MODDING / READERS’ DRIVES
boxes. There are supports under the
desk that allow the monitors to stay
inpositionastheymove.The lifts look a bit slow in the
video. Is there any way to speed
them up?
Martin: I’ve received a few
comments about the speed of the
lift, but it’s been calculated to be
at its quickest. If it goes any faster,
the force of the actuator, plus the
weight of the monitor box, will
pop the joints on the boxes or bend
the wood. This is how I realised
that aluminium wasn’t a suitable
material for this – even with
welded joints at a certain speed,
the lifting force either bent the
aluminiumorpoppedthejoints.Tell us about building the
desk. What woods and tools
did you use, and how is it all
secured together?
Martin: The desktop is made from
a single maple slab, the trunk is
made from a sycamore tree and the
monitor boxes are made from pine.
Thedeskis joinedwithdowelsand
woodglue,andmainlysupported
bythetwologs.I didn’thavea
workshopforthisbuild,soI only
usedhandpowertools– a circular
saw,a router,a jigsaw,a drillanda
rotarysander.You’ve drilled through the
console from the bottom for cable
routing – is there any similar
internal cable routing in the rest
of the desk?
Martin: The only other internal
cabling is for the powered USB hub
that sits in the other corner. One of
the other design points was that
other people in the house would be
able to use the desk for laptops if I’m
not using it. I cut out a hole in the log
for the hub, then routed a channel
for power cables on the underside of
the log. All the other cables are tied
and clipped to the underside of the
deskandhiddenbehindthemesh.Why did you choose the
Phanteks Evolv Shift X, and were you
tempted to make your own wooden
PC enclosure to fit the theme?
Martin: No. The idea of this desk
was to be a piece of furniture rather
than showing off any PC internals.
As well as the Shift X being the
only case on the market that would
fit in the space, it’s also one of the
cleanest and understated-looking
casesinmyopinion.You’ve built a few pieces of PC
furniture – tell us about some of
your favourites.
Martin: I’ve got a soft spot for
all my builds. Each one has had aThe sycamore log in the corner goes
almostallthewaytotheceiling, with
aheight of 2,150mm
SYSTEM SPECS
CPU AMD Ryzen 7 3700 X
GPU Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX
590 8GB AMD 50th Anniversary
Edition
Case Phanteks Evolv Shift X
Storage WD Blue 500GB SSD,
2TB hard drive
Memory 64GB Corsair
Vengeance DDR4 3600MHz
Monitors 2 x Acer KG1 27in 240Hz,
7in 1080p screen
Extras Logitech C920 HD
Webcam, SteelSeries Arctis 5 with
GameDAC, Apex Pro TKL, Rival
700 and QCK Prism
Motherboard Gigabyte X570 I
Aorus Pro WiFi
PSU Corsair SF750
Cooling NZXT Kraken X62 all-in-
one CPU cooler