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Watercooled PC Desk Mod with Built In Car Audio System!

Joined
Jul 20, 2014
Messages
146 (0.04/day)
System Name Imfaceroll Desk
Processor i7 4960x
Motherboard Asus rampage IV black
Cooling Watercooling
Memory 64gb Corsair dominator platinum
Video Card(s) 4 gtx 780ti's
Storage 7tb western digital HDD storage
Case Custom desk mod
Audio Device(s) Asus xonar essence one external sound card DAC
Power Supply 2 corsair gold RM series 1000w PSU's
Software windows 8.1 64bit
WATERCOOLED PC DESK MOD WITH CAR SOUND SYSTEM

Hey guys, Below are links to all of my Pages. Most YouTube footage will not be up until the desk mod is complete so please stay tuned. Visit my Facebook page for more pictures at higher quality.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Imfacerollgaming
Email: ImfacerollGaming@gmail.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ImfacerollPCGaming

I would first like to start off by saying this build cost me a total of $22000 AUD and took around 6 months to build. I have chosen to include an inbuilt car audio system to do something different and save some space. This is my very first build and two weeks prior to building this i had no idea how to put a computer together or even what parts to buy, it took me a solid week of studying up on computers so that i was confident enough to attempt this build, so please enjoy.

Please forgive me for image quality.

I was researching the internet one night for a new computer because my laptop just wasn't up to scratch anymore and it couldn't even run battlefield. I knew nothing about computers however i was interested in trying to put together a build.
Luckily my mate knew about computers and he helped me put together a neat build.

Components include: Windows 8.1, 4770k i7 processor, Asrock extreme 4 motherboard, 850watt cool master PSU, 16gb Rip jaws RAM, Nvidia GTX 780 GPU, 2tb Western Digital HDD and a 120gb Samsung SSD.

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Putting this build together got me more interested in computers so i decided to look up other builds on the net and came across some awesome computer mods, one that caught my eye was a computer within a desk, I WANTED TO MAKE MY OWN.

Starting in January 2014, i did two full days of research on computers, components, how to videos and reviews because i knew absolutly nothing about them.

Two days passed and i decided to drawn up some plans for the desk.

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With the desk drawn up i made a list of components that i would need to purchase, the main computer specs included:

Windows 8.1, i7 4770k processor, Asus maximus VI formula motherboard, two 1000watt corsair gold RM series PSU's, 32gb of corsair dominator platinum RAM, two nvidia GTX 780Ti GPU's in SLI, 4Tb western digital HDD + three 1Tb western digital HDD,
two 250gb samsung SSD's + two 120gb samsung SSD's, Asus xonar essence stx soundcard and Asus xonar phoebus soundcard. I will also be watercooling everything, running tripple 27inch monitors and setting up a full car sound system within the desk.
Since this build was going to be a long and expensive project i went all out on components to make a beast.

Some components included within the desk:

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Moving on to the desk, the wood used to make the desk is 18mm thick and the legs were made thicker for extra support. Iv also included a back board for extra support and stability. The top of the desk is routed out to fit a sheet of 6mm thick hardened glass.

A few pictures of the desk being built:

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I also made some fake elevated bottom platforms to hide wires and make wire management as clean as i can. I wrapped the platforms in a carbon fibre vinyl which turned out amazing.

Elevated Platforms:

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Once i had all of my cutouts done to size i decided to test fit some components and also see how much space would be available for cable routing, lighting and running tubing to watercool all of the components.

Test Fitting:

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Components fit well and i am happy with how the desk is shaping up.

I decided it would be a good idea to test out the computer with its stock coolers before i install the waterblocks to make sure everything worked correctly. I also ran some performance comparisons with my 780Ti superclocked GPU's.
The results i obtained are with no overclock, everything will be overclocked when the build is complete.

One 780Ti GPU on ultra settings.
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Two 780Ti GPU's in SLI configuration.
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The desk is now ready to be painted. I decided to go with a nice gloss black on the outside and the raised platform in the desk. The inside walls of the desk are being wrapped in carbon fibre vinyl.

Desk Painted:

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Now that i have built the desk and painted it, i started installing some components such as fans, speakers, amplifier and i also installed my water blocks onto the computer components.

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Since installing a lot of my components i have made some real progress with the desk. I have installed 2/3 of my tubing and now im just waiting for some extension cables to come in the mail before the desk can be finished.

Progress pictures:

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Now that the desk is around 2/3 built i decided to add some LED light strips to illuminate all of the components. I wired all of the LED strips up to switches and i put some perspex under my amplifier, HDD's and SSD's to create a green illuminated boarder around them. There are LED strips under the perspex to illuminate it even further.

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Here is a small diagram of how i wired all of my leds up to switches and dimmers:

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I decided to take some test pictures while testing all of my switches and dimmers, this is how it is looking so far:

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This is my build as of the 12/06/2014. I am currently waiting for some extension cables in the mail so i am able to put the motherboard side in the desk and work on some nice cable management.
Hopefully i should receive the goods next week. Please stay tuned and ill upload more progress photos as i continue with the build.

























 
Last edited:
Your post was caught by our spam filter, likely from all the linkage and new membership. Since I have looked it over, I approved the post, but somehow the images are not working. I then looked in the edit section to see if I could adjust the links to find that none of the image links are present now. While a PITA you will either need to re-link, and if that doesn't work, you may want to try our host... http://www.techpowerup.org/
 
Your post was caught by our spam filter, likely from all the linkage and new membership. Since I have looked it over, I approved the post, but somehow the images are not working. I then looked in the edit section to see if I could adjust the links to find that none of the image links are present now. While a PITA you will either need to re-link, and if that doesn't work, you may want to try our host... http://www.techpowerup.org/
thanks mate i will give the image host ago =)
 
Your post was caught by our spam filter, likely from all the linkage and new membership. Since I have looked it over, I approved the post, but somehow the images are not working. I then looked in the edit section to see if I could adjust the links to find that none of the image links are present now. While a PITA you will either need to re-link, and if that doesn't work, you may want to try our host... http://www.techpowerup.org/
did that work?
 
I wanna see the big version of your Avatar...
Nice work! looks awesome.
haha cheers mate =) dont worry you will see it in the up coming days as i put more of my progress up =)
 
$22000!!!!! That's almost as much as my car! D: That is one kickass PC dude, seriously.

Is that liquid cooling for the HDDs? Is there any benefit with the use of normal drives, or is it more for aesthetics?

Also I'm guessing the second PSU you will be using for the sound system or have I missed something?
 
$22000!!!!! That's almost as much as my car! D: That is one kickass PC dude, seriously.

Is that liquid cooling for the HDDs? Is there any benefit with the use of normal drives, or is it more for aesthetics?

Also I'm guessing the second PSU you will be using for the sound system or have I missed something?
Pretty much spot on with the power supplies, cooling the HHDs is purely for aesthetics otherwise could you imagine a huge long tube coming straight from the motherboard on the right side of the desk straight to the reservoirs in the middle, that would look hideous =) Thank you for the kind words mate, appreciate it.
 
Sub'd. I would like to see you water cool that amp:)
 
Sub'd. I would like to see you water cool that amp:)
Id definatly do it if there was some place that could provide a custom made water block for it =D
 
This is remarkable, love a great work log.

:D

Thanks for sharing.
 
As everyone has said, super awesome and amazing! :respect: :respect:

Keep it up :toast: :toast:
 
Wow, Nice works!!! I really like! 10/10
 
Just awesome. I would buy one of these if you started mass producing. Sub.
 
Looks very nice, interested to hear how the 6x9's sound mounted into such a small space, its not exactly your traditional speaker box design :)
 
Thank you to everyone for all of your kind words
 
nice to see these kind or projects. keep up the good work.
 
I think I creamed a little.....


I want it.....
 
Why use a car audio amp? Could have run a pro audio amp and ran it on 120 volt AC instead of 12 volt DC, but keeping the head unit on 12vdc as the preamp. That would be a lot easier on the second PSU. Car audio amps don't really run that great on PC DC power supplies.
Not to mention you can run a lot more wattage:
http://www.parts-express.com/behringer-ep4000-europower-power-amplifier-2-x-1400w--248-748

http://www.parts-express.com/behringer-ep2000-europower-power-amplifier-2-x-750w--248-746 (what I run,EP1500)

Very nice build. Nice work for a first time too!
 
nice build.

Are those hd coolers cooling the bottom/logic boards of the drives or just the tops ?
 
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