Post Your Mac Setup!

Time for a bit of an update. I've changed quite a bit of kit recently:



Gone is the macbook, the apple 20in cinema display, the vesa desk mount, the apple keyboard, the logitech mx revolution. The VESA mount was sadly destroying the desk so I had to remove it. The ikea desk clearly isn't made well enough for all the weight.

The new kit is as follows:

Apple Mac Mini 2.53GHZ
Apple 24 inch LED Cinema Display
Magic mouse/Wireless keyboard

HP Mini 5101 Netbook
Normal atom setup, but with a high res 1366x768 screen and broadcom HD card in.

I picked the netbook a couple of weeks back and realised that two laptops was silly. The HP is far lighter so I just carry that with me all the time instead of the macbook. So I started thinking iMac's and Mini's. Whilst I like the iMac's I change my systems so often that a separate screen was a must. The 24in LED Display was a bit overkill for my needs but I love it!

Pics



 
@Sandman Saw your post over on MR too.
Very nice setup.

@ Gordyhand that is an amazing setup. Looks really really nice.
 
IMG_0560.jpg

updated with all the goodies
 
Updating my prior post with changes from the last week (somehow the pictures get worse!) ...

Still the same setup here ... 8 core Mac Pro, 30" ACD w/ dual 2007 Dells in portrait mode.

Front.jpg


Behind me I added a 27" Quad Core iMac (no screen issues) and an HP MediaSmart 495EX and so on. This is dedicated to Logic Studio and iPhone development, where as the Mac Pro is generally my Windows development box (I hate rebooting).

Back.jpg


One day I'll get around to taking better pictures, not like I don't have the gear ...
 
Torq said:
Updating my prior post with changes from the last week (somehow the pictures get worse!) ...

Still the same setup here ... 8 core Mac Pro, 30" ACD w/ dual 2007 Dells in portrait mode.



Behind me I added a 27" Quad Core iMac (no screen issues) and an HP MediaSmart 495EX and so on. This is dedicated to Logic Studio and iPhone development, where as the Mac Pro is generally my Windows development box (I hate rebooting).



One day I'll get around to taking better pictures, not like I don't have the gear ...
Click to expand...

What video card are you using with your Mac Pro? It all looks awesome man!
 
That Mac Pro is just running a pair of ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT cards.

If ATI ever release a new Eye-Finity card that is OS X compatible I'll be all over that (since I'll only need the one).
 
Torq: What speakers are you using with your Mac Pro?

Nice Ducks BTW! :p
 
The speakers you see there are B&W CDM1s.

Under the front bow of the desk, on the other side of the modesty panel, there's a 12" Velodyne sub-woofer.

Those ducks are all over the house :)
 
Torq said:
This is dedicated to Logic Studio and iPhone development, where as the Mac Pro is generally my Windows development box (I hate rebooting).
Click to expand...
Any reason you don't just use virtual machines? Not as if you don't have the hardware for it.
 
lost eden said:
Any reason you don't just use virtual machines? Not as if you don't have the hardware for it.
Click to expand...

I do use VMs, rather extensively - have done for nearly 10 years - and that is precisely why my primary development box is a Mac Pro. :) You can't really see it in that picture, but there was a Windows 7 guest VM running along side IE.

I actually do the bulk of my mainstream development work in the VM environments, but not all of it. Some things benefit from (or even require) running on the bare-metal even with the state of today's virtualization tools. And as I am principally a Windows developer the primary OS there is Windows.

OS X is a pain in the arse to maintain in a virtual machine, and I still need a bare-metal Windows box, so I added a dedicated Mac to my office to save rebooting the Mac Pro to work on iPhone projects and work in Logic Studio.

This is just my "pretty office" though. In my workshop, where I do both hardware (component level electronics work) and software development (primarily embedded for those projects) I have other machines.

I think, at this point, almost every machine I have runs VMware and usually a couple of VMs. Those that have Windows as the host OS on run VMs for Windows and Linux. And my Macs and Linux boxes run VMs for Windows and Linux too. Again, some things you want to run on the bare-metal.
 
gordy_hand said:
Time for a bit of an update. I've changed quite a bit of kit recently:



Gone is the macbook, the apple 20in cinema display, the vesa desk mount, the apple keyboard, the logitech mx revolution. The VESA mount was sadly destroying the desk so I had to remove it. The ikea desk clearly isn't made well enough for all the weight.

The new kit is as follows:

Apple Mac Mini 2.53GHZ
Apple 24 inch LED Cinema Display
Magic mouse/Wireless keyboard

HP Mini 5101 Netbook
Normal atom setup, but with a high res 1366x768 screen and broadcom HD card in.

I picked the netbook a couple of weeks back and realised that two laptops was silly. The HP is far lighter so I just carry that with me all the time instead of the macbook. So I started thinking iMac's and Mini's. Whilst I like the iMac's I change my systems so often that a separate screen was a must. The 24in LED Display was a bit overkill for my needs but I love it!

Pics



Click to expand...
Very nice .... I am jealous
 
wrxdrunkie said:
I also love your setup, I am debating between this and a 27' imac.

When I factor in the wireless keyboard and mouse and monitor it gets much closer in price.
Click to expand...

I thought down the same lines when buying this setup. The clincher is that I change my systems very regularly, but not my monitor. Having an all in one would limit my choices in the future.

I'm still not sold on the netbook, I'm awaiting the UK iPad launch to have a play and see what I make of it.
 
27" i7 iMac + Cambridge Audio 540a + Cambridge Audio Sirocco S30 + 2 IKEA dioder kits


Added these to the picture threads in Computer Audio but figured I'd add them here in case some folks don't visit that sub-forum:

aving fun with a long exposure and a zoom lens:


Low angle (you can see my rush-job of hacked up brackets here):
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the reaction! :)

They're from 17" G5 iMacs... picked them up on ebay. I chopped the tops, drilled and tapped, and mounted hardware store aluminum flat stock. The speakers are held on with 3m command double stick tape.
 
I'm old enough to have actually used all that stuff when it was new! Think I've used every device on that shelf at some point.
 
even though I am a Windows Fan, I gotta say the majority of these setups look pretty slick!
 
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