and further storage. I'm so glad I decided to go this route.

A full set of pictures is here on my flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gordyha...7621876078765/

[martinp]

Wow! That is one very clean office Gordy!!! Really like the dark brown veneer on the furniture and great work with the cabling.


I done a rework of mine last month too. Bought new speakers and there was no way they'd fit on my old desk so a change was required and I always wanted a corner desk!

Here it is now...


It was a bit of bad timing to take the pic whilst watching VH1 Classic.




Other than the audio nothings changed really.

[Gordy]

Wow! That is one very clean office Gordy!!! Really like the dark brown veneer on the furniture and great work with the cabling.

I done a rework of mine last month too. Bought new speakers and there was no way they'd fit on my old desk so a change was required and I always wanted a corner desk!

Here it is now...
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...kPanoramic.jpg
It was a bit of bad timing to take the pic whilst watching VH1 Classic.

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...rkingArea2.jpg
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...nter/Desk2.jpg

Other than the audio nothings changed really.

Thanks.

Wow to your setup that's stunning! Is that the 30in ACD?

[martinp]

Thanks.

Wow to your setup that's stunning! Is that the 30in ACD?

Thanks Gordy!

Yes it is a 30" ACD, actually looks a bit smaller sitting in the corner compare to my last setup (post 184 on page 12), but since I'm further away from it my eyes are thanking me!!

[Gordy]

Thanks Gordy!

Yes it is a 30" ACD, actually looks a bit smaller sitting in the corner compare to my last setup (post 184 on page 12), but since I'm further away from it my eyes are thanking me!!

It always seems to make all the things like mice and keyboards looks tiny. Which lacie is that you have as well? Any good? I'm love the look of them, but I've been put off their reliability over the years.

[martinp]

I know what you mean, the base of the stand is just smaller than the keyboard!

The hard drive is a LaCie 2big Quadra 2TB, I got it from Scan a few months back. I wouldn't recommend it to an enemy tho!

It sounds like a jumbo jet almost constantly, there is a little fan at the back which just never goes off, the drive isn't faulty either.

I have since, removed the fan - the case acts as a heatsink anyway and converted the front LED to red to make it look like H.A.L!

The blue LED is stupidly bright and is just about as distracting as the fan.

[Gordy]

I know what you mean, the base of the stand is just smaller than the keyboard!

The hard drive is a LaCie 2big Quadra 2TB, I got it from Scan a few months back. I wouldn't recommend it to an enemy tho!

It sounds like a jumbo jet almost constantly, there is a little fan at the back which just never goes off, the drive isn't faulty either.

I have since, removed the fan - the case acts as a heatsink anyway and converted the front LED to red to make it look like H.A.L!

The blue LED is stupidly bright and is just about as distracting as the fan.

Ah, glad I decided against getting one a while back.

I've been on the search for a storage solution for ages, I've yet to find something that is perfect. At the moment I have a single freecom xss 500gb drive which sits in the cage under the desk and is totally silent (not silent as in has fans and we claim it's silent). However I've really need something with more space.

I've looked at various NAS drives including the readynas duo's however even if they are in the cupboard with the door closed the noise still drives me nuts. I've been looking at the dual drive laptop size hdd lacie little big disk quadra, but I can't justify the cost just for silence. I wish someone made a silent dual or quad 2.5in hdd for not silly money.

I'd love to try one of the HP mediasmarts, but HP are toss pots when it comes to the UK/EU so we don't get some of the nice bits they do in the US.

The one thing I regret in the new office is not running a network cable to the loft so that I could hide a nas up there. I thought about and had already run a channel for the new lighting circuit, but decided against it for reasons I cannot now remember. Doh!

[watercooled]

You could use some blu-tac if the LED ain't too big.

[martinp]

You could use some blu-tac if the LED ain't too big.

The LED sits behind a button which is about 1" diameter. You could use blu-tac but you'd need to open the case up, so I just went all the way with it.

Need to mount a little camera behind the button to get the full H.A.L. effect tho!