So Who Wants to Built A PC Within a Desk?

[MarQue98]

Money, and my mother didn't like the looks of the new Lian Li desks. 

 

I've got a better desk though, so I've got that going for me. 

can't you build the desk yourself? that way you can exactly work out how you want it to look and make the perfect size too. + it's probably going to be cheaper 

[Tearass]

can't you build the desk yourself? that way you can exactly work out how

you want it to look and make the perfect size too. + it's probably going to

be cheaper 

 

I dunno how to build a desk, and I'm very unsure in my abilities

to measure things out properly, and cut things out without the

proper materials & tools.

[MarQue98]

I dunno how to build a desk, and I'm very unsure in my abilities

to measure things out properly, and cut things out without the

proper materials & tools.

can't you get someone to help you out with that? i'm probably going to have to ask my dad to help, because i know how great i am at building stuff  

[Tearass]

can't you get someone to help you out with that? i'm probably going to have to ask my dad to help, because i know how great i am at building stuff

 

Well, I guess we do know a family friend that works with

some metal bending things I think. Making a sketchup

model would be easy enough, but eh. too late now as

I've already bought a permanent desk and all.

[MarQue98]

Well, I guess we do know a family friend that works with

some metal bending things I think. Making a sketchup

model would be easy enough, but eh. too late now as

I've already bought a permanent desk and all.

o yeah i didn't know haha. well i'll shut up about making it yourself then  

what desk are you buying now ?

[Tearass]

o yeah i didn't know haha. well i'll shut up about making it yourself then

what desk are you buying now ?

 

I'll be posting some pictures on my buildlog eventually.

It was basically just made of a black table top and some height adjustable legs.

[MarQue98]

I'll be posting some pictures on my buildlog eventually.

It was basically just made of a black table top and some height adjustable legs.

so i guess it's time for me to go follow your build log then

[MarQue98]

alrighty guys, y'all prepare yo'selfs because i managed to convince myself for about 99% to build this thing this summer.

it's not a full 100 because there's this little voice in my head that reminds me that i bought this pc just 2 months ago and i'm already ditching the case.. But let's just turn the music up so i don't here that voice and build this beast!

..BUT.. before everyone starts to go crazy and get excited about a watercooling build inside a desk.. well, i'm going to have to disappoint you.

I simply just do not have the money to buy all those parts right now  (i'm also saving up money for other things like a driving license)

So  here's what i'm going to be doing. i'll build the desk, buy some led strips and maybe some other stuff if i feel like i need it, and i'll use the parts of my current pc, which already has a red & black theme.

Over time i will upgrade the components inside, and do some modding if i (or you ) come up with an awesome idea, but the main desk will probably remain the same for as long as possible.

i already looked at a LOT of other builds for inspiration, and this is what i came up with so far:

- a aluminium backplate for the mobo, painted black. it will be about 1.5cm above the main "back"plate of the desk, so i can run cables underneath it. also, this allows me to mess with lights. i want to try if i can make it so that it looks like the mobo is floating like you see in some other builds, i think it looks really clean and awesome.

- i want to try (not sure if this will work out, knowing me and my skills in making and drilling things etc) but i want to try and make a logo from aluminium with the name of the project cut out, and lights behind it, pretty much like l3p d3sk has.

 

maybe either me or you guys can come up with another trick with lighting that i can use, but for now that's about all i came up with.

 

that's it for now, please let me know what you think and/or if you have any more ideas for the build and i'll try my best to start this thing as fast as i can, once school is over in about 1 week.

cheers 

 

p.s. should i start a new fresh topic or do you guys want me to use this one, i'm kinda leaning towards a new one, unless i can change the name of this one, since it kinda sucks now

[Kittke]

Dis gone be GuuuD

[MarQue98]

so now that i've removed the water-cooling stuff in my Sketchup model i can already see a problem that i'm going to run into.

i already complained that the right sight was a bit empty, but now that all the tubes are out, i'm complaining about the left side being the only not-empty..

 

 

"just make a smaller desk then" yeah that probably would look better but unless i find a way to easily expand it later on, i want big desk, just so i have enough space for upgrading to water-cooling stuff without having to build a whole new desk. although it would be a nice project doing it all at once..

i don't know.. i'll try to make a decision this week.. maybe you guys can add some pro's and con's to both ideas so i can make that decision a little easier.

thanks for reading and again, 

cheeers!

 

[Kittke]

Install the MOBO in the middle and add the water cooling with dual loop later on both sides

[MarQue98]

Install the MOBO in the middle and add the water cooling with dual loop later on both sides

Yeah well that would still look pretty lonely. And it'll be a while before I add all the parts listed in the beginning of this topic (talking about like 5-10years)

So I probably am going to build an angled desk (something I actually wanted over a straight desk) and build like an m-itx version of the big desk. So it'll be a little box where the PC will sit in, and the glass panel will match it's size. I'm also thinking about putting the PC inside a drawer, but i'm not sure about that yet.

Anyways I'll make a sketchup model of what I just described and we'll see how that turns out.

[MarQue98]

This is probably going to be the last update on this topic, i'll start a fresh new one once school is over and i'm ready to mess around with this stuff.

i've found the solution for the desk looking empty. i'll put the parts in a corner with a piece of glass above it, and there where's no hardware in the desk, i'll just use a wooden plank to cover it up. once i fill 'er up with more hardware, just replace the wood with glass and i'm good to go.

As you can see i came up with another idea, and i'm the most excited about this one .

 

 

 

In the renders (btw THANKS to the guy who told me to use renders, they take quite a lot of time to complete but damn they're worth it) I made 2 glass pieces right in the middle of the desk, with a red tube and a silver plate with a red plate behind it.

That's what it looks like in the render. What i want to try is to get some acrylic tubing, get uv red coolant, and put just that tube there, fill it up with the coolant and put stops on it (which you won't be able to see)

of course i need i light source that will make the coolant glow and that's where my problem, and therefor question ( ), comes in. Does a blue uv cold cathode also "trigger" red uv reactive coolant? or are there acually red uv cathodes out there?

i've looked for it but the only one i found was something from Phobya which, haha this was kinda funny, the package said it was Red, the girl said it looked orange in real life, and in the video it looked pink.. + they're not available in the NL.

 

The plate at the back, i already described i think. I'll take plexi/glass of about 6 x 6 cm, drill holes in it (i'm practicing this already, since it's easy to break ;D).

Then i'll get an aluminium plate of the same size and either I'll drill, or i'll send it some place to drill it for me, doesn't matter as long as i can get the name of the build in there. (this is not copied at aaalll from L3p d3sk :rolleyes: ) 

i'll put some LED's in the holes i drilled in the glass plate, so the glass will diffuse the light and hopefully it'll look epic. I'm still experimenting with that though. that's the same thing i want to do with the motherboard btw.

 

wow that's already more text than i actually wanted to post.. oh well

so there's two things you guys can help me out with.

1. the lighting

2 any tips or tricks on the renders? i'm feeling like i'm missing something since they're only 800 X 420 and they take so long to render.

 

If you have a suggestion on either one of these, it is very much appreciated

 

for those who make it all the way over this wall of text, thank you very much for reading, and there's more coming soon!

Adios!

 

[Maki Role]

Personally I would alter the design itself to prevent things looking empty.  Ever since L3P D3sk almost everybody's done the same design.  It's always a really thick desk with a raised portion for seating space, usually it's also symmetrical with a tonne of reservoirs added just to fill the space.  There are so many possible form factors with a desk, you could have cooling in the legs, the components in the middle, a cabinet side and a thin glass top, a cantilever design etc.  All of this is possible when designing and building your own furniture.  Sure there are varying degrees of difficulty within that, but that's all part of the fun.

 

I really like where you're going with the corner design.  It's much more unique than the previous one, should look pretty spectacular in the flesh.

[MarQue98]

Personally I would alter the design itself to prevent things looking empty.  Ever since L3P D3sk almost everybody's done the same design.  It's always a really thick desk with a raised portion for seating space, usually it's also symmetrical with a tonne of reservoirs added just to fill the space.  There are so many possible form factors with a desk, you could have cooling in the legs, the components in the middle, a cabinet side and a thin glass top, a cantilever design etc.  All of this is possible when designing and building your own furniture.  Sure there are varying degrees of difficulty within that, but that's all part of the fun.

 

I really like where you're going with the corner design.  It's much more unique than the previous one, should look pretty spectacular in the flesh.

I get your point, but i think it's a matter of If it ain't broke don't fix it.

i've messed around in sketchup for a while and tried some different designs, but i think this one is just most practical.

A straight desk isn't practical for me since i have really long legs, so i need the desk to be high, but i also need a motherboard with a heatsink to fit in it, so i need the extra height. if i'd make a straight desk thats 30cm high, it'd cause major strain on my wrists. + i like the look of tubes going up and down

about the cooling in the legs, that's a funny story. My dad also came up with something like it, he said "maybe you could but a cooling element in there and like cool a couple of cans of coke hahah *laughs* that was funny" i was like "that wasn't funny at all. THAT'S THE BEST THING EVER" 

so yeah changes are that that's actually going to happen .

 

anyways, thanks for the comment! i really appreciate it

Hasta La Vista!

[MarQue98]

since 7 of you actually gave enough shits about this project to press that follow button (seriously, i really f#cking appreciate it :D), i thought i'd mention that the project is happening on another thread.

so if you want to check it out, here's the link: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/179061-build-log-satans-cave-project/

hope you enjoy it!