H3nrik V! wrote on 2024-01-14, 21:22:

Looking for inspiration. As of now, I have a motherboard tray with no support for peripheral cards lying on top of a stack of til boxes. FDD/HDD/ODD lying next to it, power supply falling down often. It sucks, but I'm missing the inspiration to make something smart. Help me out here 😎

I have the cheapest testbench from Amazon with a 939Dual-Sata2, an A64 3200+, a CF to IDE card and a 1000w modular PSU.

No room for hard drives or optical devices either.

It used to be a salvaged motherboard tray and drive bay from an ATX case. In recent times I'm just using a uATX Acer Veriton desktop case.

"Proper" testbenches are way to overpriced for what they are.

My test bench is just the top of my workbench. It's covered in an anti-static mat, so I'm not worried about shorting anything.

I prefer the flexibility of being able to mix and match any components as needed. Especially since I routinely work on both AT and ATX setups.

Just basic board with an ESD surface is really all that's needed for a serviceable test bench, IMHO.

Nice to see some setups. My problem is space, so I am balancing everything on top of my Milwaukee PackOut til boxes, so I need something that can quickly be removed for me to open the boxes.
I'm currently using an ATX mount plate from a Thermaltake Cube, which I had to scrap since vinegar, sunlight, etc wasn't enough to get the smell of smoking out of the plastic parts. Unfortunately it doesn't have any retention bracket for pci etc., but I'm about designing and 3d printing parts to mount psu, hdd, fdd, odd etc below the plate, hoping to be able to get it stable enough ...

Oh, BTW, I do have a stack of ATX cases in the shed, I just don't feel right about gutting a perfectly fine case for the tray and drive mounts ..

acl wrote on 2024-01-20, 10:49:

I have the cheapest testbench from Amazon with a 939Dual-Sata2, an A64 3200+, a CF to IDE card and a 1000w modular PSU.

That looks identical to what I did but I didn't like the fact the PSU only had two screws holding it in. I upgraded to a stacking version for 50 dollars on AliExpress.

Dimastech test bench here.

Modified a balsa crate for my little backplane.

I purchased this really nice Bench with draws and shelves and power strips.
I purchased from a computer supply liqidator.
It’s in my Garage with boxes stacked on top.
So I never use it.

For now I just use my 486 computer as a table with a cardboard box on top for a Test Bench.

acl wrote on 2024-01-20, 10:49:

No room for hard drives or optical devices either.

Yes it is me. I can't reply to PM because of forum rules.

Cooler master haf xb evo can be configured as a test bench, "normal" pc, taken to a lanparty; it's stackable... you name it!

nd22 wrote on 2024-01-25, 10:31:

Cooler master haf xb evo can be configured as a test bench, "normal" pc, taken to a lanparty; it's stackable... you name it!

Yup, that's the case I have for my daily driver 😀

My reasonably priced one 😀
I got this one I think 6 or so years ago for retro build in mind for 15 EUR brand new. Well I can say it was objectively priced. Still paid for it so I'm using (part) of it.

vutt wrote on 2024-02-04, 11:54:

My reasonably priced one 😀
I got this one I think 6 or so years ago for retro my build in mind for 15 EUR brand new. Well I can say it was objectively priced. Still paid for it so I'm using (part) of it.

That's a cool take on it 😀

I've decided; in the light of nothing reasonably priced available, to put the Ender 3v2 and Fusion 360 into work.

I've let myself get inspired by this https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4935303 and am in the process of constructing a similar setup, using the tray from the ThermalTake as a base, and printing side stands like the ones in the link, with a PSU mount. Also I'm making mounts for 5.25" ODDs, 3½" floppy and whatever number of 3½" HDDs there'll be room for.

Any inputs on what else, I'd be happy to mount underneeth the tray?

Decided to finally build myself a test bench platform. While putting components directly on my workbench was fine, it definitely wasn't optimal for space.

I'm hoping to stack the PSU and drives underneath the motherboard will give me more space to work with.

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-05-20, 17:07:

Decided to finally build myself a test bench platform. While putting components directly on my workbench was fine, it definitely wasn't optimal for space.

I'm hoping to stack the PSU and drives underneath the motherboard will give me more space to work with.

Nice work. Wish I had the tools (who am I kidding; the talent) to work on plywood like that.

I finished my test bench. I added a slot on cut-out on top for routing power cables. I found that some PSU cables wouldn't reach, so this solves that issue.

Also added some edgebanding and glued down some anti-static mats. The rubber coating helps grip things in place.

H3nrik V! wrote on 2024-05-20, 19:56:

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-05-20, 17:07:

Decided to finally build myself a test bench platform. While putting components directly on my workbench was fine, it definitely wasn't optimal for space.

I'm hoping to stack the PSU and drives underneath the motherboard will give me more space to work with.

Nice work. Wish I had the tools (who am I kidding; the talent) to work on plywood like that.

Thank you! Not sure how much talent is involved, but having a table saw certainly helps! 😅