Thread: Computer Desk

I've got a bit past the orignal planing stage and had to break out my precision chainsaw.
After that a bit of work with 60 grit on the belt sander.

More to follow as I tidy things up

Ian

Love tyhe idea, especially love Cypress, but have you thought about how you will ensure adequate ventilation. There must be constant airflow the heat sensitive components. Also, the normal metal cases ground all the components together, are you going to take care of this somehow?

Sorry everyone... geeking out at wood and 'puter bits.

Yes, cooling is an issue, but I think I've got the fans / vents worked out Need inlet vents around the centre where the CPU sits, and exhaust fans in the power supply and on the other end, so it should have reasonable ventilation, no areas of dead air. Only using a Celeron CPU will help reduce heat as well.
The metal case does help with RF shielding, but my radio and TV still work with the PC running on a desk with no case, so I'm not to worried about that.
Will have some more progress pics after the weekend.

Ian

Sounds like you got it sorted. I mostly get concerned about good airflow over the HDD. I did not think of the shielding issues. It will be interesting to see if you get any problems with that or nothing perceptible happens.

Good luck with the project, I am really looking forward to see how it all goes. In general, most metal PC cases are just ugly - no matter how many blue lights are on them.

Originally Posted by Ianab

The metal case does help with RF shielding, but my radio and TV still work with the PC running on a desk with no case, so I'm not to worried about that.
Will have some more progress pics after the weekend.

Your radio and TV may well work but how many channels and bands did you check? You may (albeit unlikely) disrupt a neighbor's reception or something else. I work with some guys who have gear sensitive enough to detect (ie read) shielded video cards located 10 km away, you would certainly upset them.

Anyway love idea, some guys in the states did something similar to his car, I think it was in one of those new VW beetles.

Yes, if my neighbours were ham radio operators then it could be an issue.
As 1/2 the PCs I have routinely run with the side panels off anyway then running one 'bare' wont make things much worse

I guess if you wanted to you could build an aluminium liner tray for the PC components to sit in and the glass top is then no worse than a commercially available 'custom' PC with a window / fishtank / guinea-pig cage or whatever in the side

Cheers

Ian

Made some progress, lots of little fiddly bits to work thru.
Where to put the CD drive?
Where to put the power switch?
etc etc

First picture is the desk being assembled upside down.
Second is the cradle that holds the system board and other components inside the desk

Ian

More pics

The desk frame by itself

With the computer cradle sitting in place

With the top and keyboard shelf in place.

The back of the desk with motherboard connectors

Ian

Table is now inside for finishing.
Have got the glass top window in place and the computer actually runs.
Need to test it for a while and make sure cooling fans are going to be up to it with the unit closed up, but so far, so good

Ian

That is way cool Ian. I am sure you can do something to the keyboard. A nice case perhaps! How cool would that be when you see keys come out of a piece of wood.

Well done mate.

Fan- bloody- tastic both the concept and the job

Really great Ian. Well done.

Noise.

Ian, it occurs to me that this case of yours has the opportunity of being very very quiet. Have you thought about isolating the mounting for the fans and especially the hard drive?

I've added a piccy of a neat idea I found in a new Antec case I bought - the HD is suspended by some heavy duty rubber bands...

woodbe.

I was just looking at desks, the problems I see are heat and the hardware update. I have had a number good working desk, and they are only replaced when i have to. However I have had to replace PC (the core) more often, roughly 1 desk per 4 PC for me, so I don't like the desks. The other and really big problem is heat under the desk; the computer is is going to fail due to heat.

OK how do you fix this.....one answer for both problems. Put the A:, D:, USB etc onto the desk and the CPU or the heart of computer to the side to keep it cool (put a fan to pump the hot area away from the CPU) . That also makes it easy for update, as A:, USB etc last longer. Plus you dont need a new desk.