[BMW_TT]

I'm trying to get ideas for a setup.

[darkphantom]

what. oh this?

[xbook]

MacPro ... end of story ...

[jopa489]

Too lazy to take/post pictures, but:

I have a good size L shaped desk. The longer side of the L has 2x HP L2475 24" LCDs connected to my primary desktop, keyboard, mouse, and Vaio TZ laptop to the right of the monitors. Left and Right speakers are next to the monitors, with a center under them in the middle.

Shorter side of the desk is kept clean and has my 13" MBP (which can be moved out of the way if the desk space is needed). All three machines are connected with Synergy, so my single mouse/keyboard can jump across the LCDs and laptop screens and be used on each computer.

The rounded middle part of the L has my RAIDed NAS for storage, couple of external drives for backup of non-critical things, light, and speaker controls for the Logitech Z5500 setup.

I'm a geek, what can I say?

[BMW_TT]

Originally Posted by Prowess Symphony

- 30in hannspree 1080p monitor
- custom built gaming rig
- AKG k701 headphones or klipsch pro media 5.1 speakers
- Merc stealth gaming keyboard and razer gaming mouse and g25 racing wheel

- mac mini hooked into the 30in for music/movies/etc. Windows just for gaming.
- mac bluetooth mouse and keyboard

I'm still up in the air on which OS to use for movies and music. Looking to get the Seagate blackarmor NAS soon.

[BMW_TT]

Originally Posted by Prowess Symphony

I could only use the mac for movies/music/internet. I would hate to need virus protection, etc. Its about ease of use for me. I want everything working all the time without the need for reinstalls.

Ive tried using windows for movies and music as a test and it was just too cluttered looking. A movie even crashed in vista using vlc. Never had a crash on the mac using vlc. The perfect setup is mac for everything, and a dedicated gaming rig. Then you also have the gaming rig for any windows specific programs you need.

Then you can even strip down the windows os for a pure gaming os for better performance. The NAS is nice. Get a mac mini and a big monitor like me and have them side by side.

I have a MBP to do this. Just recently I've been downloading torrents on the Windows instead of Mac. I ran out of space and really need a NAS.

[ZJP]

Originally Posted by Prowess Symphony

Ive tried using windows for movies and music as a test and it was just too cluttered looking. A movie even crashed in vista using vlc.

The problem is Vista. It sucks terribly for anything.

I never have any problems watching movies or playing music with W7.

[jopa489]

Vista was fine if you had good hardware. It was essentially ahead of it's time, and too big a jump from XP. It ran perfectly fine though.

Even so, Win7 is leaps and bounds ahead. I've been running it on everything for months and it's excellent.

[BMW_TT]

I need W7!!

[BMW_TT]

Where can I get a copy of W7? It's still beta right?

[jopa489]

Originally Posted by BMW_TT

Where can I get a copy of W7? It's still beta right?

Technically, it's finalized. The Release To Manufacturer (RTM) happened a couple of months ago. It drops for retail on October 22nd, and is up for retail pre-order at a lot of places (including Amazon).

You're best off waiting for that at this point.