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Scratch Build – In Progress The Ultimate Computer Desk - 2 Integrated Desktops (September 1)

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by ultimatedesk, 29 Nov 2010.

  1. luis_pedro_Sato

    luis_pedro_Sato Minimodder

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    Did you get the servers for free ?

    Great job
     
  2. xMathiasD

    xMathiasD What's a Dremel?

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    remember the kittens! :D
     
  3. Ream

    Ream What's a Dremel?

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    Looking forward to the next update, wish i had the skill and time to build something like this, if it cant be done in half an hour i wont do it.
     
  4. Tokari

    Tokari What's a Dremel?

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    I wondered that as well!
     
  5. Karrek

    Karrek Minimodder

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    I bet you could put the hard drives between the motherboard and the door... laying flat. Maybe create a door-type structure in side the cabinet with all the hard drives mounted on it. You would open the side of the desk and then swing out the HHD door panel in order to access the motherboard. Just a thought...
     
  6. thetrashcanman

    thetrashcanman Angel headed hipsters

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    I don't know how many hard drives your planning on using, but could you not make up some bracket/mounting system and maybe mount the hard drives in the top of the case? If not perhaps the bottom? :)
     
  7. ultimatedesk

    ultimatedesk What's a Dremel?

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    Gigabyte Board

    Thanks Mosquito, I am extremely excited as well, though there are still lots of details to work out!

    Yup! Lucky find, with a business moving to a smaller location!

    Argh! OH yeah!

    Heh, thanks Ream!

    Yup, got em for free! (Turns out only one of the server boards actually works though *snap*)

    That's a neat idea actually. I do have some kind of plan, however. You'll have to stick around for the next few updates ;)

    Again, another great idea, thanks, but I think I will actually be mounting the cages in the air intake area!

    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!

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

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    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!

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    Here is the test fit in the actual desk

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    And with the fans in place

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    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!
     
  8. Ream

    Ream What's a Dremel?

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    That motherboard is excellent, build is coming together lovely, what cooler you going to be using on that gigabyte board?
     
  9. Houndofhell

    Houndofhell One Particle to Rule Them All

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    This is very very cool, awesome idea making the them all part of each other.

    Desk + 2 Comps = WIN!
     
  10. Mosquito

    Mosquito Just 'Plane' Crazy

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    what are you going to be using the server side for?
     
  11. Grandknight

    Grandknight What's a Dremel?

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    This really is an amazing project. It's inspired me to build my own desk with three computers.
     
  12. ultimatedesk

    ultimatedesk What's a Dremel?

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    Testing and Cable Management

    Thanks Ream - I'm not 100% sure about the cooler as of yet

    Thanks Houndofhell, I appreciate the positive comments!

    It'll be on 24/7 basically as a media share / file server. I'm hoping that it will be used as a folding machine during off-peak hours, and hopefully able to play a few LAN games when I have a friend over

    So awesome, thanks Grandknight, be sure to post a log!

    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:

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    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:

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

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    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:

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    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.
     
  13. ultimatedesk

    ultimatedesk What's a Dremel?

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    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.

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    Installed the fans and started to route some of the cables

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    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...)

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

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    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.

    [​IMG]

    Until next time.. still not quite sure what I'll be doing next.
     
  14. Cygnitr0n

    Cygnitr0n What's a Dremel?

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    Nice build. I'm gonna follow this one :)
     
  15. ultimatedesk

    ultimatedesk What's a Dremel?

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    Seasonic and New Layout

    Thanks Cygnitr0n, welcome to the build!

    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.

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    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:

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    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.

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    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.

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

    ultimatedesk What's a Dremel?

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    New Layout Work

    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:

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    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!)

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    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.

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    Time to drill some holes for the fan screws

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    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.

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    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!

    [​IMG]

    Kinda looks like a bull head eh?
     
  17. Ream

    Ream What's a Dremel?

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    I am waiting for another update, anything from the kittens as well.

    This thing is going to be totally amazing when its finished.
     
  18. Tokari

    Tokari What's a Dremel?

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    Agree. I keep checking the thread for updates just in case
     
  19. Mechh69

    Mechh69 I think we can make that fit

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    We DEMAND updates!! But im sure that real life is getting in the way.
     
  20. Zanib

    Zanib What's a Dremel?

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    fantastic idea mate, hope everything is coming along well
     

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