Building a Custom Wooden-base Open PC

It was time to build a new PC after finishing university, and normal PC cases are boring so I went all out.

I'm a big fan of tech and like seeing the inner workings of machines, so I set myself the challenge of building a PC that was almost a piece of art in itself.

I started off by deciding on the components and using Solidworks to lay them all out. I got a sheet of plywood and cut it to the required size and sketched out the component positions and wiring slots.

I used wooden skirting to make the edges look nice, and cut a recessed section for the external USB and audio ports. I used a jigsaw to cut the wiring slots and a drill for the holes for the LED strips and attaching the acrylic sheets the components will be mounted on.

I made the base look respectable with some sanding, stain and polish. I contacted a local business to cut some acrylic panels with edge bevel, and used a dremel to grind a groove through the middle of each to accommodate the LED strips.

Finally it was time to attach the components and wire everything up. I had to get special expensive shielded extension ribbon cable for the graphics card to work reliably. It's a bit of a birds nest under there but there's a bottom panel to hide it all and it looks pretty clean from the top!