"Sliding" Desk + DIY Rack 2.0

Alright, this isn't really a DIY, more of a show off. Basically, me and my cousin decided to design a desk that 'slides' out to you, so when playing the monitors are close to you, but you don't have to do the whole dance when getting up or down. We built it out of 3/4 inch plywood, and stained it. Cost wasn't too bad, couple of hundred bucks, IIRC. We also designed a mouse stand and Nostromo stand out of the same material. Both are hollow, and the Nostromo stand serves to hide the USB hubs + usb to cat 5 converters that allow me to have Nostromo's more than 15 foot from a computer, yay! At the same time we redid the DIY Rack from before, to make it a bit cleaner. All this was done a year ago, pictures were taken, but never uploaded. Also, yeah, I know the room needs cleaning. Bachelor pad, sue me. Anyway, here we go:

A picture of the whole arrangement
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_OUqbD6qMwSQ/TH...0/DSC_0484.JPG

This is a first person perspective of the slide fully extended + keyboard tray and gratuitous cat shot.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlinkhttp://lh5.ggpht.com/_OUqbD6qMwSQ/TH...0/DSC_0163.JPG

The nostromo collection to my left hand side:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlinkhttp://lh6.ggpht.com/_OUqbD6qMwSQ/TH...0/DSC_0482.JPG

Here is my other cat illustrating the purpose of the wood thing on top of the monitors, I dub it the "Cat Walk." It was built after I saw her trying to balance (successfully, amazingly) on the upper rim of a LCD monitor. Talk about scary. It also shows the cable management for the monitor cables.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlinkhttp://lh3.ggpht.com/_OUqbD6qMwSQ/TH...0/DSC_0310.JPG

I don't have a shot of the rack fully loaded (currently 1 machine is broken, and part of the rack is a mess because I'm working on it. Since I'm very likely to be moving soon it doesn't make sense to 'fix' it right now, since it will have to be disassembled (to a point) for transit anyway. Heres a picture with most (all but 1) of the machines in place while we were working on it :

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlinkhttp://lh5.ggpht.com/_OUqbD6qMwSQ/TH...6/DSC_0236.JPG

The cables down the side are part of a cable management system, there are channels down the visible side of the rack that the cords go down. Here is a more complete picture of it where you can see the 'rolls' of excess cable at the back. Its actually curtain rods, which happen to fit in the 'holes' in the angle iron and make a nice removable rod to hold bundled cable behind each case.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jeremy.k...67045281478258http://lh3.ggpht.com/_OUqbD6qMwSQ/TH...6/DSC_0244.JPG

Heres the rack completely unloaded without the 'platform' for the Vetra's. Its a lot sturdier than it was. It was assembled this time primarily out of self-tapping screws, although some nuts and bolts were still used.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlinkhttp://lh6.ggpht.com/_OUqbD6qMwSQ/TH...6/DSC_0224.JPG

I know I didn't do an elaborate a job as my previous DIY. Just figured I'd post if anyone is interested.

How's your DPS with the cat's paw on the key? isn't that automation? ;)

Impressive :)

Kitty says, "Your warm spot...I has it."

I have a naive question. I checked out the other link tot he DIY rack, pretty cool.

Are all 6 computers the same? networked together? = 1 big super computer? or do all 6 just work independently?

Sorry if it's a stupid question, I am just not very knowledgeable in the network computing and was kinda curious. I have 2 other computers from family members sitting, a little older, and was wondering if its even worth it to try and combine. The computer I have now is a quad with 12gigs of ram.

cheers,
acid

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Acidburning

Are all 6 computers the same? networked together? = 1 big super computer? or do all 6 just work independently?

Sorry if it's a stupid question, I am just not very knowledgeable in the network computing and was kinda curious. I have 2 other computers from family members sitting, a little older, and was wondering if its even worth it to try and combine. The computer I have now is a quad with 12gigs of ram.

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I just use them "independently".

Hmm. ok, i Suppose Theres two answers to your (second) question, and I'm not an expert so if someone wants to correct me, feel free...

Since this is a boxing forum, its perfectly feasible to use the older computers to run single characters. In fact, most of my computers are fairly week, WRT the average rig here. They don't have to be. There are many posts about this sort of thing, so in that respect, if your say, 5boxing, and have spare monitors... by all means invest in some software (isboxer, keyclone, or grab some free equivalent (check the software forum)) and run 2/5ths of your team on those older computers, provided they will run wow and you have a monitor. (Desk setups can get complicated, I used to have 3 CRTs on my desk before going with LCDs)

To give you an idea, the specs for my 'slave' machines are something like a dual core with a Geforce 8400 and a 40 gig harddrive. Even if they won't run wow, you can still use them to read things like wow-wiki or watch youtube videos or whatever while logged in. My 'main' computer could easily run 5 wow's. I still prefer to run each slave in his own machine though.

The other way to consider your question 'linking them together' well, you could build a (small?) cluster. With 2-3 nodes I don't think it would be very worthwhile. Also, (I believe) you don't generally do games or 3d on that sort of thing. It just doesn't seem practical, and wow would have to be designed around that sort of thing and it's not. Theres a huge latency between computers in a cluster versus cores in a CPU as well. At any rate this is outside my area of expertise. I admit to being tempted to look into setting up a cluster once or twice. I didn't, because I really dunno what I would do with it once I did it! Tho there are possible exceptions with the configurations where people use nodes to control monitors as part of a wall of monitors; I've never messed with that one way or another.

Hope that helps.

I must say I'm impressed - especially with how dusty everything is!

hehe my wife would never let me do anything like that.

*Thumbs up* for the sheer l33t geeknees that "command center" radiate!! I love it!

I don't recoginize the multmonitor stand your using.
What brand is it? Maybe a link to manufaturer or disturbutor.

I need to change monitor stands.
My current 6 (3X2 ) monitor stand can't handle monitors larger then 19".
I been moving to 24" widescreen and need a new stand.
Currently I am just using 3 but I really want to go back to the 6 monitor configuration I was using.
So I need a 6 montior that can handle bigger monitors, any pointers would be handy.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ishar

I just use them "independently".

Hmm. ok, i Suppose Theres two answers to your (second) question, and I'm not an expert so if someone wants to correct me, feel free...

Since this is a boxing forum, its perfectly feasible to use the older computers to run single characters. In fact, most of my computers are fairly week, WRT the average rig here. They don't have to be. There are many posts about this sort of thing, so in that respect, if your say, 5boxing, and have spare monitors... by all means invest in some software (isboxer, keyclone, or grab some free equivalent (check the software forum)) and run 2/5ths of your team on those older computers, provided they will run wow and you have a monitor. (Desk setups can get complicated, I used to have 3 CRTs on my desk before going with LCDs)

To give you an idea, the specs for my 'slave' machines are something like a dual core with a Geforce 8400 and a 40 gig harddrive. Even if they won't run wow, you can still use them to read things like wow-wiki or watch youtube videos or whatever while logged in. My 'main' computer could easily run 5 wow's. I still prefer to run each slave in his own machine though.

The other way to consider your question 'linking them together' well, you could build a (small?) cluster. With 2-3 nodes I don't think it would be very worthwhile. Also, (I believe) you don't generally do games or 3d on that sort of thing. It just doesn't seem practical, and wow would have to be designed around that sort of thing and it's not. Theres a huge latency between computers in a cluster versus cores in a CPU as well. At any rate this is outside my area of expertise. I admit to being tempted to look into setting up a cluster once or twice. I didn't, because I really dunno what I would do with it once I did it! Tho there are possible exceptions with the configurations where people use nodes to control monitors as part of a wall of monitors; I've never messed with that one way or another.

Hope that helps.

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much thanks for taking the time to respond. :D extremely helpful in pointing me in the direction.

Man, that is one hell of a setup. Do you only play wow on that? or do you play other stuff also? I noticed you had all those gamepad things to the left.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Targ

I don't recoginize the multmonitor stand your using.
What brand is it? Maybe a link to manufaturer or disturbutor.

I need to change monitor stands.
My current 6 (3X2 ) monitor stand can't handle monitors larger then 19".
I been moving to 24" widescreen and need a new stand.
Currently I am just using 3 but I really want to go back to the 6 monitor configuration I was using.
So I need a 6 montior that can handle bigger monitors, any pointers would be handy.

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I'm actually cheating hehe. Ok, the top three are on a Ergotron DS100 (part no 33-323-200) ; its discontinued but you can still find them around. The manufacturer link is here; its actually the stand Xzin recommended in his guide way back when. Its not modified; I designed the 'cat walk' as a thin board with 4 posts that were cut to fit behind the monitors, there are holes in the posts that let them bolt to the Ergotron arm. (That might not be obvious from the screenshots.) I did buy a new extra tall peice of metal so I could raise the arm high enough for the three bottom monitors to fit under it on their desk stands. Its serviceable. Rather, having 3 monitors on my desk is servicable, if I had two Erogtron arms I'd be happy. I just cant justify the price tag of another arm though.

I am thinking of building a hex(2x3)-mount. Or maybe even a deca(2x5)?-mount. Both are terribly expensive to buy, but should be cheaper to build. Found a few DIYs on the web. One for a dual-monitor horizontal, and one for a dual-monitor vertical. I also found 3 for triple monitor mounts. This guy who was apparently inspired by this guy and this other guy. One of those guys went on to do a wall mount, which looks nicer but doesn't work for me. None of them are quite a hex mount though. I'm thinking of trying to use electrical conduit (the rigid metal variety), since I can bend it at custom angles, as opposed to using fittings that only come in 45s. (If there is one thing I don't like about their DIY's, its the 45 degree angle.) If I do it I'll be sure to post about it, one way or another. The DIY route certainly seems cheaper. Still very much in the theoretical project category, lol. Possibly to be indefinitely delayed.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kicksome

Man, that is one hell of a setup. Do you only play wow on that? or do you play other stuff also? I noticed you had all those gamepad things to the left.

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The gamepads for the most part date from when I played EQ1. Back then I didn't have a vetra or broadcast commands. My control scheme is currently kind of in flux. I used to be pure hardware (vetra) but lately I've been messing around with keyclone. (I bought 5 licenses, lol). There were times when I wanted to move just one guy while another guy was doing something else, in hardware, so I got a few more nostromo's. Since I got them to actually work 20+ feet from the computer (Quite the involved process, at least for the N52TEs, they seemed very unhappy unless I hooked them up to a powered USB hub.) I haven't really done much with them. Not really playing wow at the moment, though, just leveling new teams in preparation for Cata. (Kinda took a break from competitive play to work on my dissertation, and haven't felt like jumping back into serious stuff.)

That doesn't answer your question. eh. Mostly its just for multiboxing. I've been trying to logically reason out a way to use it for more than that; but its kinda complicated. I can see how to connect the monitors to one machine (I even had that going for awhile) but it becomes a pain to disconnect them when I want to box again. I'm sorta half trying to work out an easy way to swap back and forth, and if i ever do, I'll have a huge display. LOL. The only real use i ever put the slaves to besides Wow is occasionally burning DVD's or that sort of thing. Or benchmarking. (Really useful to have 5 machines sitting around when your trying to run a series of tests to determine the optimal parameters for an algorithm your designed, hehe.) None of that justifies the expense, though.

Thanks for the information on the stand. :)

Nice setup BTW.