Show us your workstation!

[Triton]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTzbbM_4yyU

[Twilight Wolf]

Sweet!

Man, I could swear I was gonna say something else, as well. Oh, well, I think "sweet" gives you the gist of it.

[Triton]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIAB6nghmP0 soul calibur 2!

[bacteria]

I am working on my workstation at the moment. Rebuilding half of my project room to make it bigger, leaner and far better!

1st job complete - built a cabinet to extend my desk next to my 28" PC monitor by a further 54cms, making a big general work surface, made an enclosure underneath to house three computers, under that, a scanner and printer (just pull out to use). This freed the top of the desk area by not having the printer on top. Top of desk is removable so it is easy to get to the connections on the PC's. Going to cover desk in new floor tiles, so will look far better. Will also put better edgings along too.

Bought a USB adapter from e-bay to take the standard PS2 mouse and keyboard connectors, going to buy 3 x DVD male>female connectors; so it is easy to hot swap between three pairs of connectors to swap keyboard, mouse and monitor between three computers. I had a KVM switch before but it didn't work well, on the mice and also monitor inputs, also, if you want a DVI video multiple KVM box for up to 4 computers, you pay silly money, and still no guarantee it works right.

Need to put a small spacer to get the MDF level. Using 18mm MDF, really tough stuff. Need to trim off 5mm from the top layer too so it doesn't stick out.

Got one computer linked up (hence I can post this!).

Why three computers you ask? Well, the middle one is a dual core I bought a couple of years ago, the one on the left my Father had but gave up with it as the system kept rebooting - I told him the PSU wasn't good enough (460watt) to drive a dual graphic Nvidia card system and dual core, needed more like 700watt; also, a connector wasn't feeding the motherboard enough power; he didn't take my advice, bought a new PC and gave this to me! - the one on the right he kept moaning the the system would not work when clicking on icons, etc - I told him to reformat and reinstall Windows, but he didn't want to and didn't want me to for him, so gave it to me - I have had it on 24/7 for about a year now, works perfectly fine! He doesn't take my advice, even though I know what I am doing - what can you do??

Right = internet. Middle = general. Left = gaming rig. I might change the middle one to Linix at some point and have a go.

WIP so far; mess so far, but you get the idea:



The other side of my room, I will build an enclosure for dremelling, to retain all the bits of crap inside the enclosure and not on my floor. That will extend to a long shelf going along the floor.

All my units are free standing, no holes in the walls!

[Liuhuparta]

Did you know that you're wasting ridiculous amounts of energy by using three computers for things that you could easily do with only one? Computer's are one of the things that suck the most electricity in our households. In your case they also suck your space quite nicely. You probably waited for some kind of reply about your PCs and aren't going to do anything about that, but atleast I tried.

On the topic, I don't have any workspace yet primaly because I go to technical school right now so I can do almost everything there. I'm however establishing one quite soon so I can locate my awesome Weller soldering unit and all the miscellaneous components and stuff there.

[bacteria]

Actually, there are good reasons to use more than one PC; two is ideal. I have three in this pic (I have one other which my wife has in her room, and a laptop too).

Windows after a few months after a fresh install (or less than a few months) starts to behave badly; clicking on icons don't always work, the system works slowly, you sometime get crashes, etc. If you have a PC connected to the internet you need to use a firewall, one or two antivirus programs, at least one or two antispyware, etc etc. This makes your system run slowly anyway and sometimes causes conflicts.

Having more than one computer has the following benefits:

* just keeping one system for internet makes the system stable for longer than a multi-use PC, also less likely to develop faults. The less programs you install, update and uninstall, the better.
* if the internet PC goes wrong, chances are you can get onto the internet with the other system, Google for a solution or drivers, whatever, which can get the main internet PC back on line again.
* keeping a main PC just for gaming and not internet (unless really needed) means you don't need any of the above security programs, making your system as fast as it can be.
* resilience when things go wrong - and they do!

When I finish my room you will see that actually I haven't lost space, far from it, I have gained the footprint a printer always takes, which is normally big.

[Skyone]

Windows after a few months after a fresh install (or less than a few months) starts to behave badly; clicking on icons don't always work, the system works slowly, you sometime get crashes, etc. If you have a PC connected to the internet you need to use a firewall, one or two antivirus programs, at least one or two antispyware, etc etc. This makes your system run slowly anyway and sometimes causes conflicts.

I used to agree with this ideology, until I learned how to use a computer correctly. I've had the same partition running for 2 years, connected to the internet, no spyware, no antivirus, and no firewall running at all times. However, I do occasionally run a scan, just to make sure that my common sense hasn't failed me. Once you understand how viruses/trojans work, you don't need to bog down a system with multiple redundant scanning applications.

Also, a full installation of a program, then a full uninstallation leaves absolutely nothing left for your computer to be slowed down by. Again, the only reason one's system would slow down is because of user ignorance.

[nevermind1534]

Windows after a few months after a fresh install (or less than a few months) starts to behave badly; clicking on icons don't always work, the system works slowly, you sometime get crashes, etc. If you have a PC connected to the internet you need to use a firewall, one or two antivirus programs, at least one or two antispyware, etc etc. This makes your system run slowly anyway and sometimes causes conflicts.

I used to agree with this ideology, until I learned how to use a computer correctly. I've had the same partition running for 2 years, connected to the internet, no spyware, no antivirus, and no firewall running at all times. However, I do occasionally run a scan, just to make sure that my common sense hasn't failed me. Once you understand how viruses/trojans work, you don't need to bog down a system with multiple redundant scanning applications.

Also, a full installation of a program, then a full uninstallation leaves absolutely nothing left for your computer to be slowed down by. Again, the only reason one's system would slow down is because of user ignorance.

+1

[SonyPortableizer]

This works for all things. I Never update anything until like a year or two. So when I finally updated my ipod touch I instantly got like a new ipod. I do the same for programs, xbox, etc. Its cool

[bacteria]

Skyone - Not good advice. I have been using computers for 26 years; ie before you were even born; I am no novice. I used to program in assembly language and DOS for fun! During that time, I have had a few viruses and trojan attempts from innocent files - first one was called "Monkey" back in the early 90's when I let a friend borrow a floppy disk to copy files to his laptop, as soon as he copied the files, I took the diskette back and put it in my PC (286) and up popped the virus alert (turned out he visited dodgy sites, which I didn't): these days you can get attacked from malware redirecting the site you browse onto or from a variety of other innocent browsals like an infected picture (noscript helps solve this of course). I use Firefox, noscript, adblock plus, McAfee siteadvisor, WOT. That is ignoring the fact that my system has all ports closed (according to Shields-up!) and invisible, and I also use other antispyware and antivirus systems running, and firewall. Not using security measures these days is bad advice. I visited what I thought was a perfectly innocent site the other day and I got a red warning flash up from my software saying it was a phishing site and a few weeks back one flashed up saying the site was infected - gave me the chance to exit the sites in question, which I did.

BTW - in serious PC magazines, they have tried what you suggested, fresh install, left system on internet with no protections or firewall present - in less than 2 hours, of not even browsing on the system, it became infected with a range of malware and trojans; in fact, the system became unstable. So, Skyone, play Russian Roulette if you like, personally, I don't! As you see from this post, I know quite a lot on the subject and am not naive...

Uninstalling a program in full is not guaranteed (at least in Windows), I am surprised you seem to think so. Many programs share a DLL file or references, and sometimes a program being installed overwrites an existing DLL file, which can cause the DLL to run incorrectly with the original software which used it. This means three things happen when doing a complete program uninstall - 1) DLL and similar files only used by that program get deleted - fine. 2) DLL and similar files get deleted because they are attributed to a program, however also needed for others, the DLL is therefore missing and can cause issues. 3) DLL and similar files remain after uninstall as shared with other programs, you then have gunk in the library files with links and data to programs that no longer exist. This is why there are programs to unclutter the registry and other locations; crap builds up, links die, bugs cause errors, etc, etc - I use these programs too (freeware of course). I have had to reformat my computers many times over many years as things after a while become unstable and run slowly.

[nevermind1534]

I know it's not good advice, but I still go without any protection.

[bacteria]

I know it's not good advice, but I still go without any protection.

So why did you post "+1" then to Skyone's post if you didn't agree to it? (like a sheep, following the "cool" herd, rather than applying common sense?) Also, "I know it's not good advice, but I still go without any protection" is the reason there are so many unwanted teenage pregnancies these days - the "i've been ok so far" is a bit like crossing a main road wearing a blindfold - sure, you might be lucky and by definition the fact you are about to say "i've been ok so far" is because you are to date, but now try to cross the road one more time.... BAM!

[nevermind1534]

I know it's not good advice, but I still go without any protection.

So why did you post "+1" then to Skyone's post if you didn't agree to it? (like a sheep, following the "cool" herd, rather than applying common sense?) Also, "I know it's not good advice, but I still go without any protection" is the reason there are so many unwanted teenage pregnancies these days - the "i've been ok so far" is a bit like crossing a main road wearing a blindfold - sure, you might be lucky and by definition the fact you are about to say "i've been ok so far" is because you are to date, but now try to cross the road one more time.... BAM!

That isn't something that can physically hurt me in any way. I am much more careful about that kind of stuff.

[bacteria]

Excellent!

[nevermind1534]

Excellent!

Yeah, only not too careful with the computer. But I should probably use goggles when working with power tools more often. And earplugs for big ones, too; the last time i used the miter saw, my ears were ringing for a while and I think sawdust was getting in my eyes until I put the safety glasses on. I wore those and a mask when I groud down some porcelain in my new sind (that stuff smells really bad).