Covert-a-Room

[Othmalo]

Hello everyone, first post! My idea, basically, is to take my boring old room (Sorry, no pics. No camera) and turn it into something that I can enjoy. I'm single, so I don't have a wife or kids to worry about, and I just bought a house. What I'm trying to say, is I don't have a lot of money to swing around on this, so let's say the limit is $10,000. (By the way, I can use the rest of the house for some of the stuff, like putting servers and unnecessary room stuff into my basement)

A basic list of what I want, you will find below.




Not a very big TV, but it should be around 30", flat, and plasma or LCD, preferrably LCD. This, I'm hoping, will be around $2,000, and the most expensive thing on my list. High defenition.. heh.
Some nice audio equipment to go with the TV would be nice. Again, I'm on a budget, so nice, but not overkill.
HTPC. I can't have all of that stereo equipment for nothing, can I? Looking to spend 'enough' on it.
A PC for my room, of course. This one's downstairs. :(
Anyways, I don't think I'm asking too much. Problem is, now that I have house payments, I'm making about $60 extra per month that I can put into it, so I need to figure out some way to make a little more money. Any ideas?

OK, time to elaborate a little bit more on things, and list my options.

--As for the TV, I've only really liked one that I've seen so far. Click Here (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0001FSCU4/qid=1106180722/br=1-11/ref=br_lf_etk_ce_av__11//002-5076184-3122454?v=glance&s=electronics&n=1203588) Anyways, it's a Viewsonic TV. We use those at work, and myself and my team members really like them. The two main trucks we use have about 15 Viewsonic monitors in them, and we've only had to replace one, and have had no dead pixels. So, unless anyone has any nitpicking to do about the TV, it's most definately my first choice. Very affordable to me as well.

--Time for stereo equipment. For a reciever, I chose a Sony STRDE597 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0001NBH2G/ref=ord_cart_shr/002-5076184-3122454?%5Fencoding=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&v=glance). Reason being, the person who reviewed it gave a good review, it supports 6.1, and it's only $170. It basically provides what I want. :) As for speakers, I don't have a clue. DVD/CD/MP3 etc will be handled by my HTPC. Make sure to tell me if I'm missing anything, I'm sort-of new to the audio field.

--Ah, HTPCs are so beautiful. *Heads from Amazon to Newegg* Anyways, I'm going to use MythTV most likely. Therefore, I shall place a 2.8Ghz Celeron (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-112-198&depa=0) into an Asus Pundit AB-P2600 (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=56-110-026&depa=0). I'll be sticking 1GB of OCZ Premiere Series (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-146-996&depa=0) RAM into it as well. As for the harddrive, I've got a quick question to ask. Does the Pundit have SATA support, or do I have to use an IDE drive? Either way, I plan on using a rather large drive. For the tuner, I'll use a Hauppage PVR-250 (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=15-116-602&depa=0). (<-- Wait, that's not a HDTV tuner... Time to pick a different one... it's too late xD) Another quick question, does anyone know if the remote included in the PVR-250 is compatible with the Linux remote drivers/software? I forget what it's called at the moment, it starts with an L.

--Computer-wise, I'm still deciding. I'm sure this will change a lot anyways.

Current Price: $2250+s/h (Approximate)

[hungrych]

Well, if you need to make more money you could always get a better job. :D

[RSCAdam]

If you want a good TV go buy a Sony Vega, I got one and would never go back.

$2,400 I got the tv, 5 speakers, subwoofer, 5 disc DVD player, and a matching TV stand.

[Othmalo]

Well, if you need to make more money you could always get a better job. :D

Nono, you don't understand. I'm making $16,000 average per month, depending on how good of a job I do. I pay for cable, water, electricity, gas, two cars, a brand new house with a short-term repayment plan, new goodies for the job, etc etc etc. Basically, I've got $1,000 left per month for food and such. After my food, and similar, which includes car refueling, I'm left with about $60 to spare.

[deafboy]

Well I did something like that to a spare room in my house. It all depends on your personality...good luck and have fun man.

[Viper_0000]

Make a pay pal account and spam it all over the internet, hopefully you will get AT LEAST 1000 people to donate AT LEAST one dollar...

I plan on doing a complete remake over of my room aswell. New TV, surroundsound, TiVo/Replay TV, Another TV for xbox system link, new furniture, and cool disco'y club'y lan party'y lights and crap that turns on and off with a flick of a switch.

[hungrych]

Don't forget to post pics when you're done. ;)

[Othmalo]

I'm sure I'll manage to grab a camera by the time I'm done.

OR, viper, you could just donate about $1200 (The extra $200 to cover paypal fees...)

[dhuss]

so lets see... ~$60 to spare per month with a $10,000 limit... so that comes out to 10,000/60 = 167 months = ~14 years to save up...

if you want my thoughts, i'd sell one of the cars. Then you get savings each month on a car payment and your insurance. You could use that for this or put some more each month toward you house payment... just my $0.02

D.H.

[bigstrongguy2]

holy crap, whats ya job dude lol, and why have you got two cars
and getting $16,000 a month and only having $240 a month spending money theres something wrong lol

[WormSnot]

ya seriously $16,000 a month average and you only have $60 at the end to spare? I only make $3000 a month and I have 300 to put away for stuff. I don't own a house, but if I did it would actually be cheaper for me. I don't want to because I do contract work though and move around alot. in anycase. If you want to make fancy furniture for this room I would suggest taking your time and do it yourself. If you plan well, and do the whole measure twice and cut once thing then it usually turns out pretty well. Also when you do it yourself you can get everything exactly how you want/need it instead of settling for what the stores have. and ya if you parked a car and only used the one with the best gas mileage you would probably save a bundle.

[burnstyle]

*refraining from comment*

...


*walking away*

[burnstyle]

i sped more cash than that every month smoking... so um... i have no clue...


ooooh you could buy a cheap cam and sell your pics to some gay porn site... that might land you some bank....


just a thought

[Yoshi]

Well basically I think your full of it....
If you make 16k month theres no prob affording that. None...
If you blow that much money a month your prolly a coke head... or compleatly retarded with finances.
My advise hire someone to manage your finances since you obviously cant do it.
Either that or quit making up BS stuff to make people think you cool.

[computerman]

ya that sounds like a hell of a lot of money, what do you do as a job?

[Othmalo]

computerman: I work as the security manager for a company formerly known as Asia Source Incorperated, now better known as ASI. We basically manage security for the whole company, myself and 8 other people. We go around the company to do drug screenings, background checks, etc. We also have a couple people that watch the security cameras, but that rotates every so often.

yoshi: Trust me, there can be problems affording it. I'm NOT a coke head, and I can manage my finances perfectly fine. It's a 4,500sq. foot house, and it is on a short term loan repayment. Two cars with loans to pay, that's a good $10,000 a month for the house and cars alone. Added to huge gas costs for heating, cable, electricity, frequent land line AND cellular calls, and a maid that comes every two weeks to clean. Add that to gas for my H2, and the occasional Lexus fill-up (Horrible winter car). I've got about 5 years of loans to pay off all of this stuff. Then add that to food. Then, my friend, you get anywhere from $50-$100 left per month.

I am NOT BSing by the way. If I were BSing, would I not have added in that I 'supposedly have' 3 60" plasma TVs, a 6Ghz computer with 8GB RAM, 3TB of harddrive space, and 4 Dual layer burners??? If someone were BSing, they would be a lot more creative than that.

[hungrych]

Well, when you ask people how to get more money and then say that you make 16k a month, and only have $60 left over, you'll get these kinds of responses.

[computerman]

maybe you should sell one of the cars. i mean come on you baught a 51K "SUV" (hummer) and now your complaining because you have to fill it up jeez. SECURITY GAURD? HOW DOES A SECURITY GAURD MAKE THAT MUCH!?

[Othmalo]

computerman: Hey, I like my Hummer. No dissing it. It's not as bad as work vehicles either. As for the security guard... I'm not a guard. I'm the security manager for the entire company. I employ security guards, run the video cameras, etc etc etc. And you'd be surprised at how hard it is, sometimes you have to go to court to show videos, others drive around the country to go investigate break-ins.

[hungrych]

Ok, I think that this thread is about to become a flame fest, so everybody take some chillaxation pills. We don't want to offend anybody, or do we?

/evil grin
/maniacal laughter
/me sinks back into his cave

[burnstyle]

someone had the balls to say it... and it had to be yoshi..... *props yosh*

[Yoshi]

Yes best to let this drop.
Suffice it to say that if what you say is true you are living beyond your means.
Tip for everyone, you should be able to save 20% of your take home pay (no matter how much it us). If you cant, then cut back your expenses.

[deafboy]

I agree, you shouldnt have a problem converting a room if you are making that much...whatever, if you wanna waste your money that is fine by me but its not too bright.

[Metae]

I think this thread was made more to brag. BUt dude sorry, you do seem to be bragging, and since the owner of the place doesn't like you already, I don't see a good future for you here, sorry man.

[Othmalo]

Sorry, but I wasn't trying to brag.

And since it's obvious that no-one here has any appreciation for anyone that makes a little bit more money than them, I'll be on my way now. I'd just like to say that I'd expected better from such a large community.

[hungrych]

It has nothing to do with that, it's just that you seem to want to brag about it...

[Chris_Tucker]

wish i made 16k a month...

[Darthness]

Sorry, but I wasn't trying to brag.

And since it's obvious that no-one here has any appreciation for anyone that makes a little bit more money than them, I'll be on my way now. I'd just like to say that I'd expected better from such a large community.
A little? $16,000 is alot more then what most people make in a month....

As yoshi said, stop eating and hire an accountant, you obvioulsy have a big problem with spending.

[Memories]

I was reading this...and laughing at the same time.
You make 16,000 a month... 16,000*12=192,000. You should earn a little bit more for bonus' or PIP or something. lets say you make even 200 k a year. So out of that 200 K you only have $720 to spend in a year? I find that total BS.
Thats not living comfortably, you want to atleast keep 20% of your income like Yoshi stated. I would sell that Hummer and Lexus. Why do you have two cars anyway man? Thats ridiculous. You need to get your life sorted out, just a little.

[kennyt772]

well i may just be fifteen but im pretty smart. cut you expenses and stash youre money. property value in a car or house can vanish in am instant. plus if you need surgery or other emergency money thigs you sol. so listen to us not argue. yosh everyone 20% is good the the higher the better (like 50%)

[Siralek88]

I dont know why everyone is like this. I'm goin of too college, so I've been working alot. Now instead of saving for school I spent all the money I got saved up (about 13k) on a used 2004 nissan 350z with 23k miles on it. I'm doin good in school though, about a 3.7 with all my h's, so I'm hopin for some scholarships.

Get a nice tv, make you own htpc out of an xbox, you can have up to 400gb on it.Here (http://www.scifikg.com/htpcxbox/htxboxgallery.php) . Or you can build one, or buy one from hp, another 1.5-2k, bose speakers 2k, and a nice sofa.

[AMD64-bit]

OMG.. u make more then my dad.. and.. hes a freaking pyrotechnic manager.. well ..damn.. that seems impossible.. to me.. but go ahead.. blow ur money the way u want.. it wont hurt me or.. anyone else..