I've been toying with this idea for a long while now, and thanks to Sketchup I'm starting to see it happen. Here's the idea, build a desk with the computer integrated into it. Here is are some images of the concept. Font View Rear Corner View System Tray As you can see, some design elements are still to be decided. Like where the power switch goes, HDD indicators, etc. The driving force behind this is I need a new desk. And I'm sick of seeing the rats nest of cables all computers collect. I will be building this out of oak. I got the oak thanks to hurricane Isabelle in 2003. The storm blew over 2 75' tall oak trees in my back yard, just 2 months after I bought the house. So what do I do? Split the wood and burn it? (Well, most of it yes. ) Nope, I burn up my chainsaw in a cheap jig planking 1 tree. OMFG was that some work. I was lucky enough to win an Intel QX9650 CPU in a contest, so that will be the core of the system. The other planed components: X48 Motherboard. I was considering a P45 for cost savings, but only the X48 truely supports 2 PCIe x16 2.0 slots running x16. I'm only planning one graphics cards, but who knows what other peripheral cards may need the bandwith down the road. Radeon 4870 1GB graphics card. 4GB RAM. I haven't decided between DDR2 and DDR3 yet. All of the reviews indicate DDR3 is not worth the premium yet. Blu-Ray DRD ROM, DVD-RW Combo Drive. I don't really need more than 1 optical drive. 4x 500GB HDD in RAID 10. Will yield 1 TB and provided protection from disk failure. Air Cooling. Modular Power Supply. I'm leaning toward 650 W, but 850W may be required with the number of disks. Vista 64, but Windows 7 may be out by the time I get this done. Did I forget anything? As always, comments, advice, suggestions, snide remarks, and dirty jokes are welcome.
Is there a reason that you chose a tradional desk appearance? Fit with existing decor? My only concern might be airflow and heat management. I burned up a couple chainsaws back in the 70's lopping mature black walnut trees - 2 also - into planks big enough for rifle stocks. My little brother is a jeweler and gunsmith. Stacked them to air dry. What a job. john
Building that desk seems like quite an ordeal with all those drawers, but I do like how you have the pc hidden in the top drawer slot. I'd probably suggest thinking about how you're going to make it easily accessible without havign to pull it from the wall to get to the back. If you can, you might want to consider mounting it so you can slide the drawer out from the front to work on it. (Though either way, you'll still have to figure out how to make the cables detachable. Still great idea! Seeing all these desk pc mods lately makes me want to do something similar.
wow you are awesome, you can wield a chainsaw AND use sketchup you're my hero! the design looks really good, but if your running a QX9650 things may get hot and ventilation will be tricky, but I'm sure you can do it. Also another idea i had was making the computer in a normal drawer with the back cut out, and having your power, reset buttons mounted on the inside along with the CD drive, but vertical I know it may be hard to visualize, but think of it this way: you slide the drawer open a little and the power/ reset switches are mounted on a piece of wood flush with the top, also the cd would be mounted vertically so you can access it quickly by only pulling the drawer out a little, then just push it back and it could have a smooth finish w/o a cd drive slot. but that's just my opinion and from what you've done I can see you are completely able to come up with a great plan, anyway I look forward to seeing this!
I tried to cure some wood here for a similar purpose, but the wood split. Putting the comp in a drawer will add to some of the rat's nest. lines to things not in the drawer will need to be very long. It might be good to make a place for all of the mess attached to the surge protector, and have that tucked away somewhere as well. The CD in a drawer sounds good, but if you've ever had a drive go craaazy on you... Well, just imagine how hard it will be to get the drawer open if the cd decides to open and jam in there.
Thanks for all of the feedback gang. jhanlon303 and popotheflyingpanda I'm very concerned about airflow. I'm thinking i may have to duct the exhaust air from the CPU cooler directly out of the cabinet. I may even have to concede to water cooling. ModMinded The desk will actually be facing into the room. I hate sitting with my back to an open space, makes me paranoid. Blame my brothers, the way we used to "play" with each other affected us all. The ratsnest is a major concern. one idea I'm toying with, but is not yet in the sketch, is a panel between the drawer towers with a trough across the top for cable management. The cable management is going to be the largest challenge of this project. Or am I being optimistic and the cooling will actually be the biggest challenge? Cheapskate Yeah, I'll have a few splits to deal with, but I've used some of this wood to make transitions from hardwood floors to carpet in my house. Kinda cool knowing that a tree that was in your back yard is now in your house.
I definitely agree that the wiring could be a problem, like you said in your idea run the cables over the top separated by a panel, or even just a few rods so not to constrict airflow. And speaking of air flow, how about having an intake under the desk, (in the first picture on the right hand side of the tower of drawers) and then just having it pass out the back, and it would be hidden under the desk. other than that you have some pretty tough building conditions if you want it to be uniform, Good luck and I'll be watching
If you are like me (another deskbuilder ) you wil want to think about the whole package: monitor, speakers, keyboard/mouse, headphones, printer, etc. Decide where to put all that stuff before you start, because things will get messy otherwise, no matter how well you have hidden the PC. Airflow-wise, you should suck in air from under the table, not from the sides. Somehow underneath a desk cold air will accumulate, and have a real tangible temp difference with the air above the desk. You should try it, but it really works that way for me. In your case it would mean putting the opening at the other side of the drawer, by your knees. Draw air from there and output the air on the other side. Do not attempt to draw air from the ground (dust) or put the output near the wall (hotzone) or push hot air down. Really the only way you can go with this setup is sideways, from one side to another. For wiring i think i'd design some kinda small door that covers up the rear I/O panel completely, ending in a wire gutter that goes to where the wires are needed. This way you'll also protect the system from being bumped into the back wall and breaking connectors on your motherboard. As a final note, you need to think about silence. Being this close to your components, you will hear EVERYTHING. Design a suspended HDD rack to counter vibration, and for heaven's sake make it easy for yourself to unplug the DVD drive on days that you don't use it. I hardly ever use one, and it's easily the most noisy component in the system. Good luck!
One idea I played with is a double layer table top. A simple 1" space between the two would give you acres af extra space for wires. Strategic holes on the top would remove wires from view completely. An extra wall along one side would help you run wires to the drawer and floor. It would also be good for the air intake. (Dust -Bah! learn to Hoover your sh*t.)
Wow man, very nice and probably very heavy too I like the look of a traditional desk. If you plan it out, hiding wires in a desk you are building yourself would make life much easier. A simple hinged 1 inch U-Channel on the back bottomside would do wonders. It looks like you'll have enough ventilation to cool everything as long as you aren't overclocking. Get some 120mm fans and a fan controller to hold the noise down and you'd be in good shape. I hope to see more
Ive got a similar project on the way, but an integrated TV cabinet. So ill be watching this closely. Id put the power button on the underside of the desk (kind of like a panic button) maybe a vandal resistant one so you didnt accidently turn it off with your knees.
If I place a panel across the leg space on the back side of the desk, it will be very easy to incorporate a channel along the top of the panel and holes in the desk surface for the display wires. I will most likely build some kind of keyboard drawer as well, that will hopefully have enough room for the mouse too. Well said amigo! titanium angel vandal Resistant switch is in the plan, where to put it is a question. (I heard that cheaps ) Thank you everyone, you have given me a few more ideas to chew on, and I think I may play a bit with the sketch tonight. If the wife and kids let me. Boy, did they pout last night. And i was only on for a couple of hours.
Sawing Wood (no not sleeping) Ok gang, with enough positive feedback I've gotten motivated enough to actually start this puppy. I spent most of the day turning some of my raw materials into blank leg stock. Of course there were the requisite honey-do interruptions, and a couple of trips to my local Home Depot. Lumber / Hardware / Home Improvement store for those of you who haven't had the displeasure of Home Depot yet. So, what did I accomplish in about 3 - 4 hours of actual work today? Raw Materials. These are a couple of the planks from my pile in the back yard. Uh-oh, what's wrong with this piece? The bugger is twisted. Oh the joys of chainsawed planks. 4 Leg Blanks. After a lot of time with the table saw and my hand held electric planner this is what I end up with. Sorry the pic is a little blurry, bit with the flash all you see are white bars. and without, you get this. Well, that's enough material to make 4 legs. Parts for one tower. Now for 4 more legs then onto the rails. As this will take me a lot of weekend time to mill down my raw lumber to usable material I will not bore you all with updates every time I cut a piece. My next update will most likely be after I have all of my wood cut and am ready to build the tower.
Well damn, and I thought I'd be doing something unique by making a desk and computer integrated, I have my design all thought out just don't have the material or time to do it :O looks great though!
A Minor Issue While milling the slots in the legs for the panel to slot into on the sides I managed to break my router. I only had 6" of the last board left when blammo! The collet (the part that holds the bit) sheered of off the drive shaft. Fortunately all of the safety equipment did it's job, and not even the wood was damage. Man, oak is some tough stuff. Well, unless Santa is really nice to me in the next couple of days and drops a Home Despot gift card in my stocking, it looks like I will not be getting much done for a while. But there is an upside to the delay. Hardware prices should drop a bit by the time I'm ready to order.
Tough luck mate, i hate when things break only days (hours) into a mod. That wood looks great though where did you get it? Doesn't look like generic hardware store rubbish.
Nice work on the wood. I hate when things break, but I think I hate it more when it's something I've been working on for a while... all that hard work down the drain... of course when it's your tool that's breaking when you're just getting rolling, yeah... that sucks.
Thats unlucky, I hate when tools go pop! I killed my router a couple of weeks ago, with about 20 mortices left to cut and ended up ordering a small triton, that i wont get till after christmas though. I hope santa has taken note
