Computer Setup - Computer Setup

Your setup gave me a gaming setup-boner. I would love to put it in my room, if you know what I mean.

I looked at the album name and thought, "Whitson? There's only one Whitson I know of..."

I've only met one other, and it was because I searched "Whitson" on Facebook just to see...

Is that how you 'meet' people these days?

Yeah I really meant "heard of," not "met."

I don't get it. How else do you meet people?

Is that how you met your mother ?

You better put "cable management" in quotation marks, boy.

Yeah, I really should have said "cable hiding." That's really what I meant. I can't go back and edit it now :-(

Descriptions of individual pieces of the gaming setup within the album, under the pics. Pretty happy with how it all turned out in the end. Happy to answer questions!

Man. That little clip you put your headset on is very slick. It looks like it folds up nicely. Where did you get that?

IKEA! There's a link somewhere in this thread.

Read the picture description directly under. The answer might hit you!

How do you like the Rosewill mech keyboard?

I like it a lot! I tried this one and a Cooler Master with MX Blue switches. I think I kind of like the blues better, but they were too loud, and I work from home (so they would have driven my girlfriend crazy, who has a slightly different work schedule than I).

Hey I love that little metal hook that you have your headphones hanging from. Where could chump like me get that?

80% extra cost in Australia :(

WE WANT SPECS! (By the way that setup is sexy)

Nice to see someone else still rocking Nehalem. Bit odd seeing a custom loop just cooling the CPU, any plans to get your graphics on water too?

Well, the graphics card only causes noise when I game, and when I game I wear headphones. The water cooling is mostly just for noise reduction (and for fun).

Pro tip: buy the previous generation's high-end card. Typically costs and performs about the same as/better than the current gen midrange and no shortage of waterblocks.

Hmm, that's a good idea. So if I were in the market for a card right now, what card would that be? These generations are so hard to keep track of.

I have a glass desk and I am OCD. God damn you for making me notice

I am so incredibly jealous.

Every truly-worthy computer setup has a guitar within 10 or so feet.

I have the same exact case as you.

I am a total beginner with the instaling of LEDs like that. Are they all wired through your computers PSU? Or how does that go?

The Bitfenix ones are, at least. I think they just hook up via a 3-pin power connector.

What did u use for the monitor backlight?

How much would you evaluate the entire set up for? How have you funded it?

Oh hell, I have no idea. It's been one of those things I've been putting together over quite a few years. Been funding it by working. Some stuff was gifts, some stuff I got used (like the speakers--nearly half price), some stuff was cheaper than it looks (the monitor stand is just a Rubbermaid shelf with door stops screwed into it). Some of the stuff is just plain cheap (I bought the cheapest monitors I can find because I didn't care too much about quality--they work well enough). At the very least i can tell you that the PC (minus monitor/keyboard/etc.) probably has a net worth of under $1500, if you can believe it.

I can. Great work, looks flawless.

Sick gaming setup! Does the logitech work well without a mousepad though?

For peopl with wooden desks I would suggest getting a mousepad though to protect the desk but since your desk is glass it's okay. Something like steelseries qck

Well, I use my mouse on the wood part, but yeah, probably a good suggestion.

What's the case called? I searched X5PC but, no dice.

Haha, your cable management looks a LOT better than mine!

Ah okay, I'm using this as justification that it's impossible to make the back of this case look nice! Yeah, I had the same approach more recently, unfortunately I already had a mismatch of parts in there. Two different HD6950's and the huge NH-D14. Makes for a rather busy looking front. Yours looks amazing though, its nice to see a custom loop in a smaller case, how thick is your rad and what fans are you using in the front? The back looks a bit like a Bitfenix Spectre?

Yup, all my fans are Bitfenix Spectres! Love the way those babies look.

I hear they're good as well, best of both worlds really!

Yeah, it's a tad thicker than the H100, but still fits (at least with my motherboard). Right now it's a push configuration, with the fans acting as intake. So I'm pushing air from outside the case down past the rad and into the case.

Okay got it. I notice you're also an MX Brown user, just picked up my first mechanical a few weeks ago and absolutely loving it. It's just such a shame you Yanks get such a better selection of keyboards than Brits do, and at much better prices.

In my experience push and pull both perform the same so I suggest flipping your fans over to pull so it's easier to get dust off the radiator.

Looks to be an NZXT Tempest 410 elite

Nice yamahas, lets hear your music!

Oh, i was assuming you make music, those speakers are professional monitors for mixing and mastering. Probably Ideal for metal tho. Im into that shit, Meshuggah and Necropheagist are gods. Only old doods call it heavy metal, lol wtf.

Ahhh yeah sorry. Yeah, I know they're professional monitors--I didn't think I would like them, but I liked them a LOT better than all the "listening" speakers I tried, so I went with them anyway!

I know what your saying, mostly when I'm speaking to an employer or my grandmom im not going to say "technical Death Metal" they will just not understand. But on the other hand if you keep saying heavy metal, everyone will think you listen to motle cru and poison. HA cheers!

Good point, I have gotten that a few times. But most people my age think "screaming death metal" when they hear "heavy metal," at least that I've encountered.

I tell my family I play all forms of metal, but at some point I wanna go Bubba from Forrest Gump.

Do you game at all? If so, what are they like for gaming?

I've listened to this before! Damn haha small world.

What a well done computer setup! The audioengine's seem to be coolcomputersetups's speaker of choice, so its nice to see something else (especially with a DAC).

Ugh, I tried a few different Audioengine speakers, couldn't stand them. It's strange, I don't like "studio monitor" headphones, but when it comes to speakers, I ended up going with the pair I thought I would like the least--I love the flat sound of the Yamahas.

The little legs on your monitor shelf - are those door stops? If so, that's a genius idea. I've been looking to build a monitor shelf myself.

Yup! Just a cheap Rubbermaid shelf from Home Depot with six door stops screwed into it. It's super easy, cheap, and works great!

Man that cable reflection shield is a great idea! Simple yet effective!

Thank you! I was very pleased when I came up with that. The reflections were driving me crazy, and the shield works better than I thought it would!

Wait, are you whitson Gordon from lifehacker?

Ya lifehacker is my morning reading. I use most of your App Directory apps. You guys are doing a great job!

Thanks so much! That means a lot to all of us. Thanks for reading and don't ever be afraid to email us tips, comments, or whatever. We aim to please.

Holy shit dude.

Mind listing the applications that are visible?

From left to right: TweetDeck, Rainmeter, a webapp chat room my former boss created for our team at Lifehacker, and Pidgin. Fences on the right side holding my desktop icons.

How do you like your shure headphones?

I love them. I tried out a few different pairs before landing on them. I think a lot of the reason I like them has to do with the music I like (metal and electronic), and they aren't for everyone, but I personally love them.

Where did you get the "shelf" your monitors are on?

It's just a Rubbermaid shelf from Home Depot with six door stops screwed into it! Cheap and easy.

Nice, how tall is it? 7inch

You mean how deep? Yeah, I think it's about 7 inches. 7x24 or thereabouts.

Where did you get the bookshelf/stand that your computer is standing on?

That's an IKEA desk leg, I believe.

Nice setup!, also what camera do you use?

Thanks! Those pictures were taken with a Nikon D90.

What stand are you using for the speakers, i'm interesting on getting those or similar ones for my bx5's

I don't remember, but someone on the Lifehacker thread said they looked like Sanus speaker stands, and that sounded familiar, so I'd start looking there.

Love it Whitson, thanks for sharing! Is Dachis going to share his arcade coffee table?

Haha, he already did in the arcade coffee table how-to! Probably won't share it on Coolcomputersetups, though :-) He's not much of a Coolcomputersetupsor (not that I am much these days, but I hang around now and then).

Just wanted to say I read lifehacker.

Took me 5 reads to figure out you were saying "this is a good gaming setup" and not "this is bullshit"

I was actually saying "this is a good bullshit."

Well I'll still take it as a compliment.

Don't worry. I meant Gaming setup...or did i

I'm interested in the lights, both behind the monitors and inside the case! Where did you get them?

The lights behind the monitors are IKEA Dioder lights, and the lights in the case are Bitfenix Alchemy LED strips.

What length are the strips? I am going to get a 12cm kit but I'm afraid it's too small for my case. And also how did you mount them? Did you place them at the top of the chassis or around the side panel window?

I'm not sure how long they are. I put one strip on the bottom of the case, near the side edge, and one along the side panel. You don't want to see the lights themselves (they're REALLY bright), you just want to see the lighting they give off.

I have the same keyboard but with MX Blues instead. I love mine.

I love the MX Blues, but they were a bit loud for my current situation (work from home, live with gf)

Everyone has the same IKEA bracket for their headphones. No matter what country, same bracket. I have it also

I like the stand your monitors are on. Is that part of the desk?

Nope, it's a cheap wooden shelf from Home Depot with door stops screwed into it!

Nice dude, I like it!

Tell me everything about your desk! Its perfect! I hope to have a similar setup eventually.

Haha. There's a lot in the description of the Imgur album. The desk itself is the Drake Desk from Crate & Barrel, which sadly they don't make anymore :-(

Dude, im moving into a different bedroom soon and i think im going to take this idea and run with it. Make my desk setup alot like yours. Thanks for the inspiration, shit looks badass.

Haha, no problem, glad it inspired!

It looks really good. Also, how do those speakers sound?

The speakers sound great. They're studio monitors, and pretty flat ones, so a lot of people don't think they're great for listening--but after trying out a ton of different speakers, I found that they just sounded better than everything else I tried. If you like a flat response, they're great.

What speaker stands are those

I'm not actually sure. I don't remember and don't have a box or anything...

What speaker stands are those?

I don't say this too often on this coolcomputersetups but nice setup bro, looks great!

Cool setup man, I really like your LH articles.

I DREAM of things like this.

Really nice man, can you go into more detail on your audio interface setup?

That is a thing of win.

I really like it. Very clean. The desk is nice. Guess you bought it at IKEA too?

Dude I honestly think we have the exact same speaker and sub combo. HS50Ms and an Energy EW-100? Also, how do you have the sub and monitors hooked up to your PC? Right now I have 1/4 Jack > RCA as well as the sub output using RCA. Then I run the 3 RCA cables into 2 RCA>3.5mm splitters and then the two 3.5mm into a Y splitter that goes into my laptops aux output. I think its pretty ghetto and I get a lot of feedback if all of the cables aren't perfectly set in a certain position, but that might be mostly because of shoddy connections.

Where did you get the '' Stand '' for the monitors. Like the part that elevates them from the desk slightly, or is that a part of the desk?

This setup is tight! And also cable management is well done !

Really?! It looks like a birds nest that someone threw spaghetti onto.

Thank you. I've been obsessing over the cable management the past few weeks...trying to manage cables with a glass desk is a near-impossible feat.

Know that feel! I have a glass desk myself and well you could say it's just a mess. I'm buying a galant or something of that sort to make it easier though. Are you using the Ikea dioder ?

Yup, an IKEA dioder velcro'd to the back of my monitors!

If I found that spaghetti mess in an IT closet, I would bust a vein in my forehead.

Ha, yeah, once I get in there to actually do stuff, it sucks. Probably should have called it "cable hiding," not "cable management" :-)

Haha, my signum looks the same way, at least its off the ground/desk :)

Yeah...that was pretty much the main goal.

Sorry, but this has to be said... That is NOT cable management... That's just throwing a bunch of cables on some fucking wire not really giving a fuck where it goes just as long as it's not on the floor...

I already said that at the top of the thread

Interesting. I did not see that. Oops.

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