214 replies to this topic

[CyBerkut]

The question that popped into my head was, "Are those radiator fans exhausting hot air right below the motherboard?"

If so, I would look at relocating them. I imagine you don't want to mount them higher, but you could move them sideways to the other side of the vertical studs of the wall... Maybe even add some sort of thin divider to provide additional separation, so that you don't any of the heated air finding it's way over to the motherboard/components.

Great project! It's something that should provide you with a lot of enjoyment.

[Vincent Vascaul]

Honestly the temps will be so low I am not worried about it, I have done lots of watercooling and its never been an issue temp wise. I am going pretty overkill with the rads so in this case I will have a lot of excess capacity.

[Werewolf]

Holy Gods of Creativity... how could I miss this thread thus far!?!
Seriously, I really need to clean up my flat, kick out my belated flatmates and get myself a cash cow in order to be
able to heed the call to arms building desks...

[Vernius Ix]

Time to bump this tread up again.

[Vincent Vascaul]

Ok guys, small update today but I can say that I will be posting more regularly as all of the parts I need for the next stage of the build are either here or in the mail. Anywho today was all not tech work on the desk. First off as this coffee stain will show you I need a better way to have beverages on my desk.



Enter the stainless steel 3 3/4 inch cupholders





They have a drain at the bottom that I will have a plug for, so should I spill a drink in the holder I simply put the trash bag bellow in and drain it.



I will be using my 3 and 3/4 inch hole saw for these. Costs alot of money but work every penny, remember modders, the right tool for the right task :thumb:



First one cut and mounted (sorry forgot to snap a pic before I put it in)



Then number 2



And Bam! 2 sexy additions to my already awesome desk



Ok, next up in anticipation of the 6970 and motherboard tray arriving for the wall PC part of the build I decided to mount the power and reset buttons for the wall PC. First off a strait edge to make sure my marks are right.



Then a couple of pilot holes.



Now the trick with these is to drill with 2 different size paddle bits from each side so I can get the mounting ring for the switches in the hole. So 3/4 inch in the front.



Then 1 inch in the back



Getting the rings to stay in place was a pain in the butt however my trusty leatherman came through for me on this one.



These were a bit of a hassle but I am really happy with how they turned out.




But now I have this awesome place to put my beer but I have to keep a tacky bottle opener lying around, cluttering up the top of my desk. Well I solved that problem today as well




One last piece of advice guys, when ever I mod I test, test, test :drink:






Expect another update in a week guys and as always thanks for reading!

[Vincent Vascaul]

Ok guys, small update, today I am back over at Bryans shop to get some parts fabbed up. Here we have the Plasma Cutter we will be cutting the parts out with.



And these are the items the parts are being made for.



Templates made up, its time to cut.







Smooth em out, and drill out the holes for attaching to the 2x4





Bend them to shape and I have some sweet purpose built Brackets to hang my Rad from.



Next up is a new triple rad template, as the compessed paper one I have is just not going to last. 16 Gauge steel, should last me the rest of my modding career



Went outside, and who do I see? Gerry! Man he has gotten big!



Ok so I will be having Bryan make alot more parts for me after the first of the year. But now onto the actual area I will be installing the wall PC into. Now, to be clear everything I am doing is just test fitting. I will be cleaning up the area and paint it as well.






Next up my 6970 came in and I got to slap my Heatkiller WB on it (Man I love the way these look)






Sorry I dont have more to show right now, I hurt my hand, and due to the holiday. I will have more soon and hopefully have the wall mount fabbed up in the beginning of january.

Edited by Vincent Vascaul, 22 January 2013 - 01:30 PM.

[Vincent Vascaul]

My new power supply showed up today Seasonic 1000w Platinum





This will be the PSU for the Trapdoor PC with the 750w Seasonic for the wall PC I will be Sleeving both of these PSU's and it will be my first time doing so. Thanks again for reading!

Edited by Vincent Vascaul, 21 December 2012 - 09:44 AM.

[Vincent Vascaul]

hey guys, sorry for the break in updates. However my finger is pretty much healed up and over the last 2 days pretty much all of the parts for the wall build have showed up in the mail. I am only waiting on the screws to mount the radiator.



I am having a hard time deciding which res to use for this build thoughts?

Also over the new year I managed to score a 1080P Viewsonic Projector for really cheap and with 0% financing for 18 months



I also upgraded to a Motorized 100 inch screen which means I can run everything from my desk, double

As soon as the screws come in I will start fitting everything and moving forward however I am in need of some 45 and 90 degree adapters for my compression fittings and I am pretty much out of budget until next month so I will have to source some through trade or whatever. Anywho thanks for reading as always, my next update will be a video of me explaining the full wall PC setup.

[Staplebeater]

Loving the build keep the updates coming. i am very interested in both the computer setup and the desk build itself. I am moving in the summer and if i can make my own little space where i move i would love to

[Vincent Vascaul]

Ok guys, time for a fairly large update. I was going to make a video of me explaingin how the wall pc was going to work and the purpose of it but I came home from work today feeling angry for no good reason so I decided to take it out on some modding. So here are the fruits of my labor for the afternoon.

First off I cut the Screws i had ordered from frozen CPU to leagnth so I could mount the rad.



Next up I needed to remove a bit of pipe from the area I would be working in as it was no longer in use.





Then vacuum and mount the rad



Next up is the pump



Then the Res.



After that i needed to get the 2x6 I would be using to mount the hinges to level and secure.



After that it was time to make the plank I would be using to mount all of my hardware. There are 4 holes in the lian li trade that make good mounting points.






And just my luck the Seasonic PSU fits perfectly between the nuts







next up was mounting the hinges and testing out the concept.



Woo Hoo, all looks well. Time to start running some tubing. Unfortunately the danger den res. I am using will not allow me to us compression fittings, so I am going to have to use barbs on the res (eww )







CPU heatsink installed



and the video card next.



And here is a mockup, the tubes are too long atm but I wanted them that way till I am finished so I have some play room. Now I just need to get a bracket for the PSU and a couple other things and this thing is ready to rock! As always thanks for reading.

[Staplebeater]

Are you worried about not enough air flow with the fans so close to the wall itself?

[Vincent Vascaul]

There is about 2 inces of space between the sheetrock and the rad, I have seen $250 case with more airflow restrictions. So not really, besides I really have a overkill of capacity for cooling here.

Ok a slightly smaller update today. I am still waiting on some parts to arrive (A huge thanks to deadlift1 you are truly [H]ard!) He offered me some free extensions so I can use compression fittings on my reservoir. However I did swing back by Bryans shop to have a PSU Bracket mad up yesterday and I got the rest of the mounting hardware for the tray installed.

First off is the Latch to hold it in the upright position, nothing fancy but it works like a charm.



Then we have a tensioning cable to reduce stress on the wood the hinges are mounted to and prevent sag. I mounted a adjustable hook on one end so I can adjust sould the cable stetch out or I need to alter the position.





Then off to the plasma cutter again.



And viola a PSU bracket.



Mounted.



And we now have a place to slap in the Seasonic 750w PSU





You can see here the PSU has plenty of room to breathe and there is only a slight gap between the wood which I will address when I do cable management.



Hopefully another update and maybe a video by the weekend. As always thanks for reading!

[Vincent Vascaul]

Ok guys, I am getting close to being done, last night though I decided I needed to re work a bunch of stuff to get the Wall PC right, so I ended up working until 3am on it then spent the next 3 hours after that ordering more parts. So much for this being a ultra cheap build ( Facepalm) Anywho on with the update.


First off is wiring up the power and restart buttons, I am using a run of cat5 wire so that if I decide to get LED buttons later on I can use the extra 2 pairs for the LED's, Green is Power, Orange is Reset.







Side note I found a great new way to use the little LED flashlight in my mini leatherman



Now that gets passed through the wall and that brings us to the wall side wiring.

First off the Fans, I am using a Phobya fan splitter.



Now Cables you see here from left to right, Pump Cables,Power Switch Cat5 Cable then the Fan Power cable.



Here is what its shaping up like on top, please ignore the terrible wire sleeving as I realized the stuff I have it just terrible and I have just ordered Paracord this morning. I also will be sleeving all of the Seasonic PSU cables as well, which will be a first for me.






Now I also decided to replace of of the tubing with Tygon tubing as the Flexability will come in handy plus I get to use Mayhems Deep red Dye for a better color scheme







Next up is test fitting my hard drive mounting solution, a Syba Dual Slot 2.5 caddy.







Its quite light and should suite my needs quite nicely, I have a 1tb Spinner and a Intel 160gb SSD in the mail. I also have the wall pass through and a USB slim housing for a disk drive as well as a couple other things on their way. As always thanks for reading!

[Vincent Vascaul]

Ok guys, another big update.

I had a bunch of stuff show up today including my paracord



I will be using the 3 colors on the left.

My 160gb Intel SSD and Samsung 1 Tb Spinner for storage.



I also got more heat shrink, ordered a Crimp setup from MDPC. I also got deadlift1's Extensions for the DD res in.



Thanks again man they did the trick perfectly!

So with those, I had everything I needed to get this setup wet. I was super stoked so I started wiring up and sleeving the power and reset switches.



Then disaster, as I was measuring out a wire length and I bumped the latch holding the tray up and slamming it down. The heavy water blocked video card ripped the PCIE 16x Slot right from the motherboard :eek:





Now while this is frustrating, it is also entirely my fault, I had considered a better more secure latch but opted for the simpler setup. I am sad to see this mobo die before it even had a chance, I rather liked how basic the bios was and I also liked the built in buttons and display, however I picked this board cause it was on sale and I got it for a good price. I am undeterred however because I really do want to see the effects of cooling a CPU upside down and you can't try something that hasn't been done before without some risk . First priority obviously is a MUCH better latch and then a new motherboard, any suggestions that will go with black, red and grey and are fairly affordable please let me know.


Well instead of posting a video of getting my system topped off with water and leak checked I leave you with pictures of a ruined motherboard but thats modding, some times it all goes terribly wrong and thats what makes it exciting . Now if you will excuse me I am gonna go to the gym and take my pent up rage at myself and take it out on some weights then have several pints spiked with whiskey.

[Anony Mouse]

My recommendations for the Vynil work to come. Love the build by the way I found you searching for inspiration for a Mech Pit, now I want to build a desk too.... so thanks I guess.

http://1-media-cdn.f...36437565667.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot...Dog_Cutaway.jpg

http://www.sarna.net...lSchematics.jpg

http://www.lski.org/...20Blueprint.jpg

http://www.sarna.net...r_Schematic.jpg

Some if not all of the examples here could probably be found here, http://www.sarna.net...Art_%26_Fiction . There was a PDF version at one point, not sure of the resolutions therein, or their expandability. But I'm sure a resourceful guy such as yourself can attain said PDF and explore your possibilities :] Luck with finishing the build.

Edited by Anony Mouse, 14 February 2013 - 05:19 AM.