Building a small desk pc

[TheGevShow]

Hey everyone, I've been thinking about building my own desk pc for a while now. Finally got around to designing it and I've started building. Thought it's time I show off my progress a little. Maybe get some advice if im doing anything wrong. 

 

Been watching ltt since the rc fire truck video was a month old. Been inspired to do this since Linus showed off the lian li desk pc years ago. 

 

I bought a glass desk years ago with this build in mind. So I'm essentially building a slim Pc case to go under my glass desk. Thus turning into a deskpc. 

 

SO the dimensions are:

23.75" x 17" x 5" external 

23" x 16.5" x 6" internal.

There will be a 1 inch false bottom to hide cables. And a 1 inch gap at the top that won't be seen but needed to be able to have the whole thing on drawer rails and slide out. 

 

The glass table I have has 2-1inch bars running across it to hold the glass. Thus the need for a 1inch gap. 

 

Here's how far I've gotten so far. I've made, a box. 

[amdorintel]

3 minutes ago, TheGevShow said:

how far I've gotten so far. I've made, a box. 

good start

 

wood is an extremely easy material to work with

[TheGevShow]

Just made a few cuts for

2 5.25 bays 

Rear i/o

Psu 

 

Cuts I still need to do:

120mm fan holes 

Cable routing holes 

 

And I think that's it for the rough work. 

Quite frankly my original idea was to have everything on standoffs and route the cables under the components for optimal cable management. But my laziness won out and I'm just velcoroing everything except the mobo and gpu. 

 

Is there any downside to using velcro to mount everything? 

[TheGevShow]

Fan holes cut.

Surface prepared. 

Ready to prime & paint 

[TheGevShow]

I just sanded, prepped, and primed the whole case today.

Sadly I only have about one hour per day to work on this but it's coming together beautifully, and slightly janky. Just how I like it. 

 

Anyways, I'll be painting the case tonight and letting dry overnight. Not ideal, but it's the only time I got. 

[amdorintel]

linex the case

[derr12]

Glass top or sealed? Looks good. You makin life easy by using a salvaged motherboard tray from an old case? 

[TheGevShow]

1 hour ago, derr12 said:

Glass top or sealed? Looks good. You makin life easy by using a salvaged motherboard tray from an old case? 

Glass top. Not sealed. There will be a 1 inch gap between the glass and the box I made. Won't be seen.

 

I decided to make my own tray out of mdf to mount everything to. To keep it slim. 

 

I will be repurposing standoffs, power & reset buttons, hdd & power lights, and some other random bits as needed from my old nzxt switch case that all the rubber on has gone to shit. Has no resale value. So I'll take off what I need and keep the switch to refurbish & reuse later. 

 

Thanks for the interest in the project 

 

I'll be posting some updates in a min or two  

[TheGevShow]

21 hours ago, amdorintel said:

linex the case

You know I thought about using an undercoating but in the end I just used outdoor waterproof paint with sealer primer before it. 

 

I like the smooth flat finish I got. I'll be posting pics today. 

[TheGevShow]

Today I feel like I got alot done. Being Sunday I had a little more time today to work on this. 

 

I removed the clear glass panels from my desk to paint them. I used plastidip. Holy hell it takes alot of layers to get an opaque black on glass. 

I had to go to work after layer 6. And it still needs a few more til I'm happy. 

 

A big mistake I made on the case: I didn't space the fan holes out properly for future rad mounting. Just kinda spaced them evenly apart without even considering future water cooling. 

Maybe on version 2 I'll remember 

 

As for the case I used an outdoor furniture primer sealer yesterday and today painted it black with outdoor flat black paint. Came out nice. I shouldn't have used paper as my drop cloth. I had sticking and ripping issues I had to deal with. 

 

It's not a perfect finish at all. Alot of my lack of craftsman skills show. But for something that's going under a desk, I'm happy. 

 

Also happy to put that GIANT nzxt switch 810 in the closet. I'm done with full towers for a while. 

 

Thanks to everybody interested and giving feedback. You guys are dope. 

[TechnoCaveman]

super cool i am about to do something simmilar 

 

[TheGevShow]

OK, update time. I stayed up til 6am working on this. And only got this far. It's a little. More. Complicated than I had previously anticipated but it's coming together beautifully. 

 

I spent most of last night fitting it, getting the gaps right. Figuring out how to mount drawer rails when I didn't leave much of a gap on the sides.

Where and how to mount the salvaged power button, hdd light, and power light from my switch 810. 

 

I need to. Somehow get my Pc Up and running tonight.... In this state to write an invoice. Lol life's tough 

 

[TheGevShow]

Update:

the pc is in and still working.

Cable routing was annoying as all hell. 

There were complications, and things were changed accordingly.

It's not perfect, it's actually a little janky but it came out great.

Still got some cleaning up to do. My room is an absolute mess 

 

Tldr: Here's how far I got. Today before heading to work 

Before anyone says it, yes that's a single 8gb stick of ram in single channel on a ryzen board. I know it's dumb. Ram prices were insanity when I bought that. Got 32gb tridentz on the way 

As you can see it was a Pepsi fueled night. 

Gonna be a gassy day.   

 

p.s. I'll get you guys some dope glamor shots when it's all done 

[TheGevShow]

Everyday I get closer and closer to being done. 

I got this far last night before I noticed it's 3am. 

All that's left is clean up and under desk management 

[TheGevShow]

Thank you to everyone that cared enough to follow this build. I'm super happy with it. I still need to buy a 90° power cable, and better fans.