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Stefan Didak

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You are here: Home / Stefan Didak’s Home Office Desktop / Home Office Version 6

Home Office Version 6

“You can never have enough screen real-estate! And no, this is not Steve Ballmer’s office.”
“I do not tell people what to do so do not compare me with Al Gore either!”

Are you looking for this multi-monitor home office setup?
Well, Sorry!!! The previous home office has been improved upon.
New workstations, upgraded servers, new monitors, new audio, new cables, new lots of stuff.

Stefan Didak Home Office Version 5, the previous setup

The images above show the PREVIOUS desktop with its 7 screens, 9 screens if the two laptops were used. The bricks, by the way, are not real bricks. They are brick textured foam wallpaper. Nice side effect is they dampen and absorb a lot of fan white noise.
Stefan Didak Home Office 6

Stefan Didak Home Office Version 6

The new office setup is quite an improvement. 12 screens, yes, 12 monitors. Do I use them all at the same time? Not all the time, but often, yes! If you want to read all about the construction and setup, go ahead.

Stefan Didak Home Office Version 6

The six 24″ inch monitors that form the center of the workspace consist of two angled Eizo Flexscan S2431WH and four HP LP2475w monitors (yes, the S-IPS panels). The four HP monitors are mounted on the extremely solid Ergotron LX arms.

Stefan Didak Home Office Version 6

A wider shot of the main work area where I practice my taking-over-the-world-skills (or so some think!). The monitor in corner there on the Arena Chieftec 2000B server case is a HP 19″ screen. And before you ask, yes I forgot to turn it on before I took the pictures.

Stefan Didak Home Office Version 6

The other side of the main work area. A few more systems and three 17″ Hyundai monitors. The system on its side is being powered by one of the APC Smart-UPS SC1500i. As you might notice from the PREVIOUS office setup, I got rid of a few things while at the same time relocating some older hardware to the storage cabinet where it’s functional but out of sight (and it saves space).

Stefan Didak Home Office Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Stefan Didak Home Office Version 6

The new HP Procurve 1800-24G with 24 gigabit ports replaces most of the old 3COM STACK. Read about cable management and VELCRO if you want to know how to keep network cables tidy.

Stefan Didak Home Office Version 6

The newer workstations. An Intel Core 2 Quad Extreme QX9650 with 8 GB RAM in a Lian Li PC-P80. 6.4 TB RAID-5 storage (300 GB WD Velociraptor x 8 and 1000 GB Spinpoint’s x 4) Running off an Adaptec 2820SA RAID controller hooked to Icy Dock MB454SPF backplanes. And an ASUS ENGTX280 HTDI supported by a 1000 Watt power supply to top it all off Next to it is ‘Krypton’, a slightly bigger workstation (see sidebar on the page for details).

Stefan Didak Home Office Version 6

A picture showing ‘Boron’ along with ‘Hydrogen’ and ‘Isis’ and ‘Osiris’. If you are confused with the previous setup, don’t be. I renamed and re-assigned all the systems. And if you are part of the older generation, yep, that’s an original Amiga 1000 down there.

Stefan Didak Home Office Version 6

The new audio system by Behringer. What you are seeing here are the Behringer Eurorack Pro RX1602, the 16 channel line mixer that provides me a central place to control the volume of many of the workstatations while being able to hear all of them without having to go over the speakers. The box right below is is a Behringer DEQ1024 (Digital Stereo 31-Band 24-Bit/96 kHz Equalizer, Feedback Destroyer/Dynamics Processor) and the small box at the top is a Behringer MiniAmp AMP800 headphone amplifier with multiple inputs and outputs (since I have headphones on quite a lot).

Stefan Didak Home Office Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Stefan Didak Home Office Version 6

I knew you were going to ask. Yes, the audio stuff lights up like a darn christmas tree. But its pretty. In front of the audio devices is one of the HP mobile workstations (a.k.a. powerhungry laptop!)

Stefan Didak Home Office Version 6

Tranquility in a sea of trademark blue. Many of you commented before on the old office and you will see it here again on the monitors, but no, there’s nothing wrong, it’s just an awkward angle I took the picture that makes it look dim.

Stefan Didak Home Office Version 6

Most of the lighting in my Home Office is provided through LED lights. A combination of small desk lights with adapters and USB led lights of different types and shapes. By simply turning on more I can increase overall ambient lighting and ‘streaks’.

Stefan Didak Home Office Version 6

Many of you asked me for daylight shots. Here is a good example of why that is a very difficult thing to do. Not because I am nocturnal but because the light from the monitors in combination with other light is extremely difficult to photograph correctly.

Stefan Didak Home Office Version 6

A “power three-some” 🙂

Stefan Didak Home Office Version 6

Notice how the usual mess of cables is not as bad? Of course, I should perhaps mention that before any system got connected and powered, it took me FOUR whole days (of 12-13 hours each) to lay the cables and conceal them.

Stefan Didak Home Office Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Stefan Didak Home Office Version 6

A wide angle view of the main desktop area. This was taken with a 10-20mm lens at 10mm because it is otherwise impossible to fit the width of the desk area in a single picture.

Stefan Didak Home Office Version 6

Another wide angle shot with the 10-20mm lens at 10mm. This shows a wider overview of the home office layout.

Stefan Didak Home Office Version 6

As you can see, the actual space is not all that big. If there is a contest for most CPU cycles per square foot I’ll enter it… or maybe not.

Stefan Didak Home Office Version 6

Another view of LED lights and LED lighting during the daytime.

Stefan Didak Home Office Version 5

Oxygen (left), 2 x Dual Core AMD Opteron 275, Tyan Thunder K8WE, 8 GB RAM in a Procase Palo-Alto 501 9 TB RAID-5 storage and a whopping 42 Kg of weight! Neon (right) A simple Core 2 Quad Q6700, ASUS P5E WS Pro, 8 GB RAM in a Chieftec Bravo BH-01B-B-B.

Stefan Didak Home Office Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Stefan Didak Home Office Version 5

24TB of storage, 64GB RAM, Dual Xeon, hosting dozens of VM’s. On average will run 12-20 virtual machine OS guests.

Stefan Didak Home Office Version 6

Yes, it’s true. And here’s the proof. I added an Apple iMac 27 inch (i7 2.9Ghz 1TB HD, 1GB Radeon) to the office setup. I know this comes as a shock to many who have always thought I hated Mac’s. That said, don’t expect me to suddenly like or endorse Apple’s various insane policies, though!

Stefan Didak Home Office Version 6

The real reason for the Apple iMac being there has nothing to do with OSX, however. The Mac stuff was a requirement for doing iOS (iPhone and iPad) related development work. However, with the nice resolution on the 27″ iMac I decided to hook the Wacom Intuos 4 on it for photography related fun. It does, after all, provide a few more pixels than the 24″ screens.

Stefan Didak Home Office Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Stefan Didak Home Office Version 6

The personal library of books. Many for sentimental value because they include me or material I created.

Stefan Didak Home Office Version 5

The Intel PR440FX dual Pentium-Pro motherboard with a ‘whopping’ 256MB ECC RAM. Back in 1995 this was one of the most powerful SMP workstation boards.

Stefan Didak Home Office Version 5

The two Pentium-Pro CPUs that once graced the motherboard above.

Stefan Didak Home Office Version 5 ZX81

Yes, that’s a Sinclair ZX-81 (anno 1981) with a 16KB memory expansion pack. I’ve saved it all those years and now it’s on the wall.

Stefan Didak Home Office Version 4

How the desktop used to look before switching to TFT screens and overhauling the office.

Stefan Didak Home Office Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

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Home Office

  • Home Office 5.0
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  • Making Of Home Office 6.0
  • Making Of Home Office 7.0

Beware of Copyright

Read all about how AwareBear, a company owned by Andre Leite Alves, stole one of my pictures, pasted himself in it, and used it on their computer repair brochures.

Also, please visit the
Office Thieves Hall Of Shame!

About Stefan Didak

Hi. I'm Stefan Didak
...and I do not work at NASA
...and also not for the NSA
...not even for the CIA
...and not at CERN either!

The pictures on this page are of my home office desktop which, since I first published these pictures, have been causing a lot of chatter on various web forums and blogs.

The attention my home office has received is quite stunning and way more than I would have expected. Since things have gotten out of control in terms of questions regarding the setup, the hardware, and what on earth I am using all this for, and what kind of electricity bills it results in, I have decided to setup a FAQ and a comments page where you can read what others had to say, or leave a comment of your own.

Swag?

My wife has been trying to convince me that I should start offering crazy-home-office swag like t-shirts and coffee mugs. While I think that would be hilariously funny I'm not sure I should put in the effort to set something like that up. Perhaps I should ask the visitors of this page what they think of that idea. If you like the idea of crazy-office swag, leave a comment.

The Specs

People have asked me to list some specs on the systems in the home office. I will make an attempt at that but am not sure how up to date I can keep it since there are expansions, upgrades, changes, and quite a lot of enhancements taking place every few months.

Summary

The 7.0 office:

  • 18 Workstations/Servers
  • 4 Laptops
  • 548 TB of total storage
  • Some stuff not pictured here

The 6.0 office:

  • 14 Workstations/Servers
  • 5 Laptops
  • 125 TB of total storage
  • Some systems not pictured here

The old 5.0 office:

  • 9 Systems
  • 3 Laptops
  • 38 TB of total storage

Small 7.0 Office Images

Office 6.0 Specs

SYSTEM 'ARGON'

Base:
Intel S5520HCR
Dual Xeon X5680 6-Core 3.33Ghz
64GB RAM

Chassis:
Chieftec Arena 2000B

Storage:
24 TB RAID-6 storage
2TB Seagate's x 12

Details:
3 x RAID Hotswap Backplane
LSI MegaRAID SAS 9280-16i4e

Network:
Intel E1G44ET

System weight:
A whopping 72 Kg

Power:
1200 Watt PSU

SYSTEM 'INDIUM'

Base:
2 x Intel Xeon W5580
Supermicro X8DA6
64 GB DDR3 ECC RAM

Chassis:
Lian-Li PC-P80

Storage:
13 TB RAID-6 storage
300 GB WD Velociraptor x 4
1000 GB Spinpoint's x 12

Details:
4 x Lian-Li EX-H34 cages
Adaptec 51645 RAID
20 ports SAS PCI-X
With 512 MB Cache

Graphics:
Asus GTX285 HTDI/1GD3

System weight:
A whopping 35 Kg

Power:
Single 1200 Watt PSU

SYSTEM 'PENTANE'

Base:
Intel i7 975 Extreme
Asus P6T7 WS SC
24 GB DDR3 RAM

Chassis:
Chieftec Bravo BA-01B-B-B

Storage:
8 TB of storage
2000 GB x 4

Details:
3 x Nvidia Tesla C2070
Each with 6GB RAM

Graphics:
PNY Quadro FX 5800

System weight:
Only a mere 26 Kg

Power:
A 1200W PSU

SYSTEM 'KRYPTON'

Base:
Intel Core i7-965
Asus P6T Deluxe V2
12 GB DDR3-1600 RAM

Chassis:
Chieftec Bravo BA-01B-B-B

Storage:
12 TB RAID-5 storage
1000 GB Spinpoint's x 12

Details:
1 x RAID Hotswap Backplane
Adaptec 51245 RAID
16 x SAS PCI-e
With 512 MB Cache

Graphics:
Asus ENGTX280 HTDI

System weight:
A whopping 29 Kg

Power:
Single 1000 Watt PSU

SYSTEM 'HEXANE'

Base:
Intel Extreme Quad QX9650
Asus P5Q WS
8 GB RAM

Chassis:
Lian-Li PC-P80

Storage:
6.4 TB RAID-5 storage
300 GB WD Velociraptor x 8
1000 GB Spinpoint's x 4

Details:
3 x Icy Dock MB454SPF
Adaptec 2820SA RAID
8 x SATA PCI-X
With 128 MB Cache

Graphics:
Asus ENGTX280 HTDI

System weight:
A whopping 28 Kg

Power:
Single 1000 Watt PSU

SYSTEM 'BORON'

Base:
Dual Xeon E5472
Supermicro X7DWA-N
32 GB RAM

Chassis:
Chieftec Bravo BA-01B-B-B

Storage:
6.4 TB RAID-5 storage
300 GB Seagate Cheetah x 8
1000 GB Spinpoint's x 4

Details:
1 x RAID Hotswap Backplane
Adaptec 51245 SAS RAID
16 x SATA/SAS RAID PCI-E x8
With 512 MB Cache

Graphics:
Asus ENGTX280

System weight:
A whopping 42 Kg

Power:
Single 1200 Watt PSU

SYSTEM 'OXYGEN'

Base:
2 x Dual Core AMD Opteron 275
Tyan Thunder K8WE
8 GB RAM

Chassis:
Procase Palo-Alto 501 Blue

Storage:
9 TB RAID-5 storage
750 GB x 12

Details:
3 x RAID Hotswap Backplane
2 x LSI MegaRAID SATA-150 6
6 x SATA150 RAID
With 256 MB Cache

System weight:
A whopping 42 Kg

Power:
A single 800W PSU

SYSTEM 'HYDROGEN'

Base:
Advance VX7670
Intel i7 975 Extreme
CLEVO D900F
12 GB DDR3 RAM

Chassis:
Clevo D900F

Storage:
1.5 TB RAID-0 storage
3 x 500 GB 7200 RPM

Details:
Yes, it's a laptop!

Graphics:
nVidia 280M-GTX 1GB RAM

System weight:
Heavy! 5.5 Kg.

Power:
A 240W Brick PSU.

SYSTEM 'HALON'

Base:
Core 2 Duo E6600
Asus P5W64 Professional
4 GB RAM

Chassis:
Chieftec Bravo BA-01B-B-B

Storage:
6 TB RAID-6 storage
750 GB x 8

Details:
Areca ARC-1220LP
8x SATA300 RAID PCI-E x8
With 256 MB Cache

Graphics:
nVidia EN7950GX2

System weight:
A mere 38 Kg.

Power:
A single 800W PSU.

SYSTEM 'HALON'

Base:
Core 2 Duo E6600
Asus P5W64 Professional
4 GB RAM

Chassis:
Chieftec Bravo BA-01B-B-B

Storage:
4 TB RAID-6 storage
500 GB x 8

Details:
Areca ARC-1220LP
8x SATA300 RAID PCI-E x8
With 256 MB Cache

Graphics:
nVidia EN7900GTX/2PHT

System weight:
A mere 38 Kg.

Power:
A single 650W PSU.

SYSTEM 'NEON'

Base:
Core 2 Quad Q6700
Asus P5E WS Pro
8 GB RAM

Chassis:
Chieftec Bravo BH-01B-B-B

Storage:
4.0 TB RAID-5 storage
1 TB x 4

600 GB RAID-0 storage
150 GB Raptors x 4

Details:
2 x RAID Hotswap Backplane
Areca ARC-1220LP
8x SATA300 RAID PCI-E x8
With 256 MB Cache

Graphics:
EN8800ULTRA/HTDP 768MB

System weight:
About 25 Kg.

Power:
A single 1000W PSU.

SYSTEM 'RADON'

Base:
Dual Xeon 5060
Tyan Tempest i5000PX
16 GB RAM

Chassis:
Chieftec Dragon

Storage:
6 TB RAID-5 storage
750 GB x 8

Details:
AMCC 3Ware 9500S-8
8 x SATA150 RAID
With 512 MB Cache

Graphics:
ATI X800 PCI-E

System weight:
A mere 34 Kg

Power:
A single 800W PSU

SYSTEM 'THUNDER'

Base:
Dual AMD Opteron 254
Tyan Thunder K8WE
8 GB RAM

Chassis:
Chieftec BX

Storage:
1.2 TB RAID-5 storage
150 GB Raptors x 8

Details:
Areca ARC-1220LP
8x SATA300 RAID PCI-E x8
With 256 MB Cache

Graphics:
nVidia EN7900

System weight:
A little under 26 Kg

Power:
A single 700W PSU.

SYSTEM 'ISIS'

Base:
Asus T2-AE1
Athlon 64 4000+
2 GB RAM

Storage:
320 GB SATA x 2

Details:
Additional Intel Pro 1000+ NIC

Power:
A single 300W PSU

SYSTEM 'OSIRIS'

Base:
Asus T2-AE1
Athlon 64 4000+
2 GB RAM

Storage:
320 GB SATA x 2

Details:
Additional Intel Pro 1000+ NIC

Power:
A single 300W PSU

SYSTEM 'OCTANE'

Base:
HP NW8710w Mobile Workstation
Intel Core2 Duo T7700
4 GB RAM

Storage:
120 GB 7200 rpm HD
500 GB WD Passport
500 GB WD Passport

Graphics:
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1600M 512MB
17 inch 1920 x 1200 (WUXGA)

System weight:
Very portable at 3.4kg! :-)

SYSTEM 'NITROUS'

Base:
HP NW8240 Mobile Workstation
Intel Pentium M 760
2 GB RAM

Storage:
80 GB HD
500 GB WD Passport
500 GB WD Passport

Graphics:
ATI FireGL5000 Mobile
15.4 inch 1920 x 1200 (WUXGA)

System weight:
Very portable at 2.8Kg! :-)

SYSTEM 'XENON'

Base:
Sony Vaio PCG-809K
1 GB RAM

Storage:
60 GB HD

Graphics:
15 inch 1400 x 1050 TFT

System weight:
Less portable than the HP!

SYSTEM 'ATLAS'

Apple Macintosh:
27 inch iMac
2.93Ghz Quad Core i7
8GB RAM

Storage:
1TB HD

Graphics:
HD5750-1GB

System weight:
Heavier than it looks!

SYSTEM 'HELIUM'

Apple Macintosh:
13 inch MacBook Air
2.13Ghz Core 2 Duo
4GB RAM

Storage:
256GB SSD
1TB WD Passport
1TB WD Passport

System weight:
Like a heavy frisbee!

ADDITIONAL NAS & SAN

38 TB of central storage
Of which 4.8 TB of SCSI storage
And 3.2 TB of XHD storage

TOTAL STORAGE

58.6 TB of central storage
67.4 TB of systems storage

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