Your desk setups: Jonathan’s PC is hidden in a table top

You need quite a lot of time and know-how to build a computer into your desk top. When Jonathan was a teen, he learned about electronics and carpentry from his grandfather. Although this laid the foundation for his major construction project, it was still far from enough.

Jonathan is a qualified businessman and group fitness instructor. He spends his free time doing carpentry. His desk setup took him over 100 hours of work, but taught him a lot. The project was planned out well in advance and documented in a series of videos.

Oak and aluminium housing

Jonathan has built the computer parts into a cavity under the visible desk top. You won’t find a cleaner desk setup. The only giveaway that electronics are hidden here is the power cable.

Jonathan has put the table together like a sandwich. Oak slats screwed together from below form a nice finish for the desk top. Underneath them is one of two aluminium plates, each three millimetres thick. Then there’s a frame and a cross strut made of solid squared timber.

All the PC components are mounted directly onto the aluminium plate using spacers. In other words, the motherboard, power supply unit, GPU and fan. The aluminium isn’t just for the aesthetic, but also to make it easier to attach the components. It also conducts heat better than wood.

Where Jonathan got the idea from

A few years ago, Jonathan came across a video by YouTuber DIY Perks. The idea of integrating a powerful PC into a tabletop fascinated him. But he wasn’t thinking about his own project at this point.

At the time, Jonathan had the Surface Pro 4 (2017). That was enough for his office work. He also didn’t have a separate office at home to accommodate a lot of technology. However, he wished he had a powerful machine. That’s when he realised he needed a customised solution, and the DIY Perks project came to mind again.

And with it, some questions. How big should the desk be? How does he insert the PC components so that he can easily replace them? How will the power supply and ventilation work?

Desk and PC assembly

The worktop consists of several oak slats. This allows Jonathan to sand and oil the surface if necessary.

The PC itself is mounted upside down, the openings are on the underside. He pre-drilled all the fastenings on the aluminium plate so he could attach the PC components, peripherals and cables in the right places. Thanks to the female thread, all the holes are suitable for metal screws, so he can disassemble his setup easily too.

Power is provided by a single cable. It leads from the underside into the cavity. Instead of a plug-in strip, a standard flush-mounted switch is installed on the bottom right-hand side. From there, all his parts are supplied with electricity via the distribution box. There’s a 3-way socket on the bottom left-hand side. Everything runs via the main switch first, so the entire power supply can be switched on or off.

Jonathan has installed a round button on the front, right-hand side to start the PC. This has the same functions as the front switch on a PC tower. Next to it is a multifunctional panel with USB ports and slots for various cards. He mounted the storage media directly on the motherboard: three SSDs, one for the OS, two as storage media in a RAID 1 array.

Airflow in a closed desktop

Air has to circulate well in a PC, and Jonathan put a lot of thought into cooling the closed desk top. The solution is four 140 mm fans – two at each end of the desk. They generate enough airflow and are still quiet.

Air is sucked in on the left, flows over the components and is blown out again on the right. The fans aren’t connected to the motherboard, but via two power supply units to ensure a constant flow of air. This means heat will continue to dissipate after the PC has been switched off. And more than a year later, practically no dust has accumulated.

The only downside to the concept is that the PC can’t regulate airflow as required. The fans always run at the same speed. Jonathan was fully aware of that when he installed them.

Long-term verdict and improvements

Jonathan’s build has been working perfectly for a year and a half. Still, various optimisations are pending. The hatch for the motherboard is fiddly. In future, ports and connectors will be accessible from the side of the desk instead of below via the hatch. This will make it easier for him to connect other devices.

The desk top stands on a height-adjustable frame. He plans to change this too, as he’s hardly used the mechanics so far. For the long term, he wants to replace the frame with two U-shaped legs made of powder-coated metal in black. This will make the overall look more harmonious.

At 80 × 160 centimetres, the desk is a little too big for Jonathan’s taste. There’s never more than a keyboard, mouse and a few objects on it. So he wants to make it smaller in both directions.

All components of Jonathan’s PC table

PC

• Power supply unit: Corsair SF600 (due to the available space, an SF power supply unit had to be used, but it’s more than enough)
• Motherboard: Gigabyte MB Aorus Elite AX X570
• RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX (2 × 32 GB, 3200 MHz, DDR4-RAM, DIMM)
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X (AM4, 3.7 GHz)
• CPU-Fan: Noctua NH-L9aAM4
• GPU: Gigabyte Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 (8 GB)
• Fan: 4x be quiet! Pure Wings 2, 140 mm
• Storage: 2x WD Green SN350, 2 TB mirrored, 1x Intel 660p Retail for C-drive
• Screens: DELL U2715h, DELL U2415

Periphery

• GPU extension cable: Cooler Master PCI-E riser card
• On-Button: Mainboard Power Switch On-Off Switch
• Keyboard: Logitech MX Keys plus
• Mouse: Logitech MX Master (an older model)
• Screen holder: Icy Box IB-MS314-T (recommended purchase!)
• Front Cardreader
• Desk frame: Contini ET225E