diy DIY desk pc project - Thoughts? (Google SketchUp)

[LukaKitty]

The idea:

 

After watching a few DIY desk pc videos on YouTube, I kind of wanted to try building my own as well.

It's getting cramped in my case anyway, and I can't find another good looking case online that has at

least 2 frontal 140mm fans, and 2 5.25" bays as well.

 

 

Personal taste:

 

After messing about in a 3D modelling program called Google SketchUp, I eventually came up with

something better-looking. There's still some things to be done, but I'd like to hear people's thoughts.

I'm trying to make a DIY desk pc that has a industrial look to it if possible, or a more modern and

sci-fi looking one. Also, like Linus did in a DIY desk pc project of his own, I may paint the table/build

black as well, since that's my personal taste.

 

 

Extra notes:

 

If anyone has something to add that might look good on it for a industrial/sci-fi looking desk pc, I'd

appreciate suggestions. I have a glass panel I want to add on top, but I'm waiting until I have a

better idea of what to add to this build. Didn't really plan this, just making up stuff as I go along.

 

 

Here's some pictures.

 

Top panel. Custom designed glass panel will be lying on top. Not yet designed in SketchUp.

Anyway, I thought of mounting a NZXT HUE+ between the drive bays and HDD's, just saying.

By the way, since it'll be easy to see the cables, I thought of laying them down like this, close to each others:

 

And to hold the cables down, I thought of using these if I can find them:

 

 

 

Front panel. Parts: Power switch, Reset switch, 5.25" DVD-RW, 5.25" USB and Audio input, 120mm fan (air in)

 

 

 

Left side panel, with easy access to I/O. Parts: Motherboard I/O, graphics card video output, USB 3.1 PCIe x2 extension card, 140mm fan (air in)

 

 

 

Real panel with cutout by 10cm for airflow. Parts: ATX power supply unit, 2x 120mm fan (air out)

 

 

 

Right side panel. Parts: 140mm fan (air in)

NOTE: I thought about trying to center the fan, but it's not visible in the model as SketchUp

messed up this side panel when making the hole.

 

 

 

Bottom panel. Parts: ATX power supply unit

NOTE: This hole is not final. It'll be cut out more properly the desk (may) be built.

 

 

 

The I/O panel.

With some custom desk pc builds I've seen people make, they often don't make a hole with easy access

to the motherboard's I/O panel and other parts that may sit in the PCIe slots. For my use, I kind of need

easy access to this area, as I often plug things either in or out. Even if I didn't, it's annoying when a

cable starts malfunctioning and needs a replacement, but isn't easy due to the horrible access.

 

 

With that said, I'd like to hear what you guys in this forum have to say. Ideas and suggestions are very

welcome, as I want to make the design look better.

 

 

 

Thanks in advance. ^-^

[ImNotThere]

dont forget pcie risers are a thing, yiu can mount the graphics card in a more convenient place to nake the desk a little less thick, unless thats the design youre going for, obviously this will look dope no matter what but you could push it over the edge by replacing the top panel with glass or something similar and of course, custome water cooling!

[LukaKitty]

54 minutes ago, ImNotThere said:

dont forget pcie risers are a thing, yiu can mount the graphics card in a more convenient place to nake the desk a little less thick, unless thats the design youre going for, obviously this will look dope no matter what but you could push it over the edge by replacing the top panel with glass or something similar and of course, custome water cooling!

Personally, I want to try and avoid PCIe risers.... not taking a chance in mounting the graphics card to the table. Also, the height inside is only 15cm. With the table thickness, it'll only be 19cm from the bottom of the table to the top.

 

Not to be picky, but I'm going with wood at the top as I don't feel so safe with full glass. Know a person who had their table break, which made his $4000 rig go to s***. Also, I want to avoid DIY water cooling for 3 reasons. First reason being leakage... second reason being replacing a part. I mean, I can't begin to imagine the struggle you have to go through if you want to replace a part like the CPU or MOBO in a DIY water cooled desk. Third reason, it's kind of expensive... sorry. >-<

 

 

However, since I'm doing AIO water cooling on the CPU only, I thought of buying a NZXT Kraken X52 people seem to like a lot. ^^;

The cooling of the GPU will be assisted by the fans, especially the front one. I've got a NZXT Sentry 3 fan controller

in my rig, and I had an idea of mounting it on the top bellow the glass panel I thought of designing.

This is just a image I found on Google, but the frame of that panel is how I want the window design to look like, with the

fan cooler bellow it, so it looks like a touch panel of some sort. Well, it already is with a LCD display, but I feel like it'll

look better that way.

 

However, one slight "problem" with the fan controller. There are 5 fans in this build, 2 of them will be mounted to the

radiator and connected to the motherboard for balanced cooling to the CPU... and the last 3 will be connected to the fan

controller, which means 2 slots on the fan controller will not be in use. What should I do with them?

My thought was making a external mount to cool myself when the room gets hot, but not sure...