Scratch Build – In Progress Watercooled PC Desk (Still Thinking Up Catchy Name...)

Hello everybody!

This is my first post on these forums, but I've been lurking and following project logs for quite a while. In particular, I've always been interested by projects that integrate the PC hardware into the desk: it always seems to be a nice form factor and is a great way to display your hardware!

I'm currently studying for my A2 exams and my younger brother is studying for his GCSEs. He couldn't decide what to make for his GCSE tech project, so, inspired by the L3P D3SK among others, I suggested this project! I'm afraid you're joining us quite late in the design process of the desk itself, but there's still opportunity for a little tweaking. The desk is made of veneered MDF (due to the sheer quantity of wood involved, using hardwood would have been far too expensive, circa £400 IIRC, this was all we could afford but besides being harder to work with in some ways doesn't look to bad!) and has a glass top ready to go on. The hardware will sit under the glass.

Although we didn't start with a colour theme, one seems to have developed, and that's orange! We lasercut a HDD rack, and it happened to be made out of orange acrylic, and I happened across some orange Xigmatek fans (nice fans BTW). Since then we've ordered orange cable sleeve and orange tubing for the water cooling loop.

Here's a quick run down of the system specs:

• Intel Xeon W3520 CPU 4GHZ (i7 920 equivelant)
• Gigabyte X58-USB3 Motherboard
• 6GB OCZ Reaper PC15000 RAM
• Gigabyte GTX480
• Auzentech X-Fi Prelude Soundcard
• Thermaltake Purepower 600W PSU
• WD Caviar Black 1500GB Maindrive
• Hitachi 500GB Single Plater drive (used for backups)

The water cooling gear is as follows!

• Eheim 1048 Pump
• D-Tek FuZion V2 CPU Block
• AquaComputer Full Cover GPU block
• Black Ice Stealth 360 Triple Radiator
• 3 Arctic Cooling 120mm fans on back of rad
• 3 Orange Xigmatek fans with white LEDs on front of rad
• Orange XSPC 3/8" ID, 5/8" OD tubing
• Half inch nickel plated push fit barbs all round
• Alphacool Cape Corp Coolplex Pro 10 LT Resevoir
• Cheapo integrated fan controller/front panel/temp sensor

Don't think I've missed anything there, but I probably have...

Some pics to get started with:
By brother doesn't like having his photo taken...


Preliminary rad fitting


We're not tidy workers...


Sanding wood ready to be oiled


We're still waiting on a few bits and bobs to arrive, and should really get on and order some more fans and dust filters!

Any comments or suggestions please fire ahead! But be quick, it's the Easter holidays ATM so progress is fast (and would be a lot faster if the post was running!) The project (well the desk at any rate) needs to be finished by next weekend, as it'll be taken in to be marked on Monday!