PC in a Drawer

MarkAnthony

So I need to tidy up this:


And have been inspired by this:


Which I'm going to try and build into this drawer and desk:



The drawer itself is 400mm x 360mm x 180mm will I get away with an mATX board or will I have to go ITX. Either way can anyone suggest a good board with an M.2 slot on it for an onboard SSD?

The PC will be watercooled an i7 4790K and a R9 290 on a single loop. I'm thinking of a 240mm Rad (intake) on the side and two 120mm (outtake) on the front so I can keep the handle. The other option is remove the handle and have a 360mm (which I have) on the front and no handle. Do you think either solution will provide enough cooling?

I'm not going to do too many mad over clocks. :pac:

Any suggestion/advice greatly welcomed. I'll update as I go!

SterlingArcher

Your pc looks like that kid in a movie, hiding from the abusive father coming home to whale on him after a late nights boozing.

MarkAnthony

SterlingArcher wrote: »

Your pc looks like that kid in a movie, hiding from the abusive father coming home to whale on him after a late nights boozing.

I just show it strong pronography, swear alot and post nonsense on the Accommodation and Property forum :pac:

Serephucus

What's on the sides and back of the drawer? I'm trying to figure out where you could put exhaust fans.

Sounds like a very cool idea.

Ant695

I've seen a few of them pc's build into a desk type jobs and they do look awesome. Good luck with it.

btkm8unsl0w5r4

SterlingArcher wrote: »

Your pc looks like that kid in a movie, hiding from the abusive father coming home to whale on him after a late nights boozing.

Wow.....that escalated quickly.

MarkAnthony

Serephucus wrote: »

What's on the sides and back of the drawer? I'm trying to figure out where you could put exhaust fans.

Sounds like a very cool idea.

I've been toying with the idea some more and I think what makes the above pic work is the front to back configuration.

At the back is a gap which I'm going to do a cut out from under the desk to allow air into and pull the air from there through the back of the drawer. The I'm going to exhaust out the front and remove the handle on the draw so it's now going to be two 360mm Rads. I reckon that's enough with some low noise fans.

The big issue is where do I locate the motherboard IO. That's now going to the side. The problem is there is 3 thickness is of wood (see attachment) there so I'm only going to cut out what I need - which I reckon is 1 USB (to link to the hub in the monitor), the sound IO and the graphics card. I reckon it might look a bit untidy but it's under the desk to I reckon it'll be okay.

Ant695

MarkAnthony wrote: »

I've been toying with the idea some more and I think what makes the above pic work is the front to back configuration.

At the back is a gap which I'm going to do a cut out from under the desk to allow air into and pull the air from there through the back of the drawer. The I'm going to exhaust out the front and remove the handle on the draw so it's now going to be two 360mm Rads. I reckon that's enough with some low noise fans.

The big issue is where do I locate the motherboard IO. That's now going to the side. The problem is there is 3 thickness is of wood (see attachment) there so I'm only going to cut out what I need - which I reckon is 1 USB (to link to the hub in the monitor), the sound IO and the graphics card. I reckon it might look a bit untidy but it's under the desk to I reckon it'll be okay.

I would have said the back of the drawer would be the place for it so the cables can go out the back and up for monitor, keyboard etc...

Obviously this will cause some conflict with the rear fans unless they could fit just above the IO but that would depend on height of the fans and depth of the drawer.

papu

I'd suggest mocking the whole thing up in google sketchup , you'll get a much better idea of how to mount / fit / arrange everything

MarkAnthony

Ant695 wrote: »

I would have said the back of the drawer would be the place for it so the cables can go out the back and up for monitor, keyboard etc...

Obviously this will cause some conflict with the rear fans unless they could fit just above the IO but that would depend on height of the fans and depth of the drawer.

papu wrote: »

I'd suggest mocking the whole thing up in google sketchup , you'll get a much better idea of how to mount / fit / arrange everything

Two excellent suggestions that would make life alot easier and neater! Thanks!

Johnboy1951

I would expect some hum/vibration because of using the drawer ..... but hopefully not

Skerries

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

I would expect some hum/vibration because of using the drawer ..... but hopefully not

my drawer hums as well but that is due to smelly socks

tony1980

I am doing a similar project at the moment, have all the materials but haven't had a chance to begin yet. I will post some pics of the process as I go along.

Lu Tze

tony1980 wrote: »

I am doing a similar project at the moment, have all the materials but haven't had a chance to begin yet. I will post some pics of the process as I go along.

That would be great, looking at building a desk myself shortly once funds allow, would be good to see both yer build logs/pics for ideas.

Solitaire

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

I would expect some hum/vibration because of using the drawer ..... but hopefully not

Find the contact points between the spinny things and the actual drawer carcass itself and get some silicone grommets in there to boost vibration absorption. The sheer mass of the drawer if its a really oldskool thick-walled real-wood jobbie will go some ways to suppressing noise and vibration straight off the bat

wotzgoingon

If it was me I would just cut a hole for all usb, Display port/HDMI cables and just connect them up inside the drawer. So just stick the cable you want to connect to PC in the hole and open drawer and then plug it in.

MarkAnthony

wotzgoingon wrote: »

If it was me I would just cut a hole for all usb, Display port/HDMI cables and just connect them up inside the drawer. So just stick the cable you want to connect to PC in the hole and open drawer and then plug it in.

Was definitely thinking that but it might mess with the visuals, which lets be honest this is also about! :pac:

AntDub

Ant695 wrote: »

I would have said the back of the drawer would be the place for it so the cables can go out the back and up for monitor, keyboard etc....

I second the above with the fans as high as you can at the rear of the draw to pull the heat out that rises out of the drawer, at least this way you've room for all the cables to exit the rear of the drawer at the bottom.

If the drawer is 19" wide fitting a 1u Brushed Manager at the bottom would be great for allowing all the cables to exit w/o messing up the airflow(same as the one in the below link, it's the item with the Pink and Yellow Ethernet leads coming out of it).
www.electriduct.com/Electriduct-Universal-Horizontal-Cable-Managers.html

I could grab you one of these from work if you need it.

MarkAnthony

AntDub wrote: »

I second the above with the fans as high as you can at the rear of the draw to pull the heat out that rises out of the drawer, at least this way you've room for all the cables to exit the rear of the drawer at the bottom.

If the drawer is 19" wide fitting a 1u Brushed Manager at the bottom would be great for allowing all the cables to exit w/o messing up the airflow(same as the one in the below link, it's the item with the Pink and Yellow Ethernet leads coming out of it).
www.electriduct.com/Electriduct-Universal-Horizontal-Cable-Managers.html

I could grab you one of these from work if you need it.

Very kind of you thank you! The airflow has to exit at the front I'm afraid but I'm thinking I'll take the cables out the back and I reckon I can sleeve a displayport cable, a USB and an audio cable etc.

The only thing I'm worried about now that I'm not going to 'mount' the IO is how can I stop the Gfx card wobbling about in the slot.

Digital Solitude

Run a thin sliver of timber at whatever height the GPU is screwed at and put it through with a small wood screw. Should be good if the timber is securely fastened

battlestar

With the PC mounted in the drawer it is going to be hard to isolate the vibration to stop the turning the desk top into a sounding board. That is why business moved away from PC's mounted in brackets hanging under the desks.
I assume it is standard rail sliders in the draw (ball bearing sliders could make a hell of a racket. perhaps you can unscrew them and add some rubber or leather.
When you go to drill the holes because you will be looking at them use a fostner drill bit rather than one of the nasty flat bits to make a neat hole and mask the area with tape to stop surface tearing.
Ikea (among others) sells some cable springs for draws they are used for lights in draws to stop the cable getting jammed or pulled lose they are affordable and will help you be able to slide your draw without fuss.
You will have to devise some kind of bracket to hold your video card. Could look anywhere AL extrusions are used or a display shop for a perspex mount, one of the wires they use in estate agents windows could work for a minimalist look. If you strugle to find somthing a shelf bracket will work but might look a bit naff.

Serephucus

Can you explain why the air "has to" exhaust out the front?

Chorcai

https://semiaccurate.com/2014/06/02/lian-li-gets-back-desks-three-new-pc-cases/

rip apart the case and put it on solid drawer rollers something like than Lan-Li yoke

ED E

GPU mounting in this may give you some ideas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytpK6nhsfqI

MarkAnthony

Serephucus wrote: »

Can you explain why the air "has to" exhaust out the front?

The back is enclosed. I'd be happy enough to use that as an intake as I can drill a cutout and air will flow inward through the restriction but heat won't flow out that way necessarily.

Chorcai

ED E wrote: »

GPU mounting in this may give you some ideas.

watch it with sound off, he is annoyin as f**K, but yeah thats a cool build

wotzgoingon

Chorcai wrote: »

watch it with sound off, he is annoyin as f**K, but yeah thats a cool build

I don't mind him, I actually quite enjoy his videos.

Ant695

wotzgoingon wrote: »

I don't mind him, I actually quite enjoy his videos.

I'm with you although the socks and sandals are a bit disturbing.

battlestar

Those Lan-Li desks are very cool and my kitten can sit beside the desk and bask in the waste heat of a fan cooled gaming rig While I bust Clanner Mech

MarkAnthony

Hi guys!

No further forward but I've finally got round to starting the RMA process on my faulty Z77 so hopefully funds will be forthcoming shortly. (Either refund/credit or selling of replacement board - see adverts Bobsbits DO NOT PM HERE - lest I get another (deserving) smack of the mod hammer.)

So on that note I'm fairly happy picking out most of the bits but I'd really like some suggestions for a new PSU. I think my 1000w monster wont be needed in the new build. My top priorities are:

Does the job* (ofc)
Fully modular - the sexier the cables the better - less work down the line.
Quiet
Efficient - going to go for lowish power on this build
Small (if possible but they are probably a standard form factor)

* This build will be a mATX board with M.2 SSD, a 2.5" SSD and a 3.5" mechanical HDD. i7-4790K (mild OC maybe 4.5Ghz), R9-290, Watercooled with some LEDs. I'm hoping to replace the GPU with something with a bit more grunt maybe a 980Ti I suspect that probably uses less power than the AMD bricks

Not sure what wattage to go for either.

Thanks in advance!

Digital Solitude

500w will cover a 290 and a 980Ti so you could start with that

MarkAnthony

EDIT: Just had a better idea - more info to follow.

So got the Motherboard from Komplett - excellent service I must say.

Any suggestions on the prices for the current tower with a bay res and pump, 360mm mounted rad in the top, 120mm rad at the back and the 200mm front mounted rad, basically a setup good to go - I'll clean it up a bit obviously. I'll throw in the fittings and tubing. 360mm mount was a bit of a bodge job but works fine and you don't see it. Fans are 4x 120mm Corsair low noise jobbies with the white surround to go with the case and a 200mm lighty up thing. Oh also a cold cathode in the top.

MarkAnthony

So the wife took one look at it an nicknamed it Frankenstien and admittedly there is a huge amount of tidying up to do. Not least I need a mini DP to DP connector so I can get the monitor cable through the hole the USB and audio extension are running through.

Please don't judge too harshly - very much a work in progress.



The next steps are to pull the SSD and HDD off the back wall and mount them out of the way and tidy up the cabling once I get the mini DP cable I need and a USB hub.

Once I've done that I need to buy an internal reservoir (using a bay res and pump at the moment) and a 240mm rad. If anyone has these lying about do me a favour and throw them up on adverts.ie if you want to sell them please

Once it's complete there will be a 240mm rad intake, and a 360mm rad (which you can see) at the front of it all. There's a piece of wood that needs to go back in which I'm going to cut and grill with 3x LED fans like the pics that inspired the build.

I luckily ended up selling the ATX board as the mATX was a much better fit!

MarkAnthony

A problem I've run into which I'm not sure how to fix is I need 6 fan headers and I only have 4. Any suggestions?

Is it safe to run three fans off one header; as that's what I'm doing at the moment, with an splitter.

Serephucus

Unless you've got stupid-high RPM fans, you're grand. If you're using PWM ones, sometimes the RPM detection can go nuts, but they'll all work.

MarkAnthony

Serephucus wrote: »

Unless you've got stupid-high RPM fans, you're grand. If you're using PWM ones, sometimes the RPM detection can go nuts, but they'll all work.

Going to be looking for quiet ones so I assume they're low RPM. I take it LEDs shouldn't be too much of an issue?

Serephucus

Nah. When I say stupid-high RPM, I'm talking 6K+ server ****e. You'd have to hook up eight or more sub-1000RPM fans to come close to what a header can provide.

MarkAnthony

This thing has my heart and wallet broken (although that was more to do with the Dell 34" Ultrawide I bought!).

After dropping my bay res and smashing the pump I bought a separate pump, but the barbs were too small. I also had massive problems with filling the bloody thing so I've ordered a new bay res and pump.

The good news is I've finally cracked the design. I'm building the PC into a removable wooden frame with everything mounted on it. I spent ages trying to name this new invention before realising what I'd come up with was a fecking drawer!

At the moment I've literally a rad hanging from a hook in the ceiling. More pics once I tidy it up a bit.

challengemaster

MarkAnthony wrote: »

I spent ages trying to name this new invention before realising what I'd come up with was a fecking drawer!

PMSL

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MarkAnthony

So some tidying up still to be done, including painting the holes for the 200mm rad, but overall happy with how it turned out.

mass_debater

MarkAnthony wrote: »

So some tidying up still to be done, including painting the holes for the 200mm rad, but overall happy with how it turned out.

The site is broken so your images don't work, can you upload them somewhere else, I'm curious

game4it70

mass_debater wrote: »

The site is broken so your images don't work, can you upload them somewhere else, I'm curious

The links seem to be slightly wrong so here they are.

http://postimg.org/image/m0f067scv
http://postimg.org/image/o7x2h7x5x
http://postimg.org/image/d1cwirnrx

Nice job squeezing it in Mark.

mass_debater

That is impressive. Good job