My new desk: an adventure in words and pictures

[shadowbyte]

So up until now, I was using a staples L-shaped glass corner desk for my pc setup. It was a great desk, but it was lacking in sheer space, and, if you've never owned a glass desk, then you don't know how hard it is to manage cables behind a glass desk. You always see them, no matter how good a job you do. So the time was ripe for an upgrade. After watching this video,

 

I decided to use IKEA for my parts.

I used the LINNMON table top: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50251350/#/00240241

I reccomend the 150x75cm model, as it gives you a bit more space than the base model for a 10 dollar premium

For legs, really, you can use anything, but I chose the ADLIS legs, because they were the cheapest: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70217973/#/90217972

The grand total? 

About 40 dollars. 50 after I bought some snacks. (those cinnamon buns are INCREDIBLE)

I also swung by Microcenter to pick up another terabyte of storage, as I had run out of storage on my original 1tb blue.

 

After I got home, I got to work taking all of the crap off my old desk.

This is an old photo, but it shows how little room I had to grow with my old desk.

 

It's amazing how much dust my old desk had on it, considering I clean it about every 3 weeks.

Here's the old desk stripped down

Not much room there

 

Once you take the uber heavy glass panels off, the desk is suprisingly light. I moved it into my room for storage until I could bring it downstairs

The ensuing mess of computer parts, boxes, and components was suprising. I had no idea I kept that much shit in my room.

Finally!

Time to build the new desk!

Here's the main "table" part of the desk.

It's a great size, and light, too, considering that it's not wood, but I don't mind.

Here are the legs:

They include mounting hardware, and the "table" part has pre-drilled holes for the screws to go through. They reccomend a hand screwdriver, so I broke out my ratchet and went to town. 

After I finished my desk, I got to work adding a second hard drive to Frostbyte. 

The NZXT S340's drive mounts are relatively easy to access, considering the amount of cables I have stuffed down there.

Two hard drives walk into a bar... They meet a stick of RAM. After a few drinks, they grab a taxi and ask him where he lives. "I can't remember" says the RAM.

 

With that done, I got to work cable managing my new acquisition. It's a lot easier when you can't see the fucking mess of cables under your desk. I also hid most of the cables behind my ingenious patent pending "use pc part boxes to hide cables" strategy. It's remarkabaly effective.

You see even less when sitting at the desk, which is always good. To manage the cables plugging into my pc, I zip-tied them all together like some sort of cable ponytail. 

It works well, shockingly.

And, finally, the moment you have been waiting for, I present to you, my new setup!

Before:

After:

Don't worry, the LED's will return!

I just need to find some zip tie anchors with adhesive to manage the rat's nest of cables that they come with.

So there we go.

I learned that it doesn't take much time or effort to make a more functional, better looking, and cheaper desk.

So what do you guys think?

Leave comments, feedback, anything

 

 

[DimitriBrut]

Looks great. As for adhesive zip ties, I'd take a page out of Barnacules' book. I hot glued velcro ties under my desk

[shadowbyte]

2 minutes ago, DimitriBrut said:

Looks great. As for adhesive zip ties, I'd take a page out of Barnacules' book. I hot glued velcro ties under my desk

good thinking

I'll do that tommorow

[gvninja10]

Does the Linnmon table wobble at all? Would you recommend me getting the Alex drawers for extra stability with my purchase of the Linnmon table if I'm gonna be placing it on carpet? 

 

[shadowbyte]

3 hours ago, gvninja10 said:

Does the Linnmon table wobble at all? Would you recommend me getting the Alex drawers for extra stability with my purchase of the Linnmon table if I'm gonna be placing it on carpet? 

 

I got slight wobble until I placed it against the wall.

The drawers may add stability because they are wider platforms for the tabletop to sit on