Computer Setup

Hard at work on some TF2? :)

I bet you can guess what my most played class is.

Correct. Although lots of degreaser and stickies too.

I bet you love spies.

Meh, only good ones. I multi-class everything except scout.

I'm an undergrad architecture student, and I thought the jump from 1440X900 to 1920X1080 resolution was night & day for me when it came to 3D modeling. I can't imagine how great it would feel to have a display workspace of 2560X1440, because I don't know how the hell I used photoshop/rhino/3DSmax with a 1440X900 monitor before.

I didn't make this clear but this is actually my home office. My actual office is very corporate and nice.

Eh, I'll be there soon enough. This place is rented from family.

What GPU are you using to power that beast of a monitor? How is your FPS in TF2 with it?

I had a Quadro 600. Workstation GPU... ugh.

Yeah i graduated 2 months ago in architecture. I've been using revit for about 2 and a half years now. Looking for a job now..

If you're good at Revit and can convince people that that's the case you'll be fine. Seriously, I hear lots of principals complain about their inability to hire people who know how to use Revit.

Well that's good to know. I took a class for it also way after I learned how to use it just to see if I missed anything. All the job listings I see want autocad experience thought and I hate autocad...

Where do you live? I don't want to be too dogmatic about it... I don't entirely feel this way, but firms that don't use Revit are kidding themselves. Revit is more accurate and saves so much time. Once you're good at it you're far more productive. You can complete jobs with less people and less errors.

Austin, texas. I agree. When you can build everything and while already having it in 3d it cuts down time in half and the vanilla renders are just so much better than autocad.

Ha, vanilla renders - that's such a good way to describe it.

I tried doing a quick Solidworks model on my laptop with a trackpad once. Just once.

I'm surprised you don't have dual monitors. As a software dev, I've pretty much required this at any company I've worked for. I'd imagine that in something so visual like the architecture trade that multi-monitors was mandatory. Of course, the one monitor you do have kicks major arse.

At work I'm on dual 1920x1200's. It's definitely nice.

That is truly a beautiful view. I'm guessing by your username you live in Chicago?

Yes. It's looking west onto State Street near Chicago Avenue.

Ah, so that McDonald's is pretty much behind your monitor?

Now I get it. Cool. I work by you at St. Clair and Ontario, but I live on the southwest side. Nice lightning pic.

Ah cool. I try to get my shots right so I don't have to edit beyond importing the raw to PS.

That's a hell of a good place to live. I saw that you rent from family in another comment, but how much does that cost you a month if you don't mind sharing? And out of curiosity, how much would it cost someone else to live there, given that they wouldn't be related to your family?

Both a blessing and a curse.

Equal amounts of both. I'm curious, why no number pad?

When I'm in any software really it's just two letter hot keys all day, so I'm using my left hand while continuing to use the mouse with my right. Maybe the fact that I'm a lefty plays into it; not sure.

Nice view. What is the thick book on the left?

Insane view, I'm so jealous.

Is that just a slightly undersized window, or do you have some sort of plugin to keep your tabs up top?

Neither, in Win7 a lot of programs with gray top bars ghost like that. Didn't really notice it until I noticed you could see the tabs in the photo.

Ha, yeah. They accumulate until they go in Evernote. I'm always trying to get my RAM usage above 50% to justify the existance of 16 GB. 60 tabs in Chrome and some Adobe programs does it.

Don't compromise those commissions, let the modernists come to you! ;)

I've actually been pleasantly surprised. Younger people are into modernism.

That looks like a perfect spot to work on architecture design from.

Well done on the CM Storm keyboard, OP. I got one last year and I'll never go back to mushy regular keyboards. And I love how compact it is.

I can't wait until our firm switches to Revit. I do mostly detail work, so I won't benefit from it that much, but working with it is just so much fun.

It's only fun with a beefy CPU and GPU.

Is it? That's good to know, as it is AutoCad takes forever to load if there's some substantial XREFS on my work computer. I might have to start bringing in my home computer

I actually enjoy Revit detailing far more than AutoCAD. The fact that you get to start out with an actual slice of the model, then slowly hide parts of it as you develop the detail. Granted, there's several different ways to go about it. Sometimes it's just straight drafting.

I like how square the desk is to the camera, the cup to the keyboard and monitor. speakers etc.

I envy your college degree.

See this here is what its supposed to look like. Not a Mac on a desk or a keyboard and a monitor on a desk with nothing on it at all.

What's an architects day like? and is that a CM Storm KB?

It is a CM Storm.

Aw, come on, it's not always that bad. I make decent money, usually work a typical 40 hour week, and am doing just fine. The firm I work for is small, and we're not usually not doing the most exciting projects, but there are certainly worse ways to make a living.

I didn't mean to come off too negative. My experience of going through grad school, paying off student loans, and getting a job have been somewhat arduous though. So long as you know it up front and you're fine with then no worries.

Single monitor? No num pad on the keybd? Has revit changed things this much?? Not sure I could work on that rig for any length of time...

Just weekends and nights. My work-workstation is dual 1920x1200's with a full keyboard.

Have you took off the F1 key yet on your word keyboard?

The pros rebind F1 to "erase".

Oh, Art Vandelay is posting.

Fair enough. I have plenty of gripes about the profession, I just get annoyed seeing every architect on Coolcomputersetups seemingly screaming doom and gloom about their present and future, telling anyone to listen that it's a mistake to even consider as a career.

Very BIM, such revit. Wow

You should apologize to your hands for that keyboard. Otherwise awesome gaming setup!

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