Guru3D Rig of the Month - December 2008 - 1

The December 2008 edition of the PC of the month

Each month here at Guru3D.com we feature one of you guys, your PC, your DIY project. It is quite honestly amazing how much detail and dedication you put into an PC, and every now and then it really shows. Today Project Deskee! by toesy, Guru3D's PC of the Month December 2008.

Armed with your generic tools he decided to make something special, with very simple things, something we can appreciate a lot. December's 2008 Rig of the month winner is made by toesy, with his Project Deskee!

You can follow the entire build in this thread.

1. What is your name / nickname /age / occupation :
   
   Trevor / toesy / 36 / sales
    
2. What did you first come here for? :
   
   Drivers originally but now for a nosey around at the pc mods, and product news.
    
3. What do you mainly use the system for?  :
   
   As its two systems, one is for gaming only, the other is browsing, posting, email, movies, music its a general day to day PC.
    
4. How much money did you spend on the rig as it is right now? :
   
   The pc parts, since I built two new rigs at the same time was approx £2k, £1,500.00 on the gaming rig and £500.00 on the other, the project Deskee itself, approx £400-£500.00 possibly more.
    
5. How often do you update/buy a new rig?
   
   Every two years on average.
    
6. What components are used? :
   
    PC1 Gaming Rig : Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550, Asus P5Q Deluxe, HIS HD 4870 x 2, Corsair 4GB Dominator PC2-8500, Samsung F1 1TB HD, OS = XP : PC 2 Day2Day PC : Intel Core 1 Quad Q6600, Asus P5Q, Asus EAH 4670, Corsair 4GB Dominator PC2-8500, Samsung F1 1TB HD, OS = Vista 32.
    
7. Why ATI or NVIDIA, why Intel/AMD? :
   
   I've always preferred ATI graphics cards, I have had a couple of NVIDIA, but both had problems, I guess I was unlucky. I used to use only AMD, ever since I built my first pc it was AMD, but now I moved to Intel, they just seem to get better results and are on top of their game at present.
    
8. Does your PC life up to you expectation ?
   
   It surpasses it, Deskee not only saves me from having a dust collector on the floor, sorry that sounds wrong, but I have wooden floors and the dust seems to get picked up more by my previous pc cases. This doesnt happen with Deskee.
    
9. What's the best part of your rig? :
   
   The overall effect I guess, it's a real pleasure to use.
    
10. What sucks and should not have been bought?
    
    Vista 64 bit for gaming, I installed it, and then went back to XP.
     
11. Did you modify anything ?  cases/video cards/other? Did you do it yourself? Walk us through it.
    
    Yes, so far I have created Deskee, by means of using an existing wooded desk, purchased some metal legs, like the ones you get underneath small cupboards, etc. And turned them upside down, screwed them to the top of the wooden desk, and then purchased the glass table top, and this just rests on these legs. I then got the aluminum panel from a DIY store, which is a kickboard that you fix below your kitchen units, cut it down to size and then started cutting the holes for the fans, pwr switches, drives etc, I ruined four or five jigsaw blades in the process. Deskee has developed over time and one side (PC2) is water-cooled, CPU and GPU, which is brilliant as its totally silent in operation, I intend to water-cool the gaming rig also, the power and reset switches are the bulging style, due to Deskee design I had to make my own power/reset/HD LED/PWR LED & Speaker Cables, managed to buy some motherboard connectors and pins, took an evening to make but very rewarding. This is a very brief overview, and there's plenty more, but I think the post in the Guru3D forums will guide readers better.
     
12. Your 3DMark06 / 3DMark Vantage score
    
    (P+GPU) PC1 Gaming Rig 3DMark06 - Total 16270 - GPU SM 2.0 score 6168, SM 3.0 score 8031- CPU 4421. PC2 Day2Day Vantage - Total P3491 - GPU 2906 - CPU 8804.
     
13. Do you have any Future updates planned ?
    
    Yes, there is plenty still to do, a sheet of Perspex UV Blue will be fitted on top of the wooden base, the cables will be sleeved or even made/replaced to enable me to cable manage them underneath the Perspex where possible, I want Deskee to look as good inside as it does from the outside, plus it will aid the cooling. Also motherboard trays to be made also out of Perspex. The front panel will more than likely be replaced with the same, but the layout will be simpler. Also the gaming rig is to be water cooled, CPU and GPU. Mesh to cover the PSU on the left side, and more silver colored switches to replace the black ones. I keep thinking about a 7" touch screen to be the centre piece, and also to top it off a mechanism to help lift the glass top up, I have ideas but I for now I'll keep them in my head. Problem is I have so many ideas, just not enough time to develop them all. I also tried some colour changing LED lighting, but they were not bright enough to illuminate the glass, I'll keep trying until I find the solutions.

Many thanks toesy.

The idea behind Project Deskee! was to do away with my PC's as they were, ie in two cases, one a Lian Li V2000 (which is huge) and my long standing gaming pc, a Shuttle SN25P.

My long time idea was to build these under a desk, and make something special, those who know me, know I love modding, but have been away from it for a while. But now's the time, I guess.

Next page please.