Post Pictures of Your Editing Room/Suite

[dearcatastrophe]

Best of both worlds there Cat?

I feel the older quad cores are too slow, hence why I went with the i5. But hey, it's always nice to have money to upgrade with... yes?

i keep waiting for a killer deal on a new mac pro, but haven't seen one yet, i don't mind. i've never had any issues with mine, seems to get the job done.
since i've been using premiere a lot more lately, rendering is aided by the cuda cores on the gpu, so i'm happy.
the only thing that holds the older quad xeons back is the stupid fb-dimms that they used, that held back a whole generation of workstations, not just apple though. at least apple was kind enough to go with a little faster fb-dimm then dell and hp did.

i love the dell. it might as well be a mac with the passive heat sinks, fan set up and everything.

i've also been looking to pick up an xserve recently, figure it would be nice to set up a server to help with more work, and mount it under the desk.

i wish i had more money, i'd "new-ize" a bunch of stuff.

i'd love to have all new i7/i5 or 6 core xeon but i just can't justify it right now.

[CycleWriter]

I am using Vegas as my main editor. I have others installed too. I tried Edius yesterday and while the editor was just "ok" for me, their installer broke my PC. I got really angry on this as it almost blew up my XP installation.

Why are you still on XP?

[HueyNRolf]

Why are you still on XP?

Fragmentation at its best?

[MrMicah]

Why are you still on XP?

Don't be too drawn in by abeler. In the HF 10/100 thread he dropped in a random post which was just a re-post of something posted by someone else a couple of years before.

[drapeama]

Why are you still on XP?

Less resource demanding? Only 32bits, but can help on entry level machines.

[drapeama]

Will be ordering my new PC tomorrow (Early Christmas Gift!):
AMD FX-8350 Vishera 4.0GHz (4.2GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 125W Eight-Core Desktop Processor
ASUS SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0 AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL

Grand Total: $456.93

I'll reuse my actual case,PSU, GPU & sound card.

[cgbier]

Draps, if you have an 8 core, you should get 32 GB RAM - 2 GB for each core (physical and virtual). Rule of thumb.

[drapeama]

Rule of thumb.

Rule of the wallet here. Eventually, it's already planned!
Here's the set I've got an eye on:
G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL10Q-32GBZL

[cgbier]

Rule of the wallet here.

Ok, that overrules everything

[Dr. Benway]

Ok, that overrules everything

'cept the wife.

[drapeama]

Rule of the wallet here.

Money overrule everything [in case of conflict, please refer to rule below, which overrule every other rules previously mentionned]

'cept the wife.

[cgbier]

Sometimes I have the feeling the wallet only rules since I have a wife. Somehow the two are interrelated.

[Janke]

> Dear Tech Support:
> Last year I upgraded from Girlfriend 7.0 to
> Wife 1.0 and noticed that the new program
> began unexpected child processing that took up
> a lot of space and valuable resources. No
> mention of this phenomenon was included in the
> product brochure. In addition, Wife 1.0
> installs itself into all other programs and
> launches during system initialization,
> where it monitors all other system activity.
> Applications such as Pokernight 10.3, Drunken
> Boys Night 2.5 and Saturday Football 5.0 no
> longer run, crashing the system whenever
> selected. I cannot seem to keep Wife 1.0 in
> the background while attempting to run some of
> my other favorite applications. I am thinking
> about going back to Girlfriend 7.0, but the
> uninstall does not work on this program.
> Can you help me, please!!!
> Thanks, A TROUBLED USER

Dear TROUBLED USER:
This is a very common problem men complain
about but is mostly due to a primary
misconception. Many people upgrade from
Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0 with the idea
that Wife 1.0 is merely a UTILITIES &
ENTERTAINMENT program. Wife 1.0 is an
OPERATING SYSTEM and designed by its
creator to run everything. It is unlikely
you would be able to purge Wife 1.0 and
still convert back to Girlfriend 7.0.
Hidden operating files within your system
would cause Girlfriend 7.0 to emulate
Wife 1.0 so nothing is gained. It is
impossible to uninstall, delete, or purge
the program files from the system once
installed. You cannot go back to Girlfriend
7.0 because Wife 1.0 is not designed to do
this. Some have tried to install
Girlfriend 8.0 or Wife 2.0 but end up with
more problems than the original system.
Look in your manual under
"Warnings-Alimony/Child Support".
I recommend you keep Wife 1.0 and just deal
with the situation. I suggest installing
background application program C:\YES DEAR to
alleviate software augmentation. Having
Wife 1.0 installed myself, I might also suggest
you read the entire section regarding General
Partnership Faults (GPFs). You must assume all
responsibility for faults and problems that
might occur, regardless of their cause.
The best course of action will be to enter the command
C:\APOLOGIZE.
In any case avoid excessive use of YES DEAR
because ultimately you will have to give
the APOLOGIZE command before the operating system
will return to normal. The system will run
smoothly as long as you take the blame for all
the GPFs. Wife 1.0 is a great program, but
very high maintenance.
Consider buying additional software to improve
the performance of Wife 1.0.
-- I recommend Flowers 2.1 and Diamonds 5.0.
Do not, under any circumstances, install
Secretary With Short Skirt 3.3. This is not
a supported application for Wife 1.0 and is
likely to cause irreversible damage to the
operating system.
Best of luck.
Tech Support.

[cgbier]

Yeah, I know that warning. Sadly, it came out after I had installed Wife 1.0. My problem is that I have compatibility issues with Flowers 2.1 and Diamond 5.0. Wife 1.0 doesn't work with either on my system.

[drapeama]

Updated my system with a dual-boot setup. First, will mostly be a dedicated Editing WorkStation on an SSD drive. The other will remain the one I'm using right now, HDD based. The difference is hallucinating! With some tweaking, it improves the boot up and shutdown to minutes!
Here's the SSD card:
IMG-20130104-00508.jpgIMG-20130104-00509.jpg
69$ for a 120GB SSD card. Not bad. I had troubles dealing with SSD & HDD dual booting, needed to tweak some settings in Bios & Registry but it's working fine now. Quite fast as well.
Here's a link to the process I've followed to speed things up. Applies to HDD too. Make sure to expand these for all the information:
Here is what I do out of this guide for my set up when I first install: -> (Click to hide)
System Setup after Installation: -> (Click to hide)
Optimizations after System Setup: -> (Click to hide)
System Maintenance: -> (Click to hide)

Then, I've used easyBCD to make the dual-boot working. I'll need to check with my friend about what he adjusted in both Bios and Registry in order to make my HDD working WITH the SSD card installed. Otherwise, one was working and the other wasn't able to boot/shown an error...but both were viable alone. I'll add the details later.

Later Details:
1. Run the Registry Editor (regedit.exe)
2. Navigate to Registry Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Msahci
3. Set the "Start" value to 0 (zero)
4. If the value is not present Create a Dword with value name "Start" and set to 0

This makes the HDD to work when SDD card is enabled, with the BIOS option (ACHI) set for the SATA connections (Instead of simply SATA).

[drapeama]

I'm currently planing to build a "dedicated" editing desktop and as I'm drawing the plans, I want to incorporate a couple of items that will turn to be useful and will avoid cables to be "everywhere".

I plan to use some wall plates for DVI, VGA and HDMI, so all monitor cables will be plugged directly "on-top" of the desk. This will certainly help in the end.
Question #1: using a coupler, it shouldn't affect the signal, on small length cable? I'll basically use less than 10' of cable overall for each monitor.

I also plan to get a 4-socket wall plate, to plug all the monitors in a corner, behind the center one.
Question #2: As the average consumption of an LCD monitor is ~80w, having the three monitors plugged on the same "wall plate" would draw 2amp. Would it be safe to wire only one cable from the plate to the power bar? (this would avoid multiple socket use)

I was thinking of adding some lights behind the monitors (bouncing on the walls) with a switch directly on the desktop, to avoid turning on the ceiling light everytime. Also, less tiring for the eyes. Depending on the light source (power consumption) I guess I could also add it to the 4-socket wall plate?)

I'd like to add something like that to the whole thing. Don't know if this could be done with an old trackball mouse though.
Any suggestions are welcome, as usual!

Here's a quick scan of my plan:
Computer.png

[cgbier]

Cut the pointy corners on the desk. They cry "painful accidents".
Power wise, you shouldn't have an issue with your blocks.
Don't bounce the light from the wall. Bounce it from the ceiling. The walls behind the monitor should be flat grey. Have a small - maybe 2-3inches - point of white on the wall offside your field of view. You need to look at that point to readjust your eyes sometimes.

Have fun!

[cgbier]

If you want a shuttle, go with the Pro model. It's about 80-90 bucks. It has more programmable keys to speed up your work. The one you showed is not better than a mouse - actually a step back.

[cgbier]

Your couplers: it is not the cable length that will influence your signal, but the resistance of the couplers themselves. I'm not sure if I'd do it, but if them only with the best couplers that are out there, no eBay crap.

[drapeama]

Cut the pointy corners on the desk. They cry "painful accidents".
Power wise, you shouldn't have an issue with your blocks.
Don't bounce the light from the wall. Bounce it from the ceiling.

1) It's a rough draw so far! I'll see how it turn out when I'll actually cut the wood sheet. I have to add 2" piece all around (90°) to make the top more solid as well, so I'll probably have them cut a bit as you suggest.
2) That's what I thought. I plan to put the power bar upside down under the top (with screws) so I was just asking as I'm already missing some sockets on it. That, and on my 24" display, the power cord has an adapter at the end, so it wouldn't hold on the power bar under the desk.
3) At that point, I'll simply don't add them. I thought (originally) about putting some LEDs under the place where the monitor will sit. Just to have a little light in the dark. I'll see how it turns.

If you want a shuttle, go with the Pro model. It's about 80-90 bucks. It has more programmable keys to speed up your work. The one you showed is not better than a mouse - actually a step back.

Well, I think, with the 5 programmable buttons on the Shuttle that I'll be fine. It's only for editing, so speed forward/backward with some "cut" options would be enough. It's an add-on, so I don't want it to cost more than the desk itself!

Your couplers: it is not the cable length that will influence your signal, but the resistance of the couplers themselves. I'm not sure if I'd do it, but if them only with the best couplers that are out there, no eBay crap.

Don't worry, no ebay crap. I'll buy my stuff at the same place I used to work. They get their stuff from Startech & Tomauri.

[drapeama]

Got all my couplers and stuff I need to connect my monitors, sounds & speakers. All I need to buy is the lighting "setup" but I'm not sure about how to do it.
Cost me something close to 40$ in wires, couplers, connectors in the end! Can't wait to start building it though!

CG: so far the couplers seems to work flawlessly. I think it'll be the best thing I'll make on this desk, except the ergonomy!

[drapeama]

Pretty much the final version of the shape:
Desktop.png

I'm supposed to go work on it tomorrow. I'll try to take pictures of the progress.

[cgbier]

Yeah, that's roughly how I had built my old desk. Just the left side was a bit longer to accommodate a drawer section.

[drapeama]

Yeah, that's roughly how I had built my old desk. Just the left side was a bit longer to accommodate a drawer section.

Yeah, mine won't have drawer. I'm still wondering about the lighting. I got all the parts, but not the light/socket or LEDs stripe yet. I'm not sure about how and where to put it.
I'll add a USB hub (powered) to the desk for the mouse, keyboard, Bamboo tablet and other stuff like USB drives.

[Almohada]

USB drives

Yeah, definitely a powered hub! I noticed the drivers perform MUCH better connected directly (or with a powered hub) as compared with a simple self-powered USB hub.