Feeling pretty good after putting together your brand new standing computer desk? Step aside please, [Kagen Schaefer] has something he’d like to show you.

His Pipe Organ Desk is undoubtedly one of the coolest pieces of furniture we have seen in a long time. The project took [Kagen] over three years to complete, which sounds about right once you see how much attention was put into every last detail.

This desk is amazing in several ways. First off, the entire desk was constructed solely from wood. The drawers, the supports, knobs, screws, and even the air valves – all wood. Secondly, when one of the desk’s drawers are pushed in, air is directed to the organ pipes at the front of the desk, which plays a note.

A small portion of the air is also directed into the desk’s pneumatic logic board, which keeps track of each note that has been played. When someone manages to play the correct tune, a secret compartment is unlocked. The pneumatic logic board is an unbelievable creation, consisting of well over 100 wooden screws which can be tuned to recognize any number of “secret tunes”.

Sure a well-placed axe can open the compartment too, but who would destroy such a fine piece of work?

[via Make]

If you think that your water cooled rig is pretty sweet, check out this creation by Dutch PC enthusiast [Peter Brands] (Google Translation).

With his computer tweaked as far as he could imagine, he decided to spruce up his office a bit. In the process, he ended up tweaking his computer just a little bit more. After seeing a build put together by another computer enthusiast, he set off to construct a desk in which he could show off his computer. He spent some time drawing up plans with Google Sketchup and with the help of a friendly neighbor, started construction of his desk/PC case.

The desk is constructed from 3mm thick aluminum, and houses most of his computer’s components under a thick piece of glass. The only portion of the computer that is not enclosed in the desk is the 9-fan radiator he used for his water cooling setup. That part resides in his crawl space, which he connects to his PC via a pair of large water hoses he punched through his tile floor. If you are interested, you can see all 800+ pictures of the build here.

Simply awesome!

[Thanks duchie]

The BendDesk is a horizontal and a vertical multi-touch display connected as one curved surface. Think of it as a smart white-board and a multi-touch desk all in one. It can be used to sort and edit information, or to play games. Check out “Bend Invaders”, a game demonstrated in the video after the break. When you touch two fingers to the display the two points are used to aim a laser at the oncoming monsters.

The system uses a combination of two projectors shining on the surface from underneath and behind. A series of LEDs around the edges of the display bathe it in infrared light. Three cameras with IR filters peer at the underside of the acrylic surface and detect touches by distinguishing variances in the IR pattern through a process called Frustrated Total Internal Reflection. If you’re interested in more of the math and science involved there are a couple of papers available from the project site linked at the top of this post.

We’ve seen so many displays using the Kinect lately, it’s refreshing to see one that doesn’t.

[Thanks Ferdinand via Flabber (NSFW)]

[Jay Collett] was having trouble seeing his keyboard when the room was dim. But throwing a light under the desk just didn’t seem cool enough. Instead he built an RGB light board that is controlled by his desktop. The board is based around an ATmega328 with the Arduino booloader. He etched a single-sided PCB to connect it to a group of five RGB LEDs, with a programming header for an FTDI cable. The board communicates with a PC via serial connection, with a C# control application that [Jay] coded to control the color. We’ve embedded a couple of videos after the break but check his page for a package of code and hi-res pictures.

If you want something cool that’s a little bit less work to build check out the EL-wire keyboard from this links post.

Cable management seems to be a constant struggle for many of us, do we have too many electronics? Probably, but how can one effectively manage the cable clutter? [Van Mardian] came up with a nice solution that only required about $30 in parts from a local hardware store. Using a pegboard mounted under the desk itself he was able to hide most of his wires and even some peripherals. The comments have a lot of other examples.

For those who live in a closet or perhaps a New York apartment, available space can sometimes be an issue. Thankfully a Romanian design company called MTI Impex has created the cube PC desk. Unfortunately we couldn’t find additional information such as plans, but it doesn’t look like it would be too hard to construct.

Similar to the previous example this normal looking trunk converts into a mini cubicle on wheels. From Japan, this melamine resin trunk comes complete with a fold out desk and several pre-drilled holes for cables. Ordering is available on the official site, but will set you back $2000US.

Lastly, we have the desk that inspired this post as it made its way around the net today. This beauty is like a mullet, all business up front with a party in the back. From a 1947 edition of Popular Mechanics this “dream desk” is just aces with all the features a modern executive needs. Yes, it has a 6 tube radio, dictating equipment, and even an electrical convenience outlet. More importantly, the backside (or play side) is equipped to turn any office into party central with its fridge and other spirit related fineries. Toss in a safe and we can only imagine this desk weighed more than its short lifespan was worth.

If you have come across an interesting desk hack, or have created one yourself, please let us know in the comments.