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DIY Testbench

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two generations of my setup.

resantly updated with a amd fx 6300 black edition coold by a nh-l12 on a msi 970a sli krait edition motherboard and a second gtx 295

any thoughts?IMG-20151205-WA0000.jpeg

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7 hours ago, PGTechTips said:

I did something similar, except I added a shell and I use it as a NAS and home entertainment center.

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love that heatsink tho :D

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7 hours ago, PGTechTips said:

I did something similar, except I added a shell and I use it as a NAS and home entertainment center.

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Nice idea, i might do something similar. Always wanted a nas ;_;

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Put this together about 4 years ago. Includes:  PS mount, 2 5.25" dive bays, 2 3.5" bays for HDD, and one floppy bay because reasons. cable management on the back for cleaner look.

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10 hours ago, nicklmg said:

No, it's not. But unless you're valuing your time at $50/hour or more it's still efficient.

True.

 

Maybe you guys can find a manufacturer and make a special decent, low-cost LTT test bench, similar to how you got custom noctuas?

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Made this quickly out of an old computer I had around. Took about 1 to 2 hours. (sorry for the bad picture, couldn't find my good camera)photo 2.JPG

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Built a similar system a few years back; thought I'd share:

 

Started with a Phenom 9750 quad core @2.4ghz on an ECS motherboard (purple PCB!) and 2gb DDR2 with a GTX 260 and an auzentech soundcard.   HX1000w PSU and Seagate Enterprise 10k RPM 500gb drives in RAID 1:

 

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Later I upgraded from the AM2 platform to LGA 1366 on a Rampage II gene with an i7 930 @ 3.2ghz with 6gb of RAM:

 

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Also grabbed an R9 280x and a GTX 750ti for PhysX:

 

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In the future Im considering a blackout paint job for the wood board or potentially a carbon fiber wrap.  Cheers to @Slick for making this video and bringing some attention to the DIY test bench crowd.  I own both a HighSpeed PC tech station for my SR-2 and have built many of my own benches.  While I can justify the $120 I spent on my tech station given that no case I could rip apart would support HPTX, I certainly recommend the "repurposed case method" for anyone looking for a test bench.

Ultimate XP gaming system build log coming soon!  Q8200 // 8GB DDR2 // Asus P5E Deluxe X48 // Asus 4870 DARK KNIGHT X-Fire // Supreme FX sound // BFG Ageia PhysX PCI Co-Processor // AX 860x with Silverstone extensions 

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here's my "test bench" that's actually my computer case now, lol

 

consists of a gtx 980 and a 4790k with a h100i :D

 

I even went to the length of covering the surfaces with a varnish

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2 hours ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

True.

 

Maybe you guys can find a manufacturer and make a special decent, low-cost LTT test bench, similar to how you got custom noctuas?

Doubtful as the demand there wouldn't be very high (maybe a few hundred units?). By the time we paid for design, materials, manufacturing (which is almost always a higher cost/unit for a limited run), storage, shipping to retailers, and retailer cut... Even if we took zero profit, I would hazard a guess that we would be in the same range as those testbenches Luke mentioned in the video.

12 hours ago, Zeokon said:

Free in terms of materials but $200 worth of tools (file, circular saw, angle grinder, drill, screw driver)...Well done. Next video should be how to build a free house and just 3D print the whole thing and forget about the fact that to get a 3D printer of that size costs 100s of thousands of dollars.

If you're the kind of person who is going to take on a project like this you will probably a) have the necessary tools (or other tools that could serve the same purpose) already or b) use the tools you buy for this project in a number of future projects, amortizing the cost across numerous projects rather than a single one.

Your argument is the equivalent to saying "Wow, you drove from Vancouver to Seattle? That's so expensive because you paid $5,000+ for that car!"

 


I swear, people will always find something to complain about...

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21 minutes ago, nicklmg said:

Doubtful as the demand there wouldn't be very high (maybe a few hundred units?). By the time we paid for design, materials, manufacturing (which is almost always a higher cost/unit for a limited run), storage, shipping to retailers, and retailer cut... Even if we took zero profit, I would hazard a guess that we would be in the same range as those testbenches Luke mentioned in the video.

If you're the kind of person who is going to take on a project like this you will probably a) have the necessary tools (or other tools that could serve the same purpose) already or b) use the tools you buy for this project in a number of future projects, amortizing the cost across numerous projects rather than a single one.

Your argument is the equivalent to saying "Wow, you drove from Vancouver to Seattle? That's so expensive because you paid $5,000+ for that car!"

 


I swear, people will always find something to complain about...

it would be great if you had a design department and made cases and notebooks! You really know what the user needs

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44 minutes ago, ModuleLFS said:

It even matches the desk, pretty neat!

Thank you!

 

Also... is it bad that I didn't notice until now that it matches my desk? I look at it literally every single day O.o

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1 hour ago, nicklmg said:

Doubtful as the demand there wouldn't be very high (maybe a few hundred units?). By the time we paid for design, materials, manufacturing (which is almost always a higher cost/unit for a limited run), storage, shipping to retailers, and retailer cut... Even if we took zero profit, I would hazard a guess that we would be in the same range as those testbenches Luke mentioned in the video.

If you're the kind of person who is going to take on a project like this you will probably a) have the necessary tools (or other tools that could serve the same purpose) already or b) use the tools you buy for this project in a number of future projects, amortizing the cost across numerous projects rather than a single one.

Your argument is the equivalent to saying "Wow, you drove from Vancouver to Seattle? That's so expensive because you paid $5,000+ for that car!"

 


I swear, people will always find something to complain about...

Well then your target audience drops dramatically. Probably about 85% of your audience owns a car and if you were to make a DIY video about a car a majority of your audience will be able to follow. Whilst on the other hand maybe only 5% own all the tools needed to build that test bench, so why make a video that only 5% of people can follow.

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1 hour ago, nicklmg said:

Doubtful as the demand there wouldn't be very high (maybe a few hundred units?). By the time we paid for design, materials, manufacturing (which is almost always a higher cost/unit for a limited run), storage, shipping to retailers, and retailer cut... Even if we took zero profit, I would hazard a guess that we would be in the same range as those testbenches Luke mentioned in the video.

Perhaps... it would still be cool though.  Might be an interesting business venture; if all the other testbenches out there right now are overpriced, you guys just might be able to have a go at beating those options in a high enough volume :) 

1 hour ago, nicklmg said:

I swear, people will always find something to complain about...

Of course :D  It's more interesting than "yup, good video" at least.  Isn't it? :P 

Solve your own audio issues  |  First Steps with RPi 3  |  Humidity & Condensation  |  Sleep & Hibernation  |  Overclocking RAM  |  Making Backups  |  Displays  |  4K / 8K / 16K / etc.  |  Do I need 80+ Platinum?

If you can read this you're using the wrong theme.  You can change it at the bottom.

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10 minutes ago, Zeokon said:

Well then your target audience drops dramatically. Probably about 85% of your audience owns a car and if you were to make a DIY video about a car a majority of your audience will be able to follow. Whilst on the other hand maybe only 5% own all the tools needed to build that test bench, so why make a video that only 5% of people can follow.

I didn't know you had to replicate a video for yourself to enjoy the content... If that's the case then what was the point of "7 Gamers 1 CPU?" I would hazard a guess that way less than 5% of the audience is willing to spend $30,000 on an extremely inefficient (in terms of performance per dollar) gaming PC. /s

Sarcasm aside, I truly think you're missing my real point here. If someone is inspired enough to take a grinder or a saw to a case and make their own testbench, I would hazard a guess that they are a curious person who likes to learn by doing and may be interested in doing some other DIY projects or upgrades with those tools.

 

So yes - if a DIY testbench is the only thing you ever do with the tools you buy, then this doesn't make sense. BUT, if you're a DIY kind of person and you use those tools in, let's say, 10 projects... Then the cost of buying those tools for this project is only about $20 - significantly lower than the $200 you quoted in your original post, and actually quite reasonable.

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Not exactly 'test benches', but in the same vein. These were built back in 2010 or so. One of these is built into a cheap Ikea basket, some plexiglass and scrap metal - plus some old case parts. Also used as both a NAS and media center PC. 

 

The other was built to attach to a 200x200mm VESA mount, again using plexiglass and scrap metal. I believe it was a Hackintosh running Snow Leopard.

 

Both of these collected dust like you wouldn't believe.

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My DIY Testbench. The cable management is literally the worst but it works. I figured why pay for one of the Top Deck ones when I could just make one.

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it is awesome. I wish i have the tools to do it , I got many old pc's cases that I can use :/

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22 hours ago, nicklmg said:

If you're the kind of person who is going to take on a project like this you will probably a) have the necessary tools (or other tools that could serve the same purpose) already or b) use the tools you buy for this project in a number of future projects, amortizing the cost across numerous projects rather than a single one.


Your argument is the equivalent to saying "Wow, you drove from Vancouver to Seattle? That's so expensive because you paid $5,000+ for that car!"

 


I swear, people will always find something to complain about...

I 100% agree with you. Its not uncommon to have all these tools already.

"There is no audience for your reviews on top tier graphics cards or 1000 dollar phones, not everyone can afford them."

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