10.19.2014 My body is ready. My desk is not.

TOTAL SCORE. I bought my desk yesterday off of a Facebook Yard Sale group for $20. I wanted something sturdy, but that wouldn't impede my frantic leg swinging and chair spinning. There's few things in this universe that irk me quite as much as a tiny little work desk with filing cabinets built in on both sides because I'm constantly knocking my legs against the sides. I spend so much time at my desk. It needs to be pretty comfy. I also needed something fairly large, I've had a small desk before and it's very hard to put my drawing tablet on my desk and actually be comfortable. I wanted a rectangular one because of how versatile that is for room placement. I didn't want to have to stare into the corner anymore. With my current L-shaped desk I have exactly one option for where to put it in my house, and it's in front of a window and requires a Wi-fi connection.

To reiterate what I needed: Sturdy, Large, Frantic leg kicking space, rectangular

So I got this bad boy.

For $20 I lucked out. I've been keeping an eye out for about a month for a good desk and it paid off. Now I poked around on Pinterest and figured out how to paint laminate. It's all about the prep work: I cleaned off the table and lightly sanded it with some medium-grit sandpaper I had left over from a sculpting project. And then the main thing is getting the right kind of primer. It has to say it's specifically for a glossy surface, or even specifically for laminate. I used Zinsser 123 Bullseye primer for the wood because I saw it recommended on a few "how to paint laminate" tutorials, and Rustoleum clean metal primer because I've heard only good things about Rustoleum, and there was a little bit of rust on the metal legs of the desk. I think this desk came from someone's workshop.

The supplies were about $50, but that will last for more than just this project. Also the can of black paint was free, part of some event last year, so that's leftover. The foam brushes are cheap-- they're going to get destroyed.

This is the desk cleaned and sanded...I swept up the mess then put the table on a plastic tarp for painting. I'm painting this inside because it's gonna take 7 days to cure the primer and I want to do it correctly. There's also wasps on my back porch so...no thanks.

First I started by priming all the wood as you can see here. I did two coats on all the wood parts.

Then I used the clean metal primer on all the metal parts. At this point I realized I probably could have just used the same primer all over, but oh well. Having extra primer around the house isn't going to hurt, especially since it's likely I'll have to paint more furniture for this project...specifically a filing cabinet and maybe a bookshelf. 

And the primer is all done! I've gotta wait 7 days for it to dry, so in the meantime I get to work on the design. I'm thinking basically all the wood parts will be black and the metal will be white. That will probably give it that sophisticated look. I might try to incorporate some washi tape into the trim, but I haven't decided quite yet. In the end I'm going to use polycrylic for the clear coat to make sure my desk is durable. I expect with all the waiting for things to dry this will take quite a while.

P.S.: I will say I made the unfortunate mistake of trying to wash the foam brush after I used the metal primer. The oil based primer didn't want to wash out at all. I ended up getting paint all over my hands. My boyfriend had to rescue me with paper towels, canola oil, and salt because I couldn't leave the bathroom sink without making a mess. Live and learn I guess. 

I've been wanting a really nice fancy gaming rig ever since I was a little girl. After years of working and waiting, I'm finally financially able to do so.

And as they say: Go big or go home!


So I'm building/buying an entire matching office set and the computer from scratch. This blog will track my progress and misadventures.

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PC Parts Picker Page

Purpose: My Dream Machine that I've always wanted to build. I want it to look nice, and be able to handle video editing, software development, and gaming with relative ease. I will need a decent wireless connection since my router is across the room, and USB ports a-plenty for all my gizmos.

I plan to build this up slowly, upgrading as I go and making the most of sales and price watching. I'll be making sure to start with the bare minimum to get the system running and adding the graphics card, extra ram, SSD, and backup hard drive last. I just want to get things going because my old computer isn't cutting it.

It'd be nice if the thing didn't sound like I lived next to the airport, but performance over quiet in most cases.

This will be my first time overclocking if I decide to do that. I've built computers before but none were this extreme, I usually just built things where someone else picked the parts already or I copied someone's build.

Updates:

Update 10/19/2014: My hard drive got lost in transit. I have to reorder it. To get it for $88 I have to pick Standard Shipping so I can't rush it even if I wanted to. Boo. Also I'm buying and making office furniture to match my computer case. I bought the desk yesterday for $20 and I've sanded and primed it today. It will take 7 days for the primer to cure, so I have time to work on the design before I actually paint it. The polycrylic for the desk will also take time to dry so this desk may be just finishing up as I finish my build. I also found some neat white leather office chairs that will work great for my setup.

Update 10/04/2014: Need to figure out how I'm going about overclocking and tweaking so I don't spend money I don't have to. If I'm not overclocking on some things there probably isn't a point. Also! My headset is broken in the right ear... I don't hear very well so while I'm playing game tournaments or Skyping friends and family I can't hear them. :( I may go ahead and buy that sooner than later. I think I'll get a stand for my headset, too so that it doesn't get so torn up. Maybe one for my boyfriend's headset, too so he's more inclined to stop stealing mine lellelelel

Update 10/01/2014: So I've pretty much settled on the Asus GeForce GTX 980 4GB being my graphic's card. That thing is sexy. But seriously, from the benchmarks I've looked at it obliterates anything else even close to it, even the 970. Being Asus, it will also match my motherboard. I was always planning on dropping a large amount on the GPU so I'm okay with that. The current price tag is about $550, but since I don't need this part right away I'm going to see what Black Friday/Cyber Monday brings.

Update 10/01/2014: Doing research-- I think my next step will to be to try to find a motherboard and CPU. They tend to be bundled and they have to match. I'm continuing to keep an eye out for a sale on the case I want -- I know that it tends to go on sale about once a month or so for 119.99. If I can get a refurb from CM I'd take that as well, but I've been watching that for like a year and haven't seen any.

Update 9/30/2014: BUILD STARTED-- My old computer's hard drive is failing, so I'm going to buy the hard drive and OS to tide me over until I can get all my parts in on sale. Just shoving them in my old Dell for now. I plan to have an SSD for my OS and another 2TB hard drive for backup in my final build, but as far as I'm concerned those are probably some of the last parts I'll buy.

Components:

The Essentials to get it running:

Hard Drive for Backup Storage:Hitachi Deskstar 7K3000 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM. From personal experience I knew I needed to get a Western Digital or Hitachi hard drive for the extra reliability. I knew I wanted 7200 RPM, 64 Cache, and SATA 6Gb/s. After reading the Blackblaze study (Study: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/what-hard-drive-should-i-buy/)) I decided on the one the study recommended because I got a good deal on it and it has good reliability and it fit my needs. I also actually need the 2TB of space for my video editing. I got this off Amazon for $88, even though it wasn't listed on pcpartspicker it looked like it was on sale. Newegg had it listed for $229.95.

Operating System: Windows 8.1. This is mostly a personal preference and I also use it at work. I opted for the Full Version over the OEM so that if I upgrade the Motherboard I can take my OS with me. From reading Microsoft's documentation OEM won't let you do that.

Case: Cooler Master Storm Stryker. A good brand with styles that I like. I picked this for the roominess, aesthetic, and that sturdy handle because I find myself moving my computer around a lot. Airflow and cable management are highly rated and if I decide to put LED lights in there they look great. Also I'm tired of my black computers, which are kind of the "standard thing" right now.

Motherboard: Probably looking to get a Asus (seems like the best brand for motherboards overall) (Z97 Chipset -- the X99 chipset came out recently so getting the previous generation chipset is loads cheaper) (Intel compatible: I like Intel CPUs over AMD) http://www.asus.com/us/site/motherboards/Z97/comparison/ -Asus, EVGA or Gigabyte, or MSI - Intel, not AMD - Any size, my case will hold it. Probably ATX or eATX so I can get more slots for upgrading later. - Must match CPU socket - Video card needs the correct slot on the motherboard. For the last few years, this is PCIe. - Prefer something aesthetically pleasing. Black and white or just solid black: - Min 6 USB ports. I'd like some 3.0 ports as well...but I can always get a USB hub so whatever.

Looking at:

CPU: - Intel, not AMD i5 or i7. As I do a lot of video editing I might spring for the i7....but the price is a big factor to consider.

RAM: Probably going to start with 4-8GB depending on price. I just need some to get her going...but a lot of the sales bundle RAM. (How much can the rest of my system support? No point in having 16 GB of RAM if my computer can't utilize it.)

Power Supply: Make sure it can power everything. Better to go a little overboard than under. I want a modular PSU so I can have improved airflow & less clutter. Most PSU are fixed with amount of wires. Especially important since I want certain color wires. I should aim for a 850watt or higher PSU so I can upgrade later. Must make sure it's compatible with SLI/CF so I can upgrade my graphics card later when my current GPU isn't keeping up with things anymore.

CD/DVD Drive: Mostly I need this for installing or troubleshooting Windows, so I consider it an essential. It's also cheap. I want read/write capabilities and something actually sturdy. I've had quite a few drives go out on me over the years because I moved my computer around.

Internet Connection: Need to account for wireless/ethernet. This may to some degree be taken care of by the motherboard.

Building Her Up:

Graphics Card: I'll use the motherboard's stock graphics card until I can afford something nice. This will probably be the most expensive part of my computer. I may eventually upgrade to 2 graphics cards, but that would be -way- down the line. I just want to make sure what I get -is- compatible with doing that later on.

Heat Sink Fan: Using stock until I can afford

RAM: Extra RAM

SSD: For the OS.

Backup HD: For when the first fails to help save my data more conveniently in conjunction with another online backup service like GoogleDrive or something similar.

Prettier, Quieter Fans:

White Cables: For aesthetic purposes. I saw how nice this was in some of the other Stryker builds.

Peripherals:

I already have basic peripherals from my last build so they will be the very last things to upgrade

Drawing Tablet: I have an old Wacom Graphire I'd like to upgrade to an Intuos at some point.

Keyboard: I would like to upgrade to a waterproof keyboard. I've had one before that got torn up from moving. I gotta buy one that is a legit keyborad, not one of the roll up/gummy ones-- you can't type as fast on those. It can't damper my ability to type or game-- I just want it to be easy to clean.

Mouse: I'd like to get something more suitable for gaming at some point. I don't think a claw style would be good for me because I have issues with my hands that make that kind of grip uncomfortable.

Speakers: An upgrade to something above the tin cans I have would be nice, eventually.

Headset: The LED light on mine is broken. I'd like one that rests behind the ears...it's more comfortable and puts less pressure on my sinuses.

Printer: I just happen to need one now and then.

Additional Monitors: I would like a 2 or 3 monitor setup.

Desk & Chair:

What's the point of having a nice computer if my desk still looks dumpy? I'd like to either build a desk that fits the theme of my computer, or buy one. Since I'm a programmer and gamer, I need a chair I can spend lots of time in. A custom desk should help show of my computer, help keep it cool, and leave it easily accessible so I can plug things in and turn it off and on. I need space for my drawing tablet along with my mouse and keyboard.