I Believe that Introductions are in Order

Hobo on top of TV.JPG

Hello Missing Remote readers. As this is my first blog posting, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Zach Christiansen (those of you who are observant already knew that) and I am a third year law student at Tulane University, with an undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering from Georgia Tech.

I have always been “Technical Support” for my family and friends. My first experience with anything resembling a home theater PC (HTPC) was when I convinced my parents to buy the first ATI All-in-Wonder for our home computer. We bought the card because my mom had made a slide show on the computer for my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary, but didn’t have a great way to share it with family and friends. Using the All-in-Wonder, we were able to output the computer display through a VCR (I still find it funny to think that at the time a VCR was cutting-edge technology) and record multiple copies for my aunts and uncles. Since that first experience, I have built several HTPC’s for myself as well as family members. My youngest sister’s favorite part about her Windows XP Media Center was showing her friends her free “TiVo” that her big brother had built for her.

But enough about me… lets take a look at my HTPC setup:

Currently I have an HTPC as well as a home server. I alsohave two netbooks (ASUS 1000 HA) that my wife and I each use for light computing (general web surfing, IM, email, etc.), as well as a Macbook Pro that my wife uses for photo editing/blogging <shamelessplug> (http://www.newlywedinneworleans.com </shamelessplug> The HTPC is directly connected to my main TV which is an LG 32FZ4D-UA (older 1080i, HDMI capable CRT display that must suffice for the time being. I use RDP from the netbooks to access the HTPC and WHS to perform maintenance/updates etc. Before I get to the pics, I thought I would lay out the basic specs of the HTPC and WHS.

 

 

  HTPC Server
Case Thermal Take Bach HT Fractal Designs Core 300 (review coming soon)
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-H67MA-USB3-B3 DDR3 1333 LGA 1155 Intel H67 Gigabyte GA-H67MA-USB3-B3 DDR3 1333 LGA 1155 Intel H67
CPU Intel Core i5-2400 Intel E6300 Dual-Core
Memory Corsair Vengeance Blu 8 GB PC3-12800 1600mHz DDR3 G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM
Hard Disk

Crucial RealSSD C300 (OS)

2xWDEARS (Recorded TV)

WD20EADS 2TB

WD 5000 AAJ External My Book (Backup)

Disk Drives LG WH10LS30K 10x Blu-ray Burner None
Tuners

2 x Aver-media M780 PCIe

Ceton InfiniTV4 PCIe

None
Speakers Logitech Z 505 (basic i know, but will upgrade when I get a new TV to use an AVR, right now these work for my small APT) None
Graphics Intel HD 2000 XFX ATI Radeon HD 4650
Remote Logitech Harmony 700 N/A
OS Windows 7 Ultimate Windows Home Server 2011

Now for the pictures

Then there is the real master of my home theater, my cat Hobolochito.

And that is it for the introduction. I look forward to interacting with all of you here at Missing Remote.

  • Welcome Zach!
    Welcome Zach!

  • Always good to have a

    Always good to have a potential lawyer on board!

    Hope you know what you are getting yourself into, they didn’t call Mike Garcen shadymg for nothing.

    • Glad to have you writing for

      😀

      Glad to have you writing for Missing Remote, Zach!

    • mikinho wrote:

      Always good

      [quote=mikinho]

      Always good to have a potential lawyer on board!

      Hope you know what you are getting yourself into, they didn’t call Mike Garcen shadymg for nothing.

      [/quote]

       

      ROFL

      But seriously, welcome to MR.com Zach.

  • I think you need a Swiffer

    I think you need a Swiffer 🙂  Welcome!

  • Andrew I do have a swiffer

    Andrew I do have a swiffer 🙂 and replace the air filter for the AC every three weeks or so… and the dust build up is still this bad