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My Blogging Station Setup

written by John Chow on June 20, 2008

How one lazy bum made $176,697.50

Here’s a look at my current blogging station. Ever since I posted about my new Dell 30″ LCD, I’ve been receiving emails asking to see the rest of the setup.

My current system is a lot different than my old system. Because I travel so much, I wanted a solution that would simplify my work flow. The problem with maintaining both a desktop and laptop is one is always out of date from a data standpoint. And if you forget to sync them before you head out on your trip, you may find some important files were left on the home comp. The video below shows how I got around that problem.

If you wish to create the same setup I use for blogging, expect to spend about $4,000 for it.

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So... pretty... must.... have! :drools:

My mom thought the 20 inch CRT I got was big as far as screen area. I wish I could have a nice thin and bigger monitor like this.
4000 is over my budged though, care to donate? ha ha

Man you are so lucky your office looks great cant wait till i own my office one day too :wink:

You are lucky. And your system is great...

Hi, nice setup you have especially with the huge monitor.

I also have a MBP 15" connected to a 19" LCD monitor. However, what I like most is my PC that I turned into a Hackintosh. It dual boots Vista and Leopard 10.5.3. So I can easily run something on Windows or OS X without activating Parallels on my MBP and eat a lot of precious resources. Check my blog if you need to create your own Hackintosh--easily! :mrgreen:

http://menoob.com

HI!
Sir ! your blogworkstation is good ,and i think before seeing this post u will post through laptop when u r in/on? tours but now iwas wrong,actually i like dell laptop bcz i have seen it first @ my professors blessing(teaching) hands and many also told dell gives best fit to the price we invested .

Regards'
kk
India
'mobile secret codes in india'
http://cellphonebiz.blogspot.com

Very cool - thanks Tom. I've decided to go with IN WALL speakers too and am looking at the NXG speaker line. Apparently they are pretty good. What do you think about Pioneer receivers?

Brooks, hold on! Make sure you put some baffles or whatever you call them behind those in-wall speakers unless they are on an exterior wall. I have in-wall speakers in my house and if this was a long-term residence, I would change some things up. The family room wall just so happens to be the master bedroom wall on the other side. With just the speakers in the wall, sound can be heard in the bedroom when the system is turned up.
It is funny, I like Pioneer for car stereos and don't mess with them in the house. Sony is opposite, but the same. I would think Pioneer makes some decent stuff though. If budget allows, I would go with Denon, then Onkyo and finally Sony. I think Sony may offer the most HDMI inputs for the money right now.

haha wow i love your setup its something im going to have to save up for!

Can anyone recommend a good home theater set up or system? My old Panasonic system has finally died. I don't need a tv - just the speakers and sound. I've been looking at the BOSE 3-2-1 system with some interest...any suggestions????

This comment isn't really relevant to this site, but I would stay away from Bose. I think Bose is heavy on style and light on sound. Also, you should consider if size is an issue for you. There are sooo many good speakers out there and the lesser known brands might actually be the better sounding speakers. If you live in a city with a home stereo store, go in and pick their brains. You never know what you might find out.

Oh, if you are also talking about a receiver, I would suggest Denon. I personally have Onkyo, but that is because it is hard to justify replacing a receiver that is only one year old and working perfectly. Do you want to know a key component to your home theater? Buy the Logitech Harmony One remote. It works great and now I only have to worry about what I want to do - play Xbox, watch DVD, etc. - instead of making sure every component is setup right.

That setup looks insane, but great at the same time.

How come the video doesn't work anymore?

I've got the MacBook Pro too. I love it.

nice place John.I wish i had one. Now i am posting my blog from office. I had one pc which i bought 4 years ago, and it was far beyond pitiful compared to yours.

John! You should be thankful to GOD for the comfortness. I just posting my blog using my office desktop. It's FOC. I had only an old pc on my own which i bought 4 years ago. It was pentium 4, 256RAM, ATI graphic,2.6 processors and a CRT 15" monitor.

I hope i can make money as much as you are now to buy a new one. Not just pc, but more needs. Wish me luck John!
What's up
Awsome Photo Blog

Nice setup! When you make $30,000 on your blog per month, you can afford a system like this just to blog.

What are some of the specs of the machines? Do you like your current setup, or what would you ultimately want to have?

The Macbook Pro has an Intel 2.4GHz dual core CPU, 4GB of RAM, 200GB hard drive, NVIDIA Geforce 8600 video card with 256MB of RAM, 15.4" LED backlit screen, aluminum frame. At 5.4lbs, it's the lightest 15" notebook in the world. If they can put all this into a 13" notebook, it would be perfect.

That is an old school iPod you got there :). You've inspired me to do a post on my "lab".

I also think of using one system [notebook]. Instead of having desktop [online with firewall -prepared to lost by virus attack], notebook [site report], my mobile [email], and company accounting on another PC.
Very nice setup for a blogger.

That's awesome. Hopefully one of these days I will be able to upgrade to a better system.

Can't afford to ger system like yours..
But I hope to earn more money this months to replace some of my equipment..

That's a long way from my Packard Bell 486x33 with the screaming 2400 baud fired up
when I bought a 8 meg chip for 200 cash
kicked it up to 14.4 and had the first copy of win 95
I was KING;)

Nice setup...their actually amazing..JC rocks! :mrgreen:

Very nice setup. As I get older I think a larger monitor would be good for me. I am just in age denial at the current time. I have my standard HP pc that I use for all my web, graphic and blog work. I have a laptop beside me that I use to check what I am doing. I always view my webwork in both FF and MS and recently have been looking at my sites on my Motorola Q phone. I am starting to develop seperate parts of my sites just for smart phones..... whole different set of design rules there. HHHMMMMM maybe that is a topic for future postings at NoviceSEO. Anyway thanks for the insight on what the "master" uses.................cheers...........eric

Nice blogging Station Setup!!!
Wishing to have this someday!

Thats just my dream PC..!! :!:

Nice set up you've got there JC! You're fist post inspired me to order a monitor for the laptop I've been using. I couldn't justify the cost of the 30" you're rollin...but I did order a 22" Dell Ultrasharp for $299 and shipping was free...I couldn't pass it up.
Thanks for sharing. I didn't know you were a Mac user.

John, I know this is totally unrelated to this post but I was just wondering have you ever graduated from college? If not, what's you opinion on school and academic education? Does anybody know?

Yes I have a college education.

If you want to keep all your files synced, sign up for Live Mesh. It keeps your files in sync on all devices installed and you can access them through a web interface. Right now its only for Windows, but it's coming out on both Macs and Mobile Phones.

Vary nice thanks for sharing! :grin:

Very nice, I have a very similar keyboard/mouse...

wow...you have a great Blogging Station :shock:

John, what a cool nice workstation you have! It is definitely more productive to have more screen real estate. :wink:

I only have a 20 inch" monitor for now. But I will think about getting a bigger one , working on 20 different firefox windows is definitely a challenge for all webmasters or bloggers. And I would prefer a macbook air , is way more light than the macbook pro. (I don`t travel as much as John Does). The question is how is that 30 inch monitor , isn`t it a bit too big? I bet it`s great ! :)

Sweet setup! Definitely gives me some ideas, when I get my new system.

No links to buy via the TTZ Network? :o John. I'm disappointed!

Holy!
I want to be just like you when I grow up lmao.

Your system looks great. Dell is the best :)

That's nice station John! :grin:

Wow, got to get myself one of those monitors. I use a laptop all the time and plug in a tiny (in comparison) 19" LCD with wireless keyboard.

I didn't know Mac's have virtual desktops. I use Ubuntu and have five desktops which I switch between all the time just to free up real estate. Couldn't live without them. Single desktops are just sooo unproductive.

FireFox is the only one to use, IE, well don't get me started on that piece of **** but no matter how hard I try and can't get my GL to make the switch.

That was is really great... but i can't afford that much for the time being. Maybe someday (that's the day i beat you in the competition! lol!) i will do greater than that...

I am using 22" LCD and I thought it is big enough, well seems that you have a bigger than mine. I thought of getting Macbook but the specs are not sufficient for my needs.

When you say the specs are not sufficient what do you mean? What are you doing on your computer that you think you can't accomplish with a mac? What specs does your PC have?

John, what version of FF are you using? I downloaded version 3 the other day, but I'm still not totally in love with it.

I've been using FF3 for quite a while. I was using the RC before the final came out. I love the gesture feature that allows me to use my Macbook Pro trackpad to move forward and back on pages.

John, I love the mac - I have a 15" MBP and a 20" iMac. Two questions:

1. Does FF have something that allows you to group a set of web pages together like Safari does on the toolbar?
2. Do you plan on getting MobilMe with the ability to change things on an iPhone, Mac or PC and have the change be reflected across all devices?