Scratch Build Project: The Ultimate Computer Desk

[ultimatedesk]

Hi Everyone,

I've been working on a big project lately to create what is to me, the Ultimate Computer Desk.

Here are the stats in brief:
- Built of 3/4" 2-Sided Maple Plywood and Solid Maple
- 2 Integrated Desktop Computers
- Fan Control
- Noise Control
- Dust Control
- 3 Monitor Expansion Capacity

I'm actually quite a few weeks into the project already, so I won't post all the pictures and all the steps I've taken, but I'm hoping some of you will chime in with your ideas and comments.

Constructive thoughts, criticisms, and shouts of encouragement are always welcome

 

[ultimatedesk]

A huge thanks goes out to Gigabyte for supplying me with this amazing motherboard - a GA-Z68XUD4-B3.

Without a doubt, the coolest motherboard I have ever owned!

I could barely wait to open this up when I got it in the mail!

And this poor motherboard tray that had been sitting for months and months covered in brown paper - finally had it removed. It looks even better than I could have hoped!

Here is the test fit in the actual desk

And with the fans in place

I'm going to trim off the plastic tabs from the motherboard tray to make it a bit easier to build the tunnels for cable management. Also, I'm considering putting a pair of holes beneath the motherboard to pass cables through underneath. Lots of stuff happening in the next few weeks!

I attempted to boot up the Asus DSGC-DW board (The one with the PCIx16 slot) but it would not boot. I'm afraid that that particular motherboard has gone bad, so I will continue to use the board with the PCIx8 slot. Anyone have any suggestions with regards to determining the best video card I can put in a PCIx16 slot with only x8 bandwidth? I was thinking I could look at the theoretical bandwith of an 8x slot and match it with that of the video card to maximize performance (ie. no point in installing a 5970x2 in an x8 slot).

Anyways, hopefully will have a handful of updates this week!

 

[axipher]

My 6870 loses 1 FPS average going from 16x slot to a 8x slot. so here's a quick list of what I think would be the most worthwhile to use:

From AMD/ATI:
6870 or less
5870 or less

From Nvidia:
560 Ti or less
470 or less

Anything more would most likely my hampered by the 8x slot. Maybe someone has some more input on the situation, but as stated, my experiece is that I Just saturate the 8x slot with a 6870 which is still a pretty damn good card.

 

[ultimatedesk]

My 6870 loses 1 FPS average going from 16x slot to a 8x slot. so here's a quick list of what I think would be the most worthwhile to use:

From AMD/ATI:
6870 or less
5870 or less

From Nvidia:
560 Ti or less
470 or less

Anything more would most likely my hampered by the 8x slot. Maybe someone has some more input on the situation, but as stated, my experiece is that I Just saturate the 8x slot with a 6870 which is still a pretty damn good card.

Thanks, axipher - that's pretty much the same info that I've been able to conclude as well.

So - it's been another few busy weeks, so apologies for the no updates. Have been enjoying those last rays of sunshine before the summer ends!

I think I mentioned last update that I tried to boot up the Asus DSFC-DW board but had issues - here was the attempt:

I got a green LED to light up (Standby power on the motherboard) but jumping the Power ON pins had no reaction whatsoever. Tried it with a different videocard, re-seated the RAM and CPU's, but still no luck.

Moving onwards - since I un-mounted almost everything, I decided to keep the copper heatinks instead of the aluminum ones for the other motherboard. I also picked up a pair of these units from Rosewill via Newegg:

They should do nicely for my hard-drive racks. I would like to mount them like so, except higher up:

Unfortunately, they are deeper than the cabinet I built. At the time, I was thinking maybe they would stick out of my air intake window, and I would just build-out the section of the door with the air filter... Not exactly what I had in mind initially though.

With most of the major components in place, I decided to start tackling the cable management with some cardboard templates, and then some 1/8" plywood:

At this point I was a little frustrated with how slowly this portion of the project was going. Things weren't quite fitting the way I had planned, and they were not looking as nice as I would have liked them to...

Maybe it's time for some thinking instead of doing.

I decided (In hindsight, unfortunately) to go ahead and mount the hard-drive racks so I could get some better measurements and ideas of how to manage the cables nicely.

Installed the fans and started to route some of the cables

Took out a handful of old SATA cables... (Yes, let's not forget, that I'm a computer tech first, and a carpenter second, or maybe even fifth or tenth...)

And had fun connecting all the bits and trying to get them in a reasonable state of organization

Ugh... this will not do, this will not do at all. Might as well boot it up and see if everything works though (I had mounted and un-mounted the board several times, banged around a few things, etc, so might as well see if it's all still working!)

This would be the first time I see if all the fans work as well. Keep in mind that this is with the door removed.

Until next time.. still not quite sure what I'll be doing next.

 

[duk3]

This looks awesome, I can't wait to see the finished product.
I'm curious, how do you get your build sponsored besides just making it look incredible like yours?

 

[ultimatedesk]

This looks awesome, I can't wait to see the finished product.
I'm curious, how do you get your build sponsored besides just making it look incredible like yours?

Thanks duk3 - I had to write a lot of e-mails and make a lot of phone calls to potential sponsors, and also had to show them that their products would be viewed by people in their target audience.

First off I want to give out a huge thank you to Seasonic, who has decided to sponsor The Ultimate Computer Desk by sending a ~really~ sweet Power Supply my way. An 850 Watt Seasonic Gold.

Thanks Seasonic! We'll take a closer look at that PSU a bit later..

I had been a little frustrated with the layout of the Dual CPU Xeon board for quite some time, so I finally made the decision to ditch it and setup the right-hand cabinet with an ATX sized board. This is more in spec with my initial design - the extra couple inches makes a big difference, and it will make it easier to upgrade in the future as well.

On one hand, I'm a little disappointed that I won't be using that super geeked out board, but rest assured, I'll find something else neat to do with it.

So I went ahead and removed everything and started from scratch. Looks way better already:

I then decided that, unfortunately, through the miracle of cable limitations, it would make a lot more sense if I put the optical drive in the front of the case, as opposed to up above the desk, where I had originally wanted to put it. So, time to do some more cutting.

The masking tape managed to pull off some of the polyurethane, but have no fear, I will be making a faceplate that will contain the power button, LED's, and USB ports that will cover that spot up quite nicely.

And, we've gone so far, yet, gained so little, eh? It'll get done, I swear!

 

[Guest]

Speechless. That's my reaction to this beast. I would never have the time or patience to do this, so I salute you for your dedication to this amazing project. Beautiful piece of work.

 

[zero888]

Awesome project man. But I have one question, are you installing all the components without a case into the cabinet? Because I'm a bit weary as to if a fire hazard might actually occur. But it could be a simple fix with some protective inlays on the inside to prevent this from happening. Just letting you know

 

[meltingcomputerboy]

You are an artist

 

[ultimatedesk]

Awesome project man. But I have one question, are you installing all the components without a case into the cabinet? Because I'm a bit weary as to if a fire hazard might actually occur. But it could be a simple fix with some protective inlays on the inside to prevent this from happening. Just letting you know

Thanks for the comments, all of you! I'm not terribly worried about a fire hazard. The hottest component in a computer is the CPU and it rarely reaches temperatures of even 50-60 degrees Celcius.

If you think about all the acrylic cases on the market - their flashpoint, or even their melting point is far higher than 50-60C.

Plywood, if I'm not mistaken has a flash point well above 100 degrees Celcius (ie. that temperature where it will spontaneously combust)

Feeling a bit more motivated about the right-hand cabinet, I decided that the foam fan-holder had to go. It was too large, was akward, and was difficult to keep straight and in the proper position.

I decided to put together a nice and clean fan holder:

After doing some measuring, I took it to the drill press for the initial holes (I didn't have a hole saw for 120mm fans unfortunately... that would be pretty huge!)

I then took out the spindle sander to sand right to the line. Just an fyi, I swapped out the spindle for a much larger one. This was my first time using this type of sander, and I was very impressed - the degree of accuracy and control is extremely high - perfect for sneaking up on the pre-drawn lines.

Time to drill some holes for the fan screws

And a test fit. The product came out quite nicely - accurate cuts, all 4 of the positions are secure with screws, and this piece should be much easier to align in the proper location in the case.

I had cut a few other new pieces for cable management, but they were rough cuts, as I will not know their exact dimensions until I install hardware. I can't install hardware until I finish cutting and drilling in the right-hand cabinet, and since there is still the issue of the power button, LED's, etc...

Time to get started on that, I suppose!

Kinda looks like a bull head eh?

 

[zero888]

Wicked fan setup! If only I had tools and materials of my own I could start doing some mods...Might actually get some this year 😀

 

[ultimatedesk]

Wicked fan setup! If only I had tools and materials of my own I could start doing some mods...Might actually get some this year 😀

Thanks! Talk with your friends! You never know who might have a small shop available!

I guess it's been a while eh!

Well, you'll be glad to know, that I'm actually almost done. There've been a few changes to the original plan, etc, etc, but I've still been goign full steam ahead, just not a lot of time to post updates lately.

Here you go, some photo bombardment!

First off, my awful cutting job. Notice how the masking tape ripped off some of the polyurethane? Looks pretty great eh.. (NOT!)

Fitting my original faceplate design

I thought it didn't look too bad, but the USB ports were difficult to secure, and there were no audio jacks, so I went about and redesigned a new face plate

Did some work with the band saw, scroll saw, and some sanding, and voila!

Looks not terrible eh? That's a nice unit from Silverstone that I picked up from my local computer store. Everything fits real nice and tight

Holes for the power switch and LEDs look good

And a quick test fit

Wonderful! I cut the hole for the card reader / usb with a jigsaw, but neglected to take photos...

Anyways - after a couple coats of black spray paint, I think it looks pretty cool.

With the faceplate out of the way, and hopefully, the last of the drilling / sawing / making sawdust portion over, for the right-hand cabinet, it meant I had the all clear to install more hardware.

Here are the two hard-drive trays with the actual HDD trays removed.

Gave them a nice coat of black spray paint and they mounted them inside the cabinet. I think they look pretty groovy.

Even groovier loaded up with hard drives.. (Two missing in this pic, 7TB total, however!)

Now, before we get to the next pic... another boon happened recently - traded some of those Core 2 Duo systems + some cash and picked up a really cool previous generation Core i5!

Here's the power supply - a Corsair 650TX, a very quality unit. All that could be better is some modular action. Ah well!

And another beautiful Gigabyte motherboard - a GA-P55-USB3 with 4 GB of G.Skill RAM

Here's the sweet mother. A quad core 2.8Ghz. Wow, talk about moving on up the CPU chain!

I picked up an older version of the Coolermaster Hyper 212 (Not the Plus version) and mounted a pair of Scythe fans to it

Oooh, it's getting so close to boot time!

 

[ourtut]

in no way at all am I dissing this masterpiece. But why no exhaust fans?

 

[ultimatedesk]

in no way at all am I dissing this masterpiece. But why no exhaust fans?

You just need to hold your horses! There's plenty more to come! 😉

Wow, with all those SATA cables there, it sure messes things up, no?

I went ahead and threw in my current video card (Radeon HD5770, which kicks some pretty decent butt still). I'm sure I'll see an improvement from my P4 3.2!!!

And here's the magical moment. It looks like it's already been tweaked around a bit. Running at 3.2Ghz instead of 2.8Ghz, RAM speed up to 1600Mhz... Hey - nice temps! That's only a few degrees over ambient! (It's chilly in the basement)

Only one major problem with this setup... Can you see what it might be? (Well, ok, there's more than one thing not "ideal")

That might cause an issue. I also don't like the way the heatsink exhausts all of its hot air directly onto the back of the video card, so off to the local computer shop!

This should do the trick:

Much better. Fits almost like it was meant to be.

Looks real good there actually. I think the wide fin spacing will be an advantage as well, since there is going to be a lot of general air flow throughout the cabinet.

 

[ultimatedesk]

So, now that the hardware has been installed, I can proceed to managing those cables a little. I first cut a quick piece out of 1/4" hardboard with a few strategic holes

Already much more to my liking. Time to place the new fans with their new mounting system

Ok - with both "plates" in place, I can cut the appropriate holes in the door and go ahead and install!

Woohoo, that blue furnace filter sure looks out of place eh? Everything fits, it's nice, snug, and square, so I went ahead and added a bunch of closed cell foam

Another view of the almost finished right-hand cabinet old i5 system

*Testing*

I've been using this cabinet setup for a little while now, and I'm happy to report that the temperatures are really quite nice. Because I've "sealed" the air intake portion, all of the intake air is coming through the blue furnace filter. You can literally feel suction if you place your hand in front of the filter. There is a massive amount of air coming out of the CPU hole, as well as the open PCI slots, power supply exhaust, and the half inch of space between the door and the "non-intake-area". (You can see in the previous photos, I did not put foam around the entire door perimeter).

So far it has been idling at ambient (23-25) and at maximum, just under 50 degrees Celcius.

I can hear the fans running - they are louder than all of the hard drives spinning up. I am going to get a small fan controller and get them down to the minimum speed while maintaining these current temperatures (There is a very large amount of air running through the case).

*To Do*

I have clearly got to find something to either replace the blue furnace filter, or cover it up with something a little more visually appealing.

Also, I need something to cover the CPU exhaust area. It will need to match whatever I do for the furnace filter area.

'Til next time!

 

[ultimatedesk]

On the other end of the desk, things have been progressing along nicely as well - had this beauty cut for me

Placing it in the hole, it sits just a little bit too large. The original square I cut out was about a millimetre smaller on one end than the other

So I took out the trusty chisel and did a bit of shaving!

There we go!

Mm, starting to look so awesome!

The foam fan-holder will have to say bye-bye on this side, just like the one in the right-hand cabinet. Doesn't quite look right.

 

[blakecarter]

i got a question, maybe im missing something... oh and by the way. this is a awesome build. i need to build another desk to hold 3 monitors and a printer. back to my question--- whats the reason for the for the hardware on the side and on the left side? im confused.

 

[mjmjpfaff]

that is really awesome man.

 

[kenlau22]

I been meaning to do one myself, and I must say this is very educational.

Somebody mentioned fire hazard. As a fire safety engineer, none of the components will run hot enough to burn the wood, which have high ignition point. Without a pilot flame, wood will only spontaneously ignite around 300 degree celcius. I tested enough wooden fire doors to know.

The real fire hazard is a short circuit. Recently, I have a short circuit where the hard disk power connector was not seated properly, creating a short circuit and enough sparks to melt the wires inside the casing. If the casing was made out of wood (it was a Lian Li aluminium casing) it would be a huge problem. Luckily, it was in the office and somebody noticed. The hard disks was DOA but everything else survived.

The only piece of hardware that might malfunction and cause a fire is the PSU. For example, a power surge can literally cause the PSU to fry.

 

[Purplex]

Really nice project man but how come no update in so long?

 

[Dakota Lally]

Amazing, and beautiful build. I am planning to do something similar, with the computer in a wooden case idea, but mine will be a lot different, everything set up on different levels, and slid onto dowels that keep it all in-line. Also, things will basically be in modules, somewhat representing server racks. This thread gave me some great ideas. Thank you so much for posting all this.
I was also lucky to view this two years after it was made, I would have died through all that waiting. I could never have the patience to put on 8 coats of polyurethane..
Kinda sad that the final product was never posted, was really looking forward to a zoomed-out photo. Does anyone know what happened?
Also, sorry to dig up an old thread, but this deserves to be a sticky anyways.

 

[manofchalk]

Amazing thread, this is some really good work happening (or happened 😛).

 

[soulxreaperx366]

This inspires my idea to create a custom desk. It'll be executive style and it'll have a big hutch on it, and the right side will be the tower, with a full window. The only real big difference are that I'm trying to find a way to incorporate liquid cooling into it and I'll be putting in some hidden compartments and stuff, but I'm still planning it out..

 

[soulphish]

Please tell me that you aren't done with this post! I'm addicted! I want to see more!!!!

Side note: What do you do for a living that you can afford this?!? Haha! I need this kind of spare cash!

 

[Leadbelly78]

I just found this post while researching custom PC's and this post BAMM!!
That Custom table looks awesome!!!
I just realized that the last post was 11/30/2013 so was it stopped, done, over?

 

[ALDJ1]

2015 and still getting new people loving it

Can we get an updated part of this build? Pretty sure you have upgraded the pc by now