So for many years now, I've had concepts and ideas of a cool 'pc-inside-my-desk' mod but never had time, money or skills involved to actually go ahead with something like this. I knew it wouldn't be easy and it would require thinking, doing a lot of work and spending money - none of which I'm really too good with . But like most people on new years day, I decided to actually go out and actually get it done. (Yes this started in Jan lol)
As you can see above, there was ample reason why I wanted to make my own desk. Rather than throwing/selling my old monitor, I held onto my AOC 17" display and used it in dual (extended) display with the new display. The difference was literally sky and earth to me. I could now watch tutorials in one monitor while working in the other, I could have a reference windows on the left while working in the other, I could play on the 360/PS3 on the main monitor and work my computer on the other monitor. I was satisfied with dual monitors and there was no way I was gonna sacrifice this setup. BUT, I did want to have everything on one single level and integrate the system into the desk.
Anyways, so I wasted a little time collecting money, playing ps3, working up concepts, and it was only until end February when I actually managed to engineer not one - but two desks. I could not make a longer desk without having it clash with my other desk (the one my cabinet, 360, ps3 is currently on in the pic above). Which was a pity as the other desk was an expensive desk made from excellent wood, plus there was no way I could extend that desk and have it still look uniformly good. Lastly, I also wanted the desk to be more compact so that I could use the door on the right to my garden. So after a few bad sketches and random sketches, I converted the twin desks to an accurate scale model in Autodesk Maya.
This was the first basic concept built to scale in Maya's 3D space. The desk on the left is a standard work desk which I'd draw/sketch on and the desk on the right was the system one with a window to peek inside and admire my awesome pc (bear with me, I'm only getting started here). The original design had drawers, but when I actually worked out how much wood and skill that would require, I settled for a simpler cupboard design.
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After some thinking and deliberation, I created an almost complete concept done in Maya this time.
The red strips are strips of wood I plan to soak in blood to appease Signoré Deskerado, the god of desks.
Before you ask, the red strips are strips that people apply at the end of plywood sheets to insure that the sheets don't warp and to hide the ugly plywood layers. I was initially hesitant to waste my time doing this but when I noticed that some of the plywood I had already collected was already warped from storage in my basement, I added it in the concept. The green pieces are transparent pieces of acrylic and the purple is a thick sheet of transparent acrylic that makes the extendable keyboard tray (Why? Read below). The second pic is an x-ray view showing the shelves and a bit of the system. The cabinet on the left has more shelves as I'm planning to store sketchpens, pencils, brushes, paint and stuff with a few books. The cabinet on the right has only two smaller shelves as I plan to hide the power strip up top in there with all the power cables all neatly ziptied together and also for storing extra cables, parts and maybe a few physical game titles (mostly ps3 titles) at the bottom.
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Now for a close up of the system itself. Heres where I immediately began to regret having a compact layout. Not only was I limited in terms of height which means I had to chuck my beloved TRU120 CPU cooler, but with the keyboard tray inside, I was limited even more in terms of height across almost 1/3rd the space inside. Plus the keyboard tray was going to block a small amount of the window when closed.
I had to compensate big time. I limited the size of the keyboard tray and chose a thick sheet of clear acrylic instead of wood so atleast a little of the underlying parts would show through when the keyboard was closed. I then went and adjusted the keyboard tray height versus the height of all parts that could get come in the way -24pin motherboard power connector for eg.. Most of these issues got solved but the 120mm fans sadly had to be placed horizontally or not at all. Heres how it looked after all the changes:
le top view
le top view with x-ray mode activated
le top view with x-ray mode activated showing significantproblems improvements with the keyboard tray in.
Anyhow with that taken care of, this is how the layout actually is. Obviously this is considering the hardware I currently have minus the GPU (which I don't have yet) and the power,reset,etc assembly which I'm not sure how to go through with just yet. As you can see, its pretty cramped but there should be just about enough space to run the cables through without making it look too bad.
They yellow bits are all thin sheets of acrylic which will hold almost everything together.
Current system config:
AMD Phenom X6 1055T
Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H
Corsair XMS3 1600Mhz 2gb*2
Corsair VX450
Hitachi 160gb
Hitachi 250gb
WD Blue 500gb (Primary)
Liteon DVD RW
AOC 916SWA
AOC i2251FWE (the I is a joke- it doesn't have an IPS panel, I was scammed boo hoo!)
Parts I'm hoping to add:
1. 120mm sized Closed loop water cooler - It would fit (this explains the gap between the motherboard and far wall) and also perform better than the usual 90mm sized aircoolers. Problem is finding a reasonably priced one. I missed an awesome deal on an H50 some months earlier. Will find something eventually, but I'll stick to the stock AMD cooler for now.
2. GPU - I'm inherently master race and was supposed to upgrade to a 270x some months earlier, but when I put together the money, it became more expensive (December '13 - never forget). So I went out and bought a PS3 with that money. Will put together some funds and get this card or maybe stretch to a 760 or 280x (god help my VX450).
3. GPU Riser Cable - Put an order for one of these on Deal Extreme already. It ought to show up sometime this year. I'll probably rage about this the moment I can't plug my GPU cause I lack the damn cable.
4. Power/Reset/USB assembly - I already have a power button and a cheapish looking pcb with two usb ports and headphones/mic on it, but it lacks finesse and I'm not sure how I'm going to put this all together while making it look good. Will burn this bridge when I get to it (which is at the end obviously).
------------------
As you can see above, there was ample reason why I wanted to make my own desk. Rather than throwing/selling my old monitor, I held onto my AOC 17" display and used it in dual (extended) display with the new display. The difference was literally sky and earth to me. I could now watch tutorials in one monitor while working in the other, I could have a reference windows on the left while working in the other, I could play on the 360/PS3 on the main monitor and work my computer on the other monitor. I was satisfied with dual monitors and there was no way I was gonna sacrifice this setup. BUT, I did want to have everything on one single level and integrate the system into the desk.
Anyways, so I wasted a little time collecting money, playing ps3, working up concepts, and it was only until end February when I actually managed to engineer not one - but two desks. I could not make a longer desk without having it clash with my other desk (the one my cabinet, 360, ps3 is currently on in the pic above). Which was a pity as the other desk was an expensive desk made from excellent wood, plus there was no way I could extend that desk and have it still look uniformly good. Lastly, I also wanted the desk to be more compact so that I could use the door on the right to my garden. So after a few bad sketches and random sketches, I converted the twin desks to an accurate scale model in Autodesk Maya.
This was the first basic concept built to scale in Maya's 3D space. The desk on the left is a standard work desk which I'd draw/sketch on and the desk on the right was the system one with a window to peek inside and admire my awesome pc (bear with me, I'm only getting started here). The original design had drawers, but when I actually worked out how much wood and skill that would require, I settled for a simpler cupboard design.
-------------
After some thinking and deliberation, I created an almost complete concept done in Maya this time.
The red strips are strips of wood I plan to soak in blood to appease Signoré Deskerado, the god of desks.
Before you ask, the red strips are strips that people apply at the end of plywood sheets to insure that the sheets don't warp and to hide the ugly plywood layers. I was initially hesitant to waste my time doing this but when I noticed that some of the plywood I had already collected was already warped from storage in my basement, I added it in the concept. The green pieces are transparent pieces of acrylic and the purple is a thick sheet of transparent acrylic that makes the extendable keyboard tray (Why? Read below). The second pic is an x-ray view showing the shelves and a bit of the system. The cabinet on the left has more shelves as I'm planning to store sketchpens, pencils, brushes, paint and stuff with a few books. The cabinet on the right has only two smaller shelves as I plan to hide the power strip up top in there with all the power cables all neatly ziptied together and also for storing extra cables, parts and maybe a few physical game titles (mostly ps3 titles) at the bottom.
-------------
Now for a close up of the system itself. Heres where I immediately began to regret having a compact layout. Not only was I limited in terms of height which means I had to chuck my beloved TRU120 CPU cooler, but with the keyboard tray inside, I was limited even more in terms of height across almost 1/3rd the space inside. Plus the keyboard tray was going to block a small amount of the window when closed.
I had to compensate big time. I limited the size of the keyboard tray and chose a thick sheet of clear acrylic instead of wood so atleast a little of the underlying parts would show through when the keyboard was closed. I then went and adjusted the keyboard tray height versus the height of all parts that could get come in the way -24pin motherboard power connector for eg.. Most of these issues got solved but the 120mm fans sadly had to be placed horizontally or not at all. Heres how it looked after all the changes:
le top view
le top view with x-ray mode activated
le top view with x-ray mode activated showing significant
------------------Anyhow with that taken care of, this is how the layout actually is. Obviously this is considering the hardware I currently have minus the GPU (which I don't have yet) and the power,reset,etc assembly which I'm not sure how to go through with just yet. As you can see, its pretty cramped but there should be just about enough space to run the cables through without making it look too bad.
They yellow bits are all thin sheets of acrylic which will hold almost everything together.
Current system config:
AMD Phenom X6 1055T
Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H
Corsair XMS3 1600Mhz 2gb*2
Corsair VX450
Hitachi 160gb
Hitachi 250gb
WD Blue 500gb (Primary)
Liteon DVD RW
AOC 916SWA
AOC i2251FWE (the I is a joke- it doesn't have an IPS panel, I was scammed boo hoo!)
Parts I'm hoping to add:
1. 120mm sized Closed loop water cooler - It would fit (this explains the gap between the motherboard and far wall) and also perform better than the usual 90mm sized aircoolers. Problem is finding a reasonably priced one. I missed an awesome deal on an H50 some months earlier. Will find something eventually, but I'll stick to the stock AMD cooler for now.
2. GPU - I'm inherently master race and was supposed to upgrade to a 270x some months earlier, but when I put together the money, it became more expensive (December '13 - never forget). So I went out and bought a PS3 with that money. Will put together some funds and get this card or maybe stretch to a 760 or 280x (god help my VX450).
3. GPU Riser Cable - Put an order for one of these on Deal Extreme already. It ought to show up sometime this year. I'll probably rage about this the moment I can't plug my GPU cause I lack the damn cable.
4. Power/Reset/USB assembly - I already have a power button and a cheapish looking pcb with two usb ports and headphones/mic on it, but it lacks finesse and I'm not sure how I'm going to put this all together while making it look good. Will burn this bridge when I get to it (which is at the end obviously).
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