Building my own DIY Desk PC

[faytleingod11]

Hello all!

I've been watching the Ultimate DIY Desk PC a lot lately. Enough that it's what I want my next build to be very similar to. It seemed out of reach until I got VERY lucky in a round of black jack at my local casino. One fevered amazon order later, and I have a table full of components.

 

I do have a few more pieces on the way, but this is what I have so far. I'm going for a black and white build, with all the major components being either Asus or Corsair. I'm having the cable done by CableMod, but those are estimated to being 3ish weeks away from shipping. Maybe @CableMod can tell me if the 3-4 week waiting period is actually a realistic wait time. Can't seem to find any info online about their move or recent reviews that include wait times.

 

Anyway, I'm using Linus's build as a guide, but I'm not planning on liquid cooling. I'm hoping to use AIO for the cpu's (more on that later) and just use case fans to create a wind tunnel type effect without being too noisy. I'm also going to use some really wood struts as a support to assuage my sagging worries

This is a picture of the bottom, with the supports gluing. Already seems to be helping, since the board was already warped from just sitting on my upside down chair during the cutting process.

I also had the issue of my local wood provider not offering cutting of mdf. They said it was too rough on the saw. So I had to go out and buy a table saw and do it myself. They waited until I had already purchased the wood before telling my they don't do that, after having called to confirm earlier in the morning that they do. I couldn't even take it home because I was not fitting an 8x4' board in the back of my PT Cruiser. So it was added to a shipment order for that friday (4 days later) and subsequently forgotten. I finally got it Sunday after several calls and their profuse apologies.

 

So the desk fabrication is behind, the cable measuring is delayed and I'm still stoked on this. I'm totally ignorant of all design programs, so this is all free hand with a few scribbles in a note book to make sure I remember dimensions.

My overarching plan is to have my gaming rig in almost the same config as Linus, but where all the rads and such were, I'm going to put in my current pc and build it into a NAS. It's an m-itx  with an i5 6400 and 16gigs of ram. I'm figuring on selling the 970 mini and using that money to get a sized piece of tempered glass.

 

My new build is as follows:

 

Intel i7 7700 7700k

Corsair H100i V2 AIO cooler

Asus Prime Z270A

Corsair Vengeance LED 32g kit (overkill)

Corsair MP500 480gb M.2

Asus GTX 1080 Strix Gaming

Corsair RM750x PSU

2x WD 2TB Black drives

 

My old build

 

Intel i5 6500

Corsair H55 Aio Cooler

MSI H110i mobo

G.Skill Ripjaws 16gb Kit

Samsung 850 evo 250gb ssd

Gigabyte GTX 970 mini OC edition

EVGA SuperNova P1 650w PSU

 

 

I do have a few questions, having had varying degrees of luck finding the answers through google.

 

1. How probable is it that air cooling will be enough for this build?

2. Is SLI a good bet with riser cables?

3. Should I even bother with the mechanical drives if I'm gonna have the NAS setup?

 

 

Thank you for reading this far, for all of you who did at least. I'll be updating this with pictures as I make progress. Any thoughts or opinions or tips or whatever will be appreciated.

[faytleingod11]

Also, since I seem to have forgotten it, I am going with Asus Monitors, hopefully in a triple monitor array. I have PB328Q as the Primary. It's my first experience with 1440p and it's beautiful. 

My current setup is on a night stand and at the foot of my bed, with also doubles as my chair. A tv dinner tray finish the setup off as my mouse and keyboard stand.

 

I'm planning on using 28" 1080 monitors on either side, with each on it's own vesa arm. The desk was started with dual monitors in mind, so it only has room for three if the two on the side are 28 inches or below.

 

 

[Damascus]

Gorgeous pile of components here, why the 7700 non K?

[Damascus]

13 minutes ago, faytleingod11 said:

I'm going to put in my current pc and build it into a NAS. It's an m-itx  with an i5 6400 and 16gigs of ram. I'm figuring on selling the 970 mini and using that money to get a sized piece of tempered glass.

 

Also, what an awesome idea.  I wonder if it could be used as a stream capture PC working with your new main

[faytleingod11]

13 minutes ago, Damascus said:

Also, what an awesome idea.  I wonder if it could be used as a stream capture PC working with your new main

Never really contemplated that... But I'm actually looking at getting into it so maybe! 

The 7700 is non k because of thermals and I am extremely happy with my i5. I only got an i7 because at the time, it was a why not purchase. I have no desire to overclock, and since I'm not liquid cooling, I'm not wanting to add any more heat to the system. Unless its a second 1080

[Damascus]

Just now, faytleingod11 said:

Never really contemplated that... But I'm actually looking at getting into it so maybe! 

The 7700 is non k because of thermals and I am extremely happy with my i5. I only got an i7 because at the time, it was a why not purchase. I have no desire to overclock, and since I'm not liquid cooling, I'm not wanting to add any more heat to the system. Unless its a second 1080

7700K is faster even without overclocking.  if you can still return the 7700 to amazon I'd do it and snag the 7700K.  I gives you choices on the long run

[faytleingod11]

@Damascus

Honestly, I was thinking about it, but I had heard intel was supposed to be dropping their prices after the ryzen release. You think it would be worth it to wait and see? I do have until the 8th to return it.

[faytleingod11]

26 minutes ago, Damascus said:

7700K is faster even without overclocking.  if you can still return the 7700 to amazon I'd do it and snag the 7700K.  I gives you choices on the long run

nevermind what i said before. If I return it now, it's literally the same price, even after I pay for return shipping. 

[Damascus]

44 minutes ago, faytleingod11 said:

nevermind what i said before. If I return it now, it's literally the same price, even after I pay for return shipping. 

Definitely do it.  Not only is it faster at similar temps it  has higher resale value if you want an upgrade in a few years.  Also, what did you pay for the strix 1080?  I would say save yourself the hassle of sli and get 1 1080 ti

[CableMod]

@faytleingod11 working to speed up that estimated time to avoid delays while still maintaining our quality standard, sorry for the delay.

[faytleingod11]

1 hour ago, CableMod said:

@faytleingod11 working to speed up that estimated time to avoid delays while still maintaining our quality standard, sorry for the delay.

Awesome to hear back from you so quick! Also good to hear confirmation that there might be a bit of a wait. I was secretly hoping for a faster ship time so I was kinda pitting off working. Guess I have to stop being lazy

[faytleingod11]

1 hour ago, Damascus said:

Definitely do it.  Not only is it faster at similar temps it  has higher resale value if you want an upgrade in a few years.  Also, what did you pay for the strix 1080?  I would say save yourself the hassle of sli and get 1 1080 ti

Processor returned, refund processed and new 7700k ordered! Amazon can be quick sometimes. And I'm sticking with the 1080 because I like the added fans. Looks are a big part of this. Thanks for the opinions though, you already improved my build

[Damascus]

2 hours ago, faytleingod11 said:

Processor returned, refund processed and new 7700k ordered! Amazon can be quick sometimes. And I'm sticking with the 1080 because I like the added fans. Looks are a big part of this. Thanks for the opinions though, you already improved my build

No prob, I'm just glad to see someone IRL pulling off a project I've been googly eyed at since I first saw it.  keep us posted

[Damascus]

BTW, check this out

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/m6gDKZ

[faytleingod11]

1 hour ago, Damascus said:

BTW, check this out

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/m6gDKZ

That's awesome. It also lets me know I paid almost 200 bucks too much. I got everything off amazon because of the two day shipping. Then let it all sit for a week. Not the savviest decision. Thank you

[faytleingod11]

1 hour ago, faytleingod11 said:

That's awesome. It also lets me know I paid almost 200 bucks too much. I got everything off amazon because of the two day shipping. Then let it all sit for a week. Not the savviest decision. Thank you

Completed the list for the accessories and the parts still on order

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/V6MPcc

 

Will update again when i move to triple monitor setup. 

[Damascus]

12 hours ago, faytleingod11 said:

Completed the list for the accessories and the parts still on order

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/V6MPcc

 

Will update again when i move to triple monitor setup. 

Nice, love to see pics

[faytleingod11]

So the desk building is moving along, but my wood working skills are a bit rusty from high school woodshop. Also my miser saw is always about 1° off in one direction or another. Thankfully mdf is pretty forgiving as long as I cut a little long. Sandpaper just eats through the stuff. One more board today and I should be able to mock up the components.

I have goofed up a few times, but sanding and bondo should hide the worst of it

I also miscalculated the layout. I forgot to account for the radiator on the aio at the three intake holes. Hopefully it works out once its all laid out. Still waiting on my cables though. The 1080 is great though, had it hooked into my mini build to test out my riser cable and claim my free copy of wildlands. 

[faytleingod11]

Just put the last wall on and now I'm arranging components. 

And everything fit! A little tighter than I wanted, but it still looks nice imo. 

Im gonna try and keep the holes for the io to a minimum, and use the io shield for the mobo to keep pressure in the desk. 

[Damascus]

That looks great, where did you get the riser?

[faytleingod11]

5 minutes ago, Damascus said:

That looks great, where did you get the riser?

Amazon. It from a company called ezdiy. I also got a 5.25 usb/ sd card unit from them. I'm probably gonna mount it under the desk on the right side of the leg cutout 

[faytleingod11]

Made the cutout for mobo io and found some glass. I was hoping for 24×48 but I'll be settling for the freeish 15x48. I have just enough mdf left over to create the border for it. I'm planning on edge routing a .25" groove around the middle to set the glass into. I also plan on cleaning up the edges with the border linus used on the inside

[jakkuh_t]

Awesome to see someone actually take inspiration from the video! Subbed to this post so I can see the results!

[Damascus]

39 minutes ago, jakkuh_t said:

Awesome to see someone actually take inspiration from the video! Subbed to this post so I can see the results!

L33T, there will be another someday

I was curious and love the whole concept but seeing it take shape is some damn good inspiration

Edited March 15, 2017 by Damascus
Added "was"

[TVwazhere]

Followed.