Hello, Everyone! Even though I have posted a couple of times in other people's threads, this is my first thread on here and I want to say how much I love this place and how happy I am to be here. I have checked the forums, looked for rules, etc and I think I am posting the right way in the right place but I'd like to apologize in advance if I am not. I am currently in the process of designing myself a desk pc that will probably get built in the future (like after a couple of years) but I like always working on something so I started designing right when I got the idea. My problem is that it is my first time doing this and while I know my requirements and what I'd like, often some stuff clash (for example, you want an audio jack at a specific place but at the same time there needs to be a radiator) or you find a layout that works but you don't like how everything looks. My current process of designing it and deciding what to go there is all over the place, which led me to thinking my thought process/the way approach the whole thing is maybe wrong. Therefore, I think it would be of a great benefit to me if I hear your answers on the following questions: 1. What is your thought process in the early design stages? As in from 'I wanna build a desk pc' to 'this is how it would look and this is what it would have and this is where each thing is going'. 2. How do you decide what you are going to compromise on? For example when you need two things at the same physical space or let's say you want to have a radiator in-front middle of the desk but at the same time you needed it to be thinner so your legs can fit? 3. When does 'making it look good' fits with the other design steps? Do you from the start work in a way that it both looks good (according to you) and stuff fit according to how you need to for most comfortability or do you make everything fit and then think what you need to make it look good? Do you first come up with a design that looks good and then you make it fit everything? 4. If there is a certain project or even a desk pc in particular from another modder that you fell in-love with or that inspired you to make your own, how do you keep yourself from subconsciously making your mod copying theirs? I may have had more questions but this is all that came to my mind right now. If I come up with more questions, I will edit the original post. Best Regards, IFo Hancroft
I have a design I've redrawn so many times you could base 4 or so unique builds off them. I understand where you are at. 1: It depends on the project. Sometimes it's basic like: "fit this hardware into a ww1 tank model." For my own stuff, I start with basic parts, materials, which sometimes includes something odd to work a design around, and maybe a design style/theme. For example, the design I mentioned above started out based on brutalist architecture. 2: I just move stuff around until it works. 3: From the start. Making 'the thing' not boxy/clunky is part of the early process. Having a theme, (not slapping trending movie logos on it ) helps drive the design. 4: I store basic concepts and design cues from everything. I might steal construction techniques, but never directly copy anything. I'm in this to outdo myself. Some example early concepts: Gwass Gween - clear box housing blacked out hardware shape. Louver everything. Ion Cube - levitating alien mystery device. Mod Men build - Old Vegas marquis sign look. Frozen CPU test bench - clamshell lid over a bench station. Need a big F somewhere. Iron turnip - I have a pile of junk to build a case with. Hypnotoad - I have x amount of really gnarly plastic to shape a case with Nuc Toobular - Add big ss tube scrap. Make it look black, then have red stripes light up when powered. Passive Nuc bum muffin - I have a 6" heat sink and a computer with a sh*tty laptop fan. Anyway, having a design trick or odd part can really help a design. I really want to play with metal inset in plastic more.
Thank you very much! This definitely helps. I specially love the idea of having a design trick or an odd part!
Not much impresses me anymore with Desk PC's ... HB's is a showmanship of his amazing skills . Apart from that everyone ive seen is generic and totally non practical. Too shallow, not enuf leg room, knee to arm ratio is off... i mean honestly what gamer sits @ desk for hours on end with his legs squashed together... or sit perfectly upright. WE Dont ! We move around... we slouch ...we lean to the side....we stretch your legs out....we spread em out...we lift one up and have one down....we cross them... we place them on funny little hammocks or foot stools. We rest them on out pets... on our subs...... you get where i'm coming from Ever sat @ a pc desk in summer ? Great for warming the legs in winter.... These are the things I think about when designing a desk.... not just how cool it will look filled with water cooled parts. To me this is the challenge of building a PC desk. Design wise i'm off on a different planet totally to anything you'd see built here in the forums. I have a folder with in a folder inside of another folder that i go to every now and then and use to keep my modding dreams alive...it can either inspire or depress me on any given day. https://defyantmods.smugmug.com/organize/X-Design
I totally get where you are coming from. Most of my problems come from there as well - I know how I use a desk and what I want it to have so it's most comfortable and useful to me and then I try to make that look good but it doesn't Also, the fact that I don't yet have all the hardware so I am trying to get measurements without it I like the gallery you posted. Before seeing it, there was only one desk pc I liked: Deblow's Project Alternate I am probably overthinking this but since many gaming desks used for racing games for example, have some sort of shaking system to another another dimension to the experience, if I am building a Gynecologist's bench, does it need to have a "device" appropriate to the application, to add to the experience P.S. I guess you can then play riding simulators
LOL I gotta say tho "Style Wise" Project Alternate was the totally on point for current trend i loved it too! but again..... i couldn't sit with my legs open...... When i built my mini gaming tables i prolly went thru 4 proto types to finally get the one i could sit at for hours on end. Once i got the function... then i worked on form and extra's.... I would most def do a prototype and at least sit at it for a day or two.
I love the prototype idea! Thank you! What would you recommend for a material for a prototype? I suppose, ideally, the prototype also needs to be made out of the material the finished version will be but I can't afford material and the actual hardware to build one, let alone a couple versions
Option B would be to copy the seating and desk level of a desk you find comfortable. -Or mod an old desk.
I was lucky that my desks are small, but i'd say 12mm mdf would get you a working prototype. Again like all my plex i don't buy a lotta mdf i tend to pick up freebie sheets. Or grab the occasional piece of ply wood here and there.. usually from factories and pallet places. I drive all day so i'm opportunistic when i see some thing i can use.
