The Ultimate Computer Desk - 2 Integrated Desktops

[ultimatedesk]

Hey all,

Long time lurker, first time poster! It's because of your creativity that I've finally decided to embark on the journey to create:

THE ULTIMATE COMPUTER DESK!

That's right, the ULTIMATE. Well.. for me at least.

It's going to have 2 computers built in, one for gaming, and one that will run 24/7 as a media server of sorts and occasionally play video.

It's got to have noise control, dust control, manual fan control, and it's got to look classy - sorry all you bling lovers! It needs to fit in in a professional environment.

I do believe I will be building it out of 3/4" plywood, veneered with something, obviously.

Let's get started! I've got a few drafts I'll post first and then onto the construction!

I'd like to thank Crucial, Kingston and Danger Den for sponsoring this project and helping to make this a reality!

[ultimatedesk]

Ok, here goes!

This is the initial idea, like I said before, 3/4" plywood, and two built-in computers. I use Google Sketchup for all this kind of work - if you haven't used it before, try it out, it's free, and it's totally awesome for this sort of thing.

First I took measurements of my motherboard, power supply and hard-drives to determine the width I would require for the first design portion - the left-hand module.

I then built up from there:

The components of the gaming rig will be on that top shelf there. The hole is the air intake, which will be completely hidden from the front of the desk (There will be a board there) and it will also be covered with a piece of high quality air filter from a furnace system.

Next up was to grab some to-scale models and populate the left-hand module.

A big thanks to B@gy, who created the model for the Noctua NH-U12P CPU Heatsink, as well as the Noctua fans, Alexander who created the model for the Asus Ares video card, Nightsoul who created the model of the Western Digital Hard-Drives, and Fubar East for the very nice power supply model. Your talent saved me a lot of time when it came to placing the items to scale.

I then repeated a similar design for the right-hand module, which is the low-powered system. I also added 3 drawers instead of the open concept.

And, here it is, all put together!

The boxes in the back are not to scale - they will be built as needed and will be used for cable management. I'll stuff some foam in the top to prevent them from filling up with dust as well.

Stay tuned! More to come! I need to simmer on the 1st draft for a while

[ultimatedesk]

There were numerous things wrong with the first draft:

1. Butt joints. Butt joints everywhere. It means I'll have screw holes to fill everywhere, which is no good. It's got to look PRO!

2. Trim. The edges on plywood look terrible. I forgot to account for 1/4" hardwood trim being used on all visible edges of the plywood. This would throw my measurements way out of whack.

3. Drawers. My 1st draft didn't even have drawers sketched, it only had drawer faces, which would have been a disappointment if I had actually built it that way!

So, with that in mind, here is the 2nd and final draft before construction!

The dark brown is trim, which is 1/4" thick, and the light brown are 1x1 pieces of wood which will allow me to fasten the boards together by screwing through the 1x1 from the inside, thus, hiding the screws.

Oh yeah. I also decided that for the future 3 monitors will probably be pretty cool.

The top right and left cubby holes will contain the DVD drives, power / rest / fan controls and LED's.

Lots of electrical work to learn, I fear! TBCS community to the rescue!?

[ultimatedesk]

Now with the draft finalized, time for the cut sheets. Google Sketchup, I love you.

Only 4 sheets! That's good stuff!

Hold on, going to go get some wood!

[ultimatedesk]

Wow, that was blazingly fast, I posted and then only a minute later I had the wood and all chopped up! Here are some pics

I picked up some sheets of 2-sided maple veneered plywood - really nice stuff here, 3/4" of course.

And this is the shop I get to work in:

And this is my best friend: (5-night stand lol)

A pic of the first victim:

All the lengthwise cuts done with the help of a lovely lady who I covered in sawdust - you can see the boards on the left back of the shop

The smaller cuts, starting to fall into place:

And just a few more big cuts to do. That's good enough for today for me!

Some of the aftermath

The hero of the day:

Thanks for staying tuned! I'll have another update in a couple days! Or maybe tomorrow! I seem to moving very fast right now!!!

[SXRguyinMA]

I love the idea, can't wait to see more!

[Airbozo]

MMMMM freshly cut wood! Nothing like the smell of fresh cut wood in the shop!

Love this project and can't wait for the construction!

Welcome to the forums BTW!

[Indybird]

Cool idea! It looks like you are more than off to a good start. Subscribed.

-Nick

[ultimatedesk]

I love the idea, can't wait to see more!

Thanks SXRguyinMA!

MMMMM freshly cut wood! Nothing like the smell of fresh cut wood in the shop!

Love this project and can't wait for the construction!

Welcome to the forums BTW!

Thanks for the welcome Airbozo! I loooove going to the wood shop, the smell is indeed intoxicating!

Cool idea! It looks like you are more than off to a good start. Subscribed.

-Nick

Thanks Nick! Here's hoping it gets done for Christmas!

Stay tuned for an update! Spent a quick bit in the shop!

[ultimatedesk]

Got a chance to spend a little time in the shop, so I finished the 3 cuts of 28" on the 8' sheet by rigging up a small jig to the table saw.

Also routered a hole through the bottom surface of the desk, made a few mistakes, but hopefully I'll be able to cover them up.

The surface will be composed of two 8' sheets, each 3/4" plywood, so the whole surface will be 1.5" thick. The hole in the upper surface of the desk will be .5" wider all around so that the glass has something to rest on.

I started off measuring with a carpenters square, drilled pilot holes, cut rough cuts with the jigsaw, and then finished the smooth edges with a router using a clamped straight edge.

Here's the mistake I made, I went a bit too far with the router:

Thankfully there was a heater in the shop! It was pretty chilly!

Here's a bit of the mess I made

And the hero of the night, a Mastercraft Plunge Router

Stay tuned! Going to the shop again tomorrow!