Hi everyone here at bit-tech! First of all I’d like to say hello to all of you here at this awesome community. Second, I’d like to introduce all of you to my project: Desk MK I SPONSORED BY The project started out as something to please my now exgirlfriend. After I had remodeled my old case, an Antec P180 mini, with all lazer, UV lights and all of the world’s glory, she started to grow tired of seeing the case all the time. At that time I had already been browsing bit-tech and various other modding sites for inspiration and a thing that caught my attention was the desks. I started thinking how I wanted it to be and what needs I had. This is what I ended up with: It’s a pretty basic design, and I want to add a drawer below the hardwarearea, but since I don’t know how much space the hardware room will take, I’ve excluded it from the design. I want to create an acrylic “case” to put the motherboard inside, leaving the PSU, the watercooling and all fans apart from the two-three ones creating airflow inside the hardware, hidden from the visual eye. I already have a plate which I’m going to use for this project. The plan is to sand it down and dye it with a grey-ish brown to create some contrast to the matt black colour I’ll be painting the furniture in. Now let’s get to the interesting part of a worklog: pictures! I’m lucky to work at a woodworker/carpenter. He’s an old, rugged man who knows everything about carpenting there is to know. I talked a bit with him about my plan and he offered to help me cut out the pieces. Here’s the saw. I didn’t use it myself seeing it needs a bit of experience. Everything cut out nice and clean Now, I borrowed this tool and got all the plates transported home. First thing to do was to draw a rough sketch of what I wanted to cut out. And here’s how it looks cut out. It was a bit trickier than I thought and I wasn’t really super happy with the result, but it’ll do. Secondly, I had downloaded a sketch of a 360 rad from Aquatuning’s webpage. I cut out the center marking the holes for fans and airflowspace and used that for measuring where to cut. Here’s how it ended looking cut out. I’m quite happy with that, but I think for further reference I’ll be using the saw before using the other machine. That’s it for now. Right now I’m looking where to get some mesh without having to pay a fortune, that stuff is expensive! I hope you guys will be interested in following me on this journey. By the way, constructive criticism is more than welcome. Feel free to ask any questions about anything, and I’ll gladly answer! - Vognen P.S: What’s the depth required for the hardware compound? I’m thinking of making 1-2 cm. for cablerouting leaving me with the estimate of 20 cm. Is that totally off?
Update time - Wohooooo! After having browsed the internet for just the correct type of mesh I wanted I ended up biting the sour apple. I bought a mesh plate from a danish webshop, but I'll give it to them that I had the package the day after I placed the order - thumbs up. Aaaand just there is about 27 € worth of mesh. It feels like it's a good quality though. Sturdy, but still easy to work with. I whipped out my marker and anglegrinder and got to work! Unfortunatly I forgot to take pictures of that, so you'll have to manage without it. Anyways! I also got the metal drill out and drilled 12 holes for the radiator and fan screws. After using the metal file for giving it some non-sharp, smooth edges I placed it in the wood to check if they fitted, and they did Last thing of the radiatorarm was to put it all together with screws. Since I had the parts cut out earlier, it was just to add some screws. I was thinking of giving it some wood glue, but it seems sturdy enough even without it. That's it for now. Full time work and DJ'ing during the weekends is taking most of my time and energy, so as much as I'd like to work on the project, time and energy is limited. Hopefully I'll get some more done soon though. Right now I'm looking for an extra GTX 680 for some SLi power and an extra Laing DDC pump so I can undervolt the one I have for a more silent solution. Also; I'm currently thinking about what motherboard to get. I'm really hooked up on the ASUS Maximus Rampage VI since it has built-in wireless, but I'm not too sure. Can any of you guys help me out and show me other motherboards worth looking at? - Vognen
Time for another update. For the first time in many, many weekends, I had a Saturday where I hadn't been working daytime or DJ'ing Friday night, and since the sun was shining outside I thought that I would give it a go and get as much done as I could. I needed to make holes for ventilation in the drawer arrangement, so that was the first thing I started. I tried to do it in reverse order of what I did last, thus cutting out first and then use the router. It went really well, and the result is much better than the first time I did it. I will never be a champion with the tool though. I made 2 x 120 holes on one side and 3 x 120 in the other, so there'll be ample airflow inside the desk . After having done all the dusty work I went inside my workshop and pulled out my new best friend. It's always nice to have some working music Here is a picture of all the parts to be used in the furniture. So far the most expensive thing about this project has actually been the mesh I have used. Fortunately there was enough for the whole furniture. Got screwed the first 3 things together. All leveled as it should be Next was to screw the last side on, and suddenly it all looked a bit more complete I am so lucky to have a really nice computer speaker system, but the subwoofer takes up so much space, and it is just really impractical to have lying on the floor. I thought "Why not make space at the bottom of it so that it can be in the furniture ?" . I had a few scraps of wood left, so it was quickly done. It measures approx. 38 cm. in width and 22 in height, so there was plenty of room for both subwoofer and a future drawer. Here at last is a picture of how it looks . Now comes the hard work of filling, sanding, painting, making a drawer and make a "front panel" so I can turn on the computer. Till next time - Vognen
Hey everyone! So, it's been a while since I've had an update but that doesn't mean that I've shelfed the project. I got sent home from work, seasonal work so no more work for me there, and on top of that I'm moving this Sunday. It's all going to be good, but at the same time that means I haven't had much time. First of all I'd like to proudly announce that Aquatuning has decided to help me finish this project. They offered me a large discount all of their in-house products, and needless to say I'm thrilled to include them in my work. Aquatuning is a well-known brand, and to me they offer good products at fair prices. Honestly I consider them the best bang-for-bucks when it comes to radiator performance vs. price. They're helping me with fittings, a radiator, temperature sensors and LED-lightning of various kind. Once again, thank you for the help! Now last update included me finishing the furniture, apart from the front panel. I've had a busy week. Since I'm now unemployed, I had loads of time to work on the desk. First thing I did was to fill all the screwholes and smooth out the edges with filler. Left it to dry for a day's time and then I sanded it with a fine cornsize paper. One of the key features I want in the desk, is that I don't want any cables to be shown. That includes power for the PSU, screen and maybe a desk lamp, but it also means I want my internet to be wireless. I ordered a 3-pin 220v wall mount which I made a hole for with the jigsaw and my drill. That means that there's only going to be one cable going inside the desk. Hopefully it'll mean a lot less cableclutter, and help ease vacuuming around the desk The day after I received a package. A long awaited package, and I jumped around like it was early Christmas. My package with goodies from Aquatuning had arrived, and it included all the watercooling stuff I needed. Yay! An Alphacool NexXxoS UT60 360 radiator. It'll be in a loop with my current XT45, and those two paired should offer me enough cooling power for anything I could possibly imagine throwing at it. 10 x 13/10 compression fittings in black nickel, a t-piece and a ball-valve to make a drainport somewhere. Haven't decided where A push-button so I can turn on the computer, a temperature display to mount in the front as well and 3 LED-strips in blue, white and UV To test the display and the LEDs my old PSU came out of retirement. He's served me well, but he ran out of power last time I upgraded. Testing the LEDs and the temperature display. All the LEDs aren't working on the blue and white strips, but I bought them as b-stock, really cheap, and they're 240 cm. long, so even with shorting them to where the broken LEDs are, I'll still have more than enough length left for use. Since I had gotten all the stuff I needed to finish the exterior I quickly made the front panel and primed it all. Left it to dry for the night, and today I applied the first layer of paint. I really like the grey colour, and hopefully it'll go along really well with the hardwood plate which I'm planning to polish in a wallnut-like shade. And last here's just a quick picture of the colour of the mesh and the furniture itself. I like it! Now what's still to do? Apply a second layer of paint tomorrow, sand it and consider if a third layer is needed. I'm also searching for places to buy a solid white acrylic plate, but it's either buy a full sized plate of 2500x1200 mm or buy a smaller sized, but transparent one. I've been really lucky and have done some good deals. I've bought a second hand GPU block for my "new" GTX 680 matching the one I have mounted on my current one. Also I've bought 4 Corsair SP120 quiet edition at a really good price, they were brand new, never used, and I basically got 4 at the price of 2 so I'm happy with that. Still working on what hardware to get. I've agreed with myself that an i5-4670k should suffice to my needs. The motherboard is still in question, but I'm leaning towards an ASRock Extreme 6/ac since it comes with a free 3.5" USB 3.0 front panel and a built-in .ac wifi netcard. As always feel free to leave any comments, critique, questions and what you should feel like writing -Vognen
Really nice work so far dude! I can't believe I'm the first to comment! Yes, that mesh is expensive! Where did you get yours from?
Thanks for the kind words! I did notice that there wasn't much activity in terms of comments, but I could see that my thread still gained a decent amount of views, so I knew I was doing something right. I ended up buying my mesh from a danish webshop, www.coolerkit.dk, and yes! It was expensive as hell. I searched high and low in local toolshops, materialshops and its likes, but I couldn't find anything I could use. So in the end I had to buy it. Oh well... At least it meant I could keep working. I've just finished applying the second layer of paint, but before I did that I snatched a picture of the temp. display and the power button in place. I'm quite happy with how that turned out! Now it's time to pack up my stuff since I'm moving tomorrow. Hopefully I'll settle down quick so I wont be put too much behind. I really want to finish this asap!
Thank you very much! I'm so exited to finish the project. The move went alright, but unfortunatly I wasn't able to bring my desk with me, so it's still stuck in the workshop back at my parents place. I'll be able to bring it over here after this weekend though I've actually been thinking a lot about if I should make an internet cable panel as well. There's two things, or maybe three, in it. First making a wall mounted internetcable plug is not that easy. It requires a few special tools which I don't have access to at the moment. Second; my room is far away from the living room and there's no easy way to route an internet cable. And third; I've been gaming on wireless internet for the last 3 years or so, and I've never experienced any problems with lag/loss of connection due to the wireless failing. It's my belief that wireless nowadays is so good that the loss of speed/delay is so little, that I won't experience it in my games(LoL, ocasionally WoW etc.) As I said I'm currently not able to work on the project, but that doesn't mean I'm not "working" with it. I've just sent an email to a guy I hope will be able to help me make the acryllic work for the motherboard. Till next time! -Vognen
Great stuff! Good to see you're making some progress with the build, I struggled to find mesh here in South Africa for my build so I scrapped that idea and made steel fan grille/holders. FOR THE HORDE!
Time to get out of my lurking habits and actually comment on some posts. This looks really good so far! Regarding wall mount ethernet - it's actually really easy to do if you're surface mounting - all the wires can be done with standard wire cutters and the wires mount into the back of the sockets with a mini-screwdriver - you don't need an official punch-down tool for it. The part that's hard is making the ethernet plug-to-plug cables which need the expensive crimping tool, and you can just buy those (or often get them free with your modem). I'm saying that from the experience of doing it myself in my current house! Obviously, it becomes more difficult/expensive if you're running the cables inside the walls, as you have to deal with a lot more DIY rather than just cables.
Hi everyone! It's time to get this thing going again After months of searching for the right hardware, I have finally managed to get my hands on everything that I wanted. Common for everything is that it's brand new-ish, meaning that it's as good as new, and I've saved A LOT of money buying this stuff. Hopefully it'll give me the PC I want which will keep me powered for the next 3-4 years of gaming. Let's get started The motherboard is an MSI Mpower, which is a sweet looking motherboard. It has really good overclocking possibilites and, one of the things I like a lot, it comes with built-in bluetooth and wireless network. That means no more USB wires for phone usage and stuff. It'll run with an I5-4670k. Originally I was considering the I7-4770k, but the price I got this baby offered at was too good to turn down. Besides, my most CPU-heavy task is playing BF4 I picked up a 16 gb 4x4, 1866 mhz, CL9 G.Skill Ripjaws from a guy that had stopped building PCs and was selling out of his leftovers... While visiting him I "accidientlied" an extra Samsung 840 120 gb SSD for Raid 0 with the one I already have A spare GTX 680 with EKWB mounted to run SLi with the one I already have. It should be going strong for at least a couple of years This Swiftech MCP35X will be put in a dual top configuration with my current Laing DDC 18W so I can undervolt them for the same pushing power, but at less noise! Aaaaand the final purchase, and probably the one I'm most happy about. I've wanted one of these babies since they came out in 2011. In my opinion it's one of the best designed monitors of all time. I was lucky that a guy close to where I live now put one up for sale. Even though it busted my wallet buying this I had to get it. So now I'm playing games in 120 hz on the B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L Samsung S27A950D That's it for today. I'll post another update with some more progress of the work itself. Right now I just wanted to share my thrill of all these goodies with the rest of you! As always feel free to comment, critisize, ask questions or whatever might just pop into your mind. -Vognen Buuuuut here's a small teaser to keep you guys interrested
As promised here's this weekend's second update! I've tried to make the most of the time I've had this weekend to get as much as possible done. First thing I took care of was the yellow parts on the motherboard. I'm planning on a blue/uv-blue/green guild, so those parts didn't really match. I had bought a green UV-reactive paint on the internet and it turned out just as I had hoped Here's a picture of the shields with the old colour And here's a picture of the parts after the paint process, remounted on the motherboard. I also painted 3 sata cables for the harddrives. I'm currently trying to paint the ram heatsinks, but since it's still work in progress you'll have to wait for pictures of that One of the questions I've been asked is, what I was planning to do with the motherboard. Well now I can finally show what I've had in mind. I've made a custom motherboard tray out of acryllics welded together with small acryllic pieces dissolved in acetone. It creates a VERY strong glue, and I must say the result is beyond what I could have achieved with any kind of premade glue. Also, it's super cheap and easy to make. Right now I've drilled out all the holes needed, apart from harddriveplacements, but I'm still considering how to place them. Also I've applied the first layer of paint. Last time I spray painted something I put it on in too thick layers causing it to crack over time. This time I'll let it dry and paint it over 3, maybe 4, times total. It'll take a lot longer, but in the end it should give me a much better finish. Feel free to post something - it'll just make this adventure even more fun for me :smile: -Vognen Edit: Sorry about the photo with the weird angle, but for some reason I can't seem to flip it into the correct positioning
Hey everybody! For the second weekendnin a row I've been super busy. I'll make a bigger update with pictures soon, but for now here's a small teaser
A boy on my course is trying to do what you're doing but isn't sure if it will be 100% successful, any advice to ensure nothing goes wrong? Cheers
I can only tell him to go for it! So far this has been a hard, difficult, but very rewarding experiment. If I am to point out a few hickups I would have liked to avoid it's that I made too little space behind the motherboardtray for cablerouting. I have around 18 mm, and that just wont really suffice. Also behind the motherboard tray he should also make plenty of space. Mine's very cramped at the moment, but you guys will be able to see what I mean next time I get around to make a large update Thank you very much! I'm also really satisfied with how it has turned out. I skipped out on painting the RAM-modules because I couldn't get a good result. Even with a neon green spray it just didn't look that good. So they're staying red, but it's hardly visible since the only light is UV-coloured anyways
