Build Log: Constructing the Ultimate Computer Desk

Status
Not open for further replies.
Testing and Cable Management

Most cards will not fill a x16 slot, let alone the x8.. If you notice, most 1155 boards only do x8 in sli, xfire.
Thanks patonb, after doing some searching around, I've concluded that x16 or x8 doesn't really matter much

****, I wish I got nice motherboards like that.
Hey, you never know - you love computers? Think of a project, and go for sponsorship during the next major hardware release! (Bulldozer?)

So - it's been another few busy weeks, so apologies for the no updates. Have been enjoying those last rays of sunshine before the summer ends!

I think I mentioned last update that I tried to boot up the Asus DSFC-DW board but had issues - here was the attempt:

img6371l.jpg


img6373a.jpg


I got a green LED to light up (Standby power on the motherboard) but jumping the Power ON pins had no reaction whatsoever. Tried it with a different videocard, re-seated the RAM and CPU's, but still no luck.

Moving onwards - since I un-mounted almost everything, I decided to keep the copper heatinks instead of the aluminum ones for the other motherboard. I also picked up a pair of these units from Rosewill via Newegg:

img6374u.jpg


img6375z.jpg


They should do nicely for my hard-drive racks. I would like to mount them like so, except higher up:

img6376bv.jpg


Unfortunately, they are deeper than the cabinet I built. At the time, I was thinking maybe they would stick out of my air intake window, and I would just build-out the section of the door with the air filter... Not exactly what I had in mind initially though.

With most of the major components in place, I decided to start tackling the cable management with some cardboard templates, and then some 1/8" plywood:

img6380k.jpg


img6382rl.jpg


img6384t.jpg


At this point I was a little frustrated with how slowly this portion of the project was going. Things weren't quite fitting the way I had planned, and they were not looking as nice as I would have liked them to...

Maybe it's time for some thinking instead of doing.

I decided (In hindsight, unfortunately) to go ahead and mount the hard-drive racks so I could get some better measurements and ideas of how to manage the cables nicely.

img6399t.jpg


img6402g.jpg


Installed the fans and started to route some of the cables

img6404sa.jpg


Took out a handful of old SATA cables... (Yes, let's not forget, that I'm a computer tech first, and a carpenter second, or maybe even fifth or tenth...)

img6405s.jpg


And had fun connecting all the bits and trying to get them in a reasonable state of organization

img6409a.jpg


img6411f.jpg


img6412s.jpg


Ugh... this will not do, this will not do at all. Might as well boot it up and see if everything works though (I had mounted and un-mounted the board several times, banged around a few things, etc, so might as well see if it's all still working!)

This would be the first time I see if all the fans work as well. Keep in mind that this is with the door removed.

img6414gt.jpg


Until next time.. still not quite sure what I'll be doing next.
 
If you want a slightly cleaner look, look into SATA backplanes from ICYDOCK, I have a 5x3.25 that fits into 3x5.25 bay, clean front, coult easily go that way, if your case thing is deep enough....
 
Seasonic and a New Layout

If you want a slightly cleaner look, look into SATA backplanes from ICYDOCK, I have a 5x3.25 that fits into 3x5.25 bay, clean front, coult easily go that way, if your case thing is deep enough....
I would love to do that c0rr0sive, but I'm still not 100% sold on how I am going to orient the HDD's, as you'll see below

Keep it up, looks nice.
Thanks patonb, hope you're enjoying your summer! It's almost over! :(

First off I want to give out a huge thank you to Seasonic, who has decided to sponsor The Ultimate Computer Desk by sending a ~really~ sweet Power Supply my way. An 850 Watt Seasonic Gold.

img6422m.jpg

seasoniclogo.gif


Thanks Seasonic! We'll take a closer look at that PSU a bit later..

I had been a little frustrated with the layout of the Dual CPU Xeon board for quite some time, so I finally made the decision to ditch it and setup the right-hand cabinet with an ATX sized board. This is more in spec with my initial design - the extra couple inches makes a big difference, and it will make it easier to upgrade in the future as well.

On one hand, I'm a little disappointed that I won't be using that super geeked out board, but rest assured, I'll find something else neat to do with it.

So I went ahead and removed everything and started from scratch. Looks way better already:

img6427.jpg


img6430i.jpg


I then decided that, unfortunately, through the miracle of cable limitations, it would make a lot more sense if I put the optical drive in the front of the case, as opposed to up above the desk, where I had originally wanted to put it. So, time to do some more cutting.

img6436b.jpg


img6435k.jpg


The masking tape managed to pull off some of the polyurethane, but have no fear, I will be making a faceplate that will contain the power button, LED's, and USB ports that will cover that spot up quite nicely.

img6443q.jpg


And, we've gone so far, yet, gained so little, eh? It'll get done, I swear!
 
Feeling a bit more motivated about the right-hand cabinet, I decided that the foam fan-holder had to go. It was too large, was akward, and was difficult to keep straight and in the proper position.

I decided to put together a nice and clean fan holder:

img6447kg.jpg


After doing some measuring, I took it to the drill press for the initial holes (I didn't have a hole saw for 120mm fans unfortunately... that would be pretty huge!)

img6448n.jpg


img6451h.jpg


I then took out the spindle sander to sand right to the line. Just an fyi, I swapped out the spindle for a much larger one. This was my first time using this type of sander, and I was very impressed - the degree of accuracy and control is extremely high - perfect for sneaking up on the pre-drawn lines.

img6454r.jpg


Time to drill some holes for the fan screws

img6458n.jpg


And a test fit. The product came out quite nicely - accurate cuts, all 4 of the positions are secure with screws, and this piece should be much easier to align in the proper location in the case.

img6459h.jpg


img6461j.jpg


I had cut a few other new pieces for cable management, but they were rough cuts, as I will not know their exact dimensions until I install hardware. I can't install hardware until I finish cutting and drilling in the right-hand cabinet, and since there is still the issue of the power button, LED's, etc...

Time to get started on that, I suppose!

img6462e.jpg


Kinda looks like a bull head eh?
 
Ohhhhh scarey.
Ha, thanks ;)

That is one cool looking machine, nice job once more.
Did you see what the problem was for the high temps?
High temps? Where!

Wish I had all this kind of machinery.
Thanks Mguire - you never know though. It was just kind of luck that I met this fine fellow with the shop!

I guess it's been a while eh!

Well, you'll be glad to know, that I'm actually almost done. There've been a few changes to the original plan, etc, etc, but I've still been goign full steam ahead, just not a lot of time to post updates lately.

Here you go, some photo bombardment!

First off, my awful cutting job. Notice how the masking tape ripped off some of the polyurethane? Looks pretty great eh.. (NOT!)

img6467al.jpg


Fitting my original faceplate design

img6470rr.jpg


I thought it didn't look too bad, but the USB ports were difficult to secure, and there were no audio jacks, so I went about and redesigned a new face plate

img6473m.jpg


Did some work with the band saw, scroll saw, and some sanding, and voila!

img6474n.jpg


img6486li.jpg


Looks not terrible eh? That's a nice unit from Silverstone that I picked up from my local computer store. Everything fits real nice and tight

img6492f.jpg


Holes for the power switch and LEDs look good

img6495w.jpg


And a quick test fit

img6507l.jpg


Wonderful! I cut the hole for the card reader / usb with a jigsaw, but neglected to take photos...

Anyways - after a couple coats of black spray paint, I think it looks pretty cool.

img6516d.jpg


With the faceplate out of the way, and hopefully, the last of the drilling / sawing / making sawdust portion over, for the right-hand cabinet, it meant I had the all clear to install more hardware.

Here are the two hard-drive trays with the actual HDD trays removed.

img6508h.jpg


Gave them a nice coat of black spray paint and they mounted them inside the cabinet. I think they look pretty groovy.

img6513n.jpg


Even groovier loaded up with hard drives.. (Two missing in this pic, 7TB total, however!)

img6515g.jpg



Now, before we get to the next pic... another boon happened recently - traded some of those Core 2 Duo systems + some cash and picked up a really cool previous generation Core i5!

Here's the power supply - a Corsair 650TX, a very quality unit. All that could be better is some modular action. Ah well!

img6517b.jpg


And another beautiful Gigabyte motherboard - a GA-P55-USB3 with 4 GB of G.Skill RAM

img6520f.jpg


img6521p.jpg


Here's the sweet mother. A quad core 2.8Ghz. Wow, talk about moving on up the CPU chain!

img6531gs.jpg


I picked up an older version of the Coolermaster Hyper 212 (Not the Plus version) and mounted a pair of Scythe fans to it

img6533a.jpg


Oooh, it's getting so close to boot time!

img6538j.jpg
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom