Work Station - Computer Setup

So I can play Arma while wearing full PPE

You're either the smartest Marine in the Corps or you belong to a different branch.

Picture 4 has Marine camo uniforms in the background.

Make sure you're in full MOPP gear son..

Purge, seal, GAS GAS GAS, headshot beeeatch!

The sand over there destroyed my glasses and my laptop lol. Good luck!

All that money waiting when he gets back will fill the void.

I'm not a US citizen so can you fill me in about how much do you get paid for a tour?

Normal salary plus wartime bonus, overseas bonus, etc. I have no first hand knowledge. but being deployed for months where spending money isn't a day to day activity, military folks return home to swollen bank accounts. (UNLESS YOURE MARRIED WITH KIDS, LOL)

Or your SO is draining your account and is nowhere to be found when you get back.

Gotta love Terminal Lance.

I fucking hate those things...

That sounds like the most dependable hippopotamus ever.

I was actually best friends with an army wife. When her husband got shipped out, she was super careful with the money, got all the bills done, and lived off of it the whole time he was overseas. She was never worried about money, but she wasn't crazy with it. Cue him coming home. Within about 2 months and a new TV, guitar, etc, he's pinching pennies, and ready to shank bitches to get on funeral details.

How much is usual salary? I think I looked at a pay scale and most of them were under 20k. I'm sure I might've been reading it wrong though.

If he's enlisted, he probably makes around the ballpark of 2k each month. Probably somewhere around 25-30k a year including bonuses. You have to realize that this is all gross, as the military covers all your living expenses. Practically everything they pay you is disposable income.

From what I've researched, this is the case. Then you have your allowances, reenlistment bonuses if your rate/mos isn't over saturated, enlistment bonuses if the prior is true, hazard pay, over seas pay, combat zone pay, flight pay, etc.

Exactly. For guys coming out of high school with no technical training, it's a great deal. They won't find that kind of money, benefits, or job security anywhere else.

And then they go blow it on buying a brand new mustang at their first base because they don't know what to do with that much money.

You missed out the bit where people try to kill you when you're at work.

The vast majority of enlisted personnel will never see combat.

Yeah, looks like OP has a cushy desk job in the suburbs

I hear it can get a little warm, as well.

Not exactly. Military pay is taxed differently than civilians, primarily by the states, not the federal government. Some states don't tax it at all, so in almost every case, a service member pays far less in taxes than a civilian earning comparable amounts of pay.

Family Separation, Hazard Duty Location, Hostile Fire Pay on top of your regular pay... About another $250-$600 depending on where you are at. I'm Army though, not sure about USMC

Enlisted level pay is the same across all the branches. Base pay, anyway.

Wow thats a hell of a lot lower than I would have thought

We don't make that much in base pay. It's not quite so bleak once you factor in all the services provided: Chow hall, free gyms, automotive hobby center, free medical, etc.

I'm right there with you man. I wanted to change my oil when I got out, and I was completely lost without it.

Drive a Jeep. No need to jack it up. :-D

And you just don't have any living expenses or the opportunity to save money, so it's pretty easy to save.

Think about how much an average person has in savings after living expenses in 6 months. Clearing 18k after expenses is not too shabby.

Is there any quantified risk of being a soldier in the US army at this point in time? Would be interesting.

For you, 100%. Trust me.

Unless you are deployed in Kuwait or Quatar.

You usually return with about 40-50k chilling in your bank account.

The amount itself isn't that crazy (sizable but not insane), the thing is they are not spending it when they're over there and they come back feeling like Fucking donald trump. I work at a pawn shop and it kills me every time I have a military guy roll up in like a challenger come in to get a pawn loan on some random bullshit they bought frivolously because they don't know how to manage their finances and bought a car and can't afford the payments and other shit.

Ah I see. Sad, living through all those terrible things and wasting away all that you earned.

Unless he's married and his wide takes all his moneys.

You can edit comments on Coolcomputersetups.

I didn't know how to do it on the app.

Nice! what keyboard is that?

KBT 60% pure, I like it a lot, unfortunately before I found that piece of plywood for my "desk" I was just holding the keyboard in my lap and the delete key broke off when the keyboard fell one time. Plywood and other ghetto furniture sometimes appears in the billeting areas if youre lucky you might even find stuff like couch chairs with foam

You do know that you can fix that with a little bit of soldering once you're back home, right?

I know I could right now if I wanted, this keyboard is very serviceable

Is there an online retailer that could deliver the stem / switch to where you are deployed?

People get stuff from amazon to here all the time

I honestly didn't knew that, nice. I thought it was boring over there or too scary to feel boredom.

Many military outposts and bases can count as being shipped in the US. FPO AP.

It just takes for-fucking-ever to get anything.

Good thing they're not going anywhere.

But it takes about a week longer to get anything

So a week and 2 days?

Very nice pure! :)

Im not really sure but the whole thing is gone now, I'm just going to try and get a replacement when I get back to the states

When do you get back? I'd like to help ya out. Do you know how to solder? It's a quick fix, and I can send ya some parts if you'd like, regardless, it's maybe a $3 fix

Would you like a company to build shit like this for military?

I notice you've got uTorrent going. What sort of speeds do you get?

BLAZING FAST 50 KILOBYTES A SECOND!

Eh... I'd be careful when even using their network. I've heard guys been dishonorable discharged for using Government network without them knowing.

Its not a marine corps network, its an isp on base called sniperhill. And If I tried plugging this into an actual secure network they would probably just NJP me after destroying my computer.

Alright, just looking out for you.

Must depend on where you're at. I average around 500kb/s. Saw it reach 1mb once...

Camp Stone still out there south of Herat?

Ew...I remember when they first starting running a network to each B-hut at Phoenix (05-06), shit was barely 56k.

I hate it when i get acronym'd.

You and a bunch of buddies or your unit/brigade can rent a satellite. Most cos/fobs have internet access, run by a civilian/signal unit, and anyone who wants to use it has to pay.

You can't torrent on SIPR at all.

I'm lucky to get 30kb/s on LNK.

Nice job! How often do you get to use it?

Pretty much everyday if I feel like it, Im staying at camp leatherneck day resort and spa and I'll never leave the wire. Pretty much the definition of living the POG life

Person other than Grunt, ie not infantry.

People Other than Grunts. Meaning he is not Infantry.

My god. This brings me back. When I was I kid in Russia these were the shit.

That's so awesome. Because when I was a kid in America, these were also the shit.

I was more of a Crazy Bones kid myself

Everything went downhill when they had them as toys from McDonalds. Gained like 20 lbs in just kids meals that week.

Australia checking in. can confirm shit was had.

YES! Ones with Power Rangers were my favorite!

Last time I was there there was no taco-bell on Leatherneck.

Person other than grunt.

What is your branch of service and MOS? I was in from 2003-2007 as infantry in the Marine Corps, I doubt I could have brought something that large with me. Did you have it shipped or carry it with you?

Im a Marine and an 1142 generator technician, were were authorized 3 bags, so that was usually our ILBE and our deployment bag and a sea bag if you wanted, some marines parent commands had them bring their rifles in pelican cases so mine just blended in and I volunteered for all the working parties on the way so I could personally load and unload it off of the plane/air force pallet

Wow, the volunteering for working parties was a nice touch. You look like a motard to your superiors AND you got to ensure the safety of your rig. Are you concerned with bringing it out through customs?

I don't know, I mean its just an over sized laptop so I don't see why they would give me shit for it.

I'd be worried about idiots at TSA opening up a case and seeing it full of tech they don't understand.

I practically lived at an airport for large periods of my life and worked there as well.

Yeah, especially with all the tubes from his watercooling system.

True, it appears the motherboard is exposed and visible when they open it, so no problems there.

Exposed PCB? must be a bomb, like those mooninites in boston

Whoa I completely forgot about that! Blast from the (2007) past.

Well, they may see a bunch of wires and electronics and freak out. We gots turrists evrewhurr.

I was bringing a guitar pickguard with some pickups wired up on it to a friend earlier, and I was walking down the street with it, and a cop driving by slowed down as he went by me. I didn't think much of it at first, then realized I was carrying something that had wires hanging everywhere as I was just strolling down the sidewalk. Kind of one of those "Oh... whoops" moments.

I never realized how close 'terrorist' and 'tourist' sound in mock-Texan voice. huh.

In that case the uniform helps.

They mustve brainwashed him, and whats that minecraft must be a secret weapon

I was wondering this, I was in the Marines, hell I was at Camp Leatherneck. But being a grunt my whole company was then kicked out and we never really got to see electricity again. The idea of having a desktop there was mind blowing to me.

You guys and your abbreviations.

Pretty sneaky setup, they flippded out if we had more than our bags, and you got a nice living area too. We in a dusty tent segregated by some little walls. Good project, glad it didn't get destroyed while traveling.

Oh yeah I'm surprised I can get away with it, my unit is garrison as fuck, we even field day every week.

You not at apache are you? that sounds like this place

Good way to stay sane over there, I'd imagine.

Fucking Quintana. That creep can roll, man.

Yeah, but he's a pervert.

Nobody fucks with the jesus

Came here to see this

Damn that's a cool setup, you dont play FPS/War Games do you? I imagine it'd be like truck drivers coming home to play euro truck simulator, haha. Awesome setup though man

Except I'm a generator technician and never leave the wire

So more like a mallcop going home and playing counterstrike

Those mallcops have it rough. I hear they pack G36 rifles under the seat of their golf carts.

I understood that reference.

The border of the base or fob or whatever, its the called the wire because it usually has concertina wire on top of a berm

Do they still have Mongolian Thursdays at dfac 6?

I don't know I eat at dfac 7, im not sure if there even is a dfac 6 anymore

Do you have any problems with air flow with that? I dont see any exhaust.

Not really, it runs slightly hotter with the plywood over it but there is a gap for air to escape

Sweet rig dude. i love these ultra portable LAN style setups. i cant help but offer some thoughts.

This is the best thing I have seen all day.

That keyboard looks miniature. Is it miniature.

Reduced layout but full size keys

I got a similar keyboard

Bring on the POG comments from the high speed no drag operators of the Corps.

Doesn't bother me, jokes on them when I'm eating at a chow hall everyday

Thats where I learned of it

Love that lockscreen background. Source please!

I found it on wallbase.cc but I forgot what I searched for

Lol, nice job. Keep your head down over there.

Afghanistanimation at the Afghanistation?

I'm getting deployed with the 31st MEU really soon, It'll be my first deployment too. Know if I'll be able to do the same thing? If not, what can I bring?

Ive never been on ship but my sister is in the navy and I would think the answer would be no but I have no idea what the rules for going on ship are

What is the case, and how did you get the screen in the lid?

Its a pelican 1620 and the monitor is actually a benq 120 Hz that I had to pop out of its bezel to make it fit and I used heavy duty adhesive Velcro to hold it in place

Now for a joystick and some super glue.

Dude, I have a Pure as well. Great piece of tech.

How is your GTX 680 sideways?

Thanks for your service :D

You brilliant wonderful nerd. Thank you for your service.

You are one sick badass.

That's so cool! Thanks for sharing

What are the specs of that mighty machine?

Make sure you're cleaning that thing. we would blow out laptops once a week and you would be amazed at the dirt/sand/moondust that accumulates in such a short time.

That's a serious case mod you got there.

You sound like you're from 9th comm lol

Good luck getting all the sand out of those parts when you get back.

Are you staying in one of the 12 man cans? If you are, just go ahead and unplug those speakers, waking someone up while they are off duty with your computer is liable to get you shot.

Seems like that would get really hot really fast. How is that ventilated? --Dont see any fans or even vents outside of CPU/GPU.

I have to ask, how do you keep it from overheating?

That thing looks awesome! I actually built my desktop while I was stationed in Kuwait

I have those same altec speakers. They sound great even 10 years after I bought them.

Ha, nice! That's pretty clever. But what do you do to combat sand, or is the sand even a problem? I was stationed at bagram and the sand and dust in the air found its way into every goddamn sandwich i ever tried to carry back from the dfac. Pretty sure it ruined my laptop too.

Great work. I hope I never have to do this with my PC to be honest.

Like a gaming setups Martha Stewart. Well done sir. Have a salute!

Were you scared it was going to break on the way there? Did you take it with you on the plane or was it in general storage?

Good job dude!!

POG life all the way man. We had an Xbox and a huge flat screen and FOB EDI

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