Every technology writer needs space to work. Of course, the guy who reviews iPhone apps may not need quite the space that another tech journalist might need to review server hardware. The needs of each class of reviewer are unique.
In my particular case, the space has evolved over time. The basement lab began back in 1997, when I first moved into the house. This particular house has a daylight basement, something relatively unusual in Northern California. At that point, I’d been a moderately successful freelance writer, focusing on hardware for PC performance geeks and PC gamers.
I’ve always had one particular philosophy: to try to test and review gear as it’s meant to be used.
Here’s one example: motherboard reviews. I don’t have special, open bench space for motherboards. There are some very cool test setups available from companies like http://www.highspeedpc.com High Speed PC. If I was working exclusively or extensively on motherboard reviews, these specialized test racks would be extremely useful.
Most users, though, build systems into PC cases.
I tend to review motherboards in actual cases, though. It’s true that I’ve been using large cases – mostly Coolermaster Cosmos 1000’s – but until you screw down a board into the case, see how the ATX I/O shield fits and check out the actual hotspots when the case is closed up. I’ve had boards not align properly with screw holes, had problems with the location of ATX12V four- or eight-pin power plugs and other issues that only crop up when you actually build a system.
So even if I were reviewing a ton of boards, and used a specialized test bench, I’d at least do a final test by slapping it into a case and seeing just how well it works in a realistic environment.
That idea of a fairly realistic environment extends to the basement lab. While the house has central air conditioning, there’s no specialized HVAC that goes into the room – just the one heating / AC vent up near the ceiling. The floor is carpeted, albeit with carpet that’s highly resistant to static buildup. Of course, I have to make some concessions. When we moved into the house, I discovered that the 40 year old electrical system was capacity limited and only supported two-prong polarized wiring. So I installed a ground for the house, and upgraded the 100A service to a 200A service.
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10 comments
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killerplat says:
August 17, 2009 at 9:54 pm (UTC -7 )
lloyd. I thinik you need a new book case, or atleast bold a few of the heavy shelf to the wall.
No wonder your house works so well with your new solar panel installation. You have so much light comming into your house, amazing. Its an amazing setup for general work areas, but i wil have made it into a home theater although the windows will have to go in that case ( id ont generally work from home so i guess thatst why i will have done that).
All in all, this is an impressive setup. wish i could be more organised like you, my electronics is aall over the place i use my closet as my server space, the wires comming out of the closet makes it look like i have a matrix setup behind the walls. lol
killerplat says:
August 17, 2009 at 9:55 pm (UTC -7 )
Ohh. Sorry, i have to start reading my post before i post them. I meant to say you should ‘bolt’ the shelves to the wall
Loyd Case says:
August 17, 2009 at 10:05 pm (UTC -7 )
Actually, the bookshelves are bolted to studs in the wall, just in case of earthquakes.
vern says:
August 17, 2009 at 10:26 pm (UTC -7 )
This is sweet. It’d be cool if you could describe your hardware a little bit more in a future post.
Dimatteo says:
August 18, 2009 at 4:19 am (UTC -7 )
Wow geek hevean! We have books, cables, hardware and more … luckily for you and and all us geeks who have an understanding woman in our lives!
Great basement Lloyd,
Dimatteo
Charles says:
August 18, 2009 at 8:09 am (UTC -7 )
Not sure if you are doing this on purpose but your RSS feed only includes the first page (in Bloglines at least, using this url http://www.improbableinsights.com/?feed=rss2). I like reading your stuff but it’s pretty annoying to have to click through.
Loyd Case says:
August 18, 2009 at 1:06 pm (UTC -7 )
Thanks, Charles. Not intentional at all, so I’ll look into it when I get back tomorrow.
Moggraider says:
August 19, 2009 at 4:40 am (UTC -7 )
This post is useless without pictures.
Anyway, I hear you on being capacity-limited. My family’s garage didn’t like it so much when I spent a summer with them and brought three consoles, two monitors, and two PCs.
Loyd Case says:
August 21, 2009 at 6:54 am (UTC -7 )
You did read pages 2 & 3, right? Lots of pictures!
Max Heim says:
October 13, 2009 at 5:35 pm (UTC -7 )
I dig the blue rad glow through the windows — didn’t realize Sunnyvale was a hot spot.
Multiplayer LAN Gaming: the Better Experience « All Topics « Improbable Insights says:
November 13, 2009 at 2:07 pm (UTC -7 )
[...] you want to check out more details on the basement lab, check out the blog post on the http://www.improbableinsights.com/2009/08/17/294/ basement [...]