Yet another deskmod from me

Well recently moved and decided that I needed to build a desk. This one could not look as ghetto though so I had to spend a little more time on it

Originally I planned to build a desk that held 2 pcs internally, with one of them as a benchstation, only the motherboard exposed on top of the desk.

Due to my Aunt's reluctance to allow massive quantities of frozen carbon dioxide and acetone or rubbing alcohol to be burned up i nthe house, I opted for a separate portable bench station. The desk however retains viability.

The other demands still must be met though.

1) Must be modular, as I do not intend to stay here long. And moving a full desk without being able to break it down, is hard on the back, walls, need a larger vehicle to move it, and damaging to the desk itself.

2) Most be strong. This desk will need to support a 100 pound monitor. Would love to have a 2560 resolution LCD, but they cost way too much.

3) Must be able to incorporate at least 2 systems if not more. I opted for a 19" wide server standard for the large pedestal. This supports both server chassis and AV equipment.

4) Inexpensive. So far I have spent almost $100 dollars on this setup. More will be spent later, I need some steel strap to complete the motherboard tray as well as redesign the primary system "door" with fans.


First of all I decided I had to have a separate portable bench station. No project log for this. These things are stupid easy to build, took me longer to get my bench rig out of the case it was in clean it up and mount it on the station than it did to build the darn thing. IT is not finished though. Going to get strap steel for the PCI support bracket, was going to make something fancy. But single brace for support and a nut and bolt to hold it in place will be more than enough. Two back legs of the bench are cut to height.



LAst shot is in action. Upgrade to a panaflo and put a 120 on the raptor drive. The hdd fan is not fastened yet, and has not fallen out despite being moved three times already will just use some pipe strap to hold it in place.

With that said I intended to build the top out of countertop. IT is strong durable and does not look too bad. After stopping at lowes and finding hte cheapest piece running $60 I nixed that idea and built a frameup out of 2x4s and used 3/4 inch white board for the top.



The frame up has since added one more cross member to stiffen the 3/4" whiteboard top. Also not that the "outside" cross members are not flush with the ends. This is designed on purpose, and part of the modular nature of the desk.

I originally intended to use shims to keep the pedestal from touching the desktop, and mounting it with screws, instead I opted for cross members on the pedestals that run perpindicular to the ones on hte desk leaving about 1/16" gap between the two. Should enough weight be put on the top that it sags DESPITE the strength of it. It will get extra support from the pedestals, but the idea is for it not to happen.



This is the first pedestal 19" internal width 22" external width.

The second pedestal has an internal 10" width (13" external" 23" internal height big enough to hold a full size tower case, should I opt to run another system.

The second thumbnail shows both pedestals "dropped into place" no screws hold them in place, the weight of the desktop keeps everything from moving. However once the sides are on, I can fasten them with screws if I choose, I have tried it out and can pick up the desk and the pedestals do not budge Actually I screwed up and forgot I screwed it in, spent a minute with a maul trying to bang it out of the desktop (top was hanging on the saw horses with the pedestal hanging down) it never budged and I felt like a tool when I removed the screws and the piece just slide out real easy (I had assumed that the high humidity had caused the wood to swell. Duh)

nice, you should mass produce dem mobile techbench thingys .

edit: srry if i ruined your picture posts

Since I do not have my receiver here yet I decided that that a drawer would be extremely useful. The draw fits perfectly in the shelf supports and as you can see in the image, pulled all the way has very little sway in it and hangs well. Draw itself is only 6" high although the front is 12". When I get more wood I will add in the top shelf in the pedestal and can put my receiver in there with needing to fashion a new setup. Fan will also be added for cooling the amp of course

Here are the pedestals stained a deep mahogany to match the other furniture in the room, as well as with side panels installed.



Bottom "shelf" is actually a removable motherboard tray. Which will house the integrated system.

Still need a door for the integrated system. Not normally a fan (pun intended) of positive case pressure systems, this is an exception however. The intake fans in the door will actually be located about 12" from a central air vent

This part is uber ghetto, consists of 2 lianli low speeds, and 3 mass cool 80s. After I get more materials I will cut the pine tread piece I have down to resemble the drawer above it. and using strap steel mount 4x120mm HS yates horizontally aligned. These will be fan controlled of course to run quiet at night (desk will be in my bedroom for a period of time). But had to work with what scraps I had laying around and this was better than nothing.







Last pic is of the desktop iteself. 3x 3/4x8x72 white boards, triple stained and dirty as hell in this pic lol. Nice and smooth though Top has received it first coat of polyurethane tonight. (not pictured) will be sanded and poly'ed again tomorrow.


Poly needs a full 72 hours to cure but is sandable in 3-4 hours. Will see how the first and second coat turns out before I decide on doing a third. I want the top super smooth and extremely durable. This desk doubles as a tech station and will be handling hot irons, heavy monitors and various other things I can not think of at this time.

Will also upload a video of it being assembled when it is all finished. IT is amazing how easy it is to put together, and how stable it is despite that. Put hte pedestals roughly in place, drop the top on one side adjust second pedestal and bam done.

Oh.. I think I mentioned the small pedestal will also be getting a door in the future, but there is one more thing that will be installed after the desk is put in hte room

16" deep, 36" wide bull nose MDF with medium duty drawer rails for a keyboard tray (drawer rails are what are used for kitchen cupboards. Over kill probably but was not expensive and will be a lot smoother than the typical keyboard tray rails I have seen. Have not tested this out yet though and KB tray may need a couple of straps to keep it from sagging.

just dan said:

nice, you should mass produce dem mobile techbench thingys .

Click to expand...

Thanks.

Yah the though has occurred to me honestly. Minus the hdd cage, I could probably knock these out for about $35. But need to find a good suppliers of the extra long motherboard standoffs. (these are 1/2" or longer I think, do not work in 90% of the cases I have used)

Home made hdd cages are cheap enough to build, would not add much to the construction cost. The cage I used though is out of a rocket fish case. Dunno where to buy them at.

If I was mass producing them though, I would probably charge a little more and use some better components. Maybe instead of screwing mobo standoffs into the wood top (could be prone to stripping in the future) I would go with nuts and bolts probably with wingnuts for quick access. This would also give me more control over the height so extreme coolers would have lots of room for underboard insulation.

Looking Pretty Dam Sweet Man ,
l like it , will have to have a better look at pics later though as Photobucket is Down for maintenance ,,lol


Edit- Yeah like the cherrywood stain colour looks great

Been really busy and not at home. Have it in use right now though.

Keyboard tray works better than expected, thought I would need to trim it up or something but everything worked well. Video of assembly did not turn out (hey I am no cameraman) but it went together easy peasy, when I move it next I will try and shoot the dis/re assembly process very smooth and easy.

As soon as I find my bag with motherboard standoffs I will start assembling the IPC tray (integrated PC). The IPC door will be replaced eventually, it will be powered by 4 HS yate loons across the face, ducted cooling from the AC vent located close-by in the first picture will ensure some nice night time bench sessions.

After the IPC is installed I will handle the wire management of the power cables.

Sometime in the future the left pedestal will get a door as well, for now though, I just have my NZXT Zero tucked in there to occupy the emptiness.

one suggestion... support your gfx card via the pci bracket... its got nothing and i dont want to see an expensive mistake!

nice setup!

But of course

Not happy with the setup, too cramped, going to work on a dual layer setup instead maybe tuesday as I am out of time today



updating windows right now with the 4890 and OCZ blades installed. Going to tryout the latest BIOS and see if it fixed anything before doing more work on this I think

Freaking setup runs awesomely. Tore apart my Zero yesterday to use the front panel switches as I was tired of reaching into the desk. Eventually this will be fixed up right with power/reset switches, optical drive and fan controls up by the keyboard tray

Also intend to redesign the IPC tray, may even hack apart the zero and use some of the aluminum. Thinking of raising the tray to the middle or top spot and having all the connections come out hte side for easy access.

Finally getting around to building the i7 rig into the desk. Going to have to mod the left pedestal to fit the case inside, because of the giant radiator

Still I got started with it. Nothing fancy just get the job done and go.




Still working out how to make the motherboard tray and backplate easily removable with out sacrificing airflow. I want to be able to access the inside of the PC rather easily

Wide front area fits the 4x120mm rad. Thin area will hold front panel, DVDRW, fan controller and some more wood for support. Going to be stained the same color as the desk, with black rad fasteners. Also putting filters on the rad, that are black with silver screens.

Later also will be mounting around the radiator some J channel to make a nice slip-on chill air duct

More Updates awesome, looks like going to be a great setup

I finished the case and stained it but I got the wrong color ARGH. it is close but it was red mahogany not dark cherry , will put up some pics later today. Doing yard work right now so sometime this evening should be cleaning out the pump rad and block and getting it all installed in the new case too

Couple updates





The 5.25" devices are just placed in there for now, and I just finished mounting the rad and filters will get a pic of that up later

Very cool, i like the look!


EDIT:
We need a facepalm smiley.

Yah I get confused with a dozen forums I post at which emoticons work and which dont

Vrap just arrived

Small update. Figuring out where the HDD cage is going next and installing the motherboard tray next. Was going to make a slide in tray, but just going to screw it in instead. This way I can run the 8 pin CPU under the motherboard.

Done for now. Still have to make a front panel, cut and stain a piece of wood for hte last 5.25" open spot in the front of the case and clean it up. But leak testing is going on now and looks good so far. Should have it fired up later tonight.

not bad!

Thanks. Eventually the rad straps I made will be painted, that piece of unstained wood will be replaced with a another piece of stained wood (a "5.25" face plate" so to sppeak) and the top open spot with the loose wire hanging onto the DVDRW )my temproary power switch) will be replaced with a face plate holding power and reset buttons.. LEDs wont be necessary since the fan controller has them. Might throw in USB ports I have not decided yet though.

Wood and stain cost ~$23 and I have enough left to finish my desk drawers as well.

ya that will make it look awesome! i like all ur work here. keep it up. i've alwasys loved intigrating pc's and consoles into furntiure. keep up pimpin.