new office new desk design and build

[Pugsport]

well after creating a new home office/gaming space i now need to get started on making a desk and other bits for the room.

spent a few weeks planning the build and now have most of the issues worked out i think.

desk design so far: -

desk length will is 2788mm long and will be made in three parts, desk is also 620mm deep which should give a good surface area for when working with drawings, wiring diagrams etc

Main view: - front

Main view: - rear

Close up of pc area

Top Push To Open Draw

this draw will be home to the power and rest buttons, power switch for a 3rd psu to run lighting and linear actuator so its all out of sight and keeps it all looking clean, it will also store keyboard, mouse, headset and gaming pads to keep the desk clean and tidy when not in use and will be held in place with a foam insert

Bottom Push To Open Draw

will be home to the water cooling radiators, im not overly happy with air vent holes in the draw front so i will have to brain storm a new way of getting cool air to the radiators.

Heads up Display

will rise out the back part of the desk giving access to the fan controllers, front USB ports as well as temps of the pc area, radiator area and water temps. you will be able to raise and lower this unit via controls in the top push to open draw and also be able to turn the whole lot off when not needed

room layout once completed
main wall with pc desk. will have two 27" monitors for pc's and a 32" tv for watching tv and viewing CCTV feeds

opposite wall will be home to some storage as well as two printers

things i could do with some advice on at the moment are

1: - i can not seem to find a io shield holder/mount any where, i have one from my last desk build.

2: - best way to change from hard line water pipe to flexible tubing

3: - also unsure at this time on colour scheme, i know that i want to use grey as a main colour but unsure of what colour to go with it.

at the moment im leaning towards a main colour of grey with a metallic copper colour inside or metallic copper highlights

this wont be a very fast build when i get started as i can see some stages taking a long time to complete

Desk construction: - 14 to 30 days to build the desk
paint prep: - 7 to 14 days
painting desk: - 50 to 60 days
painting finishing: - 7 to 14 days
and then the fun part of putting the hardware in which ive not yet got 100% sorted out

 

[Wraith]

Best get cracking then, chop chop I'll be following this log for sure. The last desk build was epic.

 

[tannji]

You can get the whole mainboard tray or just the backplane with PCIe tray and I/O port panel.
http://www.caselabs-store.com/motherboard-trays/

https://www.mountainmods.com/index.php?cPath=21_34_66

These are the two vendors I looked at for my current Desk/Cabinet/PC build. I have used cheap tray parts in the past and it always ended poorly.

 

[scubasteve]

was looking on caselabs page to see if my order was ever gona get done and saw this

http://www.caselabs-store.com/pages.php?pageid=30

introducing full spectrum of powder coating so if you looking to get a motherboard tray and have it jazzed up straight from the shop (less hassle for you) , also while going through a million colours to do your brain in here you go lol

https://www.prismaticpowders.com/shop/powder-coating-colors

 

[AlienALX]

Powder coat is much more hard wearing than paint too. Paint will rub, scratch and chip. Powder coat is like liquid plastic. If my yellow bike was paint half of it would be missing by now. I was rather clumsy when building it.. It's also cheaper (about half the price of a regular colour and 1/4 the price of an exotic finish).

 

[Pugsport]

Best get cracking then, chop chop I'll be following this log for sure. The last desk build was epic.

i guess its not been a fast but progress has now finally started

You can get the whole mainboard tray or just the backplane with PCIe tray and I/O port panel.
http://www.caselabs-store.com/motherboard-trays/

https://www.mountainmods.com/index.php?cPath=21_34_66

These are the two vendors I looked at for my current Desk/Cabinet/PC build. I have used cheap tray parts in the past and it always ended poorly.

ill take a look at the although i had been just thinking along the lines of making my own up

was looking on caselabs page to see if my order was ever gona get done and saw this

http://www.caselabs-store.com/pages.php?pageid=30

introducing full spectrum of powder coating so if you looking to get a motherboard tray and have it jazzed up straight from the shop (less hassle for you) , also while going through a million colours to do your brain in here you go lol

https://www.prismaticpowders.com/shop/powder-coating-colors

ahh its something to look at when the website is back up and running again

Powder coat is much more hard wearing than paint too. Paint will rub, scratch and chip. Powder coat is like liquid plastic. If my yellow bike was paint half of it would be missing by now. I was rather clumsy when building it.. It's also cheaper (about half the price of a regular colour and 1/4 the price of an exotic finish).

there are pros and cons to both wet painting and powder coating but i would say that the cons for powder coating in this situation make it a bad choice because its a desk it will be part of the room for a while as i dont plan on building a new desk if the colours of the room change or i replace the hardware inside it at a later date. it is also hard to find someone that knows what they are doing with coating as there are to many people doing it from home/workshops to make a few extra quid in their spare time.

i had a sliding door rail powder coated for a van restoration i am doing and it faded from gloss black to a matt in a matter of months and it has also now started to peel off which is less than ideal. ive never been a huge fan of powder coat mainly for the above reason of its hard to find someone that knows what they are doing plus if the paint gets chipped you have to have the whole piece redone because you can not blend in an area with powder coat so the cost is higher then because you have to pay to have all the old paint stripped off and redone.

i have always planned to wet paint the desk and parts and im hoping a 2k SR HS Lacquer will help a lot with standing up to scratches but i guess only time will tell on that one.

progress so far

fixing the sides to the base and lower part of the pc area - desk is laid on its front face

attaching the back panel

front put on the pc area, the base of the pc area sags down a little at the moment but i can not fix that until the hole is cut for the glass, once this is done the front panel will get glued and brad nailed to the base of the pc area hopefully stopping it from sagging down in the middle

test fitting the pc area lid, this is also 1 to 2mm wider than needed so it can be trimmed to fit once the hinges are fitted and the lid is held in its final place

made the two seating areas, the left side went fine but the right hand side was a bit of pain and needed scribing to the floor in order to get it to fit right which took a little bit of time

PC area space

sorry for the last two images being very poor, there was a fair amount of dust in the air after scribing the right hand side seating area to the floor

 

[Pugsport]

got a little bit more done today

got the top cut and fitted for the right hand side of the desk

got the hinges fitted to the lid and the lid cut to final size

got the cut out for the glass in cut and made it so the glass will be recessed, this way i can glue it in from the inside and i also wont have to cut curved ends on the glass - this photo was taken from the door way so will get a good view of it as you walk into the room

last thing for today was to make a start laying out and cutting the holes for the motherboard and a 120mm fan in the back panel

 

[Wraith]

Looking great so far, you have a fantastic foundation now it's just a case of outfitting the rigs and bringing the whole build to life.

 

[Pugsport]

Looking great so far, you have a fantastic foundation now it's just a case of outfitting the rigs and bringing the whole build to life.

thanks, its been getting easier an easier to put the time in now most of the basic shell is done

progress from yesterday and today

psu mounting holes cut - will live behind the 100mm tall drawer

no really to do with the build but the first printer cabinet is made, just needs a slide out shelf for the printer to sit on and a door

drawer for the keyboard, mouse, headphone and switches made apart from the front face - still waiting for the soft close, push to open drawer runners to turn up before i can fit it

first idea of the view youll get from the front - two old motherboards in place just as an idea

playing around with the lighting - this is 3 meters of LED strip attach to the lid

this was with the LED strip attach around the window of the front panel - 2.8 meters of strip

then cut the holes for the temp sensors, put the fans on and routed the cables threw back so they are hidden from view when looking from the front side

view of the back so far

marked the reservoir mounting holes out and also worked out how to route the temp sensor wire so it was not on show to much

view from the top of the reservoir and you can just about make out the temp sensor wire on the left hand end

the cable then gets routed down the side of the desk to the back - this needs a channel routed out for the wire to sit in though

 

[Davva2004]

Subbed!

 

[Pugsport]

got a little bit more done today

made a couple of cardboard templates one for the psu mounts and one for the i/o and pci slots

made the psu mounts from some 1mm carbon fibre sheet i found laying around - i was going to make them all from metal but once these are painted you will never know

managed to get the lid marked out and cut to so lets a bit more light in now and has a fairly good view of parts inside

downside has been the workforce they always seem to be on a tea break and in the way

i was also pretty surprised about the amount of saw dust id created just from cutting the wood and routing a few bits out

 

[tinytomlogan]

Love to see a proper build log!

 

[AlienALX]

Ahh, piles of MDF dust. I can still smell that smell

I used to go through tons of the stuff making speakers back in the 90s.

 

[RobM]

looking good so far, certainly different from the usual build logs.
Re the IO/PCI area, would it not be easier to incorporate ones from old cases into it rather than cutting the holes in the wood?

 

[Pugsport]

Love to see a proper build log!

Thanks Tom, ive had a fair amount of practice with build logs from other car related projects

Ahh, piles of MDF dust. I can still smell that smell

I used to go through tons of the stuff making speakers back in the 90s.

yes and it seems to get everywhere to. yes its good for speaker boxes

looking good so far, certainly different from the usual build logs.
Re the IO/PCI area, would it not be easier to incorporate ones from old cases into it rather than cutting the holes in the wood?

thanks Rob, yes i did toy with the idea of running the two computers in pc case but thought it would be harder to display them in the space i have at the moment plus finding a case that you can mount the motherboard on either side would be hard and making two cases from scratch would have been just as much work as the desk if not more work.

i will be having a bash at making them out of metal, im hoping i can get away with cutting all the holes in it then putting the bends in to match the template, i had not thought of cutting it of wood to be fair

another small update from today

routed the channel out for the temp sensor wires to run threw - for the reservoir. i had to sink the wires in a little otherwise the desks would not butt up to each other

made a start on some wire management for the back side to - mainly around the temp sensor gauges

hiding the pc compartment sensor behind the middle hinge

cut in all the channels for the different cables - once the desk is painted they will get stuck in with hot glue so i can remove them later on if needs be.

i also cut channels out for the fan wires do they wont be hanging around the back - this was my biggest problem with the old desk, to many wires hanging down the back

all the cables now in their place

with the cable management done the lcd screens and temp sensors id thought id see how many of them still worked - only one of them is dead and needs replacing which is not to bad. i did also test both fans while i was there and had power - i need to find out which two pins on the 24 pin plug turn the psu to so i can wire a switch in for that

also routed a square end on the inside of the front window

also cut a channel out for the led strip in the lid

last thing i got done was the channel for the led strip that will light up the top draw once its opened

i guess if i get time tomorrow to do anything it will be more cable tidying stuff

 

[Pugsport]

little more progress today

first drawer built up - this will sit in front of the power supplies and house the usb ports as well as provide a little more storage

got two speaker pods made up, will give them a sand up and match the angles on the front once the glue has dried up,

added some extra wood to screw the fan controllers to

switches and fan controller places cut in the second drawer

channels for the leds cut under the motherboards

leds mounted in the lid, only held in with a few spots of hot glue for now, i need to get a 12 volt regulator for the leds though

gives off a nice amount of light, not to dark and not to bright

 

[Wraith]

Very very nice, loving your attention to detail especially where cable routing is concerned and the LEDs are perfectly placed to give a controlled glow. Superb.

 

[Pugsport]

Very very nice, loving your attention to detail especially where cable routing is concerned and the LEDs are perfectly placed to give a controlled glow. Superb.

Thanks for the kind words Wraith, im pretty happy with it so far and im sure that once its all painted up it will be some where close to the image i have in my head for it. yes i learnt from the last build that cable management is a must as it got very messy behind the desk with all the wires.

a little change of plan as far as the radiator compartment goes, i changed my mind about having a vents cut in the front of the desk for letting cool air in, thought they looked out of place and made it look untidy so had to have a rethink and came up with this

now intake cool air from the sides of the desk to keep the front looking cleaner and exhaust warm air threw the back of the desk. im unsure if i will use the window in the radiator area due to it being low down but as this front panel will be held on with magnets i may make a panel with a window and one without so i can see which i like better

a little progress done over the last two days in between the 8 hours spent trying to get my brothers i phone replaced under insurance

marking out and cutting the intake fan holes

both fan holes cut in the desk, just need to cut the in the seating are now to

routed a small groove down to the intake fans to keep the cables out the way and out of sight

soldered in one set of led under the motherboard area and routed the cable

cut a track on the underside of the motherboard area so the cable can be held out the way. they should now drop down just after the psu

also cut a track in for the led lights that are in the lid

the back of the desk now looks like this with the cables all held in place with a small amount of hot melt glue

i did also cut a 5mm rebate around the window area in the lid ready for the plexi to go in

will try and get a little more done today

 

[Pugsport]

a little bit of progress and after a little advice/thoughts

we will start with the small bit of progress

top drawer fitted - still needs it front panel

made a template for a 360mm radiator so i can start marking out where the will go and also make some mounting brackets up

also got two of the under board led soldered up

looking to get the two remaining fan holes cut tomorrow and the rest of the little bits done so as soon as we get some better weather it will be ready to paint

Advice/thoughts

well just after some advice and thoughts on if both computers should be the same or match, i can not decide if having two odd motherboards will make it look rubbish/strange.

my plan was to go with one I5 setup and one I3 setup or the second option would be one Intel and one AMD.

 

[Pugsport]

little more progress done but running out of things to get done until the plastic turns up which by the sounds of it wont be until the new year

got the intake fan holes cut in the seating area - they are not 100% lined up here as the
desk is not screwed together in the photo

they dont stick out and look to bad here

two in take fans mounted - still waiting for another four to turn up

intake fan wires routed

exhaust fan holes cut

2nd drawer with all the switches fitted - also waiting on replacement runners for this drawer as one of the push to open mechanisms is broken

put some fibreglass in the little gap that was at the back of the switch area - now just needs a little more sanding and some bodyfiller before paint

first attempt at making a template for the plexi glass top - i wont lie, this never went very well at all as the paper/card sagged in the middle so was not the right in the end

second attempt measuring it out on some mdf before cutting it - this took an hour and a half to two hours to do but i knew i had to get it right this time as i only had one piece of wood left big enough to do it

last job was to change the wood screws that mount the fans to something that looks a little better - M4 cap head screws with captive nuts it was
before

putting the captive nuts in

after

now i just need to work which fans im going to use in the top area. I need to look at some reviews/get some thoughts on the Corsair ML fans

so until some more parts turn up thats it for now