However, I can probably say that there's more computing power here than was in the Houston control room that served as guidance for the Apollo moon flights though.
So, lets start with this, my basic workstation. What you see here is the display and control area. It generally is the interface for 3 computers, sometimes more depending on how many laptops, tablets, etc. that I'm working on at the moment. The center monitor is a Lenovo 22" ThinkVision L220p, an S-PVA panel which has a resolution of 1920 x 1200. To the right of that is an IBM ThinkVision L200p an IPS panel which has a resolution of 1600 x 1200. They are my main displays and work very well as a normal pairing running off of two AMD Radeon graphics cards in the "Blackbird" workstation. The matching vertical resolution of 1200 makes it especially nice.
On the upper left (at a weird angle because it's on a swing arm) is a Westinghouse SK19H210S which is actually a television and has a 1440 x 900 resolution. I had a little 13" tube TV here in the office for a number of years that I kept on whenever I need to do work and there was a baseball game I wanted to keep an eye on. When the office was reconfigured two years ago and I built what you see, I decided to go with a better solution. Most people "know" it, but fail to use the information: the fact that LCD TVs are really computer monitors with a tuner and more inputs. In this case, I went with the Westinghouse because it was cheap (at that time) and had a higher resolution than most which was a perfect match for the panel of my X300. It's connected through an Inline 3562R High Resolution VGA Switcher. Currently, input 1 is connected to the workstation and input 2 is connected to the server. Although it doesn't strictly need a monitor since it's designed to work headless, I'm a little OCD about control. Of course, it's also connected to the cable (TV), and A/V stack as a video monitor for the DVD/VCR. But when the new server is built and has a HDMI output, I'll use that and give the input 2 on the switcher back to it's original purpose of being a test monitor for client machines to work on. Mostly, it's folded away unless I have a ton of windows open doing a lot of file transfers or something like that.
To the right and below are my two workstations. The taller one built in a Cooler Master Centurion 590 case, is the "Blackbird" main workstation that I've written a lot about, so I won't repeat it here. The other one built in a Cooler Master Elite 341 is the "Nighthawk" Windows XP workstation. It was kind of a thrown together project from old left-over parts when I realized that I had several (one very important) clients who are still exclusively working on Windows XP (and sometimes Office 2003). You might be asking yourself, why I didn't do VM on my regular workstation? I don't like to be switching back and forth on the same machine when I'm doing something. I actually like to keep things separate, AND I pretty much had the parts handy. I had just bought and switched my server to the Cooler Master Elite 343 case (more drive bays), so the 341 was available, I had a Gigabyte GA-G41 motherboard/CPU combo laying around since it was one of three cast-offs that my brother sent me, so it went together. Not one thing was bought for this build. When "Nighthawk" is up and running, it uses the right "UltraNav" keyboard and the analog inputs of the L200p. I've already found a great use for it recently. A few months ago, my wife bought a Husqvarna/Viking sewing machine with programmable embroidery capabilities. In order to use it, you have to run the XP only software and transfer the information to a special memory card which is uses a special card reader/writer (the white thing on the shorter computer case).
My preferred desk arrangement is an "L" Shape. I'd do a "U" if I had plenty of room, but until then (if ever), I'll do the "L", which is called a "return" (who knows why) in the furniture industry. Mine is an old "credenza" that I picked up from the surplus warehouse at Texas Tech University when I worked there. It was old, all scratched up and $10. Where are you going to get 60" of solid wood furniture for $10!?! I used it in it's original (read ugly) state for some years, until we reconfigured the office and it not only got refinished (in satin black), but the a custom designed and built hutch to house a lot of my equipment. There's a space for the TV/monitor on it's folding arm as well a a shelf to hold a variety of media and manuals that I regularly use as well. The one (right) side of the credenza that you can't see since it butts up against the desk is where the file server and UPS lives. Since neither requires me to interact with it physically, that's a good place for them. I just had to cut some holes in the back to allow ventilation and wires. The left side though is a different story! That is the home of the A/V stack. It's a complete system of audio AND video equipment in and of itself, but it's also connected to the "Blackbird" workstation to fulfill it's main purpose; digital archiving of obsolete media. From top to bottom, this is what's there: Dual 1219 3-speed turntable, Yamaha RX-V870 A/V Receiver, Sony SLV-D360p DVD/VCR Deck, Sony MXD-D40 CD/Minidisc Deck, Yamaha KX-200U Cassette Desk, and last, but not least (OK, maybe it is least) is the Panasonic RS-803US 8-Track Deck. The system is hooked up to a pair of a/d/s/ L300 2-way speakers for direct monitoring. This pretty much gives me the capability to play back AND archive any widely distributed media (with the exception of Reel to Reel) from the last 50 years. The "knee-hole" houses one of those plastic drawer sets that you can buy at any Walmart (or Target) for about $15. It houses the variety of cables, adapters, batteries, drives and power supplies that comes with my hobbies. There's enough room left next to it for about 5 laptops (in various states of disrepair) awaiting my attention. On top is about 3 feet of space where projects get done.
There are a few things that I didn't picture. So I'll go over them now. To the right of the glass and metal desk where the monitors reside is a rolling cabinet that should actually fit under the desk where the computers sit. It's more storage for tools, batteries and parts and the stand for an Epson Perfection V300 scanner. Farther to the right of that is our office file cabinet (horizontal type) that serves as a stand for our networked printers: an HP LaserJet 4100TN B&W laser, and Samsung CLX-3175FN Color laser All-In-One printer/copier/scanner. There's also a Kodak G610 photo printer as well as a Brother PT-1950 label printer.
Oh, I almost forgot the variety of ancillaries that silently work in the background making things go. There are 3 networking devices in this office space. The main one being the D-Link DGS-2208 8-Port Gigabit switch that's part of my Gigabit Ethernet backbone. Attached to it is a D-Link DI-624 B/G WiFi access point that services the back part of the house, but predominately the children's devices and 4-Port switch to computer I'm working on back here. This allows me to not only cover the house better, but to shut off their internet any time without effecting other areas. Also attached is a D-Link DSS-5+ switch that serves the printers. Although both of these devices are 10/100 instead of Gigabit, the speed of the what they serve makes it irrelevant. One of the "little guys" that I really enjoy using is the Logitech Z340 computer speakers. They are small and sound good. If I could figure out a way to use the Z640 5-speaker surround version instead without running wires all over the office, I would!
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