computer desk

[Kyle Petersen]

Hey there everyone. I am new to the newsgroup. I am looking for a modern looking computer table plan. If there are any hits let me know.

Thanks!

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Got plenty of hits. 3,900,000 of them in 1.18 seconds in fact. Glad I could answer your question. Ed

[Bill Thomas]

[Ken Johnsen]

Plansnow.com has a modern corner desk, that worked real well for me

Ken

[Bob Davis]

With the advent of thin LCD monitors and tiny computer cases, does a "computer table" make any sense any more? I think a desk designed as a desk, rather than a place to hold yesterdays monster computer gear makes more sense.

Bob

[Elwood Dowd]

You are certainly correct that the design should match the intended use. With an eye toward future needs of course. However, that being said, a designer needs to seriously examine the needs of the user.

Anything dependent on color fidelity---like editing photographs or video---will suffer using an LCD monitor. The color fidelity just isn't there, and it isn't adjustable. I agree for 95% of office work they are sensational, but for editing family and genealogy photos and doing limited video production I doubt I will ever be able to give up my tank.

Also, small cases are nice if you have no expansion plans. If you work in a geek-related industry you may need more physical space than your average DellGatewayAlienHPWhatever can offer. My expansion slots are completely filled at this point, and with 4 hard drives plus a DVD burner it is getting impossible to expand without completely upgrading the computer itself. Not to mention peripherals---I have two printers (b/w laser and color inkjet), two scanners (flatbed and 35mm film), connections for digicam and camcorder, plus laptop and its doodads, not to mention UPS, networking equipment... (sounds like I need an equipment room rather than a desk)

Note that I work in high-tech and my technology needs are many, and this is probably not so for normal people. However, it pays to think about it rather than just building something generic from someone else's plans.

FWIW... I am designing a desk right now, three sides with a big adjustaable odd-shaped keyboard tray. Laptop gets its own vented drawer. Desk is held up with 2-drawer filing cabinets. I'll try to take photos during production.

The one thing I hate about corner units, especially with 30" deep desks, is that it is impossible to reach the shelves back in the corner. The only way I can think to resolve this is to make shelves that stretch across the corner at 45 degrees. This leaves a triangle of unusable wasted space behind the shelves, but it ensures that what is on the shelves can be reached. I am planning a couple of large shelf units to go above my WonderDesk, and I'd love to hear how others approach that particular problem.

[Dave Hinz]

I agree; I'm redoing an oak table (with a horrible case of bad finish) for the purpose of becoming a computer desk. I just need room for the system (an iMac), printer, and occasionally a scanner. All the other crap just turns into clutter. Got the table and a really nice rolling office/library chair to match, for 50 bucks. Now, for 10 or 20 hours of refinishing time...

Dave Hinz

[jo4hn]

[snip]

There are still some "monster computer gear" out there. With LOMLs photography hobby, we have two printers with the probability of a third. Also designs of PCs have the various plugs (printers, storage devices, displays, camera inputs, etc.) on one side and DVD, CD, floppy, etc. access on the other. I am puttering with the design of a built-in system that would allow two sided access to printers and CPUs, plus all the usual impedimentia (keyboard, mouse, screen, paper storage, etc.).

If any of you have ideas, let me know. If and when I come up with something, I'll post photos (if it's any good). mahalo, jo4hn

[Dave Hinz]

You've never used an Apple LCD display, obviously, for both statements are not true in Apple's case. I've seen some very bad LCD displays out there, it really pays to compare 'em side by side.

My other monitor is a 19" Sony Trinitron flat-screen, and I prefer the Mac's LCD for this type of work. Now, maybe if the 21" that I have at work was at my house, I'd prefer that, hard to say.

Rack-mount the servers & go with a KVM. Wireless networking is your friend, as well. I can have the display from whichever system I want put up on the screen of my mac, keeps the physical desktop clean while giving me all the systems I want to call on.

Could you just run the shelves all the way back? There will always be seldom-used cruft that builds up back there, with the good stuff out front? Dave Hinz

[Elwood Dowd]

Excellent idea

[BruceR]

Dave Hinz wrote:

I have a 21" Apple studio display (Trinitron) that I use nearly exclusively for Photoshop. The high end Apple LCD displays are superior to others in the critical categories, but they (LCD's) still are a tad short on the contrast ratios and true black that a good CRT can produce. Running colorsync does keep everything from the digital camera to the monitor to the printer in lock so if I do need to do some "quick" work with only the LCD I can usually get it right.

My current (temporary) solution is a corner desk with the monitor slightly recessed (in the corner obviously). Large monitors and computer desks just don't go together unless you can use a corner to give you depth without making the desk "wings" overly wide. The beauty of a temporary solution, no matter how crude as long as you can secure everything, provides an opportunity to "live" with the setup before committing to finer construction. Currently besides the corner recessed monitor, I like a small shelf that contains two dividers stretching wing to wing above the monitor that is only 10" deep by 8" high. The depth could be much more but then things would get lost. Wasted space, yes but I am considering making the triangle section of top shelf that fills the corner "flip up" so I have a compartment where some of the misc. crap can go (router/switch, airport, etc). The scanner which I use for both pages and 35mm slides is located in a top drawer with a removable section of desktop directly above it. This allows me easy access when scanning and a quick way to "hide" it when not in use. It also allows use without having a drawer sticking out. The printer is in a lower cabinet and fortunately the paper tray and out feed tray are in front, I can get at them without moving the sliding shelf out. The CPU sits in a similar cabinet/sliding shelf. All ventilation is via semi-open rears that I probably would tighten up (for dust control) and maybe put a quiet cage fan on in the final version. The CPU case has the important I/O (Firewire, etc) on the front where access is easy but I'll probably run cables and fab up a patch panel so I have access at the desktop. DVD burner is external in a firewire case so it's easy to find. All the other junk like UPS, cable trays, etc are stuffed away so I'll need to figure a way to improve access.

The key is to live with a mock up an design in what you like/need and design out what you hate :)

-Bruce

[Scott Lurndal]

Actually, this hasn't been true for a couple of years. With the right video card and correct (DVI-D) LCD monitor, you can get true color fidelity - as many who use them for pre-press are aware.

SGI, for example, offered a very nice digital LCD with their intel-based systems a couple years ago - complete with the ability to tune the gamma corrections on the display to match printed output; I believe the monitor was actually made for Apple.

scott

[Bruce]

[bridger]

one of my clients is a high end photographer. he has a monitor just for color correction. it has a hardware thing you suction cup onto the screen for calibration and a proprietary software system to run it. that system cost several thousand dollars. he dismisses his brand new macintosh lcd monitor (one of the ones about as big as a billboard...) as being not suitable for accurate color work.

[Dave Hinz]

Well, perhaps, but he's probably in the top 0.5% of critical users. For my semi-pro photo work & genealogy scans, a good LCD is very much acceptable for the job. But, he's the guy with a couple grand worth of color calibration hardware/software, so if he can see a difference at the top percent of the scale, it's probably real.

[Mark Jerde]

I like this guy's desk. ;-)

-- Mark

Kyle Petersen wrote:

[J. Clarke]

Depends on how you define "accurate color work".

Current LCDs have 24-bit color, CRTs are analog and their color gamut is limited primarily by the video board. This is usually not a problem for pre-press where you're using fixed ink colors and halftoning, but can be if you're going for a more elaborate and expensive process.

Within the limits of the color gamut of the monitor, fidelity is almost completely adjustable, and this is usually done using the video board, not the monitor controls.

If you're printing using anything but a dye-sublimation printer or an imagesetter then I doubt that the 24-bit color limitation of the LCDs is going to be an issue.

As for video editing, bear in mind that camcorders generally are limited to

24-bit color at best.

[Larry Jaques]

On Thu, 22 Jul 2004 03:10:51 GMT, "Mark Jerde" calmly ranted:

But you'd hate to pay the electric bill?

--------------------------------------------------- I drive way too fast to worry about my cholesterol. ---------------------------------------------------

Refreshing Graphic Design

[Mark Jerde]

It's probably not much different from mine. He has two computers and 10 monitors, I have 5 computers and 7 monitors (plus an old Win95 computer & Win3.1 computer that are hardly ever turned on anymore).

Why so many? I write software and I need more than a computer ShopSmith. Server, development machine, laptop, test machine and family computer.

Life is good. ;-)

-- Mark

[George Shouse]

Should probably add that a 19" CRT monitor costs $200 and the

17" (equivelant to 19" for viewing) LCD starts at $400. And, of course, CRTs are about equivelant across the board for color fidelity so you can just buy the cheapest. Extra money on a CRT might get you some longevity... The $400 LCD probably doesn't come close to the color fidelity of the CRT and you probably want the $600 Xerox or $700 Apple LCD. Of course, if you'd rather spend the $400~$500 extra on LCD instead of wood, that's your choice.

George Shouse

a fan of the World Champion Los Angeles Lakers It must be a Purple and Gold thing. Thanks for honoring the Original Lakers FAQs at