Am really starting to run out of space now but was able to get a desk from a coworker and made it my official workbench instead of sharing it with another table. I can have several setups going now instead of just one.

TRS80 is the only thing on the shelf that needs work at the moment everything else has been reworked and is functional. Are there a bunch of modern upgrades and conveniences that I want? Absolutely 😉

Console and Commodore Corner. The PS/2 needs new dallas clock waiting on that to come in.

Table can now be used exclusively for setups. Got the Mac Classic working and cleaned up and the 5151 works as well. There is a 5155 underneath the desk that I got the 5151 to pair with.

The new desk - nice to just have a dedicated desk. Incorporated a Hantek oscilloscope after seeing some solid review online from Adrian's digital basement and some other youtubers. Need to get a bench power supply and would love a de-soldering gun for through hole components. Other than that really satisfied with the setup.

Current rig - Razer Stealth 13inch 2020 with RTX3060ti in EGPU setup LG 29inch Ultrawide 2560x1080

Boxes and boxes of components, cards and other stuff in a closet in this room as well. Wife will not let me move stuff into the basement so I have to keep working on optimizing space.

Here's a video of my retro room as well:
https://youtu.be/Xdd4uTq_EFU

That's a great looking setup Speeddemon!!

speeddemon wrote on 2022-04-01, 07:17:

IMG_2182.jpg

Here's a video of my retro room as well:
https://youtu.be/Xdd4uTq_EFU

WHUH-HO!! Absolutely dig that "if I were made of money back in 1995" home theater setup. What is that, a gigantic 16:9 professional monitor of some sort? Beyond cool, man!

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2022-04-01, 11:17:

That's a great looking setup Speeddemon!!

Standard Def Steve wrote on 2022-04-02, 02:59:

WHUH-HO!! Absolutely dig that "if I were made of money back in 1995" home theater setup. What is that, a gigantic 16:9 professional monitor of some sort? Beyond cool, man!

Thanks!

I've been collecting CRT displays for ~20-years and computers/consoles for ~30-years. The 16:9 professional monitor is a Sony BVM-D32 and it's definitely one of my favorite toys in the retro room. I feel incredibly lucky to have stumbled into it - it has less than 5k hours on the tube, I've re-capped all the boards, and fully recalibrated it (along with all my other CRTs).

It's been fun holding onto my favorite pieces/items and optimizing them over the years as certain retro tech has become better understood and more easily accessible.

speeddemon wrote on 2022-04-01, 07:17:

IMG_2182.jpg

Here's a video of my retro room as well:
https://youtu.be/Xdd4uTq_EFU

Amazing setup! Are these hi-fi floorstanding speakers shielded? I'd have thought they would interfere with the tube of the CRT.

Some of the photos in this thread were rage inducingly enviable to me.. But after 5.5 years of having to use the kitchen table on and off for all my hobbies, I now have my desk back, which means I can have my computing area, miniature painting space and RPG collection back in use! (I've been using this desk module for 27 years now.. I considered replacing it with something newer for the occasion, but to be honest I loved it too much to part with it 🤣)

MMaximus wrote on 2022-04-02, 10:13:

speeddemon wrote on 2022-04-01, 07:17:

IMG_2182.jpg

Here's a video of my retro room as well:
https://youtu.be/Xdd4uTq_EFU

Amazing setup! Are these hi-fi floorstanding speakers shielded? I'd have thought they would interfere with the tube of the CRT.

Thanks!

Yes, the speakers are retro themselves from back when home theater speakers were shielded. The left/right speakers are Polk RTiA7 and the center speaker is a Polk CSiA6.

I even used a 10x jeweler's loupe to check that each speaker's location wasn't affecting convergence... the center speaker had no affect (must be extremely well shielded), but the left/right had a tiny affect if they were within 6-inches of the display; hence playing it safe and keeping them 2-feet away.

speeddemon wrote on 2022-04-02, 03:23:

I've been collecting CRT displays for ~20-years and computers/consoles for ~30-years. The 16:9 professional monitor is a Sony BVM-D32 and it's definitely one of my favorite toys in the retro room. I feel incredibly lucky to have stumbled into it - it has less than 5k hours on the tube, I've re-capped all the boards, and fully recalibrated it (along with all my other CRTs).

It's been fun holding onto my favorite pieces/items and optimizing them over the years as certain retro tech has become better understood and more easily accessible.

I just read a 19 page review on that monitor. That's one impressive machine, and I would love nothing more than to plop down on a beanbag chair right in front of one & watch something cozy. Like, oh, Being There. Haven't seen that one for a long time!

Standard Def Steve wrote on 2022-04-03, 02:33:

speeddemon wrote on 2022-04-02, 03:23:

I've been collecting CRT displays for ~20-years and computers/consoles for ~30-years. The 16:9 professional monitor is a Sony BVM-D32 and it's definitely one of my favorite toys in the retro room. I feel incredibly lucky to have stumbled into it - it has less than 5k hours on the tube, I've re-capped all the boards, and fully recalibrated it (along with all my other CRTs).

It's been fun holding onto my favorite pieces/items and optimizing them over the years as certain retro tech has become better understood and more easily accessible.

I just read a 19 page review on that monitor. That's one impressive machine, and I would love nothing more than to plop down on a beanbag chair right in front of one & watch something cozy. Like, oh, Being There. Haven't seen that one for a long time!

Very cool! I've been meaning to write something for years to provide another perspective. He said in it that brightness and focus are an issue, but calibration can fortunately address both.

The monitor's 2.3 gamma calibrates to <1 dE with a D65 white point and a 100-nit luminance at 100 IRE. It even manages <2dE for RGBCMY and their respective saturation sweeps without a color management system or lookup table calibration (externally with those I have it at <0.5dE virtually across the board).

The focus on the monitor is also outstanding but requires a tedious but incredibly accurate process of digital convergence and uniformity adjustment. After doing this, 1080i and 720p are shockingly sharp for a CRT. The 24" version of this monitor (the BVM-D24) is actually the same tube as the Sony GDM-FW900 which is one of the sharpest CRT computer monitors and the BVM-D32 is actually sharper still.

Once calibrated and viewed in a dim room, the results are stunning. It's fun knowing I'm watching an SDR film on the same display it was most likely mastered on.

My Retro Corner. DOS6.22, Win98SE and WinXP (in setup) machines

I recently moved and pretty much recreated my last computing area, but it's quite a bit cleaner with a few more decorative touches. Things have probably changed a little with hardware since I last posted so here is my new place:

Nice digs!!! Of course no game room is complete w/o a "Alfred E. Neumann" tribute. Yes I
saw the "Mad" book 😁

My retro corner, each PC a decade 😁

From left to right:

• 80's: Commodore 64
• 90's:
  • CPU: Pentium MMX 233MHz
  • RAM: 64MB SDRAM
  • Video: Matrox Mystique & 3Dfx Voodoo 1
  • Audio: Integrated CMI8330
  • Storage: HDD 2GB
  • 2 Floppy drives and 52x CD-ROM drive
  • Motherboard: PCChips M575
  • OS: Windows 95 / Tiny Core Linux
• 00's:
  • CPU: Pentium 4 630 3GHz
  • RAM: 1GB DDR2
  • Video: Nvidia GeForce 7800GT
  • Audio: Integrated Intel HDA
  • Storage: SATA HDD 160GB
  • 1 Floppy drive and SATA DVD-RW drive
  • Motherboard: Asus P5LD2 SE
  • OS: Windows XP SP2 / Arch Linux

2022 update of my fun-room 😀

Salient wrote on 2022-04-22, 15:15:

2022 update of my fun-room 😀

Oooohhhhhh that is truly a room of fun. Awesome job!!!!

I really like this retro computer community with all their pre 2000’s computers. Really cool stuff.

I feel empowered too when I walk into my room with all the beige case computers.

I get thrown back to the 1990’s. 😀

I only wish I had more and bigger rooms for all my stuff.

My corner of happiness. 😀

My computing area in 1994.
I managed to identify quite some stuff. 😀

Salient wrote on 2022-05-14, 18:49:

My computing area in 1994.
I managed to identify quite some stuff. 😀

I like it, it's got style! 🙂👍
Very interesting equipment also. Thumbs up for the 486/586 setup! 👍