My desk project

Confused

Confused

Confused

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
8,016
Hi all,

First off, there's some amazing desk projects going on in this section - this won't be one of those!!

First, a little background (all good stories have a start, and it's a way to add a few photos to give you something to look at!)

About 18 months ago, I got given by a work colleague an old full tower case, because I'd moved my main PC components & watercooling setup out of an HTPC case, and left the HTPC to HTPC duties.

It was beige, oh so very beige!

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Even in 2010 when I got this, beige was bad! But - I had been given it for free, and I needed to then just do my best with it, and get my PC up and running again.

Armed with not much more than a drill, a hacksaw and a file, I went to work, and begun by marking and cutting out a hole for my XSPC RS360 radiator.

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And with only a single fan, the radiator went in, as did the rest of the components - at the time an Abit IP35, Q6600, 8800GT.

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And that's how it stayed for a year or so, until one day I got annoyed with the beige, and wanted it black, instead. So, out came all of the components, and armed with a tin of black paint, I got to work again.

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I also purchased some nice new fans - Sharkoon Silent Eagle 1000, and with those, and my other new bits - Asus P8P67, i5-2500k, HD6850, I began to reassemble.

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A little while later, I added another fan to the front, to blow over the hard drives and the memory on the graphics card - having a chip-only block and not a full-cover block, meant that I needed airflow over the GPU memory.

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However, I've now decided that I want to change things around a bit. I've yet to see any cases that really grab my attention, and due to the desk that I've got (Ikea Expedit bookcase with the desk extension) and the orientation, there's few cases that will both fit in the gap I've got, and allow me to view the watercooling stuff.

Therefore, I've decided to design and make something that will fit the space, and show off my PC.

So - I introduce to you, my desk design, modelling courtesy of Google SketchUp - the 3D warehouse is great and you can find almost anything!!

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I have a home server sat on the bottom shelf, which runs mostly headless.

My plan is to have a nice sheet of either clear or tinted perspex on the front, and have the back part mostly open for the mess of cables - it won't be seen given the placement of my desk.

I may use something like the Bitfenix braided extension cables for the connectors - my theme ideas at the moment is black/white (it would have been a pain to model those - you can probably get the idea!)

I've modelled 2 radiators for symmetry - the second may not come just yet, but the 6 fans will definitely be there, so that there's a nice flow of air going over the motherboard and other components


Thoughts, comments, suggestions, improvements - all welcome :)
 
If possible I'd leave the front open, depends how dusty your house gets (pets etc) or a nicely fitted acrylic piece would be the next best thing

I'd try and mount it in the inside some how, also going to need some holes for air to circulate. Would almost be tempted to put some in the acryllic either side to blow air to the rad fans
 
I managed to pick up some old advertising boards from work, which are some ~3mm thick white plastic, which should be quite easy to work with - at the very least they'll be good enough to mock it up in something real, in case I decide I need some other material.

I started off by grabbing a piece, then measuring out for the angled base by using one of the original shelves from the shelving unit.

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This stuff is really easy to chop up - something large and straight, such as a spirit level, and a sharp Stanley knife, and it goes through like a hot knife through butter!

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A quick calculation using an online calculator, and a left-over bit was chopped into a pair of triangles with one 30 degree corner to give some basic support at the right angle for the base part.

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(I've not actually put them in the right positions yet, but the general idea is there!)

I think I'll be needing to get some right-angled brackets to start to secure some of this together - some careful planning and I should be able to get any screws that need to go through anything out of sight enough and behind other stuff, like the motherboard tray.
 
So, I've cracked on again with this tonight.

First off I grabbed some power tools to begin some assembly of some bits. And of course - you can't work without a cup of tea, either!

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When I built the shelving unit, I was left over with 2 large shelves, and 4 of the dividers which sit upright. My plan is to use the 2 large shelves and 2 of the dividers to make a box frame which will be mostly solid and won't move (much) - but will still allow me to slide the whole unit out should I need to do any maintenance on the computer.

The dividers, however, wouldn't have given me enough space with them the "correct" way round, so I've now rotated them by 90 degrees, to give a little more height.

Also, because I want the insides black (for now!), I've cut out a piece of the plastic sheet to sit over the face of it, and one of the triangle pieces to give a guide for the angled "base" bit to be supported on.

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I've used the right-angled brackets as spacers so that the upright bits aren't tight against the inside faces of the shelving unit, just to give myself a little bit of "wriggle room" when sliding it in and out.


I then cut out another 2 of these triangles, so that I can have one either side, and two more further in-board to provide plenty of support to stop the angled "base" from flexing and getting out of shape.

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Mirroring to the other side, I placed the angled base on for a trial fit.

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I then decided to see how it would look using a couple of the extra Sharkoon Silent Eagle fans I'd purchased from the MM, positioning them so that they'll sit in roughly the right place once the depth of the radiator is taken into account, it seems as though I'm a little short on the depth of the bits I've cut out so far!

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And that doesn't take into account the space needed for the end tank on that end of the radiator which has the barbs in!


However - this isn't a huge problem - the bit that's currently at an angle will be just the right size for the roof now, and it seems as though the triangles are long enough, and I'll need to re-do the side bits - despite my best efforts at modelling it accurately in SketchUp - there's no substitution for making it for real and seeing whether it works! (And I've got plenty of those white plastic boards to mess with!)
 
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HUNTER.P said:
Measure twice cut once :P

Its getting there, will just take time and patience. Keep going :)
Click to expand...

Where is the fun in that! ;)

None of the pieces will be wasted anyway, I'll find a use for them, if not on this then possibly my Ford Anglia project (details of which are in the Motors section!)
 
I am, yeah.

I want the insides black, not white, not sure yet whether best would be to cover with vinyl wrap or paint.. I'm thinking that wrap would be better as I can cover some of the corners and edges.
 
Looks impressive!! Great idea with the "display shelf" should have a brilliant look and be a lot easier to accomplish than building it all into the desk section (plus you get to keep the wood to lean on :D

That case looks a lot like my old full tower case I had about 12 years ago

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22577618/pc2.JPG
Component list for those interested:
Asus mobo (I think)
AthlonXP2400 @2.4GHz
GeForce2 MX400
SB Live 5.1
2x HDD's (can't remember the size)
Generic SATA card
and opticals from bottom to top are:
FDD, CD-RW, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, and a Nakamichi MJ5.11SI 5 disk interchanger :D (I was SO proud of that lol)

That's the only pic I've got of it now... I got it in [purple shirt shop] for about £35 back then... bloody heavy too lol

(What speakers are they you've got by the way, same satellites as my Inspire 5300 set :) - had those about 12 years too lol)

Anyway, sorry for thread hijack - can't wait to see more of this project - should be brilliant when finished :D
 
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It does look similar - my colleague purchased it from the same place, around the same time too!

And yup, those are the Inspire 5300 speakers - absolutely brilliant, although in a house move I do seem to have lost at least 2 of the speakers, and the volume control is damaged... still not tempted to replace it with something newer, maybe just find some replacement bits!
 
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