[Worklog] Initial thoughts on my OpenBenchTable - #47

So I've been pretty excited about getting mine in, doubly so given the number my order had as I'm somewhat of a Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy fan.... Before I write anything else though, I'm rather curious about two things....

- Why does the number of the table I was sent (47/200) NOT match my order number (1042)?

- Why is there a fairly large scratch as well as a chip on a new product, and blatantly obvious ones at that?

Actual review and proper pics to come later on once I've calmed down, as I'm kind of rather livid right now.

what scratch

I noticed mine didn't match my order number either so I assume people were ordering more than 1 or they just didn't bother to match them up. As for the scratch I'm guessing it slipped past QC and I'm sure they will make it right. I would email Xyala directly.

contact@openbenchtable.com

Apologies for the delayed replies, I'll have more of a proper write-up in the near future as I haven't had much of a chance to spend time around my benching area the past few days (Tuesday inadvertently dropped the lip of a can of Coke onto my right foot while refilling the fridge after thiefing the last one, and kind of couldn't walk or stand most of that night without excruciating pain, and Wednesday hubby acquired Alorak in Starcraft II and pretty much stole for into that for the evening).

Tonight's pretty much reserved for cleaning up my benching area (it's somewhat of a disaster area as it also became the collection point of various things due to my gaming rig moving from that desk back to my Obutto R3volution), and if I run out of time to do a proper write-up (aka "wall of text" as my teammates like to call my "short posts", lol!) with better pictures (living room has lighting more for effect, than flooding the place with light - gotta love being light sensitive) I hope to be posting them sometime tomorrow evening (evening for me, anwyays ).

Initial impressions are that it's rather easy to assemble, and once the power supply is installed it's rather stable..... As for the number, 47 may not be as epic as 42, but on the flip side it is Hitman's agent designation (Agent 47) in the Hitman series of games that I rather enjoyed playing (at least Absolution... Yeah yeah, I know, it isn't one of the so called classics but it was a ton of fun)

Anyways, back to cleaning up my benching area so I can actually take those pictures and whatnot.... Won't have any subzero stuff to report on for a while though, due to finances being focused in other areas (and.... uhm.... Currently no monitor for the benching rig. Should be fixed before Country Cup I hope ;;;; )

The past week and a half or so has been a rather interesting one, thanks to a combination of weather as well as two of our delivery drivers being sick. Oh, and a short week too, because of Thanksgiving. Needless to say, it's made for a few interesting times at work. Oh, right, and because of that I spent all my free time trying to clear a few levels in various games, so pretty much neglected the whole "write up my full fledged opinions on the OpenBenchTable" thing.

Regarding the nick and scratch... I think the biggest reason why I was so frustrated about it is such was pretty much the first thing I saw when I lifted it out of the packaging, since it's on the handle side. Once the bench table is set up it's only visible if you're looking for it, but having such be the second thing you see is probably what got me so wound up initially.

Anyways, moving onto the bench itself. I'd post pictures of the packaging but others have already done that with an SLR camera, and I only have my phone combined with low lighting in our entire place, so I'll just skip ahead to what I used to be using

While the ArmaFlex on top of a motherboard box is practical, at least for insulating things, it does bring about with it several problems for me. First and foremost, while it's stable "enough" for what I do, I'm not quite a fan of how things readily shift every time you have to push something down, even if it's just plugging in a fan. Secondly, it takes up a decent amount of space with no real options for cable management. And third, it was just plainly an eye sore in my living room in comparison.

Originally I had planned on picking up something from Dimastech, specifically the EasyXL (or an Easy v3.0 with a Hard 2.5), but after looking further into things decided that three main things ruled them out - poor availability, they're insanely large, and arguably the most important their lack of customer service. CaseLab's BH7 was also a contender, especially given the absolutely wonderful berry colour. What, were you expecting me to say black or orange? It's the wrong shade of orange for me Anyways, as gorgeous as their Bullet lineup is, and even with Jim's assurance that it would be able to handle the weight of full cooling pots without issue due to how they're designed, one big thing changed my mind as to the solution I was going to go with - teaser shots of the new OpenBenchTable were released.

When the original prototype came out for the OpenBenchTable, I liked the thoughts and ideas behind it, but didn't see it as a contender. In fact, in some areas I was fairly vocal about what I saw as the prototype's shortcomings, with my biggest complaint having centered around the acrylic pieces holding all the hardware inside. Thankfully, the OpenBenchTable team listened to a lot of advice and opinions of benchers that were a lot more sensible about things than I was and pretty much all of the concerns I previously had have been rectified with the production version.

So, just how do things look and feel now that I've picked up the OpenBenchTable?

Well, to state it in a short manner, despite not having actually benched on it just yet (something about not having a monitor over there anymore, which will be fixed this week), I'm quite happy with it. After a short while (10-15 minutes, I didn't really time myself because I was having too much fun looking at various different things) I had it all put together. Picking it up to move it around brought one thing immediately to mind - this table is LIGHT, like barely noticeable when being carried around. While light in weight, it's still strong and durable. Yup, I tried somewhat to try and flex it, and didn't get all that far with such...

Before installing all of my main hardware onto the table, I wanted to check on something that a number of people have inquired about - just how stable is the OpenBenchTable? Well, without any hardware on it, including the power supply, it seems it wouldn't be that hard to tip IF you gave a good enough bump. However, once you install the power supply underneath the OpenBenchTable casual attempts to tip it using a similar amount of force as before the power supply resulted in somewhat sore fingers for a moment because it didn't budge at all. I didn't hit it with a sledgehammer, but at the same time my biggest worry is just bumping things - I won't be benching in a construction zone!

Anyways, while I've written a lot and even rambled somewhat, just what are my thoughts on the OpenBenchTable in the end? In short, I find it a rather versatile benching setup that has enough space for most setups, having the ability to put an ITX, mATX, and ATX motherboards as well as a power supply and two hard drives. It's rather simple to put together, and once you've done such once or twice I wouldn't doubt it if one could get it sorted out in two minutes or less. It's strength lies in the fact that it can easily be used as a portable setup as well as a sexy semi-permanent setup in one's living room that won't stick out like the motherboard box setup sure did.

Do I have any issues with it? Arguably there's the lack of a power and reset button, or even space to put them, but at the same time most people who are benching have a habit of using boards with power and reset buttons built onto the motherboard, so it isn't really an actual issue in the long run.

Also.... What hardware am I running on it right now?

Motherboard: Asus P5E (with a Rampage Formula bios)

CPU: Intel Core2Duo E8500

CPU Cooler: Thermaltake Friio Advanced with Cougar fans

RAM: OCZ Reaper DDR2 1200MHz

Solid State: Kingston 64GB SSDNow

Power supply: Corsair GS700 (will be replaced with an EVGA 1000 watt G2 at some point)

Video Card: EVGA 9500 GT

Shiny screen thingy in a PCI slot is a bios code reader.

I love how people are ingeniously using the PCI-Express stand for anythingelse than the VGA support !

Same, they're rather useful to have! Most importantly, it keeps that fan there without me having to worry about it, and so hopefully it will keep the north bridge relatively cool on that board... At least until I pick up a set of Enzotech heatsinks to take care of that "problem" (which some time later will be replaced with either a Watercool north bridge cooler or even Kingpin Cooling's NB-2 if he's still making them - I want to beat Christian Ney's fsb record on this board, I'm only 0.05MHz behind him!!!!!!!)

Hey WhiteWulfe, thanks for sharing and nice write up

I have to say that from your pictures things are not as bad as you maid in sound in terms of tidiness haha! Table fits very well in the landscape.

 

Best wished of success for beating Ney

Ohhhh, there's a reason why I used a picture from May.... *laughs nervously* Here's how that area looked before the tidying up, after my OpenBenchTable came in....

As for beating Ney's score, I now have the combined power of a window AND Northern Alberta winters, so I suppose I could use that as well as some dry ice to hopefully push tings a tad further

I suppose I could also include a low light, kind of fuzzy pic of it actually in use too

If you're wondering why that looks like a '70s or '80s design at the back there it's something my parents gave me a while back.... Their collection of 7" 45rpm records. Totally forgot it was there. Oh well, I haven't really found anything to put them in that looks nicer yet, since I typically deal with 12" cut at 45rpm (mmmmmm, hardstyle, gabber, and DnB tracks)

Mmmmm..... cocoa with mini marshmallows.

Enough caffeinated carbonated candy to last me about 15 minutes too.

I like your style.

Many thanks. Give it a few weeks and there should hopefully be a cooler full of dry ice to go with it all too, just in time for country cup. Duniek pot will eventually be replaced at some point next year with some sort of one piece cooling pot - probably a Kingpin F1 Extreme Dark simply because I like it and it's a well known performer... And I'll probably add in some sort of water cooling setup in order to make use of winters as well as the fact that such a setup could easily be moved out of the way with just a few thumbscrews when one goes subzero.

We usually try to have various snacks around the place, and change it up here and there. The Jones candies were a nice surprise, I'll have to pick up some more, although we usually get our caffeine through coffee as one might expect by the two mugs that look surprisingly brand new.... Didn't want to ruin the "limited edition souvenirs" work gave us and pretty much nobody else... I actually have a few that aren't readily visible in that pic too, including a keychain celebrating our parent company's 30th anniversary too.

Oh, and since somebody will probably eventually ask, the ceramic mug says....

Our Values

We partner for mutual success

We innovate with passion

We play to win

We brew a better world

Also love your monitor mounting! Pretty nice

Many thanks! If I remember correctly, they're Mount-It MI-751's, and the monitor there is a refurbished Dell2213H

@WhiteWulfe Any chance you post this topic on the new forum ?

 

https://community.hwbot.org/forum/177-open-benchtable/

Living room is currently torn apart, but I'll try and rewrite it up with nicer pictures due to two reasons (1: better mobile phone now, and 2: I have a mirrorless ILC now so no mobile phone pics, mwa ha ha).

Joys of living in a small space and trying to keep everything organized, you have to make massive messes when moving stuff around >.>;;;;