When a computer marries the desk...

[radhak]

Some might remember, I was pondering building my own desktop. Then I got deeper into the idea and have been building (conceptually, ie, preparing to purchase the parts) something really neat. And at the same time, I am in the midst of building a computer desk too - I stopped so I could get the computer dimensions right.

And what better place to research all that than AnandTech? They are a really vast forum, with all the (ahem) 'freedom' of large forums - it is real fun reading people being very 'frank' with each other .

Anyway - this guy there has been working on a project where he's building a desk which will also be his computer : ie, the computer is built into the desk. So you have woodworking mated with computer build-up. Very engrossing, and impressive. So much so, that he has gotten sponsorship from manufacturers of various computer parts, so he's managed to get the ultimate parts too.

Going thru his post, you get the feeling the chap knows his woodworking, and his computers. Seems to be a student (or recent).

He started last year, and is still going, so the thread is long, but the pictures are nice.

[dbhost]

A great idea, but one that would drive me nuts... I guess the idea is to build a desk with a built in computer case. But what do you do about grounding?

[LinuxRandal]

Case modders have done this before. Normally, you still use a motherboard tray for grounding purposes.

I figured something like this would be in the top:
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/fea...rface_computer

EDIT: As Tablets, phones, etc. gain power, eventually something like this may be more the computer interface of the future (no desk)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUdDhWfpqxg

[dbhost]

LR,

Tablets and phones are already far and away much more powerful, by an exponential factor, than PCs were when I started in my career 12 years ago. And while I agree that tablets and phones are rapidly taking over traditional roles for PCs and laptops, at least in content consumption, but leave a LOT to be desired in content creation. Part of it is the human interface. Nice for scrolling through, and just browsing, lousy for typing, photo, or video editing... However, with the docks and such that I see coming online, and especially with the exceptionally rich library that is open source software, I suspect that Android will lead the way here if more GNU projects can make their way into the Android market...

[LinuxRandal]

True, but while I don't expect the pc to go away completely (still need server farms for movie special effects rendering and such), I expect the average person to be moving away from them, as they are not your typical content creator. They tend to use more things like video camera's and You Tube, where I would expect some sort of video software to eventually go (adding minor effects, editing, etc). Of course most of the computer users I know, don't even do that, just save and print their pictures, view YouTube, Facebook, etc.

It will in part depend on bandwidth (where they seem to be moving the billing to) as pc's on the backend (cloud style), may do the work for you.

[BigguyZ]

This is cool, but as has been noted many modders have married computers and woodworking together.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?...ht=woodworking

In fact, I started into woodworking through case modding. I was into computers, then I started building them. Then I got into computer case modding. After that, I got into Home theater and audio. I came accross a thread at AVSforum.com on making your own high-quality speakers, and frankly my experience in case modding gave me the confidence that I could do it. After that, I liked it so much that I decided to jump into woodworking.... so this to me seems very natural.