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Custom PC Desk Mod

So I may be a little late starting this build log (I ran out of internet so I couldn't post anything) but here we go.
 
Little About Me:
Because I feel I should, I thought I might start with a little about myself. I am a 16 year old living in Auckland, New Zealand (Yes that place does exist) with a passion for modding. All credit to inspirations such as Peter Brands (Maker of the Red Harbinger and the original L3P D3SK) who gave me the idea for this build and my goal is to demonstrate that builds like this don't require a enormous budget (Although they can if you want them to)
And if all turns to **** and the desk ends up being a waste of time in my defense this is my very first water-cooled PC, looking back this was a really stupid idea after all.
 
 
Early Stages
Like any other computer build this desk mod started off as an idea,

 

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I really liked this concept of having two computers in one desk as on top of it looking god dammed sexy I regularly host LAN's or have friends over so it will be great for anything multiplayer or cooperative. The idea oh having the reservoirs in the middle just adding to this sex appeal

 

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While I have 100% respect to this build it made me realize how much I wanted the 4 tube reseviors running down the middle and so with that in mind I went into the next phase:

 

Designing

Taking into account what I learned from seeing previous builds I wanted to design something that I feel combined had the best of everything, and so using a program I learned in middle school (Yes Turbocad) I set into the design phase.

 

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It took me about 5 hours to come up with this design, keeping in mind I knew next to nothing hammering two bits of wood together let alone the required structural integrity. However there was one problem...Glass

it was obvious to me that I needed a glass top to show off my sexy components however looking around glass is VERY EXPENSIVE to get it custom made with the lowest quote being $500 NZD ($396 USD) and so the design had to me made in ratio to whatever piece of glass I could aquire.

For the next few weeks I was constantly on TradeMe (New Zealands equivalent of ebay) searching for glass desks. coffee tables dinging furniture anything with a reasonably sized pane of tempered glass until I found something that suited me perfectly, 1500x700x8 glass desk, with glass 8mm thick. and for 37 NZD ($29 USD) it was an absolute steal. I immediately urged my parents help me bring it home-a dogy affair where we had to strap the legs to the roof while the glass rested over my head in the back seat.

Anyway we got the glass home safe, and I adjusted the plans to suit.

 

What to Use

Next step was deciding what to use. And this is where I am lucky. By trade my Dad is and engineer has built many houses meaning to say he has ALOT of wood to spare. A quick tour of the farm found us exactly what I was after, 3 sheets of 2x5m kustomwood and a wooden door to use as legs. (Bogan I know). Once we got all the materials together it was time to get cutting and and assembling.

 

I'm sorry but this just had to be said. Part of the reason that I wanted to do this desk build is so that I can have some experience in the workshop and not be completely useless in future. Therefore I ordered my Dad to keep and eye on me so I don't balls it up  THAT'S IT after that it was up to me to do the cutting gluing and screwing.

 

Building

Now i'm sorry about this but when I started I didn't really have plans of making a build log hence I apologise in advancnce for the complete lack of photos. Also I was limited to a cheap $50 digital camera so the photo's that I do have aren't the best

 

Long and boring story short it took me about a week to cut out the wood, during this process I was limited just a handsaw and a circular saw and so some of the cuts aren't the straightest but meh overall for a first timer I wasn't too unhappy. Once cut the Kustomwood was screwed together (With PVA glue of course) I dirlled holes for cabel/tubing management and primed my baby ready for its first coat.

Again sorry for the lack of pictures during this process

After the primer I had the choice between three different types of black paint:
          -Tire Paint (Yes the stuff you use to paint car tires)

          -Blackboard Paint

          -Or Metal Primer

Now I wanted a matte finish with a ever so slight sheen so I decided to use the tire paint for the first coat, and the metal primer (After it had been thinned) as the second coat. Leaving me very pleased with the results.

 

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FAQ,
What are the holes in the front for?

The rectangular cuttouts in the front are for 5.25" drives and the circular hole is for the two power buttons.

 

What are the rectangular holes inside the desk for?

I'm not gonna lie I balls'ed up quite a bit here, this is a place for the rear IO to go however instead of being a small rectangular hole for the mobo IO leading to the GPU IO (http://www.dansdata.com/images/jullls/pc6100back480.jpg) I accidentally glued this back piece of wood in the wrong way forcing me to make one giant hole

 

What are the rest of the holes for?

The rest of the internal holes are for tubing, I really want a clean aesthetic going on and so as little tubing and cabling shown as possible.

 

Where does the radiator pump and PSU go?

This all goes into the back box thing behind the mobo/s as seen in the red harbinger etc 

 

The Desk Is Finally Built

Because of the gaping great hole that was the back of the desk I decided to cover it using the rear IO cannibalized from another PC, and after drilling several hundred rivets from two very generic Cooler Master Cases I 'borrowed' from my school's tech department I painted it with the same metal primer that my desk was now coated in.

 

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And without further ado it was finally DONE ready for my very interesting selection of components. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Components

Rather than show you pictures of all the components coming in there own individual shipments (From all over the world I might add) I thought I might just show you a picture of all of them, then list all the components I used.

 

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Main Hardware

Computer #1 (My Personal And Everyday Rig)

 

CPU:      Intel Pentium g3258 (Its watercooled so I hope to get this baby up to 5GHz and as I said I was on a budget)

MOBO:   ASrock z97 Extreme 4

RAM:      Kingston HyperX beast 8gb

GPU:      Radeon R9 290

PSU:      Cooler Master V650

 

Watercooling:

EK Copper Plexi Clean CSQ CPU WB

EK Copper Plexi Clean CSQ r9 290X WB With Backplate

Swiftech MP655 (This pump is/used to be Linus's favorite and I have to say I LOVE IT)

Xspc EX480mm Rad (With matching XSPC fans)

12x XSPC 5/8" Black Chrome v2 Compression Fittings (These were the cheapest in nz and I gotta say I like the look of em Thanks Techworld.co.nz)

3x XSPC 45* Rotary Fitting

2x Bitspower Water Z Multi 400 (This is 2 of the 4 reservoirs in the build)

 

 

Extras:

-NZXT Sentry MIX Fan controller

-Generic LG DVD Drive (Yes I thought I might use it one day)

-Bitfenix Alchemy Cabling

 

Computer #2 (This is a VERY odd selection of components that I sort of just had lying around, this will be my server and when a mate comes over a co-op rig)

 

CPU:      i3 530 (Yes a first gen i3 DEAL WITH IT IM ON A BUDGET, OC'd this thing will go to 4.6GHz)

MOBO:  Gigabyte GA 55 something something something (Again DEAL WITH IT I GOT IT FOR FREE)

RAM:     8gb DDR3 1333Mhz (I dont even know where this ram came from)

GPU:     Geforce GTX 295 (God I love this card whoever designed it was a freaking genius)

PSU:      Coming Soon (Yeah leave me alone I blew all my money on 4 reservoirs) 

 

Watercooling:

EK Copper Plexi Clean CSQ CPU WB

Koolance something a-rather cooling my GTX 295

EK DCP 2.2 (Really not a bad pump for the money)

Xspc EX480mm Rad (With matching XSPC fans)

12x XSPC 5/8" Black Chrome v2 Compression Fittings (These were the cheapest in nz and I gotta say I like the look of em Thanks Techworld.co.nz)

3x XSPC 45* Rotary Fitting

2x Bitspower Water Z Multi 400 (This is 2 of the 4 reservoirs in the build)

 

 

Extras:

-NZXT Sentry MIX Fan controller

-Silverstone Hot Swap Bay (For when friends come over if they want they can easily bring and install their hard drive)

-Bitfenix Alchemy Cabling

 

Yes this is a very odd selection of components I know, although combined with the bitfenix cabling it actually looks really nice, please not that I am currently only employed 5 hours a week on minimum wage and I like to save my money hence some of the 'shabby' components. That said all components intend to be upgraded in due time including a gtx 580 and a Asrock extreme 4 for the second computer (Ordered and on their way) and a better CPU and second/third GPU for the main computer.

 

I'm not afraid to say installation of the GPU waterblock made me **** my pants

 

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And so finally we come to photo's showing where I am now in the build:

 

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I have one more order I need to make before I can complete the desk, that is some additional cabling and another 2m of tubing until then this project is offically under wraps

 

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So now that you have reached the end of this build (I hope you liked it) I have a question to ask, I have already ordered 2 bottles of DARK BLUE dye and with time I will hopefully get into some UV lighting and I was wondering:

What should I call it? (Boy Or Girl?)

 

 

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Less angeled shots please...

 

But other than that nice build :D

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That CPU is really going to hold you back, 2 cores simply isn't enough any more. When i tried my Pentium G3258 with a 290 and overclocked to 4.4Ghz i got stuttering in most games. I switched back to the 4670K and the stuttering went away.

Simple Stryker (Now Finished  ;) )


The Terrible HP


 

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Its looks really good! as you already said you were on a budget, but are you planning to upgrade it in the future?

And the Intel Pentium G3258 Is a beast overclocker I got it to 4.4 on its stock cooler (with reasonalbe temps 70-80 C) which is just insane. I ran

AIDA 64 for 18 hours straight. Although I dont think the 2 cores will hold up the while playing the latest games atleast not the upcoming ones.

Spoiler

CPU: R7 5800x -- Mobo: Gigabyte B550 Gaming X v2 -- RAM: 2x16GB Kingston Fury Renegade -- GPU: Asrock RX 6800 XT Phantom Gaming OC -- Case: Fractal Design North Walnut/Black Mesh -- Storage: 2TB 970 Evo Plus, 4TB NM790 -- PSU: BeQuiet Pure Power 11 Platinum 650w -- Displays: AOC AGON  AG352UCG, Dell Ultrasharp U2715H -- Cooling: Noctua NH-D14 -- Mouse: Corsair M65 -- Keyboard: Func KB 460 MX Blue -- Sound: Motu M2 -> THX 789 -> DT880 600Ω -- Mic: RØDE NT1-A

Spoiler

RIG 2: Intel i5-8400, 16 GB RAM, RTX 2070S

Spoiler
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No offense, but spending that much on watercooling and going with a budget cpu is just silly. Digging the GTX 295 though. As a kid I used to drool over pics of those.

I cannot be held responsible for any bad advice given.

I've no idea why the world is afraid of 3D-printed guns when clearly 3D-printed crossbows would be more practical for now.

My rig: The StealthRay. Plans for a newer, better version of its mufflers are already being made.

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Haha I had never heard of the GTX 295 until I got it free from a mate whose water-cooling hobby is over. But when I did see it for the first time I must say, WTF but hell who needs two GPU's on one PCB anyway

To all the other peoples criticizing the specs know I have every intention of upgrading them later this year, when broardwell comes out. In system 2 The i3 530 will transform into a intel Pentium G3258 and a ASrock extreme 4 and the GTX 295 will go into my media pc and be upgraded into a GTX 580. In system 1 the G3258 will be swapped out for a i7 5770K (At least) and I will throw in an extra couple of 290's to support tipple screens. That said remember I am on minimum wage 14.25 NZD an hour (11.33 USD) and the whole goal is to do this all on a budget

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Wow this looks great. Tbh when you said you were 16 I thought it was gonna look like shit, but man was I proved wrong! Btw, why'd you spend a bunch on cooling, but then only get a G3258?

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ha ha you spent more on tube res's than you did on your cpu! its crazy, but i like it! the G3258 can be a beast and if you can get it 24/7 stable that would be amazing!

Rig Specs:

AMD Threadripper 5990WX@4.8Ghz

Asus Zenith III Extreme

Asrock OC Formula 7970XTX Quadfire

G.Skill Ripheartout X OC 7000Mhz C28 DDR5 4X16GB  

Super Flower Power Leadex 2000W Psu's X2

Harrynowl's 775/771 OC and mod guide: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/232325-lga775-core2duo-core2quad-overclocking-guide/ http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/365998-mod-lga771-to-lga775-cpu-modification-tutorial/

ProKoN haswell/DC OC guide: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/41234-intel-haswell-4670k-4770k-overclocking-guide/

 

"desperate for just a bit more money to watercool, the titan x would be thankful" Carter -2016

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  • 2 weeks later...

Final Update: (YES I SUCK AT TAKING PHOTOS)

 

Hardware Wise: Yes I replaced my Pentium that you all hated although in its defense after I OC'd it to 4.7GHz it was not  too bad. I have since got a i7 4790K (Sorry its not a 4960 or something, need I repeat I am on a budget)

As soon as I get the $$$ to buy another asrock extreme 4 the Pentium will go into the second PC

On its way is another r9 290. I literally just paid for this at the time of writing so hopefully that will arrive soon

And in the same order as the 290 I have ordered two more 4gb sticks of Kingston hyper X beast (I just love this ram) making a total of 16gb

I will upload benchmarks as soon as these parts arrive and I find the time to install them

 

Physically I could not be more happy with the desk. it is looks goddam sexy in my room and even with the dual quad radiators running it is completely silent (I have lined the rear where the pump etc fits with noise isolating foam). Having my 290 running at a peak 36 ish degrees (Running MSI Kombustor) is absolutely amazing and while I don't know what I was thinking when I decided that this desk would be easy but I really think the effort has paid off (Remember this is my first water-loop and my first 'case' mod.)

 

Just a note for future when my next few payslips come thought I will be buying triple monitors, RGB and UV led's and will probably get some opaque coolant (This stuff looks average)
I was at Armageddon last Saturday (Sort of like Pax only smaller) and there I fell in love with the Logitech g910 Orion spark and there g600 mmo mouse so with any luck I will sell my current stuff and go all out logitech

 

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