Desk PC - my journey

[DavidMckNZ]

Hi all!

I have been following the LTT forum for a few years now, and ever since I saw his PC mounted to the desk video on Youtube I thought I had to try something a bit more refined myself. I'm no carpenter and have no special skills but just used some basic tools from the hardware store.

 

I ordered the parts back in Q1 of 2017, the i7 7700k had been released and the GTX 1080Ti was due to be released (I pre-ordered). I  had been following Gamers Nexus and LTT on youtube for reviews of the products. I also ordered the HTC vive, my plan and dream was to get into VR gaming and still play to this day. I modified a case (a Gigabyte Sumo circa 2004 that I got from an old flatmate) and installed them and all was well. We moved to a larger house at the start of 2018, got married and got a dog. We had a voucher for a furniture company from Christchurch, New Zealand called Mocka (https://www.mocka.co.nz). They do nice kitset furniture and I told my wife I could get rid of the big ugly PC case and install all the parts into the desk https://www.mocka.co.nz/marlow-desk.html. It was my first go at watercooling (as air cooling for performance would be too limited given the internal height of the gap in the desk) and I used an EK Extreme kit to get me started, plus the GPU waterblock.

 

This year I had to change the coolant, do some maintenance on the components and wanted to change some things about the desk, the layout, and tidy the cabling. I thought I should upload my build after changing the coolant in the loop and show the changes to the desk so people can try this themselves! Most other Desk PC's are either janky (mounting to the underside of cheap furniture) or building your own from scratch. Even if you can't get the same desk, one with similar dimensions should work (will post below).

 

I got all the mods done before our baby boy was born, and I have been working through the lockdown so there might be a few gaps between posts but I'll try to get the photos and posts up as soon as possible.

 

The professional photos are from Humphrey Hanley, a photographer and awesome guy: http://nohandsnoexcuses.com/. Please excuse the terrible shots from my phone that I tried to take during the build (and now). I had not planned on posting the build so not all steps have photos but hopefully none are missing.... any questions please ask me and I'll try reply as soon as possible.

[DavidMckNZ]

so here are the obligatory posts of the initial build. The gear I bought from PB tech in NZ. I modded an old case that was set up a an old server. A bit ad to hear that Cryorig may have disappeared now. It was a good air cooler and has gone into Humphrey's build. Some of the mods to the case were removal of the drive bays (i used wire cutters), addition of an extra intake fan (removal of the 2.5" bays, an extra fan on the roof, an internal 140mm fan for the graphics card. I'm glad I got a 1080Ti. I used a pair of wire cutters for the trimming of the aluminum. It was a bit rough but covered by silicone putty (Sugru) and fan vent from silverstone it was all good

[DavidMckNZ]

So the desk was ordered by my wife from Mocka and I put it together, and got the idea to put the components in. I had always wanted to try water cooling. The only thing was to find out if all the gear would fit and what tools I'd need. I wanted to keep a drawer at least usable, but with power for charging game controllers/phones etc (and because storage is useful, the amount of times I need a pen and having one tucked away is awesome. To be honest I could have kept both drawers in the end but the extra space was useful for the blu-ray drive (which I never use) and USB hub within the desk itself.

The desk dimensions are: 1.2m wide, 0.48m deep, and internally the space between the panels is 10cm vertically. Clearly my air cooler wouldn't fit! So water cooling it is...

I used the EK extreme open loop kit, and got an EK waterblock for the 1080Ti Aorus Extreme. So also fitting a massive triple radiator is important! So the panel needed modifying.

[DavidMckNZ]

First step, paper cutouts of the componentry. I can't recommend this any more highly. Easy switch around and trial fitting. Also gave me an idea of where the window in the desk would need to be cut to. The triple rad plus the 3x 120mm fans makes it thick!

The middle dividers were removed but would absolutely be needed to hold the upper panel without sag. I then decided a trim of the panels would work and both hold the upper panel with support and divide the drawer area.

[DavidMckNZ]

Items needed for this step:

-pencil for marking holes

-Snub nosed Pliers

-Drill driver narrower than the rivets that are used (can be a drill bit on a power drill) - note it is hard to keep it vertical!

-Small Hammer (if needed)

-Metal wooden rivets with same internal screw type and diameter as normal motherboard standoffs

-Motherboard Standoffs

 

So I had decided on the location of the motherboard. I am somewhat happy with the placement, HOWEVER I would change things ideally to not need x2 riser cables for the GPU (you'll see onward), then have the window moved more to the left (for reasons at then end i'll allude to)

I used a small pencil to outline the Motherboards' standoff screw holes, then used a drill driver bit to mark the location of the centre of the holes. I then used a short drill driver bit narrower than the screw rivets to make pilot holes only 4mm deep (just used judgement). Being narrower than the rivets was important so they would bind into the wood.

 

Those screw rivets were found on a model site locally but were difficult to locate! They were screwed into the holes of the MDF, by using the motherboard standoffs that were then twisted by hand (and snub-nosed pliers) into the wood. You could use an epoxy to hold those in place in the wood but I didnt bother. When I upgrade I can always just remove them and start again.

 

NOTE: the holes i drilled weren't perfect but because it is MDF/wood, I used a hammer to right the standoffs to be more vertical, just by tapping them from one side several times gently. Not all could be fully vertical and some needed to be on an angle as the dimensions were a bit off, they just needed to be screwed deeper into the wood. At least the board is elevated, isolated and held steady. The goal is also to have the computer components upgradeable.

[DavidMckNZ]

So then came time to drill holes!

 

first to lower a section out of the back to mount the radiator to the back of the desk. TAKE IT OUTSIDE!!! Haha i started drilling pilot holes with a 19mm flat woodbore spade bit with the powerdrill and the bedroom was covered in dust.... the whole room. So it was done outside.

 

The radiator is held by "make-a-bracket" bendable brackets that you can see on the first image that just sit passively around the edges of the radiator. The required section of the desk was measured and then cut with a ryobi jigsaw (the saw bit could be angled to get a diagonal cut to make it fit flush-ish). The lowered section of the desk was screwed to the rest of the desk using angle brackets (of decent thickness and strength) and screwed to the main strut under the desk. This gives me room and makes for a strong radiator mount. The base of the radiator is held off th wood by "Sugru" - a mouldable silicone, but anything to give it some cushion to stop vibration through the desk is key.