• Home
  • Home Office
    • Current Home Office
    • The Making Of Version 7
    • Home Office FAQ
    • Home Office Version 6
    • The Making Of Version 6
    • Home Office Version 5
    • Home Office Older than 5.0
    • Home Office Comments
    • Home Office Updates
    • Home Office Infringers
    • Home Office Thieves
  • Blog
  • Ignyter
  • Flickr
  • Twitter
  • About
  • Archive
  • Contact
  • PostsComments

Stefan Didak

Home of the World Famous Home Office Setup

  • The Whole Blog
  • Personal
    • Funny
    • Rant
    • Restaurants
    • Travel
  • Photography
  • Hardware
  • Software
    • Apple Software
    • Software Development
    • Windows Software
  • The Web
  • Web-Bits
  • WiLMa
You are here: Home / Hardware / Office 7.0 Beta 3 (stage one) is final… for now!

Office 7.0 Beta 3 (stage one) is final… for now!

December 20, 2011 by Stefan Didak 30 Comments

Yes, it’s a milestone. Office 7.0 (beta 3, by now) is officially done, functional, installed, running, and ready for action.

I’m not going to make any final “beauty” shots of the current state because there’s not much point in doing that until the other half of the office completes the current ensemble and that won’t be for quite a number of months yet. I’ll just have to make do with this setup in the meantime. And yes, you can imagine it’s painful and under-powered and under-monitored, and boy am I missing the extra pixels… not. 🙂

I’m quite happy with the 3 x 2560 x 1600, actually. But of course, the office won’t be complete until it’s complete. And besides, my camera gear is all in The Netherlands anyway, so there’s no point in trying to create perfect RAW shots and then editing them for a final “beauty” pass.

I didn’t take shots of other parts of the office since nothing has changed there but if you want to see then anyway I refer you to the other Office 7.0 beta blog posts and images.

There’s a server, a workstation, a second workstation, a Mac Pro, the MacBook Air, and the Clevo laptop. That should be enough for the intermediate stages of getting up and running. The three Lian-Li cases look nice together and all have watercooling for the CPU’s. ATI 6970 Eyefinity cards take care of the two workstations, each of them hooked to the 3 x 30 inch Dell U3011 monitors using StarTech DisplayPort switches to allow for an extra set of DisplayPort ports on each monitor. The server is hooked up via DVI connection (and also capable of doing 2560×1200) while the Mac Pro is using 3 x DVI where one of those is run from a mini DisplayPort port via an Apple converter that turns it into full dual-link DVI.

All the PC hardware has been built, tested, and tuned by Computers USA in case you have failed to notice my previous blog post about my new dealer here.

Things are going well here in Oakley. I got my work authorization a few weeks ago. Which was a huge surprise because it came 10 weeks before the government said it would. Also, the last of my “burdens of development life” is now luckily no longer an issue, leaving me free to get involved in new fun projects. In fact, I am talking to some interested parties about some real interesting top secret “stealth projects”.

Oh, I was going to post some pictures, right? Right! Here they are…

Stefan Didak's New and Second Home Office in Oakley, California, Final Intermediate Stage

Stefan Didak's New and Second Home Office in Oakley, California, Final Intermediate Stage

Stefan Didak's New and Second Home Office in Oakley, California, Final Intermediate Stage

Stefan Didak's New and Second Home Office in Oakley, California, Final Intermediate Stage

Stefan Didak's New and Second Home Office in Oakley, California, Final Intermediate Stage

Stefan Didak's New and Second Home Office in Oakley, California, Final Intermediate Stage

Stefan Didak's New and Second Home Office in Oakley, California, Final Intermediate Stage

Stefan Didak's New and Second Home Office in Oakley, California, Final Intermediate Stage

Stefan Didak's New and Second Home Office in Oakley, California, Final Intermediate Stage

Stefan Didak's New and Second Home Office in Oakley, California, Final Intermediate Stage

Stefan Didak's New and Second Home Office in Oakley, California, Final Intermediate Stage

Stefan Didak's New and Second Home Office in Oakley, California, Final Intermediate Stage

Stefan Didak's New and Second Home Office in Oakley, California, Final Intermediate Stage

 

Share
Filed Under: Hardware, Home Office, Personal Tagged With: Audio, Cables, California, Monitors, Multi-Monitor, Network, Oakley, Office 7.0 Beta, Pictures, Screens, Switches

Comments

  1. Steven Dray says:
    December 20, 2011 at 21:08

    Wow things have moved on!! Looking Well Smart, Loving the trademark blue! This brings a new meaning to multi monitors. Cant wait to see the old office integrated with the new one.

    Reply
  2. MKabar says:
    December 31, 2011 at 00:12

    Hi,
    I really like your office, you are The Man ;-). I am your big fan for years.
    Please, post specification of your new workstations and server.
    I am really curious and waiting for months for some more technical detail O:-).
    Thank you very mutch.
    Mark

    Reply
    • Stefan Didak says:
      December 31, 2011 at 00:48

      The specs are not really all that impressive, though. I only bought the new systems since I need some stuff before I can get the other office consolidated (and upgraded/replaced, etc.) and finish the “full” office.

      Server (ESXi):

      Lian-Li PC-P80 Case (all fans fitted)
      SuperMicro X8SAX Motherboard
      24GB (6 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 RAM
      LG CDRW-DVD+RW
      Cooler Master Silent Pro M1000, 1000W PSU
      Corsair H100 Hydro Liquid CPU Cooler
      LSI MegaRAID SAS 9265-8i SGL Controller
      LSI Battery Backup Controller
      Simple 1GB ATI Graphics Card (MSI, I believe)
      1 x OCZ 60GB Agility 3 SSD MCL 525/475 6Gbps
      8 x Hitachi 2TB Deskstar 7K3000 6Gbps HD’s
      2 x IcyDock MB454SPF-B RAID Backplanes

      Workstation 1:

      Lian-Li PC-P80 Case (all fans fitted)
      ASUS Rampage III Extreme Motherboard
      Core i7 3.46Ghz 990X
      24GB (6 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 RAM
      LG CDRW-DVD+RW
      Cooler Master Silent Pro 850W PSU
      Corsair H100 Hydro Liquid CPU Cooler
      LSI MegaRAID SAS 9265-8i SGL Controller
      LSI Battery Backup Controller
      ASUS EAH6970 DCII/2DI4S/2GD5 2GB DDR5 (ATI/Eyefinity)
      1 x OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 480GB SSD
      6 x Hitachi 1TB Deskstar 7K3000 6Gbps HD’s
      2 x IcyDock MB454SPF-B RAID Backplanes

      Workstation 2:

      Lian-Li PC-P80 Case (all fans fitted)
      ASUS P6T WS Pro Motherboard
      Core i7 3.46Ghz 990X
      24GB (6 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 RAM
      LG CDRW-DVD+RW
      Cooler Master Silent Pro M1000, 1000W PSU
      Corsair H100 Hydro Liquid CPU Cooler
      LSI MegaRAID SAS 9265-8i SGL Controller
      LSI Battery Backup Controller
      ASUS EAH6970 DCII/2DI4S/2GD5 2GB DDR5 (ATI/Eyefinity)
      1 x Intel 510 Series 250GB SSD
      8 x Hitachi 2TB Deskstar 7K3000 6Gbps HD’s
      2 x IcyDock MB454SPF-B RAID Backplanes

      Apple 12C Mac Pro:

      2 x 2.93Ghz “Westmere” CPU’s
      64GB RAM (from OWC)
      4 x 3TB Hitachi HD’s
      2 x OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 480GB SSD (RAID 0)
      2 x ATI Radeon 5770 1GB Graphics Cards
      1 x Mini DisplayPort to Dual Link DVI Converter
      1 x 12TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro QX2 RAID5

      Other new stuff to make this office work:

      1 x APC Smart-UPS 2200VA (20amp “beast”)
      2 x APC Backup-UPS 1500VA UPS’es
      2 x HP Procurve 24-port Gigabit Switches
      1 x D-Link DSR-500 Dual-WAN Router
      1 x Linksys Router (hacked with DD-WRT)
      2 x Behringer RX1602 16-Input (RX 1602) Line mixers
      1 x Behringer DEQ1024 Equalizer
      1 x Behringer DEQ2496 Equalizer
      1 x Behringer AMP800 Headphone Amplifier
      1 x 5.1 Logitech Speakers
      2 x Power Switches
      3 x Dell 30″ U3011 Monitors (2560×1600 each)
      3 x StarTech 2 x DisplayPort Switch boxes

      And of course, lots and lots of Cat6 UTP cables, DVI cables, DisplayPort cables, USB cables, USB Extender cables, Power cables, a bunch of extra external HD’s for backups and double backups, a NeatWorks scanner, some new keyboard and Logitech Performance MX mice, etc. and a massive portable AC unit in addition ot the central AC. 🙂

      Reply
      • Wilko says:
        January 10, 2012 at 18:49

        impressive!

        Reply
      • Vince says:
        February 16, 2012 at 22:52

        Hi i was wondering how you mounted the H100 cooler in the case?

        I myself have a Lian-Li PC-P80B Case, is your PC-P80 case a ‘B’ or a ‘N’ ?

        If it is either of the two, how did you manage to mount the cooler?

        I am basically building a new system now and am wanting to use the H100. It has two 120mm fans, so I am finding it hard to see how the cooler fits inside nicely in the Lian-Li PC-P80B, since there is only one 140mm fan on top and one 120mm fan on the back.
        The Lian-Li PC-P80N has two 140mm fans on the top and one 120mm fans on the back.

        I have also thought about changing to a Lian-Li PC-P80N to mount the H100 on the top nicely, but even then I will still need to mod because of the different fan size’s. of course unless I mount it to the back where the 120mm fan is, but then i thought it will be in the way of the gfx I/O ports.

        A picture would be nice 🙂 cheers

        Reply
        • Stefan Didak says:
          February 17, 2012 at 18:08

          You’re right about the H100 not really fitting in there. We came to this conclusion a little after the fact but the guys that built my machines managed to make it fit well enough by zip-tying it to the top bars of the case.

          There is a part of the H100 that angles a bit downward and extends into the upper drive bay but since there’s nothing there it didn’t matter much.

          In retrospect I should’ve gone for a smaller model but the H100 still does a really nice job the way it was fitted in the first machine so I decided to have them do the same for the other two as well.

          If you’re concerned about making a perfect fit, then definitely, no, the H100 and P80 (I think they are B models, not N) won’t fit properly.

          Reply
          • Vince says:
            February 19, 2012 at 21:54

            Cheers for the help.

            I will look into this option for mounting it in the PC-P80B.
            Personally I want to use the H100 rather than the H80 and also since the H100 does a nice job in this case.

            Your opinion is most valued, due to your experience with this equipment.

            Thanks again.

  3. Cocolio says:
    January 2, 2012 at 23:18

    “The specs are not really all that impressive, though” hahaha i know too many people who would to have at least the less powerfull of your machines, anyway my main Workstation is a i7 @2.66 (not oced) with 12 gig RAM and almost 2.5 Tb storage, an HP dv6000 and a HP DV7 lappies, something we have in common is a Linksys wireless router bundled with DD-WRT firmware wich rocks!!! but im looking to upgrade it to other DD-WRT capable Cisco router, cheers.

    Reply
    • Stefan Didak says:
      January 2, 2012 at 23:43

      LOL! Well, ok. What I should’ve written is that they’re not as impressive as the specs of some of the machines in the 6.0 Office back on the other continent. In particular the “Pentane” workstation with 3 x nVidia C2070’s to provide some CUDA power. 🙂

      It’s the D-Link DSR-500 I’m using for the actual internet routing. The LinkSys with DD-WRT is what I use to play/test some things with and to provide a “WiFi backdoor” directly into the LAN.

      Reply
  4. Jaemz Nugyen says:
    January 9, 2012 at 04:27

    How hot does the room get on an average day?

    Reply
    • Stefan Didak says:
      January 9, 2012 at 06:37

      Not all that hot, really. I have central air conditioning in the house as well as an additional 12.000 BTU portable air conditioner to deal with the heat out here in this area. Of course, it can get a little noisy with that running. 🙂

      Reply
      • Zig says:
        March 20, 2012 at 04:10

        Stefan,

        I’m looking into buying a portable AC unit for my home office. Could you tell me what model you currently have? I want to make sure I get one that will actually cool my equipment. I’ve read many reviews going either way with portable AC units so I figured I would see what your experiences and opinions are.

        Thanks in advance.
        Zig

        Reply
        • Stefan Didak says:
          March 22, 2012 at 00:34

          It’s an LG 12000 BTU model. But don’t buy what I bought simply because I bought it. Getting a good fitting AC can be quite involved and you need to look at a lot of details like the size of the room it needs to cool, how long the hose is and whether you can extend it or not and if you can’t extend it whether the system will work or whether the extension will make it run less efficient (which means you need a bigger model to make up for the difference), etc.

          Also, you have to make sure you have enough fuses/circuits to handle an AC because those things suck power like crazy. Anywhere from 900 to 2000 Watt is not uncommon.

          I had to go for a portable unit because window units and wall units wouldn’t work out with the layout of the office. A split unit also wouldn’t work too well since it would require some additional work to get that installed. So a portable one was the only option and it had to have a long enough hose (which it didn’t) so I had to extend that myself with some ductape and diameter converters to get more “tubing” on there to get it out the window from the bathroom that is at the back of the office.

          Reply
  5. Wilko says:
    January 10, 2012 at 18:47

    Hey Stefan,

    Looking good!!!

    Nice specs of the new machines! :p

    Bye
    Wilko

    Reply
  6. GreenStorm says:
    January 18, 2012 at 00:48

    Hey Stefan,
    with all that equipment I wonder what set of Logitech-speakers you have. Is it the Z5500?

    Reply
    • Stefan Didak says:
      January 18, 2012 at 00:57

      Ha! You’ll be shocked… It’s a Z506. Cheap, simple, effective. I considered the Z906 and larger sets but the reality is that I normally use my headphones. And the Sennheiser HD800 is a $1500 item which I sense is going to continue to produce a better and clearer sound than any Logitech speaker set. 🙂

      Reply
  7. hacksa says:
    January 24, 2012 at 18:42

    so you don’t name your workstations stupid names anymore?

    Reply
    • Stefan Didak says:
      January 25, 2012 at 02:34

      Of course I still name machines. Greek mythology, this time. 🙂

      Reply
  8. nso95 says:
    March 29, 2012 at 05:23

    I’m insanely, obsessively, in love with the new setup.

    Reply
  9. Anael says:
    April 26, 2012 at 01:05

    Great job with this office as usual!
    I hope you will have a lot of fun with it 😉

    Reply
  10. Eric says:
    May 25, 2012 at 21:22

    Hey Stefan,

    I was just wondering, what are the noise levels like?

    Reply
    • Stefan Didak says:
      May 26, 2012 at 17:22

      It’s not too bad. The water cooling uses some fans and there’s a few in the front of the main systems, etc. so there definitely is some fan noise. These things are not completely noise-free. However, the thing that really produces more noise than anything combined is the additional portable A/C unit. 🙂

      Reply
  11. Alessandro says:
    September 6, 2012 at 15:41

    hello stefan,

    is the first time I write on your blog, really compliments for your office!

    when new updates are no longer beta?

    Reply
    • Stefan Didak says:
      September 6, 2012 at 16:48

      Early next year when I complete things. 🙂

      Reply
  12. wilson says:
    September 11, 2012 at 05:09

    I’m interested in your desk, you can bear the weight of so much equipment, if you can please tell me, the table which brand or where I could buy this?

    Reply
    • Stefan Didak says:
      September 11, 2012 at 18:37

      If you’re referring to the desks in the pictures on this page (office 7.0, still a work in progress), the desks are several combinations of the IKEA Galant line of office desks. They hold up a lot of weight. Not as good as my other desks in the other (6.0) office but certainly stable and strong enough.

      Reply
      • wilson says:
        October 3, 2012 at 20:14

        You are building our dream .
        When your office(7.0) will be completed
        Really exciting~

        the Ikea desk can buy in my country.

        but I like office (6.0) desk better.

        haha~

        Thank you for your answer

        Reply
        • Stefan Didak says:
          October 3, 2012 at 20:22

          Hopefully the 7.0 version will be complete and done somewhere Jan/Feb 2013.

          The IKEA Galant desks are fine. Much easier to create curves and extensions than with the Projekta desks from offices 3.0 to 6.0. Unfortunately, Projekta has stopped making those desks many years ago.

          Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Black Diamond Mines Regional Park | Sallie's Personal Pages says:
    September 4, 2012 at 01:14

    […] When we returned to Oakley, we brought my cousin Jason along with us. Jason is the geek in the family–besides me, I mean. He’s a Mac fanboy who once did tech support for Earthlink (before they outsourced all those jobs). So he took to Stefan immediately, and when we moved here he offered to help Stefan set up his office. […]

    Reply
  2. Hosting Breakfast with the Mayor | Sallie's Personal Pages says:
    September 18, 2012 at 17:48

    […] a couple of new chamber members there as well as the regulars. Everyone was very impressed with Stefan’s office, which he showed them while I was out getting the coffee. (Note to anyone thinking of hosting an […]

    Reply

Let us know what YOU think! Cancel reply

*

*

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. You can also subscribe without commenting.

Updates by E-Mail

Subscribe to the feed if you wish to receive e-mail updates when I post new stuff.

Home Office

  • Home Office 5.0
  • Home Office 6.0
  • Home Office 7.0
  • Home Office Comments
  • Home Office FAQ
  • Home Office Older than 5.0
  • Home Office Thieves
  • Home Office Your Comments
  • Making Of Home Office 6.0
  • Making Of Home Office 7.0

Page Top

Contact  ·  Privacy Policy  ·  Copyright © 2023 by Stefan Didak. All Rights Reserved  ·  Admin  ·  Log in