I’m really interested in where you are going with this and would enjoy following your process.
One challenge I think you are up against has been the fairly constant evolution in size and form of computing device and peripheral. I’m interested in how you would approach this, because I’m my view, good anything is timeless, furniture included. But the computer desks of 20 years ago make little to no sense now because the shape and support requirements of Our moniters and what not have changed so much.
In my experience, it’s the monitors that have changed the most. In 2005, I had a ~mATX mid tower sized PC (in fact it’s still in my possession) with a 2.1 speaker system (also still in my possession) , a keyboard and trackpad, a UPS, and an inkjet printer, with a single 19" CRT monitor. Now, I’ve got an mATX mid tower PC, a keyboard and mouse, an inkjet printer, 2.1 speakers, a 34" ultrawide flat panel, and a 1080p panel.
Norm Abram built a computer desk on the New Yankee Workshop, which was basically a pillar desk with false drawers that house the PC tower itself on one side and a printer/scanner on the other, with the monitor and speakers on the desktop, and the keyboard and mouse in the false center drawer as a keyboard tray. That design would hold up as you could span a large flat panel or two across that desk, but I still think cable management is a nightmare, there’s no room for a UPS, subwoofer, a switch or router, etc. Plus it’s kind of a bad idea to put the computer in an enclosed space like that, electronics get hot.
It’s a pillar desk bent around a computer not unlike a Honda Civic bent around a pine tree.
I can say this from experience, these desks that close up to look like some other, older kind of furniture but open up to be a computer workstation stop getting closed up, and then they look kind of trashy because they’re always hanging open.
I also find the idea of hiding the electronics to be kind of wrong-headed. Apple is as much a jewelry company as they are a tech company; their users don’t want to hide their hardware, they want to be seen with it. Gaming PC enthusiasts often build PCs to be seen, in styled cases with glass side panels, showy lighting, you can get designer PCIe cables and dye for the water in your cooling loop. A gaming PC can be an art project in and of itself, its owner doesn’t want to hide it in a cubby.
the other thing I think you’ve got going for you is that in general, computer just… look better. we’re well past the grey box on a bookshelf days.
But at the same time, even handsome computer builds are pretty unique. It would seem like with all the available variations, you are kind of stuck building a deck in relationship to a single machine. Is there any way around this, considering, at least in my experience, I replace my machines far more often then my a desk.
Well, there are ATX standards. I have noticed a fairly recent trend for making computer cases oddly wide as part of the “fish tank” aesthetic. But again, with the exception of an ITX build I did, most of my computers have been ATX mid- or mini-tower size
I’m really interested in where you are going with this and would enjoy following your process.
One challenge I think you are up against has been the fairly constant evolution in size and form of computing device and peripheral. I’m interested in how you would approach this, because I’m my view, good anything is timeless, furniture included. But the computer desks of 20 years ago make little to no sense now because the shape and support requirements of Our moniters and what not have changed so much.
In my experience, it’s the monitors that have changed the most. In 2005, I had a ~mATX mid tower sized PC (in fact it’s still in my possession) with a 2.1 speaker system (also still in my possession) , a keyboard and trackpad, a UPS, and an inkjet printer, with a single 19" CRT monitor. Now, I’ve got an mATX mid tower PC, a keyboard and mouse, an inkjet printer, 2.1 speakers, a 34" ultrawide flat panel, and a 1080p panel.
Norm Abram built a computer desk on the New Yankee Workshop, which was basically a pillar desk with false drawers that house the PC tower itself on one side and a printer/scanner on the other, with the monitor and speakers on the desktop, and the keyboard and mouse in the false center drawer as a keyboard tray. That design would hold up as you could span a large flat panel or two across that desk, but I still think cable management is a nightmare, there’s no room for a UPS, subwoofer, a switch or router, etc. Plus it’s kind of a bad idea to put the computer in an enclosed space like that, electronics get hot.
It’s a pillar desk bent around a computer not unlike a Honda Civic bent around a pine tree.
I can say this from experience, these desks that close up to look like some other, older kind of furniture but open up to be a computer workstation stop getting closed up, and then they look kind of trashy because they’re always hanging open.
I also find the idea of hiding the electronics to be kind of wrong-headed. Apple is as much a jewelry company as they are a tech company; their users don’t want to hide their hardware, they want to be seen with it. Gaming PC enthusiasts often build PCs to be seen, in styled cases with glass side panels, showy lighting, you can get designer PCIe cables and dye for the water in your cooling loop. A gaming PC can be an art project in and of itself, its owner doesn’t want to hide it in a cubby.
the other thing I think you’ve got going for you is that in general, computer just… look better. we’re well past the grey box on a bookshelf days.
But at the same time, even handsome computer builds are pretty unique. It would seem like with all the available variations, you are kind of stuck building a deck in relationship to a single machine. Is there any way around this, considering, at least in my experience, I replace my machines far more often then my a desk.
Well, there are ATX standards. I have noticed a fairly recent trend for making computer cases oddly wide as part of the “fish tank” aesthetic. But again, with the exception of an ITX build I did, most of my computers have been ATX mid- or mini-tower size