That looks exactly like my nephews A level project in DT.
Please be seated at your FOUR-LEGGED PC
The show floor at Computex bears a zillion gadgets all trying to catch your eye, but one that really stands out by offering a new way to sit down is the computer case/desk from Taiwan's Lian Li. The desk itself is unremarkable: it has four legs and a glass top. The desk's drawer is where things get interesting, because it …
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Wednesday 4th June 2014 11:46 GMT Kubla Cant
Re: "The desk itself is unremarkable:" ?
I don't think any professional computer user would be satisfied with a single monitor, anyway.
And why is the keyboard on a stupid little shelf at the front? I thought that feature was confined to the tatty chipboard "workstations" found in furniture warehouses. Visit any modern office and you'll find everybody has a keyboard on their desk.
I also notice that the stupid shelf allows no space in front of the keyboard for resting your wrists. Expect lots of RSI with this thing, then.
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Thursday 5th June 2014 06:37 GMT Robert Carnegie
Re: "The desk itself is unremarkable:" ?
The keyboard itself has space to rest the heel of each hand on. However, I assume the keyboard isn't included since it's casually plugged into a front USB port. It's just there for the photograph. No, I expect you have to buy your own. Anyway, this isn't a computer to write a novel on. I'm not sure what it -is- for. Isn't the PC supposed to be dead? And even if it isn't, why do you want to be able to look at bits of it while you work?
Also concerned about the electrical safety for the owner.
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Wednesday 4th June 2014 07:30 GMT LaeMing
I have actually been keeping an eye out for an antique-looking (though obviously not monetarily or historically valuable) writing desk to make into an integrated computer + TV desk for my mum.
Collecting lots of old valves (to bore out and LED-light) and some nice 'olde' meters, switches, dials and stuff too.
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Wednesday 4th June 2014 08:20 GMT AMBxx
Re: Next project, build one of these for <$100
I use an old, leather topped desk with drawers on either side. Would be a small matter to cut out the leather section and replace with glass. Then just cut a few holes in the back for ventilation and cables, job done.
I saw a similar wooden desk in a furniture shop, but they'd merged all the drawers into one to allow a tower PC to sit in one side. Sadly, they'd forgotten about ventilation and cables, but easily enough done.
There are plenty of antique desks in shops with worn out leather, they go for peanuts. If you're in Yorkshire, take a look at Tomlinsons - big warehouse of antiques in various states of restoration.
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Wednesday 4th June 2014 08:32 GMT JDX
Re: Next project, build one of these for <$100
Question: how will you cut the glass? Doesn't it have to be cut before being tempered so you can't buy a sheet and cut to fit? Obviously a glasser (?!) could do this for you but suddenly your costs have trebled.
Or is there a way around this? Of course, no reason it actually has to BE glass topped.
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Wednesday 4th June 2014 11:25 GMT Nigel 11
Re: Next project, build one of these for <$100
Of course, no reason it actually has to BE glass topped.
Marble or Basalt (if heavy, hard and shiny floats your boat). Easier to source any size than tempered glass (and you really don't wan't to think about untempered)
I've just run into the annoyance of a worktop so black that an optical mouse cannot "see" it, and for the first time in my life I had to find a mouse mat (OK, a sheet of A4 paper). Give me wood or wood-effect laminate any day.
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Wednesday 4th June 2014 12:12 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Next project, build one of these for <$100
Don't know how everybody else gets glass, but I go to the local window place and wave a couple of notes about. With a project of this size there may -with a bit of luck- be a spare piece of about the right size in the shop that just wants a little trimming. You'll want to bevel at least the edge closest to you a little bit, so you don't cut yourself, but you can do that yourself with a dremel (outside and carefully, with eye protection).
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Friday 6th June 2014 22:38 GMT ChrisBedford
Re: Next project, build one of these for <$100
"...everybody else gets glass, but I go to the local window place and wave a couple of notes about..."
For a worktop, that's just an injury waiting to happen.
I know that in the "Tired to death of Elf 'n Safety" Nanny State that might sound like just another mindless parroting of the littany, but until you have seen the effect on a 10-year old's hand of ordinary window glass, please don't disregard.
Seriously, never make furniture out of window glass. Not even if you don't have a 10-year-old. Multi-layer safety glass, perhaps, but that is also expensive (no idea how it stacks up in price against temprered though) but also very difficult to cut to a specifi size - and, once cut, it has a finite life (air creeps in from the edges and it starts to de-laminate, especially in damp climates, and it looks crap).
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Wednesday 4th June 2014 12:46 GMT John Brown (no body)
Re: Next project, build one of these for <$100
"I've just run into the annoyance of a worktop so black that an optical mouse cannot "see" it,"
+1
Some years ago, while installing new thin clients in a lab, we spent some time going in and out through the airlock and changing overshoes/paper lab coats etc before realising the perfectly smooth and bright white lab worktops had no texture visible to the new optical mice and it wasn't a faulty mouse or terminal.
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Wednesday 4th June 2014 08:28 GMT Anonymous Coward
Nice.. shame it doesn't go up and down
I've gotten used to stand up desks now as the last couple of places I worked had them for the devs. Seems no matter how much you pay for one though the cable conduits are a bit rubbish. Putting the motherboard in the table top fixes that though.
I hope there is more than one monitor mount on there too.
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Wednesday 4th June 2014 08:34 GMT JDX
Re: Nice.. shame it doesn't go up and down
Up and down desks are incredibly pricey. I looked a while back and they all seem to run from about £2000! Self-building with hydraulic rams and servo motors is beyond my confidence and the parts are not cheap so I instead made a Heath Robinson effort for my home office which involves a tray-table with folding legs from Argos.
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Thursday 5th June 2014 10:42 GMT Helldesk Dogsbody
Re: Ugly and unergonomic
While they aren't exactly my thing I can appreciate the work that's put in to some of the deask/case combo builds - do an image search for "l3p desk" or just go to www.l3p.nl to see what one looks like when done properly. These one just appears to be a half arsed attempt to cash in on what's sprung out of the above project (ie the Red Harbinger Cross desk).
Lian Li used to be brilliant back in the day, now they appear to be churning out marginally more minimalist versions of the same tat as everyone else. A shame really as the TJ07 really was the king when it came out but they've steadily been losing the crown since then.
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Thursday 5th June 2014 10:54 GMT Tim Bates
Re: Bah!
I wondered the same thing, although in my version, I was more worried about someone accidentally opening the drawer and quickly returning a half-open box of paperclips or staples they borrowed yesterday.
Personally I prefer the woodgrain look many DIYers have done in the past. Looks more like a desk and less like a portable BBQ.
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