Scratch Build – In Progress UDesk [Airtight, Very low noise PC built in Desk] Updated 3th July 2014

Hello guys,

let me introduce my current project:

UDesk



It's my first build of a pc-in-desk, so it might have flaws

Anyways, without writing wall of text, here are my top priorities for this build:

• Ergonomics: no obstacles in place where you put your legs, wooden surface for warm feel, no direct lights in workspace area to reduce distraction, adjustable height is a must.
• Low-cost: minimum amount of money invested (the whole thing will most likely cost less than what other spend just on fittings), utilizing junk parts, used materials, making own water cooling components etc.
• Zero Noise: well not zero, but below audible levels for most of the work and gaming (exception are benchmarks and demanding games, where some active cooling is necessary).
• High Performance: specifically for esport, meaning single gpu and OCed CPU for high fps and low inputlag etc.
• Low and easy maintenance and zero dust: the goal is to have a perfect system, that doesn't require attention and runs without a hitch for years. Once the upgrade is needed, it has to be very easy. Also no dust is great for the looks.
• Easy to transport: the desk might be moved from one room to another or even to another house, so it has to be made of smaller separable parts.

One last thing. I had unbelievable problems getting my account validated - it took literally months - finally I got here thanks to Matt I nearly finished the whole desk. So here is a taste of whats coming.



I will be posting the work progress over next few weeks in a condensed manner, so you can still see some of the steps that had to be taken to get here.

BTW This is the base material used for the build: 3mm aluminum baking sheets discarded from local bakery.



Recent progress highlights

 

more pics please

 

Looks really interesting. More pics please.

And welcome to the forum. It's nice to see someone from Brno here.

 

And more pics you shall get.

Here is work being done on the wooden desk. Its hardwood cover with softwood inside.



Ok here are some plans for very specific feature. ALL the components will be extendable from the table for easy access and water filling and draining. The math was killing me, made most likely every mistake you can make before getting the proper results.



As I said, its lowcost, so I used rusty old steel profiles for the frame. This is after lot of cleaning and sanding actually - still needs some work.




Now it looks more civilized, right? Base coating in synthetic primer.

 

Liking the look of that desk, and the fact that you've tried to do this on a shoestring budget. Looking forward to seeing how this one unfolds.

 

Welcome! I have deleted your "test comment to see if it disappeared or not". Your first 10 posts will take a little while to appear as they have to be moderated

Liking the project so far - good work!

 

Thank you for the explanation. I was worried, that the comment disappeared because the message stating my comment will be moderated was gone once i refreshed the page.

 

Time for an update!









Washing the parts in a bathtub.


Nice and shiny


BTW is there any way to include multiple photos from the gallery in my profile? Copying one by one is not as comfortable as I would like it to be

 

Welcome to the Forums! I had problems with joining too, but we all make it in the end! I'm looking forward to seeing how this will turn out, as you're going budget like me! Also, what's the "U" in Udesk referring to? Or am I thinking too much about the name?

 

Hi there, the letter U in the name stands for an acronym of my gaming/forum nick (uber, uberNiner etc. and also my real name which is Pavel Urbanek)

It is also follows naming convention from my previous project, which was called UCase

 

Sweet, sweet engineered metal goodness...

I open two tabs in the browser: one with the gallery and one with the post I want to copy to. It's slightly quicker, but I don't think that there is a really fast way.

 

I open two windows side by side, but still its like ctrl+c ctrl+v for each image and I have hundreds of them ...there must be a way, I hope so!

Same goes for uploading... do you have to always choose one by one?

 

Awesome metal work man! I love it!

I use imgur.com for uploading and it allows you to upload multiple files at once.

 

This looks awesome! Looking forward to updates..

Please tell me where you got your desk lamp though?!

 

Was that your bath at home? If my lad tried that I'd have something to say, as would the wife if I pulled a stunt like that!

 

The lamp is part of the project, but we can skip ahead a bit. There some parts from a real lamp (the stainless parts) and the rest my production. Well the light is not, its a waterproof lamp with LED for outside use (12V).

If nobody sees it there is no problem, right?

 

Soo, lets assemble some parts!














Now this is very special thing. Its sort of a mechanism, that will allow me to extend the components from the case for easy replacement etc.

 

Little update, putting base parts together.

 

I'll echo some of the comments so far by saying this looks very interesting.

At the risk of sounding like I've missed the point of the design, do you think the lighting from inside would become a little distracting when you're working?

Either way, I'm looking forward to the updates.