Computer Setup

Still have a lot of work before it's done (if that ever happens). I just bought the house a month ago, and my living room is a construction zone, but these were the most important to get done first.

Do another post when it's done!

I doubt it will ever be done. I will definitely make another post when I clean up the cables and get some bookshelves up. That and I really need to finish laying drywall in my living room. Priorities.

Ya I need to do something on the left wall with it being concrete. I get a little bit of booming. I was looking into making a decent bass trap that was decorative, just haven't decided on which way to take it.

Bring the speakers out from the corner to prevent bad reflections and boomy bass.

Finally someone with a projector. I was beginning to think i was the only one who still liked to use them

Agreed, a little creepy. Need's a better angle. and more cow bell.

What projector do you use? I'm gonna buy a projector for gta5, dunno which to get.

Wow, that's quite an expensive projector!

It's actually one of the cheapest Full HD projector.

You should see the price of the bulbs.

Well I was going to buy a new TV initially. I got all the speakers, receiver, projector, screen, cables, for under $1800. So I'm pretty happy with it.

I was actually toying with the idea of buying a projector since they don't have the viewing angle issue that TVs do. Curious - how far is from your projector to your screen?

Considering you can pretty much get a 110" 1080p screen for under $1000, it's a pretty great deal. Most 46" LCDs are at least $600 anyway, and prices go way up over 55 inches. I have an Epson home theater projector and it's pretty great, especially for console games.

The way the picture descriptions are written makes it sound like you bought the house for the sole purpose of painting the desk.

Haha, it's not far off. I bought this awesome desk, and I loved it, but it just looked bad which makes all my expensive stuff look bad. That and I couldn't paint my apartment, ugly carpet, terrible blinds, etc. I had been looking forward to buying a house for a while for a garage, a basement, and a proper office space. Now just with a little bit of paint, I am getting to enjoy my stuff like it's new again.

The Art of Flight is just amazing <3

We use 'Art of Flight' at work to demo TV and Sound Systems. The second scene is awesome. Amazing picture (really shows off whites) with a solid backing track.. plus those jumps are crazy.

I mean I was blown away on my 42", but I never had surround sound in my apartment, so I missed the full experience. It's been my favorite aspect of this whole thing so far.

I'm curious to know more about the cost effectiveness and ease of use with projectors. Last time I used one (ages ago) the quality was nowhere near good enough for things like The Art of Flight. Judging by your post, and others, this isn't the case anymore.

With a properly dark room and a decent screen it's amazing. As the guy above me said, it's great for showing off whites which doesn't hit the downside of projectors which is getting proper blacks so it really excels.

Reall cool. We're looking at buying a house in the next couple years and this is exactly the type of project I have in mind. Gotta have that snowboarding, and other sports, as large and high-quality as possible!

I hear they do last a lot longer, but they are still expensive to replace. I'll have to wait and see.

Thanks again. Hope you enjoy your new setup. Kinda jealous.

Sure. I'm still getting used to it, it's been a plan in the works for so long it's hard to believe it's in my basement.

Oh, god, yes, Art of Flight!

Nice job! Everything's coming together well. I have the same pc case :P

Very nice! I have a pair of rokit5's too. these things are amazing :) love your desk too, custom build?

See my other comment, but just a lucky find on craigslist. Just a standard office desk, was a bit dingy when I got it, painted it and it looks a lot better. It's been a work in progress for a few years.

Aaaaand we have the same keyboard too :)

I love the keyboard. I had a logitech G17, but it was just too big and I had been wanting to try a mechanical for a long time. I can't go back to anything else. I bought number keys for a little bit, but went back to the blank keys.

Paint the damn walls black! Having that white reflective wall is awful!

I know. It's coming, hopefully tomorrow actually.

Awesome setup! I was thinking about getting a projector once upon a time, but was convinced otherwise because I heard the lag is terrible. Is it really that bad, though? Just for movies anyway? (I'd be more concerned about any consoles plugged into it)

I play rockband on the 360 with a bunch of my friends on my HD70, haven't heard any complains about lag and for that you definitely would.

They have a lot of technology and software that cleans that up. I haven't gamed too much, just some saints row IV and had no problems. It's going to be mostly movies though.

Nice work. I love the Das, I have the same model (blank keys). It's my first line of defense against the computer illiterate :)

I have a few options. I bought this korean thing that looks like a blackberry, but where the screen would be is a laptop style track pad. Then I have one of these that I got onsale. I don't really like either all the time. Sometimes they are perfect, sometimes they get some lag. I mostly use android remote apps on my kindle fire, like remotedroid, xbmc remote, and plex. Or sometimes I have my phone as backup with similar apps. I also have a usb keyboard in a nearby closet if I really need one.

You can use your phone. I use Unified Remote. Works over wifi or blue tooth.

For a pure XBMC setup, the best option that I've found is to use a Xbox 360 controller. No lag or missed input ever. This was the biggest frustration when I used something like this

Great setup. Love the desk and the XBMC setup makes me drool! Just bought my first house but sadly we don't have a basement or garage so I'll be cramming my 'office' into the spare bedroom. Would love your setup.

I've always wanted to do it, and when I was house hunting it was on the back of my mind. I walked into the basement here and it hit me that it was perfect. It wasn't the deciding factor by far, but it's been the most fun area to work on so far. Painting bathrooms isn't quite as exciting.

I really miss having my projector up. I'll be moving by the end of the year, so a nice theater space is high on the list of requirements. Once you get a full setup, there's no going back.

Do you prefer a projector over a large TV? I still haven't decided what I want to go with when I move.

I have a decent 42" that I bought a few years go, and I love it, it's perfect in the living room. I had the space, and I've always wanted a projector setup. I think big TVs are just so hard to move and move around, it gets a little hard to work with.

Grab an acoustically transparent screen and then you could bung those speakers behind it!

I did a lot of research on that initially, might still try it. Just decided to try a traditional setup to start.

Very nice, I like that youmade the screen by yourself. I guess I´ll try to find a corner desk now!

I love this desk. I was really happy I was finally able to paint it. It is such a beast, but looked pretty dingy. It was a really lucky find.

That the projector I'm saving up for. How do you like it?

Love it so far, very easy to use and setup. No complaints. The 3D is pretty cool too. I just have one set of glasses right now though.

Can you give details on how you built the projector screen? I just moved into a new place myself and this is on my to-do list. I'm tempted to just buy the package that comes with everything and build it instead of buying everything separately.

I read a few DIY guides and kind of winged it. I bought a 66x110 fabric screen. I cut 1x4 to 116x72. I used some 6x6 square brackets for the corners and a 2x4 across the middle over the screen.

I will be right over. I will bring beer.

Big lurker of the first two and have always been a DIYer so it makes sense. I got a lot of good tips and found some good gear from these coolcomputersetupss. You guys make me spend too much money.

Sweet gaming setup man, and congrats on buying the house! :)

OP, can I come watch TI,TA and TAOF on your fancy big HD screen? Then we can play DayZ together and live happily ever after with 14 cats.

Sure. I'm trying to grab stuff to try out. So far I'm going with low tech by playing tetris, super mario world and galaxy wars on it. Tetris nightmares have been far more severe than usual.

Props for art of flight, awesome movie!

Man I gotta move to the suburbs

Garage, basement, and a yard. What more could you want

Congratulations on your new house! Your setup looks like you've really taken advantage of the space you have now. Post more when you are done! :)

I've had them for a couple years now and I love them. In my apartment they were a bit flat (not in a bad way) because of the carpet and a lot of furniture. Right now I'm loving them with the hardwood I get a bit more bass.

Woooaaaaahhh... This is the first time I see OC on facebook before coolcomputersetups.

Sup buddy? I think I posted them at the same time.

N2m. I thought I was doing pretty good when I did a hidden run of cat6 to the back of my TV. Now I see I'm just in the minors.. lol.

Cable management is what separates a bunch of expensive crap and a good looking setup. I just enjoy it too much.

Maybe a daft question but how did you determine the size of the screen. Just found your maximum width or height in that space and applied a 16:10 or 16:9 aspect ratio to it? Can the projector adjust the screen size quite a bit?

Am I the only one that thinks people should include time when they talk about the cost.

Why would you? Nobody works 100% of the time and side projects shouldn't interfere with working therefore nothing is lost in the terms of the price of time. Do people calculate how much it costs to sleep in that way?

Well the desk and stuff was a long time with small improvements along the way. I bought it a few years ago and have been adding to it. The move and setup (after I painted the cabinet) was a few hours. The computer is about as old too.

It's not final, I was still moving the screen around so they are just floating for now.

The fabric will sag and wrinkle because of how you stapled it to the frame.

Please include a way to properly do it.

This is helpful, thank you.

This is how I did it as well!

You're probably right. I definitely winged it a bit there. Live and learn.

May I ask where you got that desk from and how much it cost?

Craigslist find from a church for $50. Lucky.

I've been looking at a projector, how is that benq?

No complaints so far, no rainbow, no lag. Still new to it and it's my first projector, nothing much to compare it to.

Inspires me to install a theatre, very well done! I like the wood ceiling in the basement as well but the first thing I would've done is take the harsh fluorescent lights out. In my opinion, lighting is the best upgrade you can make and its so easy!

Oh ya, I couldn't figure out why this guy would put in this great ceiling and these ugly lights. I'm going to put them in the garage where they belong. Still deciding what lights to put up.

Some people just don't notice the difference. As for lighting options, there are so many that I don't want to give any recommendations. Do 20 mins of research and you will wow yourself. And please please post pics!

Oh ya, I'm keeping my eye out, or I was going to build something low profile if nothing quite fits. All I know is the ones that were there had to go. It brings down the whole room. I only have the one still up since I'm still working down there.

I want to see it. That basement has so much potential!

Seeing posts like this make me look forward to the time when I get my own place. I have so many plans it's unreal. For a start, the whole house is getting wired with cat cable!

I ran surprisingly little cat5, just from the office to the basement since I run a lot of data between the PCs and gaming with the 360. I have a roku on the living room TV and it does fine on wireless.

Yeah that's true. Right now I'm living in a 100 year old + house, so the walls are solid and don't make it easy to run cat5 down to my PC. So currently I have a powerline adaptor up and running.

I'll get to work and post an update as it gets more put together.

My brother is good friends with Curt Morgan, the guy who produced the art of flight

That's awesome. I love that movie and a lot of the big redbull vids. I don't even like snowboarding all that much and it's one of my favorite movies.

Upvote for using XBMC. Seriously awesome work on the home theater; would buy you beer and popcorn to watch a movie there.

Hi, I'd like to be your friend but I'm only going to use you for the projector and screen so I can watch Pacific Rim on it. Do you mind? =P

Looks great! What size is that screen?

"I needed to paint my desk, so I bought a house"

Need to darken up the ceiling and the walls with a less reflective material. IMO.

Just flipped pas the first picture, my immediate first thought is:

We don't have the room for a projector setup like that inside so I built one for the back yard. Easily the best project of the year.

Nice job! Must be a lot of fun watching movies on that screen!

What do you do for a living?

Art of Flight is such a pretty documentary, some seriously cool shots in there.

Dude, excellent setup! Very well done! Good jeorb!

Those are indeed fun upgrades. All really great looking, man!

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