DeskPooter

updated 26 July cos, though yet complete, SHE has a name:

~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o :D o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~
DeskPooter
~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o :D o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~

call me a fool: I probably am one: but at least i'm a loving fool

As I had no plan here is a taste of where we are heading:

I've been building and rebuilding PC's for years. I have finally gotten really really fed up with white cases on my desk. I decided the computer and the desk had to merge :)

It's still a w.i.p but I love it lol. Main tools used were a hammer, jigsaw, pliars, hacksaw, electric drill .. oh and a screwdriver.

Having managed to get the case cut down to provide a backplate and mounting for the motherboard and PCI devices I then cut out the back of the desk drawer for the cable access. The hammer was widely used throughout this project.

Amazingly I managed to get everything nicely located. Both the DVD drive and CD writer will appear from the front of the drawer. Have yet to cut the slots to locate them. And can’t decide if I want to go to the trouble of getting some matching veneer and giving them a wooden fascia to match the rest.

The old lock on the drawer was removed and the barrel emptied and cut down to become the power button. Locating the power switch behind the lock was easy enough.

Time to power up and see if this thing will actually fly. Holy cow she does !!! The main thing was trying to organise all the bits so they would a) fit b) connect with standard cables and c) not cook each other. Currently she is running in the drawer, in the cabinet at 43 degrees C CPU temp - thats low enough for me and only 4 degrees higher than when the beast was in a case.

Finally I have to do some cabinetwork on the desk she is going in. It’s an old base unit from a large office desk:

Few more bits to finish: cutting the CD drawer openings, securing the lock barrel to the power switch (don’t try no more nails - I discovered it dissolves the power switch plastic :D ) and then I have to cut down the cabinet and rebuild the desk. Nearly done. Will post a pic when the final details are completed.

Now .. I know this isn't up to the way wacky standards of some of you pro modders out there .. but its my first mod and fit for purpose. The printer fits in the big drawer under the puter and the scanner on the shelf. With a wireless keyboard and mouse and flatscreen monitor being the only thing left on the actual desktop and the only visible evidence of there being a computer - my aim.

:banana:

CrazyB

Welcome to TBCS!

I like your mod. I had a similar idea floating around in my head too, but not so much to not see a computer on my desk, but to make space for more than one PC at my desk.

PS, I renamed your thread just a little to reflect what it is.

Cheers Bucko. Once its all finished and the desk refurbished and oiled its going to look great .. the desk top is 24 inches deep which is plenty with a flatpanel on it. Under one end will be the cabinet .. under the other end two polished steel legs designed to hold up a kitchen worktop .. and blend with my silver Dell monitor lol.

I think I may be able to sell the whole project, once done, as a bespoke piece of furniture for about £2000 including the PC ... not bad considering the whole thing is built from recycled parts. But thats not my point.

PC specs arent that hot but for anyone who is interested its a MSI K8N SLI Platinum Mobo currently housing a 3500+ Athlon64 Winchester core. Thats going to be replaced by an Opteron 180 Dualcore which I can overclock to the max. Graphics not SLI yet - actually a ATI Radeon Saphire X850 Platinum Edition but going to be replaced. And 2Gig of PC3200 RAM. Theres also a TV card in her as she runs both my music and my televisual entertainments.

Thats kinda cool, reminds my of my old desk where I stashed all my peripherals in a drawer and ran the cables in the area behind the drawers.

yeah its that +1 :D - stashing the computer itself in the drawer. I have to get two fans to create a good draw through the disks area and accross the mobo surface, one front, one side, then create a waterproof top plate/cover in perspex or even glass perhaps, to seal it from coffee spills (it's under the desk !) and make sure the fans create the draw of air required.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by chaksq

Thats kinda cool, reminds my of my old desk where I stashed all my peripherals in a drawer and ran the cables in the area behind the drawers.

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ps thanks :D :D :D I like it too

Very cool idea, and like Bucko, I've kicked this idea around a time or two myself.

The only thing that bothers me is the gray ribbon style IDE drive cables. Swap those out for some rounded cables like these, add some looming on the wires coming from the PSU and this would be flawless.

And I love the 'The hammer was widely used' line. I feel like that every damn day at work. :D

Have some more rep, and welcome aboard!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DrumThumper

And I love the 'The hammer was widely used' line. I feel like that every damn day at work. :D

Have some more rep, and welcome aboard!

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Why thanks :D and for the ideas. You can imagine how therapeutic it was using a hammer and an electric jigsaw on a computer build after ten or more years of windows BSOD's.

Cool!!! :)

Tools used Hammer...

Yup i see it..

"You will fit you stupid power supply!! *bang* *bang* *bang* There all good" ;)

Yeah .. Hammer .... :D :D :D

What is a dremel?? ... no ... no one answer that I know lol (but don't have one)

I am in a bit of a dilemma now: I spent half this week reading other people's Mods and galleries and now my mind-a-spinneth:

The question I am asking myself is whether I want to build the cabinet back into the desk which was the original idea .... or ....

seal the drawer top with plexiglas ... put some nice UV lighting ... and put a smoked glass top on the cabinet ... then put her on casters so I can pull her out from under the desk and have all my visitors say:

"woop woop"

ideas?

Matthew

I think you should try a combination of the approaches. Put the drawer back in the desk but create a plexi cover, lighting inside, ect. Then you can pull the drawer halfway out to show it off.

Well heres. An update. I never put pics of the DeskPooter as she currently stands.

First I want to show you my work area. It used to be called my dining area. The dining table has become an all purpose dump.

On the table you can see some offcuts from the case I cut too death to get the brackets and mountings I wanted for my build.

My camera has a good zoom ! I didn't move to take that lol

Here's the cheapo copy workbench that I worked at and the legendary hammer:

And the rest of the precision equipment I used for the fine machining tasks ;)

Now down to business ...

... but before I can take the pics I need to get rid of this white box. The whole point of deskpooter was that I hate white boxes on the desk. However when you know a little bit about computers people are always turning up saying "mine doesn't work". :neutral: In this pic you can see the printer, It's only out when I print :)

Heres my clean desktop and work area:

And finally DeskPooter in situ and in use:

The power button is that thing just above the handle - the old lock! the holes to the left are to start the jigsawcuts for the openings for the optical drives. My neighbour is meant to do these for me but he has gone awol with a woman for three weeks. :neutral:

"DeskPooter Exposed":

The funny beige thing behind the optical drives is the noctua fans I was going on about in a cooling thread. Sooo quiet :)

I don't see any of this:

The floppy and the power pack access at the side of the cabinet:

But when I sit at my desk I see a nice view from the window. Thats why the desk is so high and the dining table. I can see nearly twenty miles (not in this pic) lol:

My monitor has a 4 port USB hub in it which cuts on cable hell too I have my bluetooth, webcam, the cable for the camera these pics were taken on and the receiver for the wireless keyboard and mouse:

This guy usually sits watching me. I'm not sure what he's after.

So thats it at the moment. Still bits to finish. I have decided I am putting her on casters and putting smoked glass on the top with some neon going on in there too. :)

the only good use for a Deskpooter:

burglar breaks into apartment

"i wonder if there are any valuables in this desk"

opens desk

"WTF! y is there a computer in a desk! am i going crazy! GOD! Y are u doing this to me"

runs to polic station and turns himself in :)

with a deskpooter you don't even have to lock your door ;)

lol. the entire desk-puter idea is a work of genius, i just wish there were more of them out there :D

only thing left is for iKEa to start mass producing them, lol

Ha I love this thing. Good work +rep. Gives me a few ideas for my deskcomputer that I plan on starting this winter. I'm building the desk from scratch though. Already got the plans for it done as well as all the material ($1700 in materials. That is just wood, laminate and what not :eek: )

wow. a $1700 desk?!?!? thats more than what my computer was ever worth

that definetly deserves a work log :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by elbarto241

wow. a $1700 desk?!?!? thats more than what my computer was ever worth

that definetly deserves a work log :D

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Don't worry it will have one when I start it.

Just a question, what monitor is that CB? The one thing I wish my monitor had was USB ports on it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cookies N' Milk

Don't worry it will have one when I start it.

Just a question, what monitor is that CB? The one thing I wish my monitor had was USB ports on it.

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$1,700 of wood WOW I said Deskpooter not HousePooter :eek:

Cookies - It's a Dell :up: 2007FP in this case 20". Good response times. Good colour. Excellent wide viewing angle. Yes and a four port hub. It also has DVI, DSUB, S-Video and Composite inputs so when I am working on a machine for someone else I can hook it up to the same monitor throgh the DSUB and still keep a clean desk. Plus you can run your DVD player into it raw etc etc etc.

Dell have a whole line of monitors with them in. If 19" is good the 1905FP is an excellent monitor if you can find one boxed or 2nd little used. I spent a year trying to find one before I stumbled on this boxed, unused 2007FP for $300 at a fair two months ago.

Oh I see Dell go one better now: "integrated USB ports (4) and 9-in-2 media card reader also allow the monitor to act as a media extension for your PC".

Thats off their US site on a 30" widescreen monitor $1,274 or they got a nice deal on a 24" with USB hub and card reader $579 on offer.

Edit: And when buying Dell monitors look for the difference here:

^^^^ That one is the 1905FP and has the "D" shaped base on the stand. These stands are very robust and hold the monitor well. The replacement 1907FP pictured below VVVV has a cheaper "V" shaped base on the stand that is not up to the job but saved Dell a few $$ in manufacturing overhead. So if you end up with a "V" stand do yourself a favour and spend $25 on ebay picking up and older "D" stand before you watch a several hundred dollar monitor fall off your desk.

Ty 4 the rep guys :)

CrazyB

interesting....how is it cooling for you??

Well ... Deskpooter got some new presents today :)

I decided I agreed with Drumthumper about those grey IDE cables. Not so much for the visual lack of appeal - though that is now a part of the reason as my plans develop. More because the way they were laying was seriously impeding airflow around the desk drawer. Although the top is still open at the moment and thats not a problem it will be when she is closed up.

So in honour of her new smoked glass top which I may get round to ordering later this week, she has lovely rounded yellow disk cables and also some green cold cathode tubes so I can light her up under the smoked glass for visitors :D I'd like to find a similar yellow material to loom the power supply wires with. Anyone got a bright idea?

I think the PSU may be turning yellow too.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by yazeed1906

interesting....how is it cooling for you??

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Yazeed - a good question - It can get a little warm at the moment which is why it's open at the top. But then I haven't installed the cooling components yet. I am waiting on a Noctua CPU cooler at the moment (review here) which will be ducted to draw cool air straight into the cabinet (plexiglas tunnel methinks).

Then the huge 120mm Noctua will be pushing air in at the front of the case and around the optical drives and hard drive. Also I have an 80mm fan that will push air out the side, creating flow round the Mobo and PCI components.

Now I need to cut the wood some more to be able to complete the installation and my neighbour hasn't come back from his now very extended "mating leave". :twisted:

CrazyB

Update

Got another friend to come and help me do the cutting work to finish the cabinet on Friday as my neighbour is still AWOL with his new woman.

New parts ordered:

AC Ryan FanGrill Classic 120mm Black

AC Ryan UV Yellow Complete Cable Sleeve Kit to go with the funky yellow IDE cables

Noctua CPU Cooler

Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste :) on recommendation (ty guys)

Also picked up a Athlon64 X2 4200+ processor. I won't need more power than that in the next couple of years.

Just got to order three parts now to have all I need to finish the build: two sheets of glass: one to seal the desk drawer to get the ventilation working properly and one to cover the cabinet and protect it from friends/beer/coffee; plus four casters to wheel beastie about on. Saw some casters on the net for £1.99 ~ $4 but they wanted £7.99 shipping ~$16 - who are they kidding ... I'm off to B&Q (UK equiv of "HomeDepot").

CrazyB

w00t!...looks great man... you're giving me ideas... +REP

hehehehehehe

Now this has arrived I can get on with the build ! Hammer out, man with Jigsaw coming round at ten. I'm going to sheath the PSU cabling so I don't annoy the bollocks out of him by backseat driving the work he is kindly doing on the cabinet for me.

I'm in love with a CPU cooler. What a sad bastard. Big innit??

Matthew

This is great

I'm new to TBCS, just became interested as I've started my own modded PC buildt into a desk. I swear I'm not a copycat.

Mine is a bit different anyway (thread coming soon)

What I was going to ask is how much of a factor do you think the insulating wood is in terms of cooling?

My mobo is screwed straight into some furniture board. Seems to run fine, but the back of the board is now heavily insulated. Chance of a component burning out?

Wahoo ... Finally I have enough of the parts I need to complete this build to make a leap forward. Plus my mate with a jigsaw that actually works showed up today :D YAY!

First Deskpooter needed emptying onto the sofa. The thing on the yellow pillow is the Mobo tray Mobo, Backplate, CPU, Cooler and PCI cards all removed as one piece:

Johhny got down to work. I didn't take pictures while he worked cos the damn camera battery was dead again. The round side holes are for the fans drawing air in:

This is the drawer front after its been cut for to locate the optical drives and another fan which - along with the PSU - will push out the hot air. This is before I sand the wood down to remove fifty year old varnish and fifty years of dirt (the donor desk for this cabinet was old. You'll see the result after sanding in a moment ... let's say I'm pleased 8)

And this is a side fan installed in a mock up. have to buy two more grills now as I've changed my plan a tiny bit:

And after a lot of work sanding down the drawer fronts I am starting to get some idea of how the finished cabinet will look. This is a mock up. You can see the Sellotape/Scotch tape holding on the fan grill and brass drawer handle. The top drawer will be fixed in place and the computer accessed through raising the hinged, smoked glass lid that will close the top of her.

Front of the drawer detail:

So?? Looking good??? I think so :) Happy man here. A productive day always puts a smile on my face.

Matthew

Looking fab mucka!

Well done, I was getting concerned about the fan positioning.... that looks loads better!

I would +rep ya but I'm out :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Air Cooling Fan

What I was going to ask is how much of a factor do you think the insulating wood is in terms of cooling?

My mobo is screwed straight into some furniture board. Seems to run fine, but the back of the board is now heavily insulated. Chance of a component burning out?

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I dont know. I chose to cut an old case up to get the Mobo tray and bracket for the PCI devices. I like a bit of space everywhere for air to flow just in case. Maybe one of the more experienced modders can advise you on that. I love these noctua fans I can tell you that and if you are an aircooling fan you would too: quiet, move plenty air and the colour goes with pale wood :up: lol

Glad you like my build man thanks :)

Matthew

Looking good Crazy B.

Air Cooling Fan: It probably would be better to have the MoBo up just a little for some air flow. You don't need a MoBo tray out of an old computer though, just get some small plastic or metal tubing just big enough for the screws to go through and put them in behind your MoBo. Make sure they are all the same length!
It's not just for airflow either, generally a MoBo isn't perfectly flat on the bottom. If it is screwed down to a flat surface, you may be warping the board slightly.

Figure out how to sleeve the cables yet? Or you gonna go ahead with plan B.

Managed to sleeve some .. am just working on some update pics. mainly been doing work on the cabinet for the last three days. Might end up spraying some of the cables yellow cos I can't be a$$3d to remove every molex. Have also
purchased a length of yellow cable and am just replacing some with it.

so .. its a mix of plan a,b,c and possibly to come d :D

spend yr winnings yet??

Quote:

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Originally Posted by D1337

Figure out how to sleeve the cables yet? Or you gonna go ahead with plan B.

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i spent 10$ so far, im waiting to hear back from a plastics company in the uk =.=
Since they are the only ones ive found out of 30 sites that carry a translucent/parent white acrylic.

Shipping is gonna be horrible.

So here is where I start the day. I am working in the hallway in the block where I live as I don't want to make all this mess in my living room. Today I am starting by sanding back the cabinet as I sanded the drawers. I like pale wood. This is going to make a mess.

Hiding in the desk drawer is my favurite modding tool and an important piece of the original case. Along with the Mobo tray and backplate, the disk enclosures (or parts thereof) and this bracket, nothing else remains in the new build. This bracket I am cutting two small pieces out of later to make retaining brackets for the PSU.

The rest of my modding kit for the day:

Down to work. These panels are damn hard to sand down. Especially as I have a neck injury and loss of muscular power in one side of my body (right side and I'm right handed - Oh well). But the results will be worth it I know. This desk was made of lovely wood and will look great.

While I am working my two best buddies pop over to see what is going on. The little girl has seen me every day since she was born. I was her third word after "Mama" and "Dada" came "Mapoo" (matthew heheh).

She runs to me when she is hurt which really annoys her mum who gets jealous. I feel for her mum yet it makes me feel really special that she feels and knows she is so safe with me :)

Back to the story lol. Heres the cabinet front after I have worked on all the wood. It's been three hours of sanding using electric tools. My whole body is numb, literally and my arms feel weird like they are held on by elastic bands. Man I'm stoked though. This is starting to look so right.

When I have the bright idea to get some paint out and give a nice backdrop for my cathode tubes and UV lighting to do their work against I go for plain white. Usually this will be under the smoked glass top and you wont see much til the lights are on.

That's most of my days work from Thursday. Done. about five hours working on the cabinet and I'm knackered.

BUT ... I went shopping earlier and found this. I bought some switches (I had no reset button and needed some for the lights). They are in silver so almost everything else on the outside outside of the cabinet is going silver too.

I said everything.

And I meant everything. lol.

Almost ;) ... I love these grills in black with the brass screws to compliment all the silver. The silver filter, as the grill, come from AC Ryan.

I have been hard at work since Thursday doing some fun stuff and some laborious stuff. Getting my cooling sorted and the like which I enjoyed greatly. Putting sheathing on cables. (sings song in head "Oh I wish I had a molex pin removal tool or two ... ") which I have bodged. So even though I was doing it in honour of Drumthumper its looking as rough as some of the streetwalkers in the neighbourhood I live in.

The rest though ... the rest looks sweet ... another update later today.

Looks alot better sanded. Story made me smile =o
+rep

lookin good crazyB!! have some +rep!

I have done loads inside and I'll post pics tomorrow .. but my baby is nearly finished .. all except for the smoked glass top which I am working on. Here she is. And .. she runs at 8.2 Ghz not bad for a 4200+ 2.44Ghz OC machine But I like her simplicity and understatedness. And the fact that she looks like a rather atttractive piece of furniture and not a white box:

The top is temporary to test the cooling. And it works great :up:

Thanks for all the encouragement guys :)

CrazyB (aka Matthew)

Looks great, can't wait for the glass top though....

+reppiness :D :D

Thanks Drew :)

She's lovely and quiet :) Except for that damn northbridge fan ... as I posted elsewhere on the forum this is on my shopping list:

"Oh and the Asus EN8500GT Silent Magic 512MB graphics card I like a lot. Its fanless and with a mahhoosive heatsink. I have a 120mm fan positioned to pull air into the desk drawer and 3/4 of it hits that heatsink. It comes set at 400Mhz GPU speed but I knocked it up to 500 for my first try Overclock and its stable as anything and never goes over 50 - 55 C. Its designed to run from 75 - 125 C. Here its all in the picture:"

"Oh and the best of it is ^^^^^ that little silver fan on the northbridge you see half of in this picture is the noisiest thing in the PC. The maker of my CPU cooler makes a northbridge cooler thoughh. It will be right in the airflow form that big fan even though its designed to be fanless. :)"

not sure if this was covered already but i just noticed your ram appears to be in single channel. if you change to dual channel (put the two sticks in the same colours slot) it should help a bit.

have you changed all the thermal pastes(cpu, video card, north/south bridge) to Artic silver 5 or are they just stock?


looks good +rep.

MY Mobo is odd ... some memory it likes to be arranged that way for dual channel mode some the way I have mine. It is working in Dual Channel mode.

So far only the CPU has the arctic silver on it. As the GPU is a fanless one I'm thinking they would have used a good thermal solution on it and I won't bother with the Northbridge til I buy the cooler.

Thanks for the rep mate :up:

:)

Matthew