Anyone using one of these PC workbenches? Good build quality? Worth the investment?

I haven't used that particular product, though several of my friends have. I did use it's basic design to build my own version. I am not a big fan of using a test bench made from any type of metal so I constructed mine from solid oak with pretty much the same look, but with the 2nd shelf having a higher elevation to facilitate easier removal of test motherboard.

I have been looking at the new model for a couple of months now. I really want to spend the money to get one for the house and one for the shop.

The only thing that's stopping me is that I have a great single level setup and space isn't a problem right now.

If I add another rig, I'll have to spend the money and this is the one I will get.

i have one:



this is the $80 one...i have to say i am EXTREMELY disappointed in this thing...for the money I paid, I expected a much sturdier setup and a much better setup (i cannot even lock the AGP/PCI cards down cuz it does't seem be drilled correctly for the brackets)

on a positive note, i do like the design

i wont be purchasing another one...though I would like the $130 one as it is larger...but I will stick to using my $40 all-aluminum Skyhawk case with removeable motherboard tray and my 5' wooden work tables

Thanks for that pic AG...kinda puts things in perspective seeing everything all hooked up. Not the nice sanitary view they show you on the HSPC web site...I think I'll save my money and deal with my coffee table for now

Upon further reflection, I think I'll just cut an old case down and use it for my in-progress builds.

dont judge cable cleanliness by my picture lol...im rarely ever clean...and the great thing about this lil station is you can have cables everywhere cuz thats normal...it aint meant for a 24/7 case or nothin...its meant as a 'put it in, test it, figure it out, move it out and move the next one in' sorta thing.

i could have bought 2x of the all aluminum Skyhawk (Lian Li clones) cases with removeable everything (tray, psu, etc) for the price of one of these =/

the only thing the Skyhawk case removeable tray doesnt have is a shelf above to store psu, cdrom etc...

Looks like HighSpeedPC has addressed some of the issues with their earlier units.

Link Goodness...
http://www.highspeedpc.com/

The standard size kit price is $79.99 and the assembled price is $95.00USD on their site.

I found the standard size kit at SVC for $79.99...
http://store.yahoo.com/svcompucycle/tech14x8-blk.html

If you want an awesome work surface on the cheap try a hollow wooden door from Home Depot laid across the top of two 2 drawer filing cabinets. You can even screw a couple cheap sliding keyboard drawers underneath and several outlet strips across the rear of the top and have plenty of room to sling parts.

-pickles

That sounds like a very good workspace you've got there.

Workspace is not a problem for me. It's the organization that kills my workspace both at home and the office. I have a couple of the Skyhawk cases on the workbenches at the office and a heavily modified desktop case at home. They all serve their purpose but I'm looking for something a little more user friendly.

Yeah Pickles! I had a setup like that, it was great!

You put the lockset hole towards the back and bam! Instant cable port.

Here's my home-made HSPS Tech Station clone. More than enough room to play around. I made a PCI-card screw-down block out of aluminum too, buuut I broke 2 drill-bits making the holes, and ended up scrapping it. The PCI cards aren't going anywhere anyways, and I'm careful not to bump them.

Does the trick, but I'm sure it's not for everyone
Hardest part was sourcing some old hard drive mounting brackets from old cases and finding suitable plastic stand-offs for the mobo mounting holes. Cost about ~$30, Home depot is your friend.

I decided to go open air after discovering that taking the sides, top, and front panel off my case and applying a small gust of air across the motherboard with just 1 80mm fan, was about 7-8C more efficient than the case with 2 80mm intake and 2 80mm exhaust fans. Who woulda thought!

I chose to use 2x Akasa 120mm AK-183-L2B to create the airflow for the HSPC tech station clone.

Got a new hammydown digital camera and setup, re-arranged things a bit so I thought I would update. The computer is actually on, and the fans are all spinning, but the capture appears like everything is stand-still, oooh.

HD's are kind of hidden next to the PSU and optical drives on a HD tray. They're no longer getting air from the 120mm fans, but don't seem too toasty.

Here's the one that I made out of scraps laying around the shop. Birch ply, maple and red oak. Its not done, it still needs a couple more coats of poly and the non slip stuff on top and still needs a couple of 120 fans. Notice mine uses nylon spacers under the board. The base is drilled for all the different bolt patterns and the spacers have pins attached that slip into the base holes. I have two plastic bolts to prevent slippage. All I need to do is setup my leds and switches





I'm thinking I'm gonna use the Logisys ccfl lighted fans to give a little light under the top. It holds 2 HDD's side by side the next version will hold 4. I already have 2 more ordered by my clanmates. I think its better than the HSPC version........
What u think?

Craftsmanship at it's best. Bravo!

This is the next shop toy I want to get. With this I will be able to produce just about anything, cpu water blocks, gpu water blocks, custom billet aluminum fan grills, just about anything

cnc mill

I have her almost done now, all she needs is 2 120mm fans and to mount the speaker. Here is some updated pics......
I still need to make a mount for the mini speaker and build the bracket for the fans. The fans will be on a bracket that is adjustable up or down. It will also be removable for better access to the mobo.


You can see I made my own little control panel so everything is right up front. Two switches for the fans that are on the way. Switch for the light and a switch for the power outlet. It has a power led and a HDD led as well as the normal power and reset switch


Here you can see how I made the HDD slide, red oak and a dado blade......


Here you can see how I made the AGP and PCI bracket. Waiting on the thumbscrews for it........



Here you can see that since I'm old and my eyes are failing me, I placed a light underneath.
EDIT: forgot to mention that all the wire is teflon coated silver wire, only the finest for my machine. Got the wire out of a military generator/converter. Boy the military spares no expense!


Here you can see how I made the pins for the mobo standoffs. Half inch nylon spacers and some scrap copper wire. Just put the pins in the board and your good to go. I also have some brass knurled nuts that go on the 2 plastic screws to retain the mobo when pulling out the pci cards.




All the fans, light and power outlet are powered by one molex connector.


Pretty slick huh!?
You guys just use your imagination and get friendly with those power tools and you can build anything you want.

I think this is much better than the ones you buy, and I can say that I built it myself!

Angry_Games: I think you may have the posts wrong, I put it together rather bass-ackward the first time, but it does line up some how:





Onsightsmith: Very nice work.



It's not a bad product, I gave it a good review, but I would rather build my own for the money it costs.

My beef with it, it's WAY too short, I have to take the top shelf off to use it for testing the large tower style air coolers.



(Before anyone asks, that is the Noctua NH-U12 heatsink. It's little brother the NH-U9 sent the XP-90C running home crying.)

Props to you my friend! That's looking splendid!

Roger on the too short!
Thats why I made mine with eleven and a half inches of headroom. Some of the heatsinks are huge these days and I wanted to make sure mine would handle them all.

That's an awesome home made one out of the wood

I was thinking about making one of these a month or so ago, but I wanted to Put the motherboard on the top level. I still have the wood but haven't got the time/tools to really make it.

I'm looking at buying the top-loading model (motherboard on top) they're the same price and look alot more convienient than having in the PSU up-top.

Link goodness...

http://www.svc.com/tetop14x9-blk.html

I am looking at buying one of these hspc tech station's and have a few questions for you guys. I am tired of taking my whole computer apat to upgrade a heatsink, replace a hard/optical drive, or having to clean the case and fan's every few months. So my questions are, can I run my computer 24/7 safely with this, can I overclock with it, and will I have a problem keeping my raided hard drives cool? I run 3 hard drives in my computer right now, but I am building a server soon so I will be taking my 500gig backup drive out an putting into my server. Till that time can I run the drive with it just sitting on the stand next to the optical drives? Do I need active cooling for my hard drives? I think thats about it. O wait one more thing, why cant I stop taking this thing apart and changing thinkg? lol J/K :sweat: Any insight would really be helpful!

P.S. this it the tech station I looking at buying http://www.svc.com/tech14x13-blk.html . If you know of a better one to get I am open to the suggestion's.

Hey Jelly, go check out this thread for some home made ones... mine cost me absolutely nothing and I guarantee it worked just as well as the HSPC ones... those things are definitely not worth $130! I wouldn't pay $60 for one...

Look at putting your motherboard on the top layer if you build one... you won't regret it!

I've actually used a setup like that for a desk, but the door was out of an old trailer house. And I made legs out of a few 2 by 4's.

I have 2 the older version and the new version. The old is kinda cheap but it works well for the quick set up and test. The new version is way better. It's so much better then the old one it's a night and day difference. I do a lot of testing and quick checks of things so it's nice to have a psu and hd all set up. For me it was worth the investment.

Here's my homemade test stand.
CHEAP, made from what I could find
I used nylon spacers and nylon bolts to rest motherboard onto top board.
Placed spare 92mm fan to cool my 3 hard drives
The fan covers up what I used to hold my hard drives in place.

I found some "J" plastic moulding used for ceiling tiles at Home Depot for a few bucks.
The hard drive fits into the channel. Cut off 3 pieces the length of the hard drive, fastened underneath the middle board. The hard drives just slide into it.
Added a piece of foam packing sheet on bottom to mitigate vibration/noise.
A small wooden wedge under the video card cooler, resting on unused pci slots keep video card straight up.

Here's a photo of the wedge.
Simple, but it works.
Can't be bothered making some sort of expansion card mounting bracket.

hi guys meet thug
mobo tray slides out the back psu sits on the to i had photos of this a while ago in the old street