The equipment I use when streaming, casting, interviewing, photographing and generally running around like a lunatic both at home and at eSports events.

The Computer: C.H.L.O.E.2

• Antec 750W High Current Gamer Quad-Rail PSU
• ASUS P8Z68-V PRO LGA1155 Motherboard
• Intel i7-2600k Sandy Bridge @ 3.4 (4.4) GHz CPU
• Corsair Hydro H60 High Performance CPU Water Cooler
• 16GB (4x4GB) Corsair Vengeance DDR3 9-9-9-24 XMP RAM
• MSI NVidia 570-GTX Twin Frozr III Power Edition Graphics Card
• LG Blu-Ray Reader & DVD Writer
• 120GB OCZ VTX3 SSD Boot Drive
• Fractal Design Arc MIDI Tower Case (Black)

C.H.L.O.E.2 was custom built to sadly replace C.H.L.O.E. before her time was up, because of the necessary CPU and memory grunt required to run a 720p-or-higher stream while also on Starcraft II. The original C.H.L.O.E. managed one or the other flawlessly but unfortunately could not do them simultaneously at 25+FPS which made live-streaming difficult in beyond-1v1 situations, given the CPU-intensive nature of Starcraft II. Now, however, the world is at my mercy and I stream in 720p as standard now with no issues, as well as encode videos for YouTube at mega-fast speeds.

The Setup

• C.H.L.O.E.2
• Hitachi 37″ 1080p TV (used as monitor)
• sE USB2200a Microphone
• Logitech C310 Webcam
• Varier Date Ergonomic Chair
• Lenovo U450P Power-Saving Laptop (My workhorse when not gaming)
• Speedlink Medusa 5.1 Home Edition Headphones
• Bose Companion 5 speakers
• Logitech Momo Force Racing Wheel and Pedals (Aluminium/Leather edition)
• Microsoft Sidewinder X8 gaming mouse on Razer Sphex mousemat (Laptop and portable: Thermaltake TtSports Black gaming mouse on Razer Kabuto mouse cloth)
• Logitech MK300 wireless keyboard (and mouse as a backup)

My monitor/TV is jokingly called “Bob” as a partner to C.H.L.O.E.2, and works well in its double capacity as my personal movie screen when I lie back in bed to watch a movie (bed conveniently situated directly behind my chair in-line with the monitor). I am also a reasonably competitive online racing sim player, with particular focus on Tyka’s rFactor leagues – hence my love affair with my racing wheel.

The Memories: Photography and Video

• Canon 7D Camera
• Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 L Lens (the workhorse)
• Canon 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 Lens (for wide-angle shots)
• Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM Lens (for non-tripod video and long-range photos)
• Canon Speedlite EX580II Flash
• Manfrotto 190XProB Tripod with 486RC2 Ball Head

I started travelling extensively after graduating from university in 2008 and fell in love with exploring and travel photography. I’m incredibly happy and thankful to have some of my work showcased in charity exhibitions as well during this time. More recently, I have been experimenting more with event photography and in particular the indoor style that events like LANs require. I really enjoy covering events with photography as well as video interviews when I have time and am not casting or playing myself.

The First Love: C.H.L.O.E.

• Akasa 550W Quiet aPFC PSU
• Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3L Motherboard
• Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 @ 2.66 (3.0) GHz CPU
• Akasa Nero Cooling Emperor AK-967 Silent CPU Cooler
• 4GB (2x 2GB) Corsair Twin 1066MHz 7-7-7-20 RAM
• Sony Blu-Ray Reader
• Sapphire ATI HD4870 Vapor-X Edition Graphics Card
• Coolermaster NVidia CM-690 Limited Edition Tower Case (Black / Green)

Wanting to originally give my computer a memorable name, I naturally thought a female name would be appropriate. The initials of my most memorable unrequited love interests during my teenage years coincidentally happen to be CH, HL and LC (cycles back to C – and no spoilers beyond what is written here!) so the idea behind the name did not take long to materialise. C.H.L.O.E. officially, however, stands for “Computing Hardware: Lovingly Overclocked Edition”.