 Every man cave begins with the space. The entire room is 54 square meters or 581 square feet, which includes a bathroom and a walk-in closet. The cave is thus a self-sustaining pod in which I only need to go down to get food or to top up my coffee. My room is located on the second floor of my parents house and is enshrined in a tall glass wall which overlooks the street. Sometimes after walking my dog Bagel, I stand outside looking in as though the room is some sort of confused minimalist museum exhibit. It also gives me a different insight on how best to rearrange the furniture through an outsider's perspective. The effect is greatest at night due to how well lit I made sure to make the room. I am a big fan of the lighting found in museums, thus I made sure the cave is illuminated by 16 LED track lights which are controlled at the entrance and at my bedside. If you are renovating the lighting of your home, I highly recommend just switching to track bars because they are inexpensive, modern and a minimalist approach to providing great lighting. These were installed 14 months ago and not a single one of them have gone out. Admittedly the number of lights is excessive, but I would rather have more light when I needed then being stuck with less light. The benefit of a lot of glass is that it lets in a lot of natural light which changes the character of the room depending on what time of day it is through either the dim gentleness or the fiery intensity of the sun. Sunlight plays with the natural colors of the wood floor and cladding of the room and so the room looks and feels as though it is undergoing unnatural metamorphosis throughout the day. An unexpected freebie of having a glass wall is that I get to enjoy the coconut trees and the other lush greenery of my neighborhood with the backdrop of the city skyline. I never thought I'd look forward to the scenery of my window every day, but at 5.30pm I always make it a point to check out the orange glow of the buildings and the sky. Manila carries an average temperature of 80 degrees Fahrenheit or 26.6 degrees Celsius and so one of the primary concerns was how to deal with the heat of the room because of all the sunlight. The solution was smart construction design. Our contractor and architect Cocoa Leyva counteracted this by making sure the orientation of the room never received harsh sunlight. Meaning while the room does get sun, the most it hits directly is a couple of feet, something I prefer in case I want the occasional sun without having to leave the room. Secondly, I was provided with a lot of ventilation options. Eight jealousies were installed in the middle layer window which has a bug screen in between. It's a long process, but I use a crowbar in order to close the jealousies and then after that I use a ladder to close the blinds. I don't really do this every day, only when I feel like I want to change up the mood for the week or the month actually. But especially during summer, it's very important to have as much ventilation as possible while keeping the electric bill down. Third, the curtains and the roller blinds are constructed to block out the sun. I mean, it really wouldn't be much of a cave if I couldn't make it dark enough during any time of day, right? Fourth, there is a sliding glass door next to the real door which I can slide open anytime I need additional ventilation. I absolutely love this because from my desk I have the option of checking out the view to my right and to my left. The latter of which treats me to a view of our garden and the living area. Thus making my already large room feel even larger because of all the extra transparent room I can see. And the glass sliding door gives me my only chance to see the RGB of my computer as the wrong panel is facing me. I do prefer this because RGB sometimes becomes distracting during work. Finally, the room is decked out with an overhead remote-controlled ceiling fan from Hayes which circulates enough cool air to cover the room wherever I am. On particular hot days like the Philippine summer months of April and May, I rely on the 3-horsepower inverter air conditioner from Daikin which I must say is an absolute beast. After checking the electric bill for 11 months, I can conclude that it is very cost-efficient. I am genuinely surprised at how quickly it can turn the hot room frosty. In case I want to further get the electric bill down, one very useful trick I thought of was to use the fan mode of the AC and combine it with the ceiling fan, the jealousies, and the sliding door. Thus significantly bringing electric costs down while being able to cool the room more naturally. Something my PC thanks me heavily for. The flooring, doors, and the cladding on the wall above my bed are recycled Nara and Giho wood planks from the original 55-year-old house I grew up in. At one point during the construction phase of our house, the garden was turned into a sawmill. This was so that the wood dismantled from the old home could be redone on-site in preparation for installation. On a personal level, it feels good to be surrounded by the foundation of my childhood home. We made sure that the natural colors of the wood remain thus you can literally see the darker hues of Nara and the lighter colors of Giho co-mingled together. The different color of wood grains and even the imperfections of the wood add character and a uniqueness to the room. In order to emphasize the wood and keep costs down, I had the room painted a minimalist gray yet layer the wall behind my bed with planks. The room would be too dark if I had placed wood everywhere. Hey, if you like what you're watching so far, please consider liking and subscribing to Hardware Sugar where we generate regular tech content. Chairs. I have spent an unhealthy amount of time researching chairs. In fact, I have such an obsession with chairs and couches of any kind that I was the only person in the world who thought Facebook's first advertisement was genius. Chairs are for people. And that is why chairs are like Facebook. Comfort is important to a man cave, but so is style. My 7 year old office chair, 7 year old top green leather lounge chair and 6 month old top green leather lazy boy sofa were chosen not only because they are immensely comfortable, but also because I felt that they completed the design aesthetics of the ultimate bachelor pad. Top green leather is the second best kind of leather you can buy. In general, the hierarchy is full green leather, top green leather and genuine leather. Genuine leather is a term which means it is made out of leather, but it probably isn't the best kind such as when manufacturers gather discarded leather and then glue the scraps together. To me, leather will never go out of style and if you know how to take care of it, the material can last a lifetime. My lounge chair with footstool, also known as an ottoman, has shown very little signs of aging in spite of it being 7 years old. Leather chairs are far more comfortable and look more grand the older and more broken in they get. The creases on leather create a formal yet relaxed image. The chair's main feature is that there is a small lever at the bottom which allows you to recline into various positions. It also has a swivel which allows me to orient myself to the view of the glass walls of the cave. Something I like doing because it makes me feel more intimate with the view. I got the Dexter Lazy Boy sofa less than a year ago and while I was researching, couldn't find a single YouTube video review of the sofa. While it is a lazy boy, it does not have a footrest which is fine with me because I actually don't like the look of lazy boys. Most of them look very comfortable but at the cost of being tacky. This Dexter sofa drew me in because the maroon reminded me of the classic blood red British Chesterfields. Unlike the Chesterfield however, there is a headrest and the overall padding of the cushions are in between firm and sinking. When you sit on a couch, you don't want it to be as soft as your bed but you also don't want it to be as firm as your office chair. The Dexter comes in a three-seater but that would take up way too much room and the two-seater is long enough for me to lay down on it resulting in both my head and legs being elevated. So far the leather is holding up well however I was surprised at how quick these butt crease marks form. I'll make a separate updated review on the Dexter in the future. I laid out the sofa and the lounge chair in a way that made sure I didn't block any paths and that there was no dead space. My seven-year-old mesh office chair is one of my greatest prizes. It is my first mesh chair and after going through a total of two office chairs with PU leather prior to this, what I discovered is that mesh outlives PU leather dramatically. It is also extremely comfortable. Something I was originally surprised to discover since I was originally used to the softer foams of an executive leather red chair. I bought this chair from Dimensions and it doesn't have a specific brand. However, I did find one which looks exactly like it online. To be frank, I don't think I'll be changing this chair anytime soon because it has aged considerably well. In fact, I recently upgraded the wheels to casters which result in less floor scratching and makes it three times easier to roll around with. In fact, I even gifted these same casters to a friend of mine who uses a Herman Miller chair and agrees that casters are definitely a very cheap but extremely noticeable upgrade. My desk sports an IKEA inspired Lin-Mon desk which I have talked about in greater detail in my past videos which I'll link up above. I say inspired because I had these made to order by a local furniture maker and conclude that it is most probably a lot more durable than the IKEA Lin-Mon. For one thing, the countertop is made out of 3.5 inches of pure mahogany and after six months, there is not a sign of bending in the middle. The Lin-Mon countertops are not made out of solid wood, instead they are made out of honeycomb particle board. There is quite literally gaps inside its structure. Particle board is made out of wood scraps which are glued together in order to make something which is sort of wood like how Frankenstein is sort of human. The Alex drawers also provided by Axewoods are made of MDF which so far have given me no cause to worry if the two can support my PC and the mahogany countertop. The extra drawers are fantastic and to be honest, I still haven't fully utilized them because of all the drawer space. Unlike most of the IKEA inspired desks found online though, I contacted my supplier to construct an MDF drawer with the same mahogany countertop in order to create the illusion that the already lengthy table is actually even longer than it actually is. Doing this allowed me to place my computer on the drawer instead of the desk, thus reducing more weight and tension on the desk and clearing up more space for me to add a plant, my pens, and some valuable personal items. I thus have almost unlimited drawer space for me to hide my junk in. Having so much counter space also allows me to put my feet up and recline if I want to take a quick break. I made sure the height of the table was high enough that it was leveled without my office chair's armrests as well as giving me room to cross my legs just in case I prefer that position over long periods of work time. Legroom underneath is usually overlooked which it should never be. My PC is an RTX 2080 Ti and Ryzen 73700X. It has a Corsair H115i liquid RGB cooler, Corsair Vengeance 3 200 MHz RAM, and Teamgroups RGB Delta Max. All of the lighting of which I don't directly see because I have the side turned to me, which is alright with me. My speakers are a 15 year old Altec Lansing set with subwoofer. To be honest these still sound amazing and I'll be releasing a review on what 15 year old speakers sound like. My headset is a Corsair Wireless Void or Pro RGB headset which we also made a review of recently. My keyboard is the K70 Mark II with blue switches which has been a blast to use so far. My mouse is a Corsair Wireless Iron Claw which reminds me of the Batmobile. When I got this mouse 3 months ago a number of people commented on Facebook that their scroll wheel literally either stopped working or came off. So I'm gonna take my time with this before I review it. So far though it's great for basic multitasking and is precise with FPS gaming. My biggest problem with it is the weight but ergonomics fits my hand like a glove. My microphone is the Blue Yeti which I am immensely impressed by. I was originally using a 6 year old mic which made my voice sound tiny. Ever since I switched to the Yeti it sounds much clearer and more professional. I have two monitors. A 32 inch MSI Optics Mag 322CQR with a max refresh rate of 165Hz and a Samsung Ultra Wide 34 inch S34 Echo 790C with a refresh rate of 60Hz. The MSI Optics is great value for money. It being priced at around the $28,000 Peso mark or around $450 USD. I got mine just 4 months ago and it has been a blast to game with especially because of how large the screen is. My Samsung Ultra Wide was my previous daily driver which I got in April 2016. To be honest I missed the extra space in editing videos and I plan to have it mounted after I finish up our review on these 3 crazy games. The ROGs with 360Hz monitors lent out to us by Asus Philippines. Big shout out to them for letting us fulfill our sickest desires. If you want to know more about my monitors please check out my link in the description box below. How does the cave get internet? The router is located in the gym which is not only on a different floor but is separated by the room through distance, steel and glass. All 3 of which contribute to severe signal degradation. Our architect yet again created a design solution. Instead of wiring up the house with Wi-Fi signal boosters which are always unreliable and which require you to switch between a different hotspot each time. He wired up the house so that each room including the cave has its own access point which connects to the gym via CAT 6 Ethernet cable. In short, every room in the entire house has the same Wi-Fi speed as though you were right next to the router in the gym. Each access point broadcasts the same network address so if your device is already connected you can quite literally move from room to room. Or even the garden and your device will automatically connect to the nearest access point all by itself and it would feel like the router was right next to you wherever you went. Starting a video called the dining room and then moving back to the cave is practically seamless and it really does feel like magic, albeit nerdy magic. The access points I use are the Ubiquity Unify AC light which I got off Amazon. I'll leave the links to everything in the description below. My main computer can therefore connect to either the access point on my ceiling or through the Ethernet cable outlet. In summary, the cave's wireless internet strength comes from wires which have already been embedded into the construction of the house. Alternatively, you can also trail an Ethernet cable and just staple it to the sides of the wall. Wires are necessary but they amplify anxiety for their existence of being eye source. Cable management is vital. When people ask me what I am most proud of, I always tell them that it's the two cheapo charging stations which I place at both ends of the room. It is just a simple rubber cable holder which is stuck to the furniture of your choice by double sided tape. In this day and age, we always need something charged. Whether it is your Kindle, your mouse, your headset, your power bank, your speaker, your Apple Watch, your wireless headphones, your cell phone, your old cell phone which you can use to Spotify, or if you eventually have guests over and they need to charge up somewhere, it is so handy to know that there is a free cable available for any kind of device. The best thing about it is that you can just pick the cable you need and place it back after you're done. No more digging around at the back to see where the cable fell to. These are also extremely inexpensive. Life is noisy. Especially during the age of COVID where mostly everything is just negative noise. I found myself extremely reliant on lo-fi music to get me through the day and sleep stories through the call map to get me to overcome anxiety so I can get my 8 hours of sleep. The Harman Kardon Bluetooth speakers are exceptional. I am not a specialist when it comes to audio quality but I am more than satisfied with the beats coming from this unique pod. In fact, I never listen to music on my computer or my earphones anymore. It's all through my Harman Kardon. The minimalist design of a matted black finish matches the steel frames of the cave and because the cave has such a high ceiling, the acoustics are wonderful. I never move it from the spot next to my bed unless I want to take my tunes with me somewhere else which leads me to my other point. It is wireless and has a battery which lasts a good 5-6 hours. It's perfect for when you have a party because it looks cool, is easy to carry around and delivers wonderful audio. I no longer use my daily driver cell phone as my home music device. Instead, I use an old phone which in this case is an iPhone 7 Plus and use it as the music controller. The benefit of this is that streaming music all day no longer sucks battery from my main phone and you won't need to worry about a phone call interrupting your tunes. It's also handy to download music straight to the old phone since the space isn't being used for anything important anyway. In case you also want to unplug completely from the internet, this is what I do when I go to bed at night. I download bedtime music and sleep stories and disconnect from the web so that I am not tempted to surf. My Samsung TV and soundbar have some mileage on them and since I don't intend to get a Playstation anytime soon, I am not pressured to replace it with a higher-fresherate TV. My widescreen TV coupled with the ultra-fast Wi-Fi coming from my access point brings out fantastic quality from Netflix content. When I feel like I want additional mood lighting, I switch the channel to the Chromecast wallpaper and treat myself to a surprise each time since you don't have control over which wallpaper Chromecast will put up. Nevertheless, I find most of what they put up quite pleasant and adds a different dimension to the cave. The soundbar is Bluetooth compatible however it isn't portable, nevertheless it delivers crisp enough sound for whatever I am watching. I also have a Switch which I honestly haven't found enough time to game on it with but it's always good to have. At the end of the day however, life isn't lived inside a cave. Work which can't be done through my computer needs to be done in person such as wrapping up orders and waiting for them to get picked up. Nevertheless, I want to highlight what a fantastic job Architect Cocoa did with creating the vision and executing it into a reality. If you live in the Philippines, look him up if you need a contractor or architect. If you're looking for a supplier and installer of glass for either your windows or your shower enclosure, you can message Ostville through Melody. They have a very hard working and reliable team who move quickly. If you're looking for great quality air conditioners with the best price, I haven't encountered anyone more affordable than Jor and Aircon Services who you can reach through Lin. I highly recommend the Taiken brand. And we want to give a special shout out to our top fans. Liam Magnaje, Ian Meru, Richard Ronkinko, ITX Addict, John Ocea, and Christian Espinosa. Again, thank you so much for your support. It really helps us out a ton. Thank you so much.