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Desk PC's a thing?

JulianvdM

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Have any of you built a custom desk PC? I'm an Industrial Design student and we're looking into the commercial viability of building semi-custom desk PC's and chassis. I have a few questions if you guys don't mind giving me some feedback please? Feel free to answer only one of the questions, or all of them. Any amount of your time is valued.

1. Would you be interested in a desk PC?
2. Have you ever built a custom desk PC or converted a desk to a desk PC?
3. Water or air cooling?
4. How big would you want a desk PC if you wanted one?
5. How much money would you usually spend on a desk?
6. How much money did you spend on your last case / will you be spending on your next case?
7. Would you be willing to pay more for a desk PC chassis than a normal desk or PC chassis?
8. What's more important to you? (looks, silence, sweet sweet RGB action?)

I'd really appreciate any input or assistance you guys can offer on this. At the end of the day, I'd like to be able to produce at least a few of these, and hopefully make the lives of a few techies a bit sexier.
 
1. Yes
2. Always wanted to, but haven't.
3. As long as it runs cool, don't care.
4. Big enough for my PC, all my peripherals and a 5.1 speaker set packed around 2 monitors.
5. Bought a desk 5/6 years ago, haven't spent money on one yet. Guessing around 2k.
6. About R1500.
7. Yes, if it appeals to me.
8. Silence and coolness. If it has white led strips near the glass panel, it could look kinda sweet.
 
1. Would you be interested in a desk PC?
Yes, always have been and actually wanted to build one myself but never have the time.
2. Have you ever built a custom desk PC or converted a desk to a desk PC?
No
3. Water or air cooling?
Both, support for at least a 240M AIO is a must
4. How big would you want a desk PC if you wanted one?
Not more than 1.2m in length
5. How much money would you usually spend on a desk?
My current desk was R1200, it's a corner L shape desk
6. How much money did you spend on your last case / will you be spending on your next case?
R999, nothing fancy, just wanted a tempered glass side panel to look at my beautiful components, If I had the money I'd have a V8 with a tempered glass hood
7. Would you be willing to pay more for a desk PC chassis than a normal desk or PC chassis?
Yes, if it can include a tempered glass top panel and some fan cutouts as well as dust filters I'd go up to R2000.
Full aluminium would obviously cost more but I'm happy with the solid wood construction with aluminium/stainless steel mountings for internal components

8. What's more important to you? (looks, silence, sweet sweet RGB action?)
Functionality, must be a comfortable height, maybe even adjustable.
Definitely must have tempered and scratch resistant glass top.
Dust filters would help keeps things clean and make maintenance easy and will help with noise.
No RGB whatsoever in the barebone version, to reduce production costs for you and selling price for us.
 
I've actually for years thought of making high end custom real wood chassis for execs. that would look in place on or next to their desk. or maybe be part of their desk. and what do you price an exec's desk?

(now I must say, at that stage when I originally thought of it, screens were bulky. but nowadays with slim screens, it will be easy to raise and drop screens. )
 
Being in the corporate environment I think this should rather be aimed at gamers etc. We work with laptops for mobility that's the reality.

For gamers it would be awesome though!
 
if you doing this as a personal hobby sure, but with margins and ROI work wise I honestly wouldn't say its worthwhile to pursue as a business avenue. You could make a lot more money with a lot less time or effort doing something else, especially in South Africa
 
if you doing this as a personal hobby sure, but with margins and ROI work wise I honestly wouldn't say its worthwhile to pursue as a business avenue. You could make a lot more money with a lot less time or effort doing something else, especially in South Africa
AGREED!
 
I was designing and planning a wooden desk build and then I ended up buying a lian-li DK03 :censored:

If you have the space and plenty time to build a desk then it would be a cool side project, but building to sell you would have to get your design 100% correct and streamline the process somehow.

I believe there is a market and $$ to make in custom desks even if your design is simple I think they would sell.


Like this for example is a pretty cool idea,

Nice display, fan/airflow looks pretty decent
49507



Then you get more DIY like this

49508
 
Last edited:
This is an incredibly small and niche market. I've built 2 fully custom desk pc's.
The cost and labor just isn't worth it on a larger scale, unless you're using "cheaper materials" and you have a machine shop willing to do work on small quantities (This was a huge sticking point).
 

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