It’s been a while since my last blog entry, I’ve either been under the weather or have had my mind elsewhere. I did finish off my first mod in decades (yes, it has been this long) and I’m very proud of it! Project: Red Iron first started off as a challenge to myself; having to get used to all the modding skills that are common nowadays, and to see what different techniques I could incorporate into the build.
All in all I must have taken a lazy 4 months to complete this mod, and I’m sure if I had not received a few emails from the sponsors asking for an update, it would have taken even longer!
To be honest, I am not really 100% satisfied with the outcome. There are small tweaks I could have improved on, and I will be looking to go back to the build in the coming weeks to get all the niggles ironed out (no pun intended!).
It was at the end of this mod that I realized I need more data storage space and a back up system to go with it. Currently I have 2 x 3TB hard disks in this PC, and a 2TB Western Digital MyCloud to store all my files on. Having a collection of all the videos and photos I’ve taken, and all the edited videos, all those TBs of storage is getting eaten up at a very fast rate.
With this in mind, Loy and I have started to explore the possibility of a bigger, and much safer, data storage system, especially now that his 10 year old Drobo has gone to digital heaven. Whilst I have absolutely no need for lightning fast data transfer, I just need something to dump all my files on, he needs this as he is constantly editing videos. We did come up with what we thought was a brilliant idea of building our own NAS with all the spare PC hardware we have lying around, only for the idea to the dashed as he could not rely on the reliability of the USB 3.1 gen 2 port on the motherboard, that software RAID is just nasty, the NAS/PC would be huge and most probably look hideous, it would use too much power, and that getting the NAS software to work with our limited skills would be a nightmare.
Personally, I like being an overkill when it comes to technology. My PC is sat here overclocked for no purpose whatsoever apart from it is. The last game I ran on it was Football Manager 2015 which even the onboard graphics would run without breaking a sweat, let along the GeForce GTX 1070 I current have in it. Hey, I’m the one that bought a PCI video capture card with all the bells and whistles not to capture and edit videos, but as a HDMI input from my TV box………
Which brings me to my latest decision to purchase a NAS. I like the look of a NAS, I like the feeling of my data being stored in one place and backed up on a NAS, I like having all the fancy apps that the likes of Synology, QNAP and ASUSTOR have for the NAS, but is all going to be wasted as my broadband is only 6Mb, with the upload speed being a fraction of that.
4 x 4TB hard disks should be enough for all my files…… I have my eye on the budget ASUSTOR as1004t……
In the near future, I will have a spare bedroom in my flat. I have estimated that even if I piled up all the junk I have lying around the living room into it, I will still have half a room for me to play with. I must stick my hand up here and admit that one of the reasons I have been delaying doing any reviews in the last month or so was because of having to take product photos. Every time I have to take some photos in the limited space of my flat I have to lock the dog away, clear the bed, set up the lighting and put up the foldaway lightbox tent. And that’s the easy part. The hard part, and sometimes can take up to 2 hours, is trying to put that damn lightbox away, the wire frame inside just never seems to twist the right way.
So I intend to set up a photo/video studio in my spare bedroom. And it is at this point I have come to realize how alien the whole concept of studio lighting and equipment is to me. Apart from setting my mind on white lights and a white blind in the background, and maybe get a FunkyKit banner printed, I have no idea about the rest! What type of lights, how bright must they be, do I use those frames or have them mounted on the ceiling, what about those funky looking silver umbrellas that spreads the light?
This is hurting my brain.
It has come to the point that I’m treating this much like my mod, I have started looking at tons of different things, and have started to sketch out the layout of the studio.
It really does not help when I stumble across things like the Foldio360, leaving me wonder what I can use it for, and if I can build something similar myself….
This is such a simple yet effective idea!
