# Classic Computer Desk / Entertainment Center



## jjgoertz (Jul 4, 2012)

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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## jjgoertz (Jul 4, 2012)

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.























a pump
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	





















and a group shot






The mother board tray. Fairly solid, and the powder coat seems nice.









Tons of fans. With the fans at full speed it should exchange all the air in the case somewhere around 80 times a minute.









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.









And that's about it for components at the moment.


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## BraveSoul (Jul 4, 2012)

this is getting interesting,, keep going


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## MxPhenom 216 (Jul 4, 2012)

Why did you choose those fans? Because to be honest they are shitty fans.


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## erocker (Jul 4, 2012)

nvidiaintelftw said:


> Why did you choose those fans? Because to be honest they are shitty fans.



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.


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## jjgoertz (Jul 4, 2012)

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.





Starting the build from the bottom, this is a folding shelf for the legs that's also the structural support.





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.









I then disassembled the legs for finishing. Here they are after the initial stain. The color is Early American by Minwax









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.





And then I finished the fan holes with a 1/4" rounding bit for smoother airflow.





That's all I have done for now, but I have tomorrow off, and am hoping to get some more done.


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## jjgoertz (Jul 4, 2012)

nvidiaintelftw said:


> Why did you choose those fans? Because to be honest they are shitty fans.



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.


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## MxPhenom 216 (Jul 4, 2012)

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.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Jul 4, 2012)

Nice work there


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## micropage7 (Jul 4, 2012)

looks nice 



but where you gonna place your HDD? and the right side looks empty, just the rad, pump and fans


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## patrico (Jul 4, 2012)

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


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## jjgoertz (Jul 4, 2012)

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.


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## jjgoertz (Jul 4, 2012)

The legs are finished! I'm really happy with how the finish turned out, and the brass hinges are a nice contrast.


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## patrico (Jul 4, 2012)

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.



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


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## Sinzia (Jul 5, 2012)

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.


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## jjgoertz (Jul 5, 2012)

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.



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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## jjgoertz (Jul 5, 2012)

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.
















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











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
















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


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## p8blr (Jul 5, 2012)

DO WANT. Sick dude, mad props. Very clean.
lol sorry im excited.


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## jjgoertz (Jul 6, 2012)

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


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## MxPhenom 216 (Jul 6, 2012)

What stain color is that?


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## jjgoertz (Jul 6, 2012)

nvidiaintelftw said:


> What stain color is that?



Minwax Early American


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## jjgoertz (Jul 7, 2012)

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.





The divider was, unfortunately, a bit warped, so we'll have to fix that later. 





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.





Then I clamped the tray onto the divider panel so I could trace the cutout and the mounting holes.









The results looked something like this:





I then repeated the process for the radiator.













Then it was time to rout some holes.





And do the rest of the cutouts with a jig-saw. Not much left of the panel at this point.





Then the radiator hole, the fan hole, and the cable pass through were chamfered.













I believe it's now time for me to start staining the top. woot.


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## (FIH) The Don (Jul 8, 2012)

sub'd, awesome work


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## Bunchies (Jul 8, 2012)

Sub'd cant awit to see it done


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## Nordic (Jul 8, 2012)

Sub'd
I am just a sucker for these computer/desk systems...


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Jul 8, 2012)

Great job!! I really like this concept.


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## PopcornMachine (Jul 8, 2012)

Another cool project.  Thanks for the pics.


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## gumpty (Jul 8, 2012)

Awesome, I love projects like this.

If only I had the time to do one myself ............... it would be nowhere near as good as this.


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## neoreif (Jul 8, 2012)

Sub'd!!!! Nice Project!!!


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## pantherx12 (Jul 8, 2012)

subbed!

Looking great so far.

I'd of gone for different fans as well, so many different options now.

Think lots of Silent Wings fans for intake/outtake. some gentle typhoons or low rpm deltas for the radiator.


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## jjgoertz (Jul 8, 2012)

Thanks a bunch for all the encouragement guys!

Well, as the desk should be ready to go together Tuesday morning, I figured it was time to order some hardware. If nothing else it should feel like a pretty big jump from my current Core 2 Duo.


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## lucky_shot (Jul 8, 2012)

Love the finish on the wood.  Can't wait to see where this goes.


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## l3p (Jul 9, 2012)

Somehow I just love these kind of builds


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## Nordic (Jul 9, 2012)

l3p said:


> Somehow I just love these kind of builds


I wonder why...


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## jjgoertz (Jul 10, 2012)

I'm finally done with all the staining and varnishing!
















The hardware should be here Thursday, and the standoffs for mounting the bridge and motherboard tray will probably be here tomorrow, so I can actually start mounting things.


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## Nordic (Jul 10, 2012)

Did you choose that stain color specifically for this, or just had some extra laying around. I really do like that color.


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## jjgoertz (Jul 10, 2012)

james888 said:


> Did you choose that stain color specifically for this, or just had some extra laying around. I really do like that color.



It's just a color I've used quite a bit in the past on other furniture, and it's nice having things that match.


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## jjgoertz (Jul 12, 2012)

The first few parts have started coming in, and I've started arranging things in the case.

Picked up a pair of hard drive coolers/silencers that were originally intended to be mounted in a 5.25" drive bay.










And then I modified them to mount to the central bridge by enlarging the holes for the bottom plate and tapping them M4. This way I can move the vibration isolators to the bottom, and change the mounting orientation for the drives.










Then I moved on to mounting some fan grills in the bottom of the desk. They were lined up with a square and a Mk. 2 eyeball, and attached with some nice little sheet metal screws.














And then it was time to start attaching things to the divider panel.






Radiator first.










And then the motherboard tray.










The front edge is supported by some 6mm aluminum hexes tapped M4.






And in these nice overall shots you can see vaguely how the hard drive coolers will be positioned, albeit they'll be two inches higher and on top of the bridge. The SSD will be mounted in front of those two drives.


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## jjgoertz (Jul 15, 2012)

After a long wait on Thursday my components finally arrived.







































And since then I've been mounting things to the case. The only room I had for 5.25" drives was at the far left side of the case so I laid out a couple bays and jigsawed some slightly undersized holes. The masking tape was applied to protect the finish from the saw.






And then with a bit of sanding and filing I was left with tightly fitting holes for the optical drives.






And a bit of stain to clean up the holes.






And then I started setting up the water cooling loop and temporarily mounting some fans. I think I'll have to get some of those plastic coil springs that keep the hose from kinking. The fans will get grills, and their cables sleeved, later. Unless of course I change what fans I'm using.


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## johnnyfiive (Jul 15, 2012)

That is awesome.


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## TotalChaos (Jul 15, 2012)

damn sweet looking desk cant wait to see more


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## jjgoertz (Jul 20, 2012)

Well, I finally broke down and bought some new fans for the radiators. Corsair SP120's. They do feel pretty nice, they're heavy, spin smoothly, and have big motors. 

These were also my first attempts at cable sleeving. It turned out alright, but I had a heck of time keeping the ends from unraveling.






And here's the fans bolted to the rad with their grills. You can also see the anti-kink coils I wrapped around the hose.






Finally I picked up a front panel card reader and installed it above the DVD drive.


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## Mussels (Jul 20, 2012)

nvidiaintelftw said:


> 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.



i had the same thing, except the PSU i had at the time had a low 12V rail and the click was always there.



i like the concept with this desk.


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## uber_cookie (Jul 20, 2012)

nice work! I can see that you have bought some new corsair fans, any thoughts?


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## t_ski (Jul 20, 2012)

If the sleeving is made of plastic (most are), you can keep it from unravelling by melting it slightly with a flame.  If the sleeving is cloth, this won't work.  For more info on this, see the article I wrote for TPU here:

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/modding/141


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## jjgoertz (Jul 22, 2012)

Started out today making the wire bridge/hard-drive mount. This was just some eighth inch aluminum plate from online metals, that's been sanded a bit to make it all purty like. I'll be removing it later for a coat of black powder coat to match the mobo tray.










And then the hard drive enclosure were mounted just so, and the whole bridge was bolted to 50mm standoffs.










And the whole assembly was bolted into the desk like so:










Then came a major mile-stone in my computer career, filling my first water-cooling loop.

Took awhile with the turkey baster.





And an hour and a half later we have a running loop. I'm letting it run over-night with toilet paper below all the fittings to make sure I don't have any leaks.


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## Mussels (Jul 22, 2012)

turkey baster? really? XD


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## MT Alex (Jul 22, 2012)

Ha!  I've used one myself, and also a big ol' syringe.

Looks like your project is coming along nicely

I think you are going to want to turn your desk on its side in order to top your loop off, ideally your return nozzle should be mostly submerged when in the horizontal position.  With the amount of exposure you have in that res the returning water could make air bubbles that will get recirculated into your loop.


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## xxdozer322 (Jul 22, 2012)

sometimes i wish i had the knowledge to do things like this, my room would be complete.


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## pantherx12 (Jul 22, 2012)

xxdozer322 said:


> sometimes i wish i had the knowledge to do things like this, my room would be complete.



It's very easy to get started man, just attempt to build something smaller first. You'll make a ton of mistakes and next time round you won' make the same mistakes : ]


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## t_ski (Jul 22, 2012)

Mussels said:


> turkey baster? really? XD



There was a John Waters' movie (IIRC it was Female Troubles) with a memorable scene with a turkey baster in it...


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## jjgoertz (Jul 23, 2012)

Today we can actually start installing electronics. Woot. 

Routing cables under the bridge was kind of fun, until I realized the 24 pin cable and the pci power cables were too short. So that will be a bit of a delay to finishing.



















Finished cabling or no, I can throw some parts in there and show off a bit.














The only things I absolutely have to make before I can power up the system is a wiring harness for all the 12v goodies.


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## Mussels (Jul 23, 2012)

personally i find the way the tubes go into the video card to look a bit ugly, passing over the HDD dock. if you get a chance, route that neater in the final build


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## jjgoertz (Jul 23, 2012)

Mussels said:


> personally i find the way the tubes go into the video card to look a bit ugly, passing over the HDD dock. if you get a chance, route that neater in the final build



Are we talking about the cables running into the video card? Those will move when I get a couple extensions.

If were talking about the hoses running to the cpu, there really isn't another place to put them, and they can just be straightened a bit.


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## Mussels (Jul 23, 2012)

yeah i guess they are to the CPU, they looked like they were going to the back of the GPU


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## jjgoertz (Jul 29, 2012)

Using some 90 degree bitspower fittings I came up with a nice little layout that routed the hoses to the front and under the bridge. I also added a drain plug to make servicing a bit easier.

You can also see the wiring extensions for the graphics card and the 24 pin atx. The cloth sleeving made it pretty easy to keep everything nice and flat.










Unfortunately, rotary fittings suck, and they leaked when I filled the loop again. Now were back to straight fittings on the cpu, which isn't as pretty, but doesn't have any stupid moving parts.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Jul 29, 2012)

Nice job man


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## jjgoertz (Jul 30, 2012)

It lives!!






Sorta. . . internet died so there's no updates or drivers and I can't really do anything.

At least the light bars look pretty.


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## PopcornMachine (Jul 30, 2012)

Damn ISP!  :shadedshu

Congrats. More pictures when complete please.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Jul 31, 2012)

Nice man


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## MT Alex (Jul 31, 2012)

jjgoertz said:


> Using some 90 degree bitspower fittings I came up with a nice little layout that routed the hoses to the front and under the bridge. I also added a drain plug to make servicing a bit easier.
> 
> You can also see the wiring extensions for the graphics card and the 24 pin atx. The cloth sleeving made it pretty easy to keep everything nice and flat.
> 
> ...



Is that a Benchmade knife?


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## jjgoertz (Jul 31, 2012)

MT Alex said:


> Is that a Benchmade knife?



Kershaw Tremor. Makes for a pretty good hose cutter.


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## pantherx12 (Jul 31, 2012)

The radiator looks like it's blowing directly onto the PSU, would it not be pulling in a fair amount of warm air under load that way?

Perhaps flip the PSU and add another vent to the bottom?


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## Laurijan (Jul 31, 2012)

awesome rig and desk!


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## Nordic (Jul 31, 2012)

After every desk build I see, I then want to mod my desk


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## uber_cookie (Jul 31, 2012)

james888 said:


> After every desk build I see, I then want to mod my desk



indeed , I am considering to turn desk into PC/Server

Very nice build  inspires us all to try and build one ourselfs


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## pantherx12 (Jul 31, 2012)

james888 said:


> After every desk build I see, I then want to mod my desk





uber_cookie said:


> indeed , I am considering to turn desk into PC/Server
> 
> Very nice build  inspires us all to try and build one ourselfs





A friend of mine suggested I build a PC desk and make the legs out of floor standing speakers.

One day when I've money to piss away it will be done


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## jjgoertz (Jul 31, 2012)

pantherx12 said:


> The radiator looks like it's blowing directly onto the PSU, would it not be pulling in a fair amount of warm air under load that way?
> 
> Perhaps flip the PSU and add another vent to the bottom?



It is blowing warm air at the PSU, which isn't ideal, but on the other hand, the warm air should only be 3 or 4 degrees above ambient so the PSU shouldn't really care.


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## jjgoertz (Jul 31, 2012)

So, still no Interwebz at home, but hey look, I've now got matching speakers.






And before they were stained:


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## anonymous6366 (Jul 31, 2012)

this thread is bomb


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## Black Panther (Jul 31, 2012)

I'm really impressed!

Love the stain. It makes the wood look so natural.


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## pantherx12 (Jul 31, 2012)

jjgoertz said:


> So, still no Interwebz at home, but hey look, I've now got matching speakers.
> 
> http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy112/jjgoertz-3322/IMAG0566.jpg
> 
> ...



Awwww yeaaah!!!

What drivers you putting in there?


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## jjgoertz (Jul 31, 2012)

pantherx12 said:


> Awwww yeaaah!!!
> 
> What drivers you putting in there?



The woofers are Dayton Reference series RS180-4, the mid is a Tang Band W4-1337SD, and the tweeter is Fountek neocd3.0M ribbon tweeter.


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## johnnyfiive (Jul 31, 2012)

This is awesome!


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## jjgoertz (Aug 4, 2012)

I figured it was about time to bust out the real camera and take some pics.

Since the last desk update I painted the hard drive bridge, put inch higher standoffs underneath it, and mounted two more light bars underneath it.






















And the desk with the lights on.






















I also mounted the woofer and mid in the speaker cabinets, along with the input panel and the exterior flange for the port.














And the Dayton 150w amp I'll be driving them with.


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## Mussels (Aug 4, 2012)

yay! you routed the CPU blocks tubes!


whats your plans for the inevitable dust buildup?


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## jjgoertz (Aug 4, 2012)

Mussels said:


> yay! you routed the CPU blocks tubes!
> 
> 
> whats your plans for the inevitable dust buildup?



Move into a clean room?

I've actually got some dust filters for the intake fans that haven't made it on yet, and beyond that I'll just have to blow it out with compressed air.


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## manofthem (Aug 4, 2012)

I like it alot!  The build quality looks terrific, but I really like the way you've cleaned up the cabling and tubing.  It look svery neat and downright sexy, nice work!


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## jjgoertz (Aug 6, 2012)

Did a bit of work on the dvd drive to make it look presentable. I took the drive apart to paint the sheet metal the same black as the hard drive tray.











And now it's a stealth drive.






Unfortunately the paint got all scraped to heck as I inserted the drive, so I decided to go for a quieter mod. The drive first got a layer of acoustic foam.






And then a layer of black sheet metal. The sheetmetal should act as a mass loaded layer and block some of the noise that the foam lets through it.






I've also done some work on the speakers, wiring the crossovers and mounting them to mdf trays.










Then those trays got a layer of the acoustic foam, and then they were screwed into the speaker cabinets.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Aug 7, 2012)

I love this build. Looks great man.


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## jjgoertz (Aug 12, 2012)

The pictures can probably speak for themselves here.


















Had a few hiccups in the beginning. For starters it seems that my second four channel ram kit made my graphics card unstable somehow.

And then I tried to flash the BIOS to a new version and it really screwed the pooch and wouldn't post. Luckily this mobo keeps a backup BIOS you can get into with the push of a button. I'll have to give ASUS a call on Monday and see what can be done about the update.


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## Nordic (Aug 12, 2012)




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## jjgoertz (Aug 18, 2012)

Finally got myself some serious computer speakers. The ribbon tweeters have a very narrow vertical dispersion band, so the tweeters needed to be elevated to ear level, hence the stands. I think the overall effect ends up being pretty imposing.


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## steamboatbob (Aug 18, 2012)

nice job there


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Aug 18, 2012)

Man that is so nice.


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## jjgoertz (Sep 30, 2012)

It's been a while since I've had any updates for this desk, but I just went through and added some finishing touches and niceties. 

First up was work on the fan system, as I've been running without the exhaust fans, and without a speed controller. I added a Lamptron FC9 to the rear wiring chamber of the desk, and have it set up to control the front, mid, and rear zones with three of the knobs. My computer no longer sounds like a jet taking off in the distance, so that's good. 






Then the intake fans got some dust filters to keep things nice and tidy. You can see the mesh between the blades.






And finally, my ASUS wifi card lasted all of six weeks before quitting, so I've replaced it with an Intel unit with a remote antennae. I don't know if heat was a contributing factor to the ASUS's failure or not, but just to be safe the new card gets a dedicated 80mm fan.


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## N!ck (Oct 4, 2012)

*jjgoertz*
Awesome project! Wood  texture and matched style speakers look really nice 
Any plans for video watercooling? BTW Featured your project on my  web site


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## patrico (Oct 8, 2012)

that finished up very nice, now where can i buy one lol, no very good work, big thumbs ups


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## mediasorcerer (Oct 8, 2012)

Wow thats great, love the way you can see the internals, and i love wood, worked with it all my life carving and creating etc, great work, funny you painted the dvd drive as im thinking of doing that myself atm for new case im doing. now i know its feasible, g1.

you should put a dust filtration device in there maybe. look at all those crossovers too hehe!!


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## jjgoertz (Mar 2, 2014)

It's been a while since I updated this log, but the build recently changed to reflect how I really use this computer. It became apparent after some use that the thickness of the desk resulted in the top surface being too high to sit at comfortably. The desk has now become the main focus of an entertainment center, and to increase usability I have built a new set of legs with an integrated hardware shelving.


The new base started with single sheet of maple faced ply, to which I added a solid maple skirt. The main purpose of the skirt is to hide the wheels the stand will ride. Below you can see the skirt being glued into place. The corners between skirt pieces are simply chamfered together.




The top of the skirt was then brought down to flush with the plywood with a hand plane, and then sanded smooth. The vertical corners were rounded with a 3/4" radius bit, and then a decorative edge was routed into the top edge. You can also see the back plane of cabinet, with rounded pass-throughs for the cables of everything that will be loaded into the cabinet, and plenty of surface area for cable management to keep everything nice and tidy.




The backplane was then attached to the vertical legs, before being attached to the base of the platform.








The front and rear faces of the vertical legs got a piece of filigreed oak trim.




And then the back and leg assembly was attached to the base.




Glue squeeze out needs to be cleaned up immediately on a piece like this, and everything that didn't come off with a wet rag was allowed to dry, and was scraped off later with a carbide cabinet scraper.




Vertical supports for the equipment shelves was the next thing to go in.




And then the shelves. It's somewhat hard to see in this picture, but the shelves and the vertical supports also got the filigreed oak trim treatment.




That's it for construction, and we'll move on to finishing next.


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## Vario (Mar 2, 2014)

Very cool.


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## jjgoertz (Mar 2, 2014)

We'll start out with a before and after picture for the staining process. This is the same Minwax Early American that was used on the rest of the project, but this base is made from maple instead of birch. It's very similar in color, but harder and more densely grained. The wood was sanded down to 320 grit and thoroughly cleaned of dust prior to staining.








And then I moved on to staining the rest of the cabinet.




The cabinet was varnished with two coats of Minwax satin poly-urethane, sanded down to 320 grit between coats.




I then attached the wheel, and the assembly was ready to be moved inside.




In this shot you can kind of see how little the wheels protrude below the skirt. The end result being that the cabinet floats about a half inch above the carpet.




It was now time to get started with the cable management system. The centerpiece being this 10 outlet power strip mounted to the back.




And then a plethora of zip tie anchors to keep everything organized. I wanted to have enough routing paths that my signal cables could be routed separately from my power cables, and only cross perpendicularly. This is really unnecessary for anything except RCA cables, but it make me feel good.




A couple beauty shots in it's new home, but still empty.








Time to start loading it up with gear. A PS3, a Marantz reciever, and a pair of Dayton APA150 power amps.








Then it was time to drop the computer on top.
















And finally the assembled entertainment center.


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## TRWOV (Mar 2, 2014)

*stares*


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## Jetster (Mar 2, 2014)

Very nice


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## ST.o.CH (Mar 3, 2014)

Pretty cool wood work project.


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## Vario (Mar 5, 2014)

What brand and model router do you use?  My cheapo router tends to explode softer woods so I'd like to know what you'd recommend.


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## BarbaricSoul (Mar 5, 2014)

Vario said:


> What brand and model router do you use?  My cheapo router tends to explode softer woods so I'd like to know what you'd recommend.



It's not the router, it's the bit your using in your router. Go to Lowes or Home Depot and get a bit made for softer wood.


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## jjgoertz (Mar 5, 2014)

Vario said:


> What brand and model router do you use?  My cheapo router tends to explode softer woods so I'd like to know what you'd recommend.





BarbaricSoul said:


> It's not the router, it's the bit your using in your router. Go to Lowes or Home Depot and get a bit made for softer wood.




Basically any sharp carbide bit will work. On a cut that removes a large amount of wood, like the profile in the top of the skirt you need to take multiple passes or the wood will split no matter what bit you use.

As far as routers go I use a 2hp Rigid plunge router, but I wouldn't recommend it. The plunge base will stick at full extension if you let it come up too quickly, and requires some persuasion from a mallet to get it to retract again. Also the collets it uses have a snap ring as the lip that gets pushed against to remove the bits. This snap ring breaks down after you change bits a few times, and after it falls off your bits are stuck in the router. 

The collets Dewalt uses are much better, and have a machined in lip. Can't comment on the quality of there plunge base tho.


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## t_ski (Mar 5, 2014)

Sounds like a little lubrication will work wonders.  (Waits for the "that's what she said" remarks...)


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## jjgoertz (Mar 5, 2014)

t_ski said:


> Sounds like a little lubrication will work wonders.  (Waits for the "that's what she said" remarks...)



The plunge base has oil impregnated bronze bushings, they are just a combination of too short, and machined to too large of an ID, so that they rack sideways at full extension, binding on the shaft.


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## Reefer86 (Mar 24, 2014)

well done sir!


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