Chris Marshall, lives, plays and plays some more in Almerimar, Spain. (Very) occasionally he will venture out and do some work, when he isn’t busy reviewing Mac applications on his blog MyAppleStuff. A keen photographer, avid Harley rider, and full time staff to Moreno his cat, Chris only got his first Mac (G4 17″ PowerBook) in January 2006.
Somewhat older than the current crop of Mac bloggers and podcasters, Chris can be found weekly over at the MacReviewCast podcast trying to make sense of his life!
What does your current Mac setup consist of?
I would have to say that my current, as in ‘day to day’ set up, is a Mac mini 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo (2GB RAM, 120GB HD) hooked up to a LaCie mini Hard Drive & Hub (300GB). I run a 23″ Cinema Display and access the internet through a 8 Port Gigabit Switch connected to an Airport Extreme.
I am also connected to a TVMax which I absolutely adore for getting my satellite (Sky+) films and programs onto the Mac.
Why have you chosen this machine?
To be honest it sort of chose me! Although I loved the 17″ G4 PowerBook I really wanted a desktop and a large display, and at the same time I wanted to look at the Mac mini as a means of driving my digital media around the apartment.
The initial plan was to have the Mac mini in the lounge and run the PowerBook through the 23″ Display in dual screen mode, and hook up with the Mac mini for media. One way or another that didn’t work out so I sort of got left with the Mac mini.
What other Apple gear do you own?
Too much probably!! My wife has a 20″ iMac that I use most days for one thing or another. We have a second Mac mini connected to the TV in the lounge, and I have just go a new 13″ MacBook for the times that I need to work out of the apartment.
Between us we have 9 iPod’s – 2 first generation Shuffles (1GB), 2 second generation Shuffles (1GB), a first generation Nano (2GB), a first generation Mini (4GB), 2 third generation iPods (10GB & 15GB) and a fifth generation iPod with video (60GB).
I have two Airport Express units hooked up to two different audio networks. Last but not least we have two wireless keyboards and three wireless mighty mice.
What is your next planned upgrade to your workstation?
For the foreseeable future, nothing. Longer term I will look at a Mac Pro and a second 23″ display but for now my focus is on getting the most out of what we have. I am a big fan of distributed workflows so I tend to spread my work and play across all the Macs.
They are all connected via ethernet so we have a pretty quick network. I have a reasonable amount of digital media stored across them (80GB of Music, 100+ movies, 20Gb of photographs) and I am always moving stuff around and viewing it on different Macs.
My next project is to get a flat screen TV for my wife’s room so that she can dual screen with the iMac and have a good quality screen for watching (eyeTVHybrid) the movies etc. As a consequence of that her current TV will come into my study and I will use that for my PS2, DVD’S and as the monitor for the Sony Desktop (as I really don’t use it that much). That way the 17″ Sony display can be connected to the MacBook when necessary to give me a dual screen set up.
What do you think of Chris’s setup?