John Hok dot Com

Just thought I’d share with you how my workstation at home looks like. I know a lot of computer geeks (and non computer geeks) like seeing the setup of people’s desktop and where they work. So here are pictures of my workstation taken with my camera phone!

Laptop - Toshiba Satellite A200-AH5
Intel Core Duo 2.00GHz
1024MB Ram Original (upgraded to 2048MB)
120GB Hard Drive Space
15.4″ Glossy Widescreen
Windows Vista Home Premium

LCD Monitor - Dell 2005FPW
20″ Matte Widescreen LCD
1680×1050 Native Resolution
16.7 Million Colours Support (one of the few LCD panels that can truly support the full 16.7)
IPS Type LCD Panel (almost perfect viewing angles with no colour distortion, support for 16.7 with no dithering)

The laptop I got for around $650 with a $150 gift card I received as a gift from one of my high school teachers. It’s great for it’s use. I bring it to school as a portable and bring it home as a desktop. It’s a very fast machine after upgrading the ram to 2GB. The computer really wasn’t sufficient with only 1GB running Vista. The build quality is more or less solid and it does it’s job nice. The only real gripe I have with it is the awkward bilingual keyboard(which I’ve gotten used to by now) and the glossy outer casing. The glossy coating on the outside is a fingerprint magnet and always gets dirty.

The monitor I purchased used for only $200! One of my best hardware investments I have to say as having the second monitor has proved invaluable. This has got to be one of the best LCD monitors to hit the market. Unfortunately they are no longer being produced. It’s a 20″ LCD built with an LG IPS panel. There are 3 main types of panels used in LCD manufacturing: TN, MVA, IPS. TN are the most widely used as they are the cheapest to manufacture. The problem with TN panels is that they support only 16.2 million colours and it simulates the rest of the colours through dithering. Also TN panels have horrible viewing angles which distort the image when you don’t look at the screen directly. IPS is basically the opposite of the TN panel and are the best panels you can get in LCD monitors. The Dell 2005FPW has been compared to the Apple Cinema displays which retail for almost $800.

When I went to look for a new LCD for a dual monitor setup I knew I wanted this one so it took months of researching and searching before I was able to find a seller who was willing to give his up. Now that I have it, it was well worth the effort. The monitor is amazing. In that last picture you see that the 2005FPW can tilt 90 degrees and have a very high vertical resolution which is great for browsing websites without scrolling. The monitor also has height, tilt, and rotate adjustment capabilities so it’s very ergonomic and you can adjust it to just about anyway you need to have it.

Do you have pictures of your computer setup? Feel free to share them with me! As a fellow computer geek, I love seeing other setups as well.

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