Help me create a dream home/office setup

[bonoz]

Hey guys!

I love seeing other people's awesome home/office setups and was hoping I could get something like that.

Basically, I'm your typical gamer but I also watch movies, listen to TONS of music, read, write, surf, play guitar, watch TV. I need my computer (s) to be able to do all of that. And also storage. I have a lot of data and need a good storage base. I have several external hard drives. My current setup is a complete outdated mess. It's terrible. I am moving into a new apartment and as such I want to start off with a really nice clean setup. So I need advice for everything. From furniture, layout, organization, which computers, how many computers, speakers, etc. The whole 9 yards.

I like things very nice and organized. Decluttered. Everything in its right place.

I currently have three computers. 1 Gaming computer which I haven't used for a long time. 1 Laptop for mobility and where I do most of my work. And I have 1 utility computer which I use for downloading stuff, surfing, storage, etc. I like having 2 or 3 computers so I can sort of divi up my tasks. But it's **** hard to manage. I'd be okay with just 1 computer if I can sort of have two monitors, with two different user accounts, and maybe even two different keyboard and mouse inputs.

What are some other cool things I can do to enhance my setup? add a firewall computer? maybe have a server?

Lastly, how can I integrate my guitar into my computer setup? Maybe have some way to connect my guitar or amp to my computers? I don't know. Anyone have experience with this?

Also, what would be a great way to watch TV during all of this?

So help me out. From furniture to arranging my speakers to cable-management to layout and design. I need all the help I can get in making a dream setup. Here's the current mess:

Cheers! and let's see your setups too!

 

[office politics]

two monitors showing two machines with one keyboard and mouse can be done. have one desktop with a dual monitor setup. at work we buy dual monitor cards. use windows remote desktop or VNC to show the other machine on the second monitor.

setup a device with raid for storage. this protects against hard drive failure. add online backup for aditional protection like floods, fire, etc.

 

[Harper]

I was in a simulare situation not so long ago wih my set up. At one stage I have 4 computers. However I was able to compress this down to ---
1 x Desktop for storage and games
1x Netbook for portability and watching movies.

If you still require a second computer, why not reduce one on your monitor/keyboard/mouse and get yourself a KVM switch.

setup a device with raid for storage. this protects against hard drive failure. add online backup for aditional protection like floods, fire, etc.

Use a seperate RAID card so you can migrate the it to another PC if some thing happens.
I still only trust RAID1 with a RAID Card. It means that if some thing as to happen, I can rip out the drive and still access my data natively. I don't like the idea of 1 file being split accross multiple drives with RAID5. And RAID0 might give you the space, but all it takes is one screw up and you loose the lot.

 

[bonoz]

two monitors showing two machines with one keyboard and mouse can be done. have one desktop with a dual monitor setup. at work we buy dual monitor cards. use windows remote desktop or VNC to show the other machine on the second monitor.

setup a device with raid for storage. this protects against hard drive failure. add online backup for aditional protection like floods, fire, etc.

What is VNC?

Why not just connect the second monitor to the second machine why do remote desktop to it?

As far as RAID goes, how can I learn more about it? Is it better if you do the RAID on a server? Is it a good idea to have a server, your own domain, and it doing some security by acting as a firewall box?

What are some good resources that could help me out with this?

Also, what are some good sites which have home/office furniture, tables, desks, chairs, storange, and other equipment?

Thanks

 

[Puddle Jumper]

A Windows Home Server would be an excellent way to consolidate all of your media and files as well as back up all your systems. From what I have read it is an extremely easy system to set up and use and since it's designed to be managed remotely you should never have to bother with hooking it up to a monitor. WHS also uses it's own system for ensuing data redundancy so you don't need to mess with RAID. One thing to keep in mind is this system only ships with one drive so you would need to add another one in order to effectively protect against drive failure as mentioned above.

Newegg.com - acer Aspire Easystore Intel Atom 1.6Ghz 2GB DDR2 2TB GBLAN 4 Bay Hotswap Windows Home Server - Server Systems

 

[SirCyber]

it's been mentioned before, a great idea would be the KVM switch, using that you don't even have to consolidate to one or two computers, you just hook up the cables throught he KVM, my old switch you used ctrl+(arrow keys) to switch between computers, you have one keyboard, one mouse, one monitor, multiple computers. as far as your guitar, use a MIDI input, you can play your guitar directly into your computer and it will write the music or record it, depending on the software package you go with.
LINKS:
Newegg.com - LINKSKEY LKV-248AUSK 4-Port Desktop USB + PS/2 KVM Switch w/ Audio & Mic - KVM Switches
Newegg.com - M-AUDIO Audiophile 2496 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface 4-In-4-Out Professional Audio Card with MIDI - Sound Cards

 

[bonoz]

A Windows Home Server would be an excellent way to consolidate all of your media and files as well as back up all your systems. From what I have read it is an extremely easy system to set up and use and since it's designed to be managed remotely you should never have to bother with hooking it up to a monitor. WHS also uses it's own system for ensuing data redundancy so you don't need to mess with RAID. One thing to keep in mind is this system only ships with one drive so you would need to add another one in order to effectively protect against drive failure as mentioned above.

Newegg.com - acer Aspire Easystore Intel Atom 1.6Ghz 2GB DDR2 2TB GBLAN 4 Bay Hotswap Windows Home Server - Server Systems

Well I really like this. Thanks for this. This way I can have just one place where all my data is stored, gets backed up, etc. And I have gigabit access to it. That is perfect.

Are there any documents/articles that can help me with implementing this in my setup, optimizing it, using it, etc.? Can I actually build one by myself or do I need to get that ACER one?

Now my setup can be just ONE computer that does all the gaming, fun stuff, and then a laptop for portability and work.

If the server doesn't take a monitor, then how do you access it? RDP? What happens if the windows session crashes?

Thanks

 

[Puddle Jumper]

This site looks like a pretty good resource for WHS. I've seen better ones in the past but I must have lost the bookmarks at some point along the line

Documentation MS Windows Home Server

This site also has a lot of addons for WHS

Home Server Plus

You can built the server yourself if you want. Here is a link to a separate copy of the WHS OS. if you do go that route I would go with either an Atom D510 or Sepron 140+740g motherboard as the basis for the system.

Newegg.com - Microsoft Windows Home Server 32 Bit 1 Pack (Power pack 1) - Server Software

I haven't done enough research on WHS to comment on how it handles a RDP session. I'm pretty sure the offer a web based control panel for it so you don't have to excursively use RDP.

 

[bonoz]

Cool thanks.

Now what are some other resources in just setting up my man cave?

What are some good resources as far as furniture, cable management, and other equipment goes?

 

[Kharn]

I would recommend FreeNAS over windows home server.