Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days

[aczlan]

English translation? :laughing:

Let me see what I can do:

Since this is in the LR and is not recessed into a closet like yours and mine are, I suppose you are going with all fanless equipment

LR = living room :laughing:

except for perhaps a HTPC which are generally very quiet.

HTPC = Home Theater PC

So what all goes into the rack?

Rack = A metal frame with metal rails that are full of holes down each side into which you mount equipment

I could probably pull some strings for you and get some tweaked Adcom's from my friend.

Adcom makes high end amplifiers (see ADCOM-USA)

I am assuming you are doing networking elsewhere since it would not look very good to have a punch down block and a switch in the LR.

Punchdown block = Someplace to bring all of the network cables into and leave an easy way to connect things.
Switch = A switch is used to connect computers and other networked equipment together.
Here is a picture of a patch panel (which has punch down blocks on the back) with a switch under it mounted in a rack:

The picture is from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Small_business_(SOHO)_network_cabinet_with_equipment.jpg

Aaron Z

 

[FairfaxStu]

English translation? :laughing:

I would prefer to think that Peter was right with his Everclear and Meth comment, but you are probably right. Sigh. IMO, this is a question of common sense not a language issue. Either way, I am sure the builder will take care of it. Everybody makes mistakes and an upstanding builder like Peter has will stand by his work.

There are always times when communication between the builder and his subs or even manufacturers fail. Quick story, I am having a secure closet door installed and we learned today that the manufacturer did not get either the opening size or the recess right on a metal door and frame for the electronic latch. Regardless of that, my builder was able to make it work despite the fact that it is not perfect. The latch should have been recessed 3/16" but was recessed only 1/16" thus meaning it sticks out about 1/8". To make it perfect, it would essentially be an entire new frame. I don't want to go through redoing the whole thing since it works and you only see the buldging latch when the door is open which will be rare. The lesson is "learn when to fight your battles and let the small things slide."
-Stu

 

[FairfaxStu]

Aaron,

I think Jay was actually responding to my post about the gutters and drains instead of my later post. However, you win my "line of the day" several times over for your post translating my technospeak into real words and links to explain. Hilarious.
-Stu

 

[pclausen]

Yeah, I pointed out the downspout issue to the builder. He said the gutter guys never connect them to drains. The other issue (not clear in the angle of the shot) is they they installed oversize gutters instead of regular ones as they were told, so they need to use special adapters to make them connect to the drain pipes. Good deal for mom as that would have been a $1000 up charge if we had requested it.

As for the equipment that will go in the rack, it will be the following:

• A/V Receiver (probably recycle the one she has now as it already features HDMI switching for 3 sources, might be 2, will have to check)
• Direct TV HD DVR (free when they do the install)
• HTPC - will need to build a new one to replace her mid size tower monster she has now
• Blu-ray player
• Audio amp for other zones (She already has a Yamaha amp for this)

Not everything is rack mountable, but I got several of those Mid-Atlantic rack shelves for those items. I'll then use filler plates as needed to seal up any unused rack units. Today she got a bunch of different sized internal and external HDs scattered between her office PC and mid tower PC for audio and video storage. Will likely consolidate all those into a storage server in the office, or make the office PC the file server for everything. With the demise of WHS, perhaps I'll upgrade mom to Windows 8 and run Storage Spaces, that lets you manage multiple hard drives as one virtual drive.

Hmm, now that I think about it, her current method of switching between sources, let alone zone is pretty bad, so I'll probably look into upgrading the AV receiver to something with multiple zones, but to get one that can stream HDMI audio from the HTPC cost real money. All the entry level AV receivers can only stream analog audio to other zones. Anyway, we're probably getting way off topic for at least another 3 weeks.

All Ethernet will be home run to the office where I'll have a small switch and AP (Wireless Access Point).

 

[FairfaxStu]

As for the equipment that will go in the rack, it will be the following:

• A/V Receiver (probably recycle the one she has now as it already features HDMI switching for 3 sources, might be 2, will have to check)
• Direct TV HD DVR (free when they do the install)
• HTPC - will need to build a new one to replace her mid size tower monster she has now
• Blu-ray player
• Audio amp for other zones (She already has a Yamaha amp for this)

Not everything is rack mountable, but I got several of those Mid-Atlantic rack shelves for those items. I'll then use filler plates as needed to seal up any unused rack units.

All Ethernet will be home run to the office where I'll have a small switch and AP (Wireless Access Point).

So it sounds like fanless with the exception of the HTPC (Home Theatre PC). I am guessing that you will document the build for that on a different forum.
-Stu

 

[J F]

Aaron,

I think Jay was actually responding to my post about the gutters and drains instead of my later post. However, you win my "line of the day" several times over for your post translating my technospeak into real words and links to explain. Hilarious.
-Stu

Actually, it was about the techno speak. :laughing: Aaron did a good job translating for us mere mortals. :thumbsup:

 

[J F]

So, Mom's gonna rock the place out, huh?

 

[pclausen]

Well, I would say its more about ease of selecting sources and controlling the volume in the various zones (locations that will have speakers). Her current setup is very manual, and even require her to select "PC Input" on her TV remote, in addition to switching the source on the AV receiver, for the audio portion. So she has the juggle 3 different remotes (receiver, TV and HTPC) most of the time. I'll definitely want to improve on that. Initially there will be just 2 zones (living room and bedroom (audio only)), but eventually, there will be another audio only zone in the basement and maybe another audio only one at the porch area in front of the kitchen.

 

[J F]

Well, I would say its more about ease of selecting sources and controlling the volume in the various zones (locations that will have speakers).

Her current setup is very manual, and even require her to select "PC Input" on her TV remote, in addition to switching the source on the AV receiver, for the audio portion.

So she has the juggle 3 different remotes (receiver, TV and HTPC) most of the time. I'll definitely want to improve on that.

Initially there will be just 2 zones (living room and bedroom (audio only)), but eventually, there will be another audio only zone in the basement and maybe another audio only one at the porch area in front of the kitchen.

Thanks, Peter. (spacing for my older-than-they-should-be eyes).

 

[aczlan]

Actually, it was about the techno speak. :laughing: Aaron did a good job translating for us mere mortals. :thumbsup:

Glad to hear that my work experience (translating steps to fix computer problems into very basic steps for people who know little about computers and/or are afraid of them) can be useful on here.

Aaron Z