Dream Office

[demon8991]

Hi all,

Being a long time OcUK member, somewhere in the region of 17 years, this is my first time documenting a full build.

I have been planning a custom built office for a couple of years now and have been holding off on a full system upgrade for even longer with the view tech wasn't quite where I wanted it to be where it ticks all boxes.

This year I think the tech gods have aligned and pending availability I am hoping to have everything up and running by early 2021.

The office was recently finished and consists of a 3000mm x 850mm custom-built desk using a kitchen benchtop to achieve the large size and waterfall end. Cabinetry has power and CAT 6 networking hidden in it which feeds through a cable pass through into a custom-built cable tray running around the entire side and back edge of the desk. It also has LED strip lighting in the display cabinet which is customisable but is set to automatically comes on at sunset and go off at 11pm.

The plan is to have a virtually wire free office setup with either the monitors mounted and cables running through the wall into the hidden cable tray under the desk or having the monitors on the desk with cable pass through's drilled through into the cable tray. With the planned case being an NZXT H1 the cable ports are all located on the underside of the case so I plan to position the case directly over a cable pass through hole so all cables will also go through to the cable tray under the desk.

Setup as follows marked out in the photo for dimensions:

• Left will house an Ultrawide LG 38WN95C 1ms IPS 3840 x 1600 @ 144hz USB C
• Square in centre will house the main PC (NZXT H1 Case) and will be connected to both monitors build below
• Right will house a Super Ultrawide LG 49WL95C 5ms IPS 5120 x 1440 @ 60hz USB C
• Far right is Dell XPS 13 which will connect to the 49" through a single USB C cable.
  
• White chairs are there for context as I have two NeueChair Obsidians on their way

The build I am planning in the NZXT H1 is as follows, it would be great to get some feedback on it as I am still not 100% sure on everything at this stage.

• NZXT H1
• AMD Ryzen 9 5950x or the 5900x (undecided at this stage, will obviously wait for reviews too)
• ASUS ROG Strix B550-I Gaming Mini ITX
• Corsair 32GB (2x16GB) CMK32GX4M2B3200C16 Vengeance (could do with some help here)
• Samsung 980 Pro 2TB (when this comes available)
• Asus 3080 TUF or AMD 6800 XT or 6900 XT (pending reviews and availability)
  
• Logitech G915 Lightspeed Mechanical Keyboard
• Logitech G903 or G703 Lightspeed Mouse
• Headphones (I would love some advice on these)

Below is my current home networking a little messy I know:

• House is fully wired in all rooms with CAT 6
• Asus RT-AX88U
  
• 16 Port TP Link Gigabit Switch
• 5 Port TP Link POE Gigabit Switch (for security cameras)
• Synology DS 1817+ - 7 x 8TB drives in SHR (48TB usable) + 1 x 6TB for backup and camera surveillance + 1 external Samsung 1TB drive for portable overnight backups
• Backup UPS for Synology

Any feedback or thoughts would be very much welcomed.

 

[Mujja]

Looking forward to seeing the H1 sat between the two large monitors.

If components were readily available, I'd be building an ITX system in a H1 with the same parts you've listed.

Is the desk deep enough for the 49", would wall mounting give you more space?

 

[demon8991]

I am pretty sure it is deep enough at 850mm.

The end of the longer bits of card indicate where each monitor will finish with the stand at its deepest point. The smaller bits of card indicate the depth of each monitor without the stand but not including a wall mount.

Undecided at this stage whether I will wall mount them both or have them on the desk, will see when I have them both.

 

[orbitalwalsh]

@demon8991
checked out the b550 aorus itx ?

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B550I-AORUS-PRO-AX-rev-10#kf

550I AORUS PRO AX motherboard uses an pure digital CPU power design which includes a digital PWM Controller and a total 6+2 phases for Vcore and SOC, is capable of providing 90A from each phase and a total of 720A power design

its 8 direct 90amp phases instead of ASUS 4 teamed 50amp set up ???

8+2 50A power stages (but really its a 4 phase with 2 stages ran in parallel

specially with 5950x!!!

 

[demon8991]

@demon8991
checked out the b550 aorus itx ?

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B550I-AORUS-PRO-AX-rev-10#kf



its 8 direct 90amp phases instead of ASUS 4 teamed 50amp set up ???



specially with 5950x!!!

Thanks for the advice, how much of an issue are the power phases going to be when compared?

The two deal breakers for me are lack of USB C Front Header and Realtek LAN.

I will be using a NZXT H1 and the lack of USB C for the front is criminal in 2020, I also much prefer the Intel LAN offered in the Asus board too.

 

[orbitalwalsh]

Thanks for the advice, how much of an issue are the power phases going to be when compared?

The two deal breakers for me are lack of USB C Front Header and Realtek LAN.

I will be using a NZXT H1 and the lack of USB C for the front is criminal in 2020, I also much prefer the Intel LAN offered in the Asus board too.

Intel 2.5Gbe Lan port is broken... Realtek is the only one that works correctly . Worth googling . At normal 1Gbe speeds your fine though

 

[demon8991]

Intel 2.5Gbe Lan port is broken... Realtek is the only one that works correctly . Worth googling . At normal 1Gbe speeds your fine though

Done a bit of reading on this now, really annoying to be honest. I hope my board has the "revision" but I don't hold much hope.

 

[demon8991]

I know it has been ages since the first post, but I have finally finished the office/study.

The spec ended up as follows:

Laptops:

Dell XPS 13
HP Probook 640 G4

Monitors:

LG 38" @ 144hz - 38WN95C-W - Left
Dell 49" @ 60hz - U4919DW - Right

PC:

NZXT H1
AMD Ryzen 9 5900x
ASUS ROG Strix B550-I Gaming Mini ITX
Crucial Ballistix 64GB 3600mhz (2x32GB)
Samsung 980 Pro 2TB
Samsung 970 Evo Plus 2TB
Asus 3090 TUF 24GB
Logitech G915 Lightspeed Tactile Mechanical Keyboard x2
Logitech G Pro Wireless x 2

Chairs:

NeueChair Obsidian

Had to add strength and better stud positions to the wall to ensure the monitors could be wall mounted.

Last coat of plaster on and holes drilled for cables to pass through.

Wall painted and view from under the desk where the cables exit.

The cable tidy solutions I decided to go with, very easy to install and comes with the hole saw as well, keep everything in the same channel in the wall and very easy to add extra cables. I sprayed the lower one grey to match the colour of the cable tidy area under the desk.

Final pictures of the setup. The NZXT H1 has the IO located at the base of the case so I drilled a 60mm hole in the desk and added a plastic passthrough so that all of the cables for both monitors, power, USB etc to pass though the desk and straight into the PC.

 

[Thekwango]

Nice work. Got an extension planned myself that will become my office and this has given some food for thought

mind if I ask what those cable tidy things are and is it possible to fire me a link to them? They’d be exactly what I need for the current pc set up while the new office is planned.

 

[demon8991]

Thanks, really pleased with it. Been a big project delayed massively as we all know by global shortages.

The product I used was the CableClear, I got it from Bunnings (big hardware store in Australia)

https://www.cableclear.net/

I am sure you will be able to get them online somewhere in the UK though.

 

[Thekwango]

Cheers man.

love those chairs btw.

 

[demon8991]

Cheers man.

love those chairs btw.

Thanks, they are unbelievable and so comfortable, in my view a true alternative to the Herman Miller Aeron, much better looking too.

 

[Mujja]

A nice clean build.

Did you pick the H1 because the cables came out the bottom, or was that just luck. Looks good how it sits against the wall with no visible cables, in line with the rest of the build.

 

[demon8991]

Thanks, still want to add a bit of colour/art or something to liven the room and may get some LED strip lighting for under the desk and on the back of the monitors.

I decided to do an ITX this time round (last case was a Corsair 750D), I love the idea of having a small case jam packed with performance.

When I first saw the H1 I absolutely loved it. I know they have been in a bit of trouble with their riser cable but they have been great with me, I got a nylon set of screws very quickly and received my new revised riser around a month ago.

In terms of IO location it ended up being another tick in a long list of things this case does right.

The temps have been very good and I am getting low to mid 70’s on full load in both CPU and GPU.

Things I’d change or nice to haves, 750W PSU and a PCIE 4.0 riser.

 

[Joxeon]

Very smart setup you got there.

 

[TraceMillss]

It's an excellent job, man, but I don't understand why not just rent an office for a coworking space.

 

[Nevakonaza]

That looks super good, Lovely and clean & minimal.

 

[Baja King]

Nice job

 

[demon8991]

It's an excellent job, man, but I don't understand why not just rent an office for a coworking space.

interesting, why would you make that suggestion?

 

[HoneyBadger]

Lovely setup, I really like it.