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Wife's gaming build: The IKEA Kallax project

vogelspinnen

My wife picked up gaming recently, mostly because I game a lot, and she wanted to join in on my hobby. So, I decided to build her a PC. I am in the midst of starting my new business, and so I do not have a lot to spend, but I wanted something that could play triple-A titles with ease at 1080p. Also, I wanted it clean and RGB-ed. Because my wife loves RGB. After much planning, I figured I would be able to build her PC in one of the spaces in the Kallax shelf we have at home, potentially saving money on a case, while being absolutely unique and clean at the same time.

 

The first order of business was to get the parts for the PC.

 

Gigabyte Aorus Z370 Gaming K3

i5-9600K

Adata 128GB M.2 SSD

XPG 3000Mhz 16GB RAM

EVGA Supernova 1000 P2

DEEPCOOL Castle 240EX

MSI 1060 6GB ( almost immediately replaced by a 2060 Super I won from www.scooget.com. Thanks guys! )

 

The CPU is overkill, but I am planning to give her my 2080 in the future, and I believe a good CPU is worth investing in. These things last ages anyways. The Adata SSD is tiny, but I got it for next to nothing and it's enough for Monster Hunter. The PSU is waaaay overkill, but same thing, it was a deal I couldn't resist. I splurged a bit of the cooler and RAM for their bling factor, but overall everything cost me less than $500, and is ready for the 2080 when I do want to transfer it. Much of the decisions made were also simply because there were really good deals for them on the 2nd-hand market. 5 of the parts here still have warranty on them!

 

So first off, I threw everything together to just make sure it runs. And it posted!

 

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I bought a old Kallax shelf door for $1 off someone, then drill holes into them. I bought some brass standoffs that were about twice the length of normal mobo standoffs, so I could route cables beneath the mobo. I then drilled a huge 4 inch hole in the center of the door. That is where all the cables will pass through (no photos of that because I was too tired and forgot!).

 

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The PSU is mounted all the way at the back. It is not flush against the wall, and neither is the shelf, so there's lots of breathing room.

 

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Cable extensions are a god send here. Besides looking good, I route them all through the 4 inch hole behind the mobo, and removing the mobo is as easy as just unplugging all the extensions.

 

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Once all the cables are connected, I just push the entire door inwards, where it will be held by some magnetic door stoppers I drilled into the board.

 

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Next up was mounting the radiator. I wanted it on the left side to hide all the cables coming off the mobo, and custom-made a piece of wood to fill the gap above and below it so it looks like one flush piece. I also took the chance to modify a USB hub and power switch onto it, that's my front panel IO!

 

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Finally, I resprayed the GPU shroud because the white was just darn ugly.

 

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Annnnnd the build is done...

 

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....or is it?

 

2 weeks after the build, I submitted my build on www.scooget.com, and lo and behold, I won myself a 2060 Super GPU! First thing I did was but a vertical GPU mount for it, as the lack of a proper case means my GPU was just dangling off the PCIE slot, which is ok for the tiny 1060. I found a guy selling one he didn't even know what case it was for, hence the low price.

 

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A little modification to my build, and the 2060 Super is sitting pretty

 

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For KBM, I didn't need something good, my wife only ever uses it to click on Monster Hunter. But it had to be wireless due to the distance, and preferably neat too. I searched through all my stuff, and salvaged these parts:

 

An IKEA Lack shelf I salvaged from my bedside table. It's a 2 tier shelf, and I only use the top, so I removed the bottom for this project.

An old VESA gas-actuator arm. It was used for my monitor a while ago, but I removed it because it jiggled way too much when I was in standing-desk mode.

A VESA mount adapter for the X34P. This is supposed to be used for the X34P if you wanna mount a NUC or something, but I didn't, and it's VESA-sized, made of really solid steel, so it's perfect as other side of the VESA arm.

A Dynaudio speaker cover. This cover is used when you are not VESA mounting your Dynaudio speakers. I don't need them, and it's VESA-compatible so ta-dah, my wife has a posh mosue holder.

 

First order of business is to attach the X34P VESA adapter. The arm will be mounted on the other side, sandwiching the plank.

 

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I cut 2 pieces of felt and lined the inside of the adapter and the speaker cover. This is where the mouse will sit.

 

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With everything screwed together, I adjusted the screws such that the mouse sits snugly while still being easy to reach.

 

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With the keyboard screwed in, this is how it looks like when it is stowed away.

 

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And this is with the keyboard pulled out. With the gas-arm properly adjusted, doing so is a breeze, whereas the board is usually quite heavy when I was working with it.

 

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And that is about it! My wife now spends hours on Monster Hunter with it, and seeing her enjoy herself makes all that hard work well worth it. This build is budget-as-heck, but hopefully my new business will pick up, and the next order of business is to get her a 4K TV.

 

I would like to specially mention www.scooget.com. While I am not affiliated with them in any way, they do run a very cool site where they have contests pretty often with great prizes. Winning the 2060 Super was the best thing that happened to me in a long while, and is just perfect for my wife's build, so yes, I am very inclined to help them promote their site in any way I can!

 

 

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Cool , Loved that output ports wood work, looks clean & seamless.

Details separate people.

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10 hours ago, kes2006 said:

Cool mate but why a 1000w psu

Not that it was needed, but as I was searching for a 2nd-hand PSU, it was actually cheaper than all the other 700W and 650W ones I was looking at, and it's EVGA, and still under warranty. Was too good a deal to pass up!

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21 hours ago, Tech_Dreamer said:

Cool , Loved that output ports wood work, looks clean & seamless.

Thank you :D I actually messed up painting it, so I ended up just decaling it.

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On 5/9/2020 at 5:36 PM, vogelspinnen said:

Not that it was needed, but as I was searching for a 2nd-hand PSU, it was actually cheaper than all the other 700W and 650W ones I was looking at, and it's EVGA, and still under warranty. Was too good a deal to pass up!

Ooooohhhh that makes sense 

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