Building the ENDGAME invisible PC

coming up in this video we'll be working

with sliding rails pneumatics and

springs as well as soldering up a giant

heat spreader for an experimental

cooling system all on top of dismantling

an OLED Monitor and the goal building

what appears to be a normal wooden desk

however you are watching DIY perks so

this desk is far from ordinary it is in

fact the endgame invisible PC let's

go now some parts of this build are

going to be super complicated but

thankfully one thing that I won't have

to design myself are the legs as this

video is being sponsored by flexispot

advertising their E7 Pro standing desk

system which I'm going to be integrating

completely into the build now if you've

not heard of flexi spot before they make

really solid adjustable height desks

that can change the way you interact

with your computer now thanks to the way

the legs have been designed they can

actually be mounted onto custom desktops

which I'm going to take full advantage

of by making a massive custom desktop so

we have enough room for the various

mechanisms that'll make the invisibility

concept work and just like my last desk

PC build I'm going to be using for its

main structure two sheets of 3 mm thick

aluminium now as you can see it is

somewhat bendy but that's easy to fix

with some extruded aluminum lengths by

screwing the aluminium sheets directly

to these they become a lamination which

brings some significant advantages while

remaining Hollow you see these sheets

were super floppy but just look how

rigid they are now that they're bolted

together and this is going to make a

fantastic desktop um so with all that

done we're now actually ready to start

working on the potentially quite complex

mechanism to make the hidden monitor

system despite how complicated things

are going to get it start start out

being quite easy as cutting a hole for

the monitor to fold down into only takes

a few minutes using a jigsaw as

aluminium is quite a soft metal choosing

a hinge for this is where things start

getting a bit more involved though you

see simple hinges like but hinges would

leave a visible Edge going against the

concept of the build but what about

concealed cabinet hinges these are

definitely more like it but

unfortunately they don't rotate around a

stationary Point as this point literally

moves as they open making them difficult

to figure out how to design around for a

non-standard use case like this

ultimately after a lot of

experimentation I've settled on some

rather unusual invisible hinges which

thankfully have a purely rotational

hinge movement making them far easier to

design around and with them mounted in

place the hatch can open and close

without the hinges being visible in the

closed position perfect with this now

sorted the complexity is about to

Skyrocket though as we need to use this

rotational movement to affect the height

of a platform in front of the hatch

basically turning rotational movement

into linear movement before we can get

going with this though we need to make

the platform itself which can just be

cut from the lower aluminium sheet

making it look a bit nicer with some

vinyl wrap as this platform needs to

have various components mounted to it

I'm going to utilize some vslot

profiling to give them adjustability as

they can be used with captive t-notes

anywhere along their length this allows

pretty much anything to be added or

taken away or adjusted as required which

is going to be very important for the

mechanisms we're about to build the

first of these mechanisms is going to be

limiting the platform to purely up and

down movement and is going to be based

upon some linear sliding rails these

work thanks to having tiny bearings

inside a guide carriage for smooth

operation and thanks to the vslot

profiles they're very easy to mount in

place with one in each Corner once

they're mounted to their accompanying

rails they allow the platform to slide

up and down as required but how are we

going to control its height purely from

the rotational movement of the monitor

hatch well the key relies on the

addition of another set of linear rails

to the top of the platform linked

together with some aluminum

strips that these can slide back and

forth is vital as the intention is to

use them with some heavyduty L brackets

these are custom made to be of the

required dimensions and have bearings

installed to provide an easily rotatable

point where they're attached to the

additional

sliders now while everything is upside

down in the shots you should still be

able to understand what's going on here

with the other side of the brackets

screwed to the monitor hatch the monitor

Hatcher rotational movement causes the

other end of the L brackets to be forced

further away and because they're linked

to the platform through the sliding

sections the platform is completely free

to follow along cool as you can see

though it only affects the rear side of

the platform but as the sliding section

runs all the way to the front we can

actually use some extra identically

proportioned brackets to exploit

geometry and turn it into a

parallelogram forcing it to remain flat

no matter what with it flipped the right

way up it's now the moment of truth will

it

work hey look at that much to my joy

this works a great with the opening of

The Hatch resulting in the platform

rising up to become flush with the rest

of the desk the most important Milestone

of this build as you can see though it

does have a tendency to slam closed but

this is easily fixed with some pneumatic

struts these strongly resist being

opened out but are happy to close with

very little opposition so by attaching

them to the vslot profiles they'll

restrict the movement of the sliding

section and force the hatch to close

softly I'm also integrating some tension

Springs to help them along as they'll

counter the effect of gravity on the

platform and the hatch and bias them

towards their opened positions this

balances the system beautifully

providing not only a nice soft close

action but making it much lighter to

operate as well to finish things off the

use of some magnets allows it to

confidently lock into its open position

when it gets there which makes the

platform feel surprisingly solid

there's plenty of space for a keyboard

and mouse here and the mechanism moves

them out of the way completely to make

room for the screen speaking of which

seeing it's such an important feature it

makes sense to go with one that's rather

special you see computer monitors have

gone through some major advances in the

past few years to the point where we can

forget about old style LCD panels like

this entirely and use a vastly superior

OLED one instead now as you can see this

is an ultra wide which is a fantastic

format for both gaming and productivity

but what makes it particularly special

is that it can be made Flat an essential

feature for the desk as it makes the

monitor's profile super thin it's

Electronics pose a challenge though as

they are on the back so need to be

detached to be hidden elsewhere I'll be

honest dismantling such an expensive

monitor is a bit scary but there's not

too much that can go wrong so long as

I'm super careful this one is more

complicated than most due to its

adjustable curvature arm but once

everything is finally stripped down I'm

left with the raw OLED panel it's

incredibly thin and also thankfully

incredibly light but it does have some

proud mounting cylinders that will

prevent me from attaching it directly to

the front of the monitor hatch as they

are simply in the way my only real

option is to drill holes in the monitor

hatch for them to hopefully disappear

into

as this is also a bit floppy though I've

made two identical copies to make it two

layers thick with some vinyl wrap around

its perimeter to finish off its visible

Edge once it's reattached a front plate

can also be installed directly onto it

this again helps with rigidity but it

also provides a lip for the OLED panel

to rest upon now so much of the build

actually relies on this installation

going smoothly and if it goes wrong it's

going to be extremely costly because

this panel and the screen was like 2K so

yeah there's a lot resting on this

actually uh working well so I'm just

going to lift it up and it's going to

stand on that lip and these holes at the

back should allow the little Noggins to

go through and as each of these Noggins

has an internal thread I can use them in

conjunction with some washers to pull

them tightly in place there's just

enough room on the bottom here to

connect one of the two control boards as

well with the other tucked inside the

desk behind the

hinges with the screen now installed the

concept really is starting to come

together and it's looking pretty awesome

but as this is just so unique I think it

deserves high power PC components for

inside it the ones I have for this are

some of the highest end parts available

right now an Intel 13900 K on an ITX

motherboard and a Zotac 490 graphics

card to get the most out of them I am of

course using water blocks so that the

heat that they generate can be pulled

away from them as quickly as possible

and of course the other benefit of using

water cooling is that it keeps their

profile quite low so that they can fit

within the desk using some PCB pillars

to make them nice and

secure as there's not quite enough room

for a normal power supply though I'm

using a set of gallium nitride

Alternatives these can deliver 500 watts

each one of which is dedicated for the

motherboard and CPU and the other for

the graphics card as for storage I'm

adding a flash store Nas that I'm

populating with 12 4 tbte flash dries

for a rather gargantuan 48 terab of

space accessed directly through a 10 GB

m.2 network card we are after all going

for the end game here with everything

wired up and the water blocks connected

together in series we need to think

seriously about how we're going to deal

with all of the heat that these

components generate as they total over

800 WTS and standard PC radiators aren't

really an option because they're just so

thick while smaller radiators are

definitely available I have an idea that

I really want to try which is to use

these old server heat sinks as you can

see they've got a really fine fin

structure which makes them extremely

effective at transferring heat into the

surrounding air and they're the perfect

size to match these laptop fans if you

recognize these These are actually from

my previous project where we made a

portable PS5 and if you remember from

that video These fans are bidirectional

which means that they can actually cool

two heat sinks at once and in this

configuration they can actually get rid

of 40 watts of heat

silently now obviously that's a long way

shy of the required 800 we need to get

rid of here and that's why I've bought

40 of them this is Possible only because

they are just so cheap as they are after

all from decommissioned servers and are

available online for pretty much nothing

in order to combine them together into

one giant heat sink though I've bought

some brass box sections to make a

massive heat spreader for them to attach

to as you can see these are completely

Hollow which is important as the idea is

to have the water that cools the

components flow through them to transfer

all of the heat into the brass to do

this effectively they each need some

holes drilled through them so that the

water can flow from one to the other

being brass they can of course be

soldered together really easily making

each join

watertight in order to provide some

water entry points I'm simply using some

Barbed elbow joints again using plenty

of solder to ensure that there won't be

any

leaks the intention with this is for

water to enter one port and go up and

down its entire length a few times

before exiting through the other Port as

the surface area of this new brass

construction is so large it basically

becomes a massive heat spreader which

allows all of the heat sinks to work in

tandem to remove all of the heat from

the water now it does end up being super

heavy but thankfully I don't have to

worry about this as the flexi spot desk

is happy with a load up to 160 kg so me

and my dad should weigh about 160 kg

together uh and the desk can handle it

no problem it goes so high you could

actually paint a ceiling really easily

with it way and this is a lot of weight

this is two people like it's it's a lot

so I don't think it's going to have any

problems holding those heat sinks having

so many heat sinks though does mean we

need quite a few fans to keep them all

cool with the idea being that they

should each work at a slow speed to

operate quietly in order to take

advantage of their bir directional air

output I've 3D printed some air ducts

that can take the rear output and push

it back towards the top heat sink so

they both get cooled at the same time

now wiring up so many fans has the

potential to be quite a tedious job but

my favorite method to speed things up is

to use strips of copper tape to make

some voltage rails with the third strip

carrying a Fane speed control signal

known as a pwm

signal after hooking up the custom brass

heat spreader to the main water cooling

Loop the whole thing is ready to be

filled with coolant as there hasn't

really been room for a proper Reservoir

inside the PC though I'm using an

external pump to force the water into

the system as it allows me to get rid of

any air pockets by temporarily looping

the coolant through the external plastic

container before we can test it out

though it does need closing up with the

bottom panel since you last saw this

it's had a variety of holes and cutouts

made in it most of which are for airflow

purposes and to allow for easily

removable covers for access to the

internal

components so although this is on the

bottom and won't really be seen having

it finished in this vinyl wrap makes it

look really rather smart and honestly

I'm pretty happy with how it's turned

out but before we flip it over and start

working on the top section which is of

course still raw aluminium I'm getting

fed up of it just being perched on top

of my workbench so I think it's high

time that it has its own legs and this

is where we're going to be installing

and integrating flexi spot standing desk

system now this is the E7 Pro and I've

made some slots for the legs to be

fitted into like so now if you weren't

integrating these into such a custom

project they'd normally be installed

onto their robust steel frame which is

how flexispot have managed to maximize

rigidity on all of their desks this

steel frame also houses the control box

with a smart magnetic cover keeping it

all neat for me though I've housed this

control box inside the spare chamber

opposite the PC components where all the

cables for it can be plugged in so with

the feet added the next job is to get

this upright and uh I think it's a bit

heavy for me to do on my own so I'm

going to employ some

help oh

nice that's good look how solid that

is hey look at that how cool is this now

let's try out the uh flexi spot legs oh

yeah all that's

smooth check that out so I've just

adjusted it up and it should be about

the right height to use as a sit down

desk which it is but what if I want to

stand and do some work standing up which

I personally actually prefer a lot well

with the push for button I can actually

raise this up and uh it becomes a

standing

desk look at that and if you're

particularly tall uh it can go really

High it just keeps

going and

going and

going and we're done so it goes comes to

a nice stop now um as you can see the

raw aluminium doesn't really suit being

a desk surface so we need a way of

covering it with a much more suitable

material I've encountered this problem

before of course as the original

invisible PC was also constructed out of

aluminum which I gave a wood appearance

by gluing thin wood V on top to disguise

it this hasn't really stood up to the

test of time though as some parts of it

have started to peel away so this time

round I've ordered some massive Oak

planks don't worry I'm not about to

stick these on top and call it a day I

took them to a joiner to have them

divided up into many smaller and thinner

lengths compared to veneer these are

still much thicker though and are

actually structurally sound and will

make a much more robust covering for the

desk I'm using some ct1 glue here to

stick them down to the aluminium being

extremely careful to make sure that they

fit nicely around the monitor hatch and

the keyboard platform another advantage

of using thicker wood compared to veneer

is that it's possible to Route out some

patches of it underneath to make room

for any elements on the desk that are

proud of the main aluminium surface like

the back of the monitor's wiring and

some of its threaded

Noggins if you're wondering what the

white patches are that's actually wood

filler which goes into any gaps or knots

to make them smooth once it's sanded

down so with all of the wood added it

really hides the aluminum well but what

about the front and sides due to all of

the mechanisms that have been jammed

inside the desk it's not actually super

thin but to make it appear much thinner

and more elegant we can employ another

illusion tapered edges as you can see

these have an angle to their unders side

which means that once they're glued to

the Outer Perimeter they give the desk a

much thinner appearance with only the

thinner forward Edge being visible very

cool the MIT joints in particular are a

really nice touch and I've got my dad to

thank for these as he made these extra

sections and that's why they're so

precise as he's a much better woodworker

than I am after giving it a thorough

sanding down it looks absolutely

fantastic and the final job is to give

it several thin coats of oil to bring

out the richness of the wood when

putting oil on Oak it can end up with a

pretty bold honey colored finish which

I'm personally not a fan of So to avoid

this I'm using a combination of two

types of oil to give it a lighter

appearance the difference with this

technique makes it look almost like a

different type of wood and is definitely

more to my tastes being oiled gives the

surface a cohesive finish with the hatch

barely being visible now except the back

edge of course as the hinge point is

below the surface of the wood a Groove

has had to be made to prevent the wood

from intersecting and jamming as it

opens to make it completely invisible

I've made a little spring loaded insert

that can fill the Gap with the idea

being for it to move out of the way as

the hatch opens and pull itself back in

when closed and it's surprisingly

effective and with that the end game

invisible PC is complete just looking at

it you wouldn't assume that there's an

entire PC setup here the thought that

there's a monitor keyboard mouse and a

fully water cooled selection of ultra

high-end components right here in front

of you is kind of wild even if you did

know it was here though how on Earth is

it supposed to be opened well this

secret lies with what appears to be a

silver paper weight it might appear

rather ordinary but it's actually a

super strong magnet of course it's not

attracted to the aluminium at all so

even when resting on the desk it doesn't

give any clues away but earlier I

embedded a steel sheet into the top edge

of the monitor hatch underneath one of

the bits of wood this gives the paper

weight a specific area to be strongly

attracted to allowing it to become a

sort of key that can be used to open the

system up thanks to the internal sliding

rail mechanism this opening action

brings the keyboard platform up to be

flush with the rest of the desk's

surface and because it moves so

thoroughly out of the way when closed

the space for pretty much anything you

can think of here I've not only got my

full-sized mechanical keyboard and mouse

but I've built a little speaker system

and dock as well even headphones and an

audio interface can be fitted here all

to be made invisible with one simple

movement that this works so well is

hugely satisfying especially having

spent so many weeks making sure that

this mechanism works properly and that

it's on Flexi adjustable height desk

system gives it that final level of

Polish now one aspect of the build that

hasn't been tested yet is its cooling

system which is rather unusual so let's

put it through its paces and make sure

that it can actually keep the hardware

in check for this I'm running two bits

of software at the same time Prime 95

and furmark these stress the CPU and

graphics card respectively to push them

to their limits for maximum power draw

the heat from which has to be gotten rid

of by the cooling system as the

components have used are pretty much the

highest end parts you can get right now

it's a lot of heat to contend with and

ideally we're looking for them to

Flatline in temperature but disaster

they don't the temperatures of the

components keep going up and up

ultimately reaching their maximum and

throttling to keep themselves from

overheating and what's worse is that

this is with the fans at full pelts

making a lot of noise now this is

supposed to be the end game invisible PC

so that its cooling system isn't working

anywhere near where it should is pretty

annoying so what on Earth is going on

here and what can we do about it well

after some experimentation it appears

that the issue lies with the airflow

path of the fans being too restricted by

things like the air duct and ironically

the fine fin structure of the heat sinks

resulting in them barely moving any air

at all it's actually so bad that I think

the best course of action is to compl

completely remove this version of the

cooling setup and come at it from a

different angle this time swapping out

the small bidirectional fans for some

normal 140 mm PC fans you know there's a

reason why they use them in PCS and

sometimes just sometimes it's worth

going with the crowd and not

experimenting too much they do of course

protrude beyond the bottom of the desk

now but I don't think that this will be

too much of an issue as they are at the

back after all and will never really be

seen these obviously can't be made to

work with the old heat sinks so I'm

swapping them out as well in favor of

some that have a significantly wider

thin spacing as well as a taller height

and this should help keep airflow

restrictions to a minimum these heat

sinks are also from decommissioned

servers and are even cheaper than the

first set despite being much larger and

arguably nicer looking thanks to their

nickel plated finish from here it's

pretty much the same as before the heat

sinks can be placed side by side right

along the back of the desk with the

custom brass heat spreader being

sandwiched in between them it looks kind

of wild and I've never seen so much heat

sink surface before this might seem a

bit over the top but the thing is these

heat sinks have cost less than a single

computer radiator so in terms of value

they're actually excellent but will they

fix our cooling issues there's only one

way to find out well uh yeah

yeah they do perhaps a little

unsurprisingly this quantity of heat

sinks absolutely obliterates any heat in

the system and it's able to keep all of

the components cool without even

breaking us sweat I mean the fans are

turning at about 400 RPM and yet they're

keeping 800 WS of PC cool silently and I

really do mean silently here's a little

example so you're presently listening to

the audio output from this studio grade

microphone so if the PC is making any

noise you should be able to hear

it I can barely hear

anything that's absolutely fantastic so

remember this is running thermark and

Prime

95 I'm happy with that now although this

heat sink setup is far larger than the

old one it's not at all visible unless

you're literally on the floor so there