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Classic Computer Desk / Entertainment Center

J

jjgoertz

Joined
Jul 4, 2012
Messages
36 (0.01/day)
After seeing some computer in a desk builds I couldn't keep myself from designing one, but with a bit of a classic twist. I'm rather partial to wood finishes, so I decided on building from birch.

I started with a sketch in Solidworks that looked a bit like this. The goals for the design were to get good airflow, with minimum noise, and have a good size working surface. As you can see in the pictures, I'll have 6 intake fans at the front, blow through a 480 radiator to the back, and blow the hot air down at the back.

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To give myself something to build too, and make sure everything would fit properly, I started out by getting some water cooling components from frozen cpu, the fans, and a mother board tray from mountain mods.

Lots of goodies.
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a pump
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and a group shot
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The mother board tray. Fairly solid, and the powder coat seems nice.
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Tons of fans. With the fans at full speed it should exchange all the air in the case somewhere around 80 times a minute.
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And to control the fan speed I'm going to parallel all the fans and put them in series with this rheostat. At full resistance it should drop the fans all the way to their starting voltage, where they'll be all but silent.
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And that's about it for components at the moment.
 
this is getting interesting,, keep going :cool:
 
Why did you choose those fans? Because to be honest they are shitty fans.
 
nvidiaintelftw said:
Why did you choose those fans? Because to be honest they are shitty fans.
Click to expand...

No, not really. I used them before and they move a very good amount of air. They aren't so good for radiators though, not much static pressure... That's their design though.
 
I got the wood cut this weekend, and have started some preliminary assembly.

The pile of wood. It was two sheets of 3/4" birch plywood.
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Starting the build from the bottom, this is a folding shelf for the legs that's also the structural support.
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And here's a couple shots of the legs assembled. The legs fold flat after taking out a couple screws. A useful feature since I have to move in a few months.
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I then disassembled the legs for finishing. Here they are after the initial stain. The color is Early American by Minwax
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The second coat of varnish is actually drying tonight, so the legs should be finished tomorrow, and I'll have some more pics.

For the top of the desk, I've only worked on the baseplate so far. Here it is with the fan holes routed, and trim attached.
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And then I finished the fan holes with a 1/4" rounding bit for smoother airflow.
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That's all I have done for now, but I have tomorrow off, and am hoping to get some more done.
 
nvidiaintelftw said:
Why did you choose those fans? Because to be honest they are shitty fans.
Click to expand...

I picked them because they had good reviews, and I was able to find some decent data on noise and airflow at different voltages.

Plus I thought the blade design looked nifty.
 
Ive used them too and they really sucked with under volting with a controller. They are also built pretty cheap and use sleeve bearings. The ones i had a horrible click sound when on a controller.
 
Nice work there :toast:
 
looks nice :toast:
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but where you gonna place your HDD? and the right side looks empty, just the rad, pump and fans
 
hiya, nice project, nice work, the birch is very nice and I was wondering what type of varnish you used to protect (does it have to be a special type), because I was thinking of making a homemade table myself.

Thx and cant wait to keep watching your progress:toast:
 
Originally the hard drives were going to mount on the far left side, below the mother board. I've since decided to mount them on that bridge in the center, and move the res over to the far right side.

The varnish isn't technically varnish, its Minwax semi-gloss polyurethane.
 
jjgoertz said:
Originally the hard drives were going to mount on the far left side, below the mother board. I've since decided to mount them on that bridge in the center, and move the res over to the far right side.

The varnish isn't technically varnish, its Minwax semi-gloss polyurethane.
Click to expand...

thx for the reply I'll have to look into that, and the finish is lovely :toast:
 
in4sub!

Looks nice so far, but I agree, those fans don't have much in the way of static pressure, which is what you'd want to force the air thru the radiator, otherwise the air essentially bounces off the rad and doesn't cool much.
 
Sinzia said:
in4sub!

Looks nice so far, but I agree, those fans don't have much in the way of static pressure, which is what you'd want to force the air thru the radiator, otherwise the air essentially bounces off the rad and doesn't cool much.
Click to expand...

This radiator does have really wide spacing on the fins, so it shouldn't produce too much back pressure. I guess I'll just have to see if it works once things go together.

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Today I started by finishing the back plate of the desks perimeter, which involved the cable pass-through for all my IO, and a smaller hole for the power cable.

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Then I put together the rest of the outside edge, and glued it to the baseplate.

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Finally I put the top on the legs and put some components in for show. It's finally starting to look like something!

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And in this last pic, it's kind of hard to see, but I put on the glass top.

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Not much of an update for tonight, just attached the trim to the upper edge of the desk.

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What stain color is that?
 
I've started out the day (and last night) with some beautification, layout, and making the divider panel/rad mount.

The trim was attached to the divider panel, and then all the upper trim was sanded flush and rounded.
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The divider was, unfortunately, a bit warped, so we'll have to fix that later.
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I did the layout for the IO cut out by spacing the motherboard tray for 25mm standoffs, and positioning it laterally for even spacing of the far left fan and the wire bridge.
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Then I clamped the tray onto the divider panel so I could trace the cutout and the mounting holes.
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The results looked something like this:
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I then repeated the process for the radiator.
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Then it was time to rout some holes.
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And do the rest of the cutouts with a jig-saw. Not much left of the panel at this point.
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Then the radiator hole, the fan hole, and the cable pass through were chamfered.
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I believe it's now time for me to start staining the top. woot.
 
sub'd, awesome work :D
 
Sub'd cant awit to see it done :D
 
Sub'd
I am just a sucker for these computer/desk systems...
 
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