Riddle me this: Tek's 2-room puzzle

Tek7

Tek7

CGA President, Tribe of Judah Founder & President
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So my computer upgrades should arrive Monday (after FedEx Tracking originally stated they would arrive today, but that's another matter entirely).

Once assembled, I'll have a beastly machine more than capable of playing any game on the market (after limping along on a Dell Studio 1737 with a Mobility Radeon HD 3650 for years), not to mention 1080p video.

Trouble is, I like games better suited for play at a desk with keyboard, mouse, and headphones (e.g. Natural Selection 2, Guild Wars 2, Team Fortress 2) AND games that play best on a HDTV with a wireless gamepad (e.g. Critter Crunch, Renegade Ops, Cave Story+). The desk will be in the bedroom, on one side of a wall. The living room and HDTV will be on the other side of the same wall.

"Simple," I thought. "I'll just drill a small hole in the wall between rooms and run the cables through the hole."

Not so fast.

It seems there's a board (my apologies for not knowing the proper term; I build computers, not houses) that would require drilling through to make my plan work. I don't want to do that as I don't want to damage the house and I certainly don't want to raise my utility bill or lower the potential selling price of my house.

So what's a man to do? The little research I've done so far suggests that companies may have already abandoned wireless HDMI technology (though I've suspected for some time that Valve may help give the technology a nudge with their supposed interest in hardware innovation) and it seems daft to buy a new case and new power supply to build a second computer solely for gamepad games and MediaPortal. Besides, I don't want any computers in the living room as any machines with the power to play some of the more demanding gamepad games probably wouldn't (or shouldn't) fit inside an ultra small form factor box.

I want to use one computer for everything, mirror the displays on the monitor I've purchased (which is gorgeous, by the way) and on the HDTV. When I want to play NS2, I leave my HDTV turned off and play on my monitor. When I want to play Critter Crunch in the living room, I turn off my monitor, turn on my HDTV, and grab a wireless gamepad.

Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions?
 
[toj.cc]phantom;469301 said:
What kind of board is in the way? I'd just drill right through the sucker.
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I...have no idea. But it doesn't seem to be very thick.
 
Drywall, sheetrock? If so, if you drill a hole through it, later on, you can fill it with spackle, then reapply a texture then repaint it.

You could also drill into your floor, run the cables, and come out into the new room. Or into the space between the drywall. This would require more work though.
 
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Could do what I've done in previous houses: Drill holes in both sides of the wall and install a faceplate/jack solution. Costs a little more, but it looks a lot prettier than raw drill-age.

This, of course, assumes that the board in question ain't anything particularly significant (be it somehow structural or related to existing wiring or some other business).
 
I'd already planned on using a wall plate (something like this) to make everything pretty.

Here's a picture of what's behind the cable wall plate on the bedroom side:

BehindWallPlate.jpg

It looks and feels like solid wood, so it's not something I'd want to drill through unless it's my last option. :(
 
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For my internet we ran a line from the garage through the attic down to a jack/facplate we installed in the wall. Twas easy.

I do wonder if it's possible to use existing electrical outlets to install a new wire through them or if you'd get interference from proximity of the power. I have no idea what I am talking about though XD. There are things like this but I don't think that is what you want.
 
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Our attic is not completely floored out, so we can't get to the the point in the attic above where we would need to drop the cables. :(

Not to mention that there are several cables (HDMI or DVI or VGA, ethernet, USB, etc.) that I would want to run, so I'd rather take the shortest route possible--but not at the expense of damaging the house.
 
Ah well I think my Father put some boards across the beams to use our attic for storage way back when.

Probably a dumb question but what's preventing you just moving the desk and TV along the wall to a point the board is nowhere near and reorganizing the furniture? Bed in the way and cannot be moved? Don't want the TV off center in the room?
 
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Here's a diagram I threw together in Paint to help illustrate my conundrum:

Tek2RoomPuzzle.png
 
The Mighty Gerbil said:
Probably a dumb question but what's preventing you just moving the desk and TV along the wall to a point the board is nowhere near and reorganizing the furniture? Bed in the way and cannot be moved? Don't want the TV off center in the room?
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Eh? The computer + monitor will be in one room and the TV in another. See the diagram posted above (which I should have posted in my first post) for clarification.
 
Tek7 said:
Here's a diagram I threw together in Paint to help illustrate my conundrum:

View attachment 1852
Click to expand...

Riiiiiight >.> that's nothing I didn't understand. Next time I expect little stickman drawings of Tek and Ember for scale... with lasers preferably :p . Just how big is this board that it blocks the full length of the desk and TV? I can't imagine a structural support that is so large you can't move the computer or router enough to get around it. Like put the router on the opposite side of the TV or shuffle the desk/computer a few inches? Is there another corner wall, bed or something preventing it?
 
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Tek.. not that I want you to suffer or see you not succeed.. But I really hope this lasts for a few more days! This thread is great! I personally am hoping for some more Paint illustrations!
 
Tek7 said:
I'd already planned on using a wall plate (something like this) to make everything pretty.

Here's a picture of what's behind the cable wall plate on the bedroom side:

View attachment 1851

It looks and feels like solid wood, so it's not something I'd want to drill through unless it's my last option. :(
Click to expand...

That's drywall with a very thin cardboard like backer attached to it to help keep it together. That texture looks easy enough to duplicate. You should see the texture on my walls, they're unlike anything I've ever seen before and I'm still unable to duplicate it. Before you drill, use a stud finder that can detect electrical circuits. You don't want to drill or cut into wiring.
 
What about drilling through the floor as close to the wall as possible, running the cable under the wall (which would involve venturing into the crawlspace), then drilling a matching hole in the other room and running the cable up to it's destination?
 
That's what I did to run an ethernet cable. It's best to use a wood spade bit instead of a regular drill bit to bore through the wood. Are the rooms carpeted? Pull up the carpet first which may be tricky due to the baseboards. When you go to the crawlspace, I suggest to wear a dust mask and/or respirator plus safety glasses due to the fiberglass insulation. Breathing that stuff or getting it in your eyes isn't good. If you're fine with the cabling being shown running to the TV, then this is a good option as well. Later on, you could just remove the cabling & not even plug the holes if the rooms are carpeted.
 
Tek7 said:
I'd already planned on using a wall plate (something like this) to make everything pretty.

Here's a picture of what's behind the cable wall plate on the bedroom side:

View attachment 1851

It looks and feels like solid wood, so it's not something I'd want to drill through unless it's my last option. :(
Click to expand...

I was confused for a second by this picture, but I think what you are looking at is the back side of the sheetrock on the other side of the wall? If thats the case, you are going to be drilling through it on the other side anyways. Have you taken a plate off the wall on the other side, to see whats behind there?
 
The Mighty Gerbil said:
Riiiiiight >.> that's nothing I didn't understand. Next time I expect little stickman drawings of Tek and Ember for scale... with lasers preferably :p . Just how big is this board that it blocks the full length of the desk and TV? I can't imagine a structural support that is so large you can't move the computer or router enough to get around it. Like put the router on the opposite side of the TV or shuffle the desk/computer a few inches? Is there another corner wall, bed or something preventing it?
Click to expand...
As far as I can tell, it spans the whole length of the wall, or at least as far as would prevent me from using existing holes (for coaxial ports) on either side of the wall to run cables without drilling.

Stc95 said:
Tek.. not that I want you to suffer or see you not succeed.. But I really hope this lasts for a few more days! This thread is great! I personally am hoping for some more Paint illustrations!
Click to expand...
The illustration actually turned out better than I'd hoped. :) I'm thinking I might need a more detailed diagram to properly explain the scene, though...

blsimpson said:
I was confused for a second by this picture, but I think what you are looking at is the back side of the sheetrock on the other side of the wall? If thats the case, you are going to be drilling through it on the other side anyways. Have you taken a plate off the wall on the other side, to see whats behind there?
Click to expand...
Another wall plate with a coaxial port and cable attached.
 
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