DIY Desktraction

nick.lidgett

nick.lidgett

nick.lidgett

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Joined
31 Oct 2011
Posts
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Leyland
Ok so like my cryptic-ish title suggests i am building my own custom pc desk when really i should be fixing up the house.

Me and the wife bought a fixer upper about 8 years ago and so far all ive managed to do is the bathroom and the spare room as i am easily distracted.

This Project came about while i was packing my toys away to get down to some serious DIY. I had the PC unplugged, my desk was on the way to the tip along with some other old wood, when suddenly it hit me "why throw this desk and wood away when i can get out of fixing the house and **** around with my power tools and make a custom pc desk?"

Much to my wifes horror i proceeded to unload the car of junk and take over the whole ground floor of the house to work on my desk.

Now before i go any further i must tell you i am not any sort of craftsman, i have very basic and low budget tools and terrible measuring skills. I have never, ever, ever attempted to build any sort of furniture in my life, i also have zero patience and quite a slap dash approach to things.
That being said, i am relatively please how things are progressing.

Anyway here are some pictures;


Chopped hole in top, fitted new, stronger bottom panel and measured up front panel for fans and rads


Slapped in crappy old p67 just to get a feel




Started putting things where i wanted them to go






Sorted fans for 240 and 280 fans and rads


Started marking out internals for mobo, fans and res


Drilled the mobo tray out of my R4 and put it in with my Z77 to get final measurements



Made the psu and hdd encolsure





Slapped it all together


Done the rear panel


Fitted the res














Filling, sanding, undercoat and first coat of black and white gloss.


Thats all i have for now im waiting a week or so for parts.

Thanks for looking.
 
Is this going to be a standing desk? It doesn't look like there's a lot of room for legs under there.
 
Shawy said:
Is this going to be a standing desk? It doesn't look like there's a lot of room for legs under there.
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lol makes no difference to me Shawy i have always sat back from the desk, most of the time i am laid on the bed next to it using the other screen anyway.


I put a second coat of white gloss on it today, i very much doubt it will need a third, maybe the odd splodge here and there, when that dries ill touch up the black gloss i managed to get white all over lol

I also went and got the perspex cut today and made the holes for the power/ audio and usb etc etc.
 
Ok quick update, i cut the fan grill out of a spare side panel i had as this will hold a 120 for the hdd enclosure.
I also touched up the black gloss cos i got white on it but tomorrow ill have to touch up the white gloss as i just got black on it!!! DOH!!!!


Here is the fan cover


then i made myself a snack.... ahhhh the wonders of owning a chippy lol


here it is on the desk


a close up for you


and a close up of my rather rough front or rather top panel.


Tomorrow i will post a picture with the perspex on maybe a few components in but ill have to wait and see how dry its is.

ciao ciao
 
UPDATE:

i got a bit done this morning,

My Fractal R4 came with some noise damping pads over the vents so i glued on to the bottom of the HDD cage
to stop vibrations


Then i braided the power cord of the res (in a fashion lol)





Then i fitted the Motherboard tray and rear fans







Then i cut a pad from the R4 to put under the PSU then i fitted that








Then i fitted the res



Then i put the front fans and rads and psu intake fan in






The R4 came with a molex 3-fan controller, its this i an going to use to control the fans in the HDD/PSU enclosure. The only problem is it only has 3 pin connections so i had to bodge it a bit to take the 4 pin akasa fans.





Hdd cage in



i put my ethernet switch on the side



I had an eureka moment when it came to my turtle beach, i removed the holder from the top of the sender unit and screwed it on the side of the desk




Extension cord slapped on the back



Then i popped the mobo and gpu in and set up the dest to see what it looks like.








Im very happy so far,
Thats all i can do until some guys in Bolton sort their stock out and send me the parts to finish it off.
Im waiting on fans, fan covers, a 2Tb HDD, some braided cables, tubing and fitting, looking like friday or saturday.
 
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Fish looks ace.. Do OCUK forum members get free fish and chips if we come in? We can bring hovis :D

One think I would say is.. I hope you don't jump up naked out of bed one day to check your emails :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:
 
ZXSpectrum said:
Fish looks ace.. Do OCUK forum members get free fish and chips if we come in? We can bring hovis :D

One think I would say is.. I hope you don't jump up naked out of bed one day to check your emails :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:
Click to expand...

you even get case stickers to say that you have been, its an OverCodders sticker ;)

Lmao can you imagine the pain and the mess hahaha good job I got fan grills coming eh.
 
NoobCannon said:
Love it, its got that little bit of "that'll do" that i like without looking like a massive botch lol
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If i had bought a decent drill and jigsaw and spent another day filling and sanding im sure it would be 100%, but that's not me, and then it wouldn't look like my work.

With this desk nothing is 100% square or level or smooth but that's how I am, but to the eye its passable and that's what makes it mine there is some sort of rustic charm about it.
 
For the life of me I don't know why OcUK cant stock the world biggest supply of modding parts instead of a few meagre bits and bobs.
Because of this ive had to deal with amatures from Bolton and my god its hard work,
I had ordered all my stuff online and it was in stock, 2 days later I received an email saying my fan grills were OUT OF STOCK and the lead time was Thursday, I can deal with that but whats got me mad is yesterday I had an email saying something else was out of stock and the only thing they could supplement it with was twice the price and the wrong colour!!!!!!
This forced me to drive down there and spend nearly and hour trying to sort out my original order. stupidly I left without checking the invoice and halfway along the M61 back to blackpool I noticed they had taken something off that shouldn't have been GRRRRRR FML.

OcUK please get your arse in gear and stock up!!!!!!!
 
mrbell1984 said:
Where do you put your legs? :( Fans shouldn't be on the front, should be on the side dude. :(
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i always sit back from the desk at 6'3 I struggle to get comfy tucking my legs away. The desk was never wide enough in its standard form either so make no difference to me now, most of the time I lay on the bed and use the tele on the wall anyway.

Also why should the fans be on the side and not on the front? There is a few reasons why I did it this way, first was because I didn't want fans right near my ear while I was sleeping and second was for my water cooling; the airflow is front to back nice and a simple loop and with the res is tucked out the way on the side I have plenty of room on the other side for extra hhd cage or a tube res if I decide to get shot of my dual bay res or even an extra rad if I ever decide to CF or SLI again.

Anyway thanks for looking.
 
Looks interesting but might I suggest using a straight edge and some masking tape next time? :D
 
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