Project Linnarp

Warchild

Active member
Hi all,

This is something I have been working on each weekend for the last few months. Finding time gets more and more difficult as I go on.

Originally I had a 900D build but grew tired of the space it took up in the room. Also I grew tired of it. I wanted to challenge myself and see what I could do while spending as little as possible in terms of upgrades. Since I gave away my first PC to the family of my closest friend R.I.P it left me quite out of pocket when I heavily invested in my second project

At least this was my initial plan, but the upgrade bug always kicks in.

I have been using my IKEA Linnarp desk for the last 6 years and it has served me well. So I figured why not enhance it a little bit.

So here is what I began with, but just imagine it no where near new and quite "banged" up

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the challenge i set myself was to reuse as much of the components in my 900D as possible, with a slight change. My first 900D had a dark build aka the "necrotic chamber" as I called it on here and gave it away. The second one I had was all black with no colour variation. This time I wanted to go for purity so would make everything white.

This means changing the colour of the fittings, GPUs, motherboard, pumphousing, and even reservoir.

Current specs:

Motherboard: Sabertooth Z77 (potentially upgrading to Sabranco upon availibility)
CPU: Delid 3570k
Memory: Kingston 16gb Hyper X
GPU: 2x 780 reference from EVGA
Soundcard: ASUS Xonar STX I
Storage: 2x Samsung 840Pro 250gb SSD, 1x 500gb WD HDD
PSU: Seasonic Ultra Quiet 850W
Monitor: ASUS ROG Swift

Cooling components:

Pump: 2x MCP35x single loop
Res: 2x EK 25cm tube res
GPU: 2x FC Titan/780ti
CPU: EK Supremacy
Radiators: 1x 360 EK XTX and 1x 240 EK XTX
Fans: Corsair SP120 for rads
Chassis fans: Bitfenix 1000rpm white fans
Fittings: Countless EK HD rigid fittings and rotaries.

MISC:
Lamptron SMP pro LED UV lighting
Shoggy Sandwich decoupling pads
Lamptron CW611 Fan Controller
Phobya 19mm bell push switches (i think i got the wrong ones :( )

I asked in a thread sometime ago about mixing fittings e.g. using EK HD fittings with 16mm OD alongside Bitspower rotaries and I was slightly mocked in an understandable way, afterall why would you mix brands. But the reasoning was due to surplus stock of the 16mm OD tubing I had.

So I figured ill stay true to the comments and I will continue to reuse the fittings by stripping them down to bare copper and respraying white. Unlike some professional "colour" artists on here like Snef and B-Negative, I will attempt to use spray cans in a patient way i.e. around 10 coats in total to avoid orange peel effects.

The Tools:

No modder is complete without their trusted Dremel and I am a little bit of a hoard with dremel gear. Just a small example below ;)

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I must admit, the scroll saw is a fantastic and nifty little tool which you can easily pack away. Note to other potential buyers though. Make sure you buy the 90degree blades.
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Pretty much everything was done with these three tools and of course the obvious screwdriver ;)
More pics will follow once I have time to upload them.
 
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Yep there will be a few changes here and there to the desk itself.

But one thing I am not doing really is having the entire thing mapped out. You could say when I began I had a plan, but over the course of time changed quite alot.

Now I feel like I am just winging it ;)
 
Yep there will be a few changes here and there to the desk itself.

But one thing I am not doing really is having the entire thing mapped out. You could say when I began I had a plan, but over the course of time changed quite alot.

Now I feel like I am just winging it ;)

are the panels massive? or do they sound hollow? if they sound hollow watch out how you cut, there is that stupid hexagon paper stuff in it then, had the same issue in my IKEA "case"
 
Its actually made from pine. I did a few test cuts with the Moto saw and it worked out fine :)


So Here are some of the pics I took while testing my colouring skills with the fittings. I would love to use the bitspower deluxe white, but its hard to justify the premium they charge when EK are half the price and function just as well.

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I'll take more pics for comparison once I have better light. First fitting obviously as it began in black. Second is stripped to brass using the 427s rotary for the dremel. Third has the base layers of primer coats, primer coat number 3. And last one is the finished fitting (total primer coats 4, white coats 5) All of which were done with your typical acrylic spray can :)

Since I was happy with the result I gave it a go with my 45degree PSC fitting from EK.

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I had to purchase a few fittings from Bitspower just to check quality and also use as a colour comparison. Considering the BP rotary costs 155Nok (15quid) and the EK PSC fitting is just 60Nok (6quid) I think for the time being I will have some fun respraying all my bits and bobs :)
So obviously left fitting is from BP, while middle is from EK with white coats. Far right is EK fitting with final coat of gloss laquer to avoid wearing away the paint on the gnurled part when fitting and removing them.

That was my one gripe with EK rotaries. The plated black easily wore away just from fingertip rubbing leaving brass patches.
 
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You wait around patiently for a desk build - and then 2 come along at once. Good luck, looks interesting.
 
You wait around patiently for a desk build - and then 2 come along at once. Good luck, looks interesting.

Haha true dat!

Fittings looks very nice. Patience is a virtue, and it pays off in the end!
So, what are you gonna spend the extra cash on that you save from the fittings? Additional SSD?
 
Haha true dat!

Fittings looks very nice. Patience is a virtue, and it pays off in the end!
So, what are you gonna spend the extra cash on that you save from the fittings? Additional SSD?


Very good point. I need to update specs as I left these out. I already have 2x Samsung 840pro SSD 250gb and a HDD for storage.

The money I save will cover my debt for my dogs Vet bill... 500quid just for a late night call out and a few X-rays. :eek: I could put it on his insurance but I don't want the premium to spike.

Ideally I am seriously going to try and get the limited run of the white sabertooth Z97 now its officially been released for reviews. And further down the line 2x 980 Hall of Fame gfx cards. But I won't bother with the cards unless someone confirms they will produce waterblocks for them. Time will tell :)
 
I know double posting is a no no but I want to try to keep updates separate.

As you can see, fitting a pc in the desk in its current state is a bit of an impossibility unless i want to use riser cards, so we have to extend the dimensions a little bit :)

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Typical hobby board (pine) found almost anywhere and very easy to work with, but also very easy to split/damage if you rush anything as you will see later

So here it is, the 5 year old Linnarp. My most loyal piece of furniture. Ignore the masking tape on the top. This was a test for something I wanted to try out.

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And here she is dismantled. The joy of IKEA goods is that its so easy to tear apart.

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So first step for me is to begin working on the dimensions. I was satisfied with the width and depth as its a perfect fit in the room. All that needs changing is the main body height.

I am also practising with the dremel router to make sure I don't fudge things up or cause damage to myself.

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First mistake I made was being a little cheap on the router bits. Note to self and others. Don't buy cheap quality router heads as you really do destoy the work as you see in the practise board above.

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The boss of the house agrees with me

Also trying out a few test sheets of plexiglass

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And I'm not sure if I want to use back lighting or not as I will be using UV strips lined on the inside so I dont want to stray from a uniform lighting theme.
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i like where this is going dude :)

Thanks. I know it wont be a professional end product like some talented modders on here but I will certainly do my best.

This

Good thing you practiced though :) Are you're sure that desk is sturdy enough to hold your precious cargo? I have some bad experience with IKEA stuff -.-
Also bigger pictures for the actual build wouldn't be too shabby. ;)

Small pictures were just because there is nothing detailed to see. I will use larger pictures though. More updates to come in the morning. Was busy until 2am ;)
 
Late night working is so excillerating... especially when your neighbour is pumping out house music to drown out your carpentry noise ;)

After cutting the side panels, I finally got the confidence to begin working on the routing. Changed the router bit to a better quality piece and the difference was oustounding. It actually cut too easily. However I had to invert the stopper on the router attachment as it did not allow a 2mm depth in its default position.

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I have to do the pics in a different order slightly as a little package arrived for me this morning in perfect timing.

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It was a little silly and impatient of me to cut the holes in the side panels before I received the rad guards. I was basing the dimensions on google pictures ;). However...

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Very nice fit in my opinion.

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And with the fans fitted.

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More pictures to be added later today but someone needs his walking.

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It's coming along nicely mate! For future needs if you have more of this kind of job, fastening a piece of wood to guide your dremel makes everything alot easier and a more straight cut. This is how I cut out the hole in my front panel mod. It was 2mm thick plexi which was very brittle so the piece of wood helped tremendously.

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It's coming along nicely mate! For future needs if you have more of this kind of job, fastening a piece of wood to guide your dremel makes everything alot easier and a more straight cut. This is how I cut out the hole in my front panel mod. It was 2mm thick plexi which was very brittle so the piece of wood helped tremendously.

The router has a guide attached very similar so wood wasnt needed. The issue was where I hit a few knots in the wood which caused a slight deviation in the router bit angle. But I agree, using wood is a great way to guide your dremel as you will see later :)
 
The router has a guide attached very similar so wood wasnt needed. The issue was where I hit a few knots in the wood which caused a slight deviation in the router bit angle. But I agree, using wood is a great way to guide your dremel as you will see later :)

still looks good though :) I wanted to do use my dremel as router too but I found it too slow so I just grabed a handsaw :lol: but I guess you cant go any else.
 
still looks good though :) I wanted to do use my dremel as router too but I found it too slow so I just grabed a handsaw :lol: but I guess you cant go any else.

The 2mm edge was done with the router but the hole cut out was done with the scroll saw.
 
Cut another piece of wood for support and also to help with airflow in the case.

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Had to take a break from chopping materials as the dust was getting to me.

Decided to don the mask and do some spraying. But decided how far to go with the white.

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Using the Bitspower fittings as a comparison again.

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Stage 1 done.

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Backplate number 1 stripped and prepped for spraying.

5 primer coats and 5 top coats later here is the result...

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I was quite happy with the quality of the white so I thought I would take the water blocks apart and spray these also. I'm trying not to over power the entire desk with white however as too much of one thing is never good.

Anyway I'll digress...

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Once complete I reattached them to see how they looked and also the single backplate. Wasn't a bad result in my opinion.

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I am contemplating what colour to do the bolts throughout the case. Haven't decided yet. But at its present state, the default black does help give it contrast so I might stick to that.

That's all for now. Need to finish the remaining fittings and second backplate.
 
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