Desk + built in chassis?

[Mercutio]

Curious what there is around in this sort of market (and... if there's a possible un-exploited niche as I can do wood + metal fabrication pretty well).

Mainly thinking the "box with glass on top" slung under the desk or drawer builds but... there's other, weirder bits in mind too.

Obviously a "careful" one as I'd think it'll be seen less as "brands" and more "competition" from OcUK's perspective but curious what's out there? I see only 1 of about the worst style I can think of for silly money on the OcUK shop and nowt MUCH else from googling so far.

 

[Drumroll]

Using desks as cases was a thing some time ago. Now is more about the fish tanks, screens and whatnot.
Considering the limitations when designing a desk to act as a case, and potential sales, any company making them for a profit, the final product will be very expensive, and never as unique and custom as each person really want it.
The main issue I found when I done some project was that you can’t have the area between the top glass and the bottom of the top (of that makes sense) too deep as that will be uncomfortable for long use.
Best bet is one hollow side of the desk with all the radiators and you may have everything else on display in some offset area which you won’t be seated directly in front of it.
I hardly see people doing such projects now.
I thing mainly because is over complicated and second cost of watercooling, considering how little gains (apart from noise) there is to achieve.
Nowadays, any decent case with bottom intake for the GPU and some decent AIO is plenty for 99.9% of the users.
Desks was a thing back in the day when cases had mainly plastic panels, some brittle acrylic windows and some poor airflow.
The market was full of ****** cases, except the very expensive ones focused on watercooling or the ones that could be modded.
Airflow as we see now, mesh mesh mesh, is quite recent to be fair.
Now one can get a £50 case that is decent.

 

[srekal34]

Lian Li still sells DK-05F but its extremely expensive and not worth it IMO.

 

[hiroofheroes]

Combining a desk and computer case compromises both.

 

[WJA96]

I think the only way to develop an interest/customer base for this sort of thing is to build a couple as demo pieces and wait to be contacted by people who want something in the same vein. There are several people on YouTube doing customer cabinetry for turntables, speakers etc. and I am reliably informed most of those people have multi-year backlogs of orders for work. But you need to demonstrate your skills first and then people will give you commissions.

We work with a cabinet maker in Norwich who builds stunning wooden rack-mount cabinets for network gear so it blends into people ‘s study’s or living rooms. 99.99% of people don’t want an 18U cabinet in their living room so the work is out there, you just have to tap into the market.

 

[WJA96]

Lian Li still sells DK-05F but its extremely expensive and not worth it IMO.

The main challenge with the DK-05F is that Lian Li are primarily a metal working/engineering company. So when they started off they made an aluminium and glass desk then put a PC motherboard tray in it. As I understand it, the OP is offering to make something truly custom. I don’t think the OP is off the mark in what they are offering, just that they will need to be very patient for their clientele to come to them.

 

[srekal34]

There are several people on YouTube doing customer cabinetry for turntakes' speakers etc. and I am reliably informed most of those people have multi-year backlogs of orders for work.

This. If you are skillful nowadays with woodwork customers are plentiful, but indeed you need some sort of portfolio. The guy who made me speaker cabinets(had to wait 1.5 years) told me that even if he worked 16 hours a day 7 days per week he would have at least 6 month backlog doing multiple things in parallel - and he has a full machine park including cnc, vacuum pressuriser etc.

 

[WJA96]

Combining a desk and computer case compromises both.

Yes, and even a desk that is just a desk is a compromise and a computer case is almost always a compromise too. People not only put up with compromises, they often prefer that solution because while it’s imperfect, it’s better than the alternative for their particular needs.

 

[nightwish]

Combining a desk and computer case compromises both.

I agree with this. I have designed, and am part-way through building, my own desk.

It has taken years (yes, years!) and several interations of the design to get to a version that I felt I could commit to actually building, and a good chunk of that, indecision if you like, was due to working out whether to integrate the PC directly or not. I had several concerns:

• Longevity. I wanted a classic design that would remain functional for a long time, not become obsolete the moment I decided that a mini- or cube- PC or laptop would suffice for my needs.
• Ergonomics. Most desk PCs I've seen have the PC components arranged in a large, flat compartment that covers the whole desk surface area. Ergonomically, this has the same problem as many traditional desks which have a central drawer - your elbows and knees should be at right angles for the best posture when sitting at a desk - try sitting like that, and notice there really isn't that much vertical space between your forearms and legs.
• Cooling. I'm not personally a fan of big complicated liquid-cooling setups. These days a big air-cooler gets you 95%+ of the performance at a fraction of the cost and hassle - both in the initial build and with maintenance. On the other hand, air cooling will require decent airflow, which can be a challenge in a desk design.
• Wood-movement. Solid wood has small but significant changes in width, as the humidity level changes. If not accounted for, this can lead to cracks developing in a desk-top, for example. I wasn't sure how this situation would be affected by having heat-generating components within the desk.
• Maintenance. No matter which design you go for, it's going to be tough to make a desk PC as easy to maintain as a straight-forward tower. I'm in my 40s now, and grovelling behind furniture for cables, or dismantling most of my desk to replace a fan, is no longer something I enjoy.

If those compromises are acceptable, then fine, but for something I designed for myself, I felt that they were not, so ultimately I chose a design which, while being very much PC-orientated, stopped short of becoming a "desk-PC".

The good news is that I don't think this niche is necessary from a business point of view. If you have the skills to make decent, bespoke furniture of any kind then I think the market is there. And the market for a good, traditional style desk is going to be many, many times larger than the market for a desk-PC. Of course that doesn't stop you from including modern elements, funky designs and generally using your creativity. I just don't think you need to pigeon-hole yourself into the desk-PC market.

 

[julianhj]

As much as I love the aesthetics of some desk PCs (LTT projects for example) I've always thought they represent form over function, and look like a massive hassle - they can still be fantastic to look at though.

 

[Mcnumpty2323]

I would say there's always a market
For quality bespoke stuff
Just a case of actually producing something
So people can see it
Things like Facebook ,youtube etc make getting
Your product seen much easier

To me there's 2 kinds of pc in a desk
One where it showcases the components
One where it looks like a beautiful piece of furniture
And the pc is totally not visible

 

[[HB]Rugrat]

Lian li have unveiled a new desk chassis which incorporates a transparent OLED screen on the desktop. Great idea but given the price of their non-screen desks I'm already wincing at what the price might be.