I think I own too much tech

[Darknite39]

In my head, I have a use for everything, but I'm starting to think it's getting excessive... it's not to the point of hoarding, but I figured if this is really abnormal / over-the-top, this would be the place to ask (since a lot of us probably have more tech than the average person).

Here's my breakdown:

(1) Main desktop / media server / Living Room HTPC (AMD quad from around 2011 with many TBs of storage)

(2) Headless backup server (ca. this year; just for media backups--I use the smaller drives that used to be in my main server--thrown together mostly from scraps I had laying around, probably cost about $80 total in new parts)

(3) Thinkpad T61 - my personally-owned and upgraded daily driver until my workplace purchases a computer for my office this summer (bought about 5 years ago when I was in grad school, new SSD, more ram, etc. along the way)

(4) c720 Chromebook - bought as a curiosity for $80 after the recent Best Buy XP laptop trade-in program (I somehow had 3 working laptops just sitting around)

(5) Surface Pro 1 128GB - bought this year for note-taking and drawing and is serving as my travel machine for now (paired with the Chromebook) because it's much lighter than the T61, even though I really miss my nipple-mouse

(6) Nook HD+ - bought to read comics (purchased last year; I tried the SP1 for the same application, but it's a bit heavier than I'd like it to be)

(7) Nexus 7 2013 - bought this weekend for $110 from Cowboom to use as a tethered GPS (my Verizon GS3 won't maintain a GPS signal without line-of-sight to the sky, which is a pain in the butt)

(8) HP Touchpad - thinking of selling this, as I don't really use it anymore. I might either give it to my parents to try out or keep as a spare tablet if I think of a use for it later. It has really great speakers; I might just use this as an on-the-wall music machine in my garage.

(9) Bedroom HTPC desktop - built entirely from scraps except for the $35 SSD I threw in it


I've thought about ways to consolidate...

(1) Get a new thinner, lighter Thinkpad Yoga (providing the next gen has physical trackpoint buttons, as I've seen rumored) - that combines the T61, SP1, and Chromebook, with the added benefit of never having to use a trackpad again (Nipple mouse 'til death do we part).

(2) Get a new Nexus if/when it is released (apparently rumored to be a 9" screen, which would allow me to combine the Nook and the Nexus 7 (and the Touchpad). More realistically, I might get a Samsung tablet with an SD slot for the 128GB card that's currently in the Nook.

I'd of course sell or gift the replaced pieces of tech, as opposed to placing them in a closet.

Thoughts? Am I being reasonable? Honestly, I am just curious what other people think. I'm pretty good at convincing myself that my decisions are sound.

 

[JackBurton]

Get rid of all that junk and implement a better overall flow for what you want to do. However consolidation doesn't always mean cheaper.

I'd recommend the following:

1. iMac (find the one that fits your needs)
2. MacBook Pro / Air
3. iPads
4. NAS (highly recommend Synology)
5. AppleTV (get one for each room with a TV if you'd like)

The beauty about the solution is that it ALL works seamlessly together. Not some disjointed mess.

 

[Crono]

Clearly, you have too many gadgets.

For no fee I'll gladly take 3 and 5 off your hands.

 

[dighn]

my recommendation:

- NAS + media server, with plex
- chromecast instead of HTPC, use with plex
- a tablet is always good to have around
- get a good laptop, unless you need the power of a desktop. get both if you require both power and mobility (tablet isn't really good for serious mobile use)

 

[destrekor]

Get rid of all that junk and implement a better overall flow for what you want to do. However consolidation doesn't always mean cheaper.

I'd recommend the following:

1. iMac (find the one that fits your needs)
2. MacBook Pro / Air
3. iPads
4. NAS (highly recommend Synology)
5. AppleTV (get one for each room with a TV if you'd like)

The beauty about the solution is that it ALL works seamlessly together. Not some disjointed mess.

Someone bought all in!



That said, it really is the only way to go if you want the ultimately seamless experience, one with the least amount of frustration.

Things will fail and breakdown, but it's generally a heck of a lot simpler if you employ the same platform throughout.

Most other brand platforms require a little more regular frustration, or more gadgets to make it work seamlessly, which adds cost and usually steps to perform. It can be done much cheaper, but at what cost?

Note: I mostly do it the cheaper and most frustrating way. I'm more capable of dealing through the occasional pain, but I know if I ever have to share everything eventually, getting things perfect will require a heck of a lot more effort, or just going the easy Apple way.

As I am going through the pain that is setting up a "Hackintosh" install - or at least performing the final tweaks at this point - in a dual-boot format on my Windows gaming desktop, I've got an interest in the Apple route. Right now, it's only for the supposed superior color management, which won't be fully apparent with the Asus ProArt displays I have (PA238Q), but once I run calibration in that OS it should be uniform.


Not everything can be consolidated without giving something up, however. While I do own a Nook Color and Nexus 7 (2012), I recently bought a Kindle Paperwhite, and in reality, I ditched the Nook Color since buying the Nexus 7. I had ROM'd the Nook Color, and it was entirely replaced by the Nexus 7.

That said, I got sick and tired of a true backlit-LCD screen for reading, especially because backlights have a spectrum that screw with what I shall call my nighttime sleepiness factor. (yes yes, the Paperwhite has a backlight-type light, but it's far less spectrum intensity and, more importantly, it can be disabled and function fine if there is even a hint of ambient light)

The iPad is a crippled tablet when compared to a full OS tablet like a Surface Pro. There are trade-offs whichever direction you go - using touch/pens with full x86 software like Photoshop or other graphical applications is wonderful.

Apple seriously needs to put out a Pro Tablet that caters to the professionals. Yes, quite a few utilities are available with the iPad, but there's still the true lack of desktop capability, where the most powerful tools reside. People use the gimped software on the iPad because it's a hell of a lot easier to carry that around and use it on the job as opposed to a full desktop, and I wouldn't doubt if many would move to the Surface-type experience if it had OS X instead, due to it typically being the preferred OS for creative professionals for a few reasons.

 

[Naer]

meanwhile in africa children are struggling to find something to eat

 

[destrekor]

meanwhile in africa children are struggling to find something to eat

Please, this is unnecessary. Yes it's a downer and sucks, but completely irrelevant. If we were raised in such an environment, we wouldn't be having this conversation in the first place. Due to the fact that we have the opportunity to pursue such extravagance, often because we still work for a living, the fact that others haven't the same opportunity should not be held against us.

 

[Raduque]

I have 3 laptops, a desktop, a server, an HTPC, a Surface 64gb and 3 phones (Note 3, LG Optimus G, Tmobile GSII).

 

[Ruptga]

meanwhile in africa children are struggling to find something to eat

On the other hand, they don't need a computer to play minesweeper. Plus, no internet means no Naer, which has to count for something.

I have a ~2 year old desktop I use for everything, a crappy laptop I sometimes have a use for, a Galaxy S3 phone, and a 360 that I occasionally play. Every once in a while I think about setting up a backup server, etc, then quickly decide it's not worth the bother.

 

[Darknite39]

Thanks for all of the ideas so far. I am especially intrigued by the idea of being more integrated than is currently possible given my diverse equipment. I totally understand that an Apple setup is the way to go for easy integration (some of my friends have a setup that is quite nice), but I like to play around / tinker with things in what little spare time I seem to have these days, and I don't think that's really compatible with the Mac experience.

I actually do have a chromecast (I just use it for netflix and youtube, basically, because it's much easier than finding workarounds in XBMC). Speaking of XBMC, I'm reluctant to move away from that for my media wants. I really dig the interface. Having said that, however, I haven't spent much time playing with Plex (and it's been a while, so I'm sure it's improved). I may give that a shot again and see how I like it.

After some more consideration (I wrote my first post off the top of my head), I think I could get down to a Thinkpad + dock, a tablet (SP3 for note-taking, drawing, and probably comic-reading), and a new phone with a functional GPS. That would cover all of my bases, I think, aside from the HTPC, which I admittedly might be able to do without depending on how I feel about a Plex setup. I guess a NAS and backup NAS would also be necessary to duplicate my current setup, but those are less important replacements in my mind (in terms of paring things down).

And sorry, Crono, but I doubt I'll ever part with my beloved T61.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I think the same thing sometimes.

Do I really need two 42U server racks + dedicated battery rack?

 

[zanejohnson]

for me:

HTPC - i3 + 4GB + GTX250 linux mint machine on 65"mitsu DLP 1080p

HT - Yamaha RX903 pre/pro, Altec Lansing 180x5 amplifier, Phase Linear 8812 studio monitors (mains) some sony set i'm using the fronts for my rears, and it's center channel (powered by the altec lansing amplifier, 2 x ADIRE shiva 12"s in a sealed enclosure, powered by the extra two channels on the altec lansing 5 channel amp

Media/file server - Athlon X2+4GB opensuse+kdeLinux machine, running rygel for DLNA streaming media (for smart tv's in the house) 2x160GB 7200/8 WD RAID:0 for the host/swap partition, 2TB WD VIDEO SATA in an external enclosure connected via USB

cheap Kyocera Android smart phone
Asus Transformer prime tablet

desktop:
c2d+4gb+80GB SSD running Linux Mint

laptop:
c2d+2gb+intel graphics+500GB running windows 7 ultimate

brothers machine
Athlon 64+2GB+ dunno what vid card running XP Pro SP4

Cisco docsis 3 cable modem
Belkin wireless N+G router
Netgear Wireless N+G router
Cisco 24 port switch

 

[zanejohnson]

sweet setup red squirrel

 

[dighn]

I think the same thing sometimes.

Do I really need two 42U server racks + dedicated battery rack? http://gal.redsquirrel.me/images/house_projects/server_room/dsc_3802.jpg

are you some kind of terrorist

 

[Darknite39]

I think the same thing sometimes.

Do I really need two 42U server racks + dedicated battery rack?

Wow--may I inquire what you do with that gear? That's almost scary if we're talking about a home-based setup.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Wow--may I inquire what you do with that gear? That's almost scary if we're talking about a home-based setup.

A lot. :biggrin:

Most of it is production as in, it does something important around the house. But since lot of stuff is virtualized there's lot of test environments and stuff too. I have been spending more time upgrading/changing stuff lately than actually using though.

Basically in terms of servers I have:

firewall: Self explanatory (this replaces having a traditional router that does wifi and such)
hal9000: environmental control and monitoring server. Basically, controls my hvac, and also has a bunch of sensors to monitor stuff. There's lot of stuff I want to add to it eventually like water level sensor in sump pit
isengard: NAS/file server
moria: new VM server, which I still have to configure/decide on hypervisor. Not having much luck finding something free and not flaky as hell. May have to give in and go vmware
borg: old "Everything" server (still active but wnat to migrate to new server) This server has a few vms such as torrent box, vpn server and a windows box used to run the unifi controller, minecraft server and other misc stuff.
It also does email, dns, web, used to do file, but that got moved to isengard

As far as non server stuff I got a unifi AP and managed switch.

I also recently moved my two workstations down there, I still need to buy 2 rackmount cases so I can convert them. It's nice and quiet in my office now. :biggrin:


The power system is basically 4x 100AH batteries connected to an inverter-charger. It started as wanting to hookup marine batteries to a UPS then I ended up just going bigger.

Lot of this stuff is also built with expandability in mind. In terms of hardware/power I don't actually have that much, but it's nicely organized and I can easily add more without any major changes. The second 42U rack is actually practically empty, I have a bit of unused cisco gear in there, and also the inverter-charger. Goal is to eventually put some 48v rectifiers and inverters in there at the bottom then use the top for lab stuff.

I used to run a game server so I had way more test environments and stuff then, but I gave up that project a few years back and never ended up picking up another project yet.

 

[sa7an1]

I think the same thing sometimes.

Do I really need two 42U server racks + dedicated battery rack?
*SNIP*

I assume you done have to run the heater in the winter.

 

[Darknite39]

Bravo, Red Squirrel!

 

[Red Squirrel]

I assume you done have to run the heater in the winter.

Believe it or not all that is a bit less than 400w. It actually gets too cold in there sometimes and I start to get low temp alarms. My basement is not insulated yet. Eventually that room will be sealed, insulated and climate controlled. Still need to design and build the hvac system, it will need to have various exchange modes depending in in/out temp and also need to evacuate battery hydrogen, so there will be a HRV as well as various dampers in that system.

On a really cold winter day it's not uncommon for that room to reach under 10c. :biggrin: I want to eventually spray foam my whole basement though. Might even do that this summer if I have the cash. I have to stop spending it on server stuff. :twisted:

 

[ImpulsE69]

I think the same thing sometimes.

Do I really need two 42U server racks + dedicated battery rack?

Now we know where the NSA is storing all the data.


On the opposite side of the spectrum...I've widdled everything I do down to 2 systems. One serves double duty as a music production rig and media storage catchall. It is rather old, but has plenty of storage and gets the job done. The other is my everything else (gaming, photo editing, and media server/plex sent out to 3 rokus). I used to love all the different gadgets, but really...at the end of the day it's all just fluff and more crap to keep up with and more money blown on something that only does part of what you want. When I built my new system a few years back, I planned all this out and built a new home theater at the same time. Since I have to do all this hardware/software fiddling at work, I don't care to do it at home more than I have to. I just want things to work once I have them set up. This configuration is simple and easy.

 

[Darknite39]

Yes, that's the one thing I need to give more thought to: actually planning out how everything will work together prior to buying / building something or otherwise changing my current setup. For example, I could probably dump my backup server if I got some larger drives and consolidated the primaries and backups in one machine.

It's kind of funny - - I live pretty simply aside from this tech stuff. This is generally because I like to tinker, but it can be a time-sink when something doesn't work right. More food for thought.

 

[TallBill]

1 PC, 1 Kindle, 1 Phone.... meh

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I won't bother listing my tech stuff -- let's just say I make the OP look tame.

 

[ultimatebob]

I've actually cut back a bit on my tech. I'm down to one desktop, 3 laptops (One for work, my old home laptop, and my new laptop), 2 tablets (an iPad 2 and a Nexus 7), a Roku, and an Android smartphone.

I put my old underpowered desktops and my old netbook in storage. That said, I really need a few new physical servers for VMWare training. The ones I have at work are underpowered, and running ESXi in a VM is painfully slow.

 

[Kaido]

I simplified recently:

1. His & her iPhones
2. Chromebook (mainly for me) - couch surfer (also an old e-ink Kindle & a kid's Android tablet)
3. Desktop (mainly for her) - kitchen computer (doubles as NAS)
4. Roku 3 players (in front of exercise machine, on living room TV, in basement HT)

All hooked up with a basic 802.11n/Gigabit router. I used to go nuts (PFsense router, DD-WRT WAP, FreeNAS, HTPC's, multiple desktops & laptops, an iPad, etc.) but thanks to (1) experience, and (2) technology improvements, I've been able to consolidate. It's really nice having nearly zero maintenance requirements for my geek stuff at home, since my day job is in IT (60-70 hours a week minimum).

The iPhones are under Apple's walled garden of protection, so not much more is needed aside from running iOS updates once in awhile. Rokus pretty much manage themselves, outside of adding new apps once in awhile (inexpensive LED projector for the home theater also means no bulb changes ever, yay!). Chromebook is zero-maintenance. Kindle is zero-maintenance. Galaxy Tablet for Kids has a childproof frontend on it, so that's zero-maintenance.

The desktop is a Hackintosh, so (1) it's running OSX (reasonably bulletproof), and (2) has traditional PC parts in case anything fails, so I don't have to take it to an Apple repair shop. I have local backup on that thing (Time Machine & image cloning) as well as online backup (Backblaze), along with spare drives in case anything blows up, so I pretty much never have to do anything to it. And it runs Windows via VMware or optionally dual-boot if I want to play a game or something.

The Chromebook is absolutely phenomenal (Acer C720), I'm a total convert. It's fast & lightweight, zero headaches, incredible battery life, and I can use it anywhere, instantly. Most of the time I'm not doing anything productive, mostly neffing or reading, so it works great for that if I just want to relax & not do any serious computing like video editing or something. The kid's tablet works great for kid's ebooks, movies in the car, games for entertainment while out in public, etc. I don't use the Kindle all that much, but the e-ink screen is really nice for when I do read a novel or something.

I think I would have more tech if I had more free time. In a couple years, I'd like to have a 40 to 50-hour a week position; it'd be nice to fire up some games on an HTPC & stuff like that, but it's not a really big deal right now. The Roku's are extremely family-friendly & don't require any funky setup if the power hiccups & they reboot, the remotes are RF & don't requiring aiming, and they can play back Internet content (Netflix, Amazon, VUDU, Youtube, Vimeo) as well as local content via Plex (off the desktop acting as a NAS). The only thing I really miss is playing emulators; I've been tinkering around with a Raspberry Pi & stuff like my Xbox 360 wireless controllers & X-arcade joystick pad, so that might work for the fun old console games we like to play like Sonic & Mario.

Oh, and I have a really neat mail setup. I have a basket by the front door for paper mail, along with an ADF scanner & shredder by my computer. When I sit down to go through the mail, I just grab the basket, scan the keepers into Dropbox, and then shred ALL of the paper. Never piles up that way, and I have a digital record in case I ever need to go back for information on a bill or other document. Super awesome, really helps reduce household clutter.