Classic Computer Desk

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

Great job!! I really like this concept.

[PopcornMachine]

Another cool project. Thanks for the pics.

[gumpty]

Awesome, I love projects like this.

If only I had the time to do one myself ............... it would be nowhere near as good as this.

[neoreif]

Sub'd!!!! Nice Project!!!

[pantherx12]

subbed!

Looking great so far.

I'd of gone for different fans as well, so many different options now.

Think lots of Silent Wings fans for intake/outtake. some gentle typhoons or low rpm deltas for the radiator.

[jjgoertz]

Thanks a bunch for all the encouragement guys!

Well, as the desk should be ready to go together Tuesday morning, I figured it was time to order some hardware. If nothing else it should feel like a pretty big jump from my current Core 2 Duo.

[lucky_shot]

Love the finish on the wood. Can't wait to see where this goes.

[l3p]

Somehow I just love these kind of builds :P

[james888]

Originally Posted by l3p

Somehow I just love these kind of builds :P

I wonder why...

[jjgoertz]

I'm finally done with all the staining and varnishing!







The hardware should be here Thursday, and the standoffs for mounting the bridge and motherboard tray will probably be here tomorrow, so I can actually start mounting things.

[james888]

Did you choose that stain color specifically for this, or just had some extra laying around. I really do like that color.

[jjgoertz]

Originally Posted by james888

Did you choose that stain color specifically for this, or just had some extra laying around. I really do like that color.

It's just a color I've used quite a bit in the past on other furniture, and it's nice having things that match.

[jjgoertz]

The first few parts have started coming in, and I've started arranging things in the case.

Picked up a pair of hard drive coolers/silencers that were originally intended to be mounted in a 5.25" drive bay.




And then I modified them to mount to the central bridge by enlarging the holes for the bottom plate and tapping them M4. This way I can move the vibration isolators to the bottom, and change the mounting orientation for the drives.




Then I moved on to mounting some fan grills in the bottom of the desk. They were lined up with a square and a Mk. 2 eyeball, and attached with some nice little sheet metal screws.





And then it was time to start attaching things to the divider panel.



Radiator first.




And then the motherboard tray.




The front edge is supported by some 6mm aluminum hexes tapped M4.



And in these nice overall shots you can see vaguely how the hard drive coolers will be positioned, albeit they'll be two inches higher and on top of the bridge. The SSD will be mounted in front of those two drives.

[jjgoertz]

After a long wait on Thursday my components finally arrived.















And since then I've been mounting things to the case. The only room I had for 5.25" drives was at the far left side of the case so I laid out a couple bays and jigsawed some slightly undersized holes. The masking tape was applied to protect the finish from the saw.



And then with a bit of sanding and filing I was left with tightly fitting holes for the optical drives.



And a bit of stain to clean up the holes.



And then I started setting up the water cooling loop and temporarily mounting some fans. I think I'll have to get some of those plastic coil springs that keep the hose from kinking. The fans will get grills, and their cables sleeved, later. Unless of course I change what fans I'm using.

[johnnyfiive]

That is awesome.

[TotalChaos]

damn sweet looking desk cant wait to see more

[jjgoertz]

Well, I finally broke down and bought some new fans for the radiators. Corsair SP120's. They do feel pretty nice, they're heavy, spin smoothly, and have big motors.

These were also my first attempts at cable sleeving. It turned out alright, but I had a heck of time keeping the ends from unraveling.



And here's the fans bolted to the rad with their grills. You can also see the anti-kink coils I wrapped around the hose.



Finally I picked up a front panel card reader and installed it above the DVD drive.

[Mussels]

Originally Posted by nvidiaintelftw

Ive used them too and they really sucked with under volting with a controller. They are also built pretty cheap and use sleeve bearings. The ones i had a horrible click sound when on a controller.

i had the same thing, except the PSU i had at the time had a low 12V rail and the click was always there.



i like the concept with this desk.

[uber_cookie]

nice work! I can see that you have bought some new corsair fans, any thoughts?

[t_ski]

If the sleeving is made of plastic (most are), you can keep it from unravelling by melting it slightly with a flame. If the sleeving is cloth, this won't work. For more info on this, see the article I wrote for TPU here:

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/modding/141

[jjgoertz]

Started out today making the wire bridge/hard-drive mount. This was just some eighth inch aluminum plate from online metals, that's been sanded a bit to make it all purty like. I'll be removing it later for a coat of black powder coat to match the mobo tray.




And then the hard drive enclosure were mounted just so, and the whole bridge was bolted to 50mm standoffs.




And the whole assembly was bolted into the desk like so:




Then came a major mile-stone in my computer career, filling my first water-cooling loop.

Took awhile with the turkey baster.


And an hour and a half later we have a running loop. I'm letting it run over-night with toilet paper below all the fittings to make sure I don't have any leaks.

[Mussels]

turkey baster? really? XD

[MT Alex]

Ha! I've used one myself, and also a big ol' syringe.

Looks like your project is coming along nicely

I think you are going to want to turn your desk on its side in order to top your loop off, ideally your return nozzle should be mostly submerged when in the horizontal position. With the amount of exposure you have in that res the returning water could make air bubbles that will get recirculated into your loop.

[xxdozer322]

sometimes i wish i had the knowledge to do things like this, my room would be complete.

[pantherx12]

Originally Posted by xxdozer322

sometimes i wish i had the knowledge to do things like this, my room would be complete.

It's very easy to get started man, just attempt to build something smaller first. You'll make a ton of mistakes and next time round you won' make the same mistakes : ]