Do you have more than one electrical circuit in that room? Personally, I'd feel safer with two, but I did not do the calculations to see if this setup would get close to 15 or 20 amps.

Oh, and very nice! I wish I had your organizational skills!

Barley wrote on 2026-08-28, 18:44:

Do you have more than one electrical circuit in that room? Personally, I'd feel safer with two, but I did not do the calculations to see if this setup would get close to 15 or 20 amps.

There are three electrical outlets (one for each wall minus the closets), but they are all on the same circuit.

I don't think it is an issue since I likely won't be using one system at a time. The highest amp draw would likely be my modern gaming system and I can't see a scenario where I am gaming on that while simultaneously running one or more retro systems.

Oh, and very nice! I wish I had your organizational skills!

Thank you! It's a result of a lot of trial and error over the years. 😁

I have two of these 32 inch deep desks, a 70 inch version and an 80 inch version: https://www.homedepot.com/p/63-in-Rectangular … CD-XL/329352239

I have them arranged in an L shape in a relatively small bedroom, maybe a bit smaller than yours. It's slightly cramped, but works fine.

May I suggest mounting power strips and network switches on the underside of your desks?

5 total systems will not leave you much room for a workbench, especially if you are decking them out with CRTs, full keyboard+mouse setup, speakers, etc.

I have two bookshelf speakers mounted on stands on either side of the 70 inch desk, on which is seated my main modern PC and whichever retro PC I'm currently using. Then the 80 inch desk has my ham radio setup and workbench with parts drawers. I have very little room left over.

In the closet in this room I have my retro PCs on one side (just stacked up rn), and all of my most commonly used parts and cables organized into bins on the other side. This means most of my cables and small parts for electronics repair, but not computer parts. My office supplies such as printer paper, staples, etc. are also located there. Less commonly used stuff and all of the computer parts I have organized into bins in the garage.

One thing you can do, to leverage a short worktop for CRT use is to stand shelves behind it. Then you can leave the shelf behind CRT clear and have it stick into it, and store stuff above and seldom used things below desk.

Good point about the power, you also don't want to be using more than 80% of the rating continuously. If you have no other method of monitoring, you can usually score a dead-battery UPS for free to cheap and the larger ones usually have power consumption display, half dozen sockets, surge protection and a handy off button. If you spend $300, you get all that and a working battery, though it probably only gives a few mins shutdown time at full load.

If you look at handyman magazines and annuals from the CRT era, you will often see projects for building cheap computer desks out of interior doors. I don't know what happened about 20 years ago, but suddenly interior doors quadrupled in price. So that was when you could get an unhung unfinished door for $30 and a sheet of 3/4 plywood was $60, now it's more like it's hard to find a door under $150 and the plywood is $80. So yeah, probably want to ignore that approach unless you find a source of cheap doors, our Habitat for Humanity stores have them priced kinda high.

For whatever reason, "storage" seems to go on sale in January/February, so then is when you can get deals on shelving units etc. I think it's that they price them up when they know ppl want to tidy up or make space in the guest bedroom for family staying during holidays, so they stock and price high then, and then clear it all out after new year.

keenmaster486 wrote on 2026-08-28, 19:09:

I have two of these 32 inch deep desks, a 70 inch version and an 80 inch version: https://www.homedepot.com/p/63-in-Rectangular … CD-XL/329352239

That seems like a good size for retro setups. Certainly 32 inch of depth should give plenty of space.

May I suggest mounting power strips and network switches on the underside of your desks?

I've experimented with various approaches to mounting power strips but never found a solution I liked especially for AC adapters (aka wall warts). I think I'll probably just put some power bars on the floor, but positioned in a way to keep them as hidden as possible.

Insofar as networking, I hadn't planned to network my retro systems (none of them are set up for it), but it does give me the idea that I might want to use these for LAN gaming. So mounting a network switch might be a good idea.

5 total systems will not leave you much room for a workbench, especially if you are decking them out with CRTs, full keyboard+mouse setup, speakers, etc.

To be clear, the workbench would be in the left closet. The closets are about 5 feet by 2 feet (156cm x 69cm). The plan would be to install a shelf at standing height and keep it clear so I can use it for disassembly of systems.

In the closet in this room I have my retro PCs on one side (just stacked up rn), and all of my most commonly used parts and cables organized into bins on the other side. This means most of my cables and small parts for electronics repair, but not computer parts. My office supplies such as printer paper, staples, etc. are also located there. Less commonly used stuff and all of the computer parts I have organized into bins in the garage.

That sounds similar to what I may end up storing in this room as well. With the less used parts stored in my basement.

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-08-28, 19:22:

Good point about the power, you also don't want to be using more than 80% of the rating continuously. If you have no other method of monitoring, you can usually score a dead-battery UPS for free to cheap and the larger ones usually have power consumption display, half dozen sockets, surge protection and a handy off button. If you spend $300, you get all that and a working battery, though it probably only gives a few mins shutdown time at full load.

I have a dedicated UPS with display for my main gaming rig.

I just checked it and at idle the system draws <100W. If I do something like web browsing, it jumps between 150W to 250W. So that's upwards of about 2A. I figure a retro rig might consume around a few amps at most (300W PSU and CRT monitor).

So having my main system and a retro computer running at the same time shouldn't pose any issues for power consumption.

If you look at handyman magazines and annuals from the CRT era, you will often see projects for building cheap computer desks out of interior doors. I don't know what happened about 20 years ago, but suddenly interior doors quadrupled in price. So that was when you could get an unhung unfinished door for $30 and a sheet of 3/4 plywood was $60, now it's more like it's hard to find a door under $150 and the plywood is $80. So yeah, probably want to ignore that approach unless you find a source of cheap doors, our Habitat for Humanity stores have them priced kinda high.

For whatever reason, "storage" seems to go on sale in January/February, so then is when you can get deals on shelving units etc. I think it's that they price them up when they know ppl want to tidy up or make space in the guest bedroom for family staying during holidays, so they stock and price high then, and then clear it all out after new year.

My plan is to fabricate everything myself. My current desk pictured in the opening post was made with dual sheets of plywood laminated together and then trimmed with solid wood. It's both really solid and weighty which I like for stability, and is nice to drill into for anything I want to attach to it.

Using doors for a desk is an interesting solution though. Not something I would have thought of.

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-08-28, 19:22:

...
If you look at handyman magazines and annuals from the CRT era, you will often see projects for building cheap computer desks out of interior doors. I don't know what happened about 20 years ago, but suddenly interior doors quadrupled in price. So that was when you could get an unhung unfinished door for $30 and a sheet of 3/4 plywood was $60, now it's more like it's hard to find a door under $150 and the plywood is $80. So yeah, probably want to ignore that approach unless you find a source of cheap doors, our Habitat for Humanity stores have them priced kinda high.
...

Yeah. That's what I'm using. Two interior doors put together so I have an area of 205x150cm. I'm using two Ikea Alex drawers under one door and partly also under the other door and then two Ikea desk legs in front of the second door. Ideally I would like an area of ~250x150cm. Was planning on having on it one every day computer, one modern retro (WinXP or possibly Win7), one old retro 286/386/486 and Amiga 1200 / Atari 800XL - what exactly depends on my mood. But now I only have one modern computer and the rest as "storage" area for testing parts. Otherwise I have a test desk (180x80cm) in one corner of my room for testing whatever comes around. It seems there is never enough free space 😉 Might take a photo of this mess later 🤣

Shponglefan wrote on 2026-08-28, 18:22:

Computer room closet storage.jpg

Hey, that's the first edition "Diablo Battle Chest" - the large box, isn't it?

It's awesome when you have a space for a dedicated retro-room. I barely have room for one desk station + a cabinet for storage. 😜

dr_st wrote on 2026-08-29, 13:59:

Shponglefan wrote on 2026-08-28, 18:22:

Computer room closet storage.jpg

Hey, that's the first edition "Diablo Battle Chest" - the large box, isn't it?

It's awesome when you have a space for a dedicated retro-room. I barely have room for one desk station + a cabinet for storage. 😜

It does look like it !

dr_st wrote on 2026-08-29, 13:59:

Hey, that's the first edition "Diablo Battle Chest" - the large box, isn't it?

It's awesome when you have a space for a dedicated retro-room. I barely have room for one desk station + a cabinet for storage. 😜

It is indeed the Diablo Battle Chest! 😁

And I'm definitely fortunate to have the space for this. Just never tried building a dedicated room before now.

I was doing some more power usage calcs and thinking of different usage scenarios.

I can think of a few scenarios for running multiple retro PCs at the same time, including potentially using them for LAN gaming. Though I doubt I would run more than two at once.

Assuming each retro PC uses at most a few amps, that should still be well below the potential total power draw on this circuit.