A revolutionary platform for hardware testing?
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2017-05-06
·
1,308 words · ~6 min read
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I've had a rocky relationship with test benches. I have always loved the idea of
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them, but usually, to put it bluntly,
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they're just kind of I've tried to overcome this fact. I even found one
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that I didn't hate as much as the others. You've probably never heard of
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it. They're they're called Spotswood Techstations. They're uh yeah, they're
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pretty obscure. And even resolved to use it for my personal computer. But that
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was a bad idea. The bench wasn't that great. And in the end, we all knew it.
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But I don't think I fully gave up until a while later when I made a video on how
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to make your own test bench in under 2 hours for almost nothing that ended up
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being nearly as good as what was on the market. Kind of depressing. So, when
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HWBOT approached me about checking out the OpenBench table, I was a little
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apprehensive. It wasn't cheap and I was
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worried its features would turn out to be gimmicks, but I gave it a shot
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anyways because if anyone is going to
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have a chance at getting a test bench right, it was going to be competitive
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overclockers. Let's see how they did.
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Tunnel Bear is the simple VPN app that makes it easy to browse privately and
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enjoy a more open internet. To try Tunnel Bear for free, check out the link
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in the video description. The first thing that jumps out at you when you
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start working with the bench is the build quality of everything. From the
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heavyduty AL5052 aluminum body to the SS304 steel screws,
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no punches were pulled when it came to
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build quality, which is great as long as you can stomach the $150
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price tag, which rivals some pretty wicked midtower cases that have like
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side panels and front panels and rear P.
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You get the point. But this is cool. If you don't want to shell out that kind of
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dough and have access to a CNC machine, say at your school or workplace or
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something like that, then there is an alternative. It's called the open bench
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table for more than just the fact that it's open to the air. It's open source
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as well, meaning that they welcome PC enthusiasts modifying, building, and
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making their own versions of their published design. Okay, great. But
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should you care? Let's talk features. First off, it's portable. The legs or
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the stands along with all the other mounts, they fold within the main body,
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allowing it to be flatpacked. And then it features a handle on one end, making
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it a breeze to move around. Second, when you get to where you're going, you'll
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immediately notice the completely toolless design of everything. All of
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the screws that you'll need are cleverly stored in metal components or on the
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side of the bench. And they're all thumb screws that even straight from the
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factory are loose enough that you can legitimately remove them without
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fetching any tools at all. Although I would recommend whipping out a
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screwdriver just to make sure that certain things are absolutely secure
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while actually building your computer. And there's more than just screws built
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in. Literally everything you need is here, like your expansion card
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standoffs, which work surprisingly well considering the issues that I've had
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with very similar designs in the past where they would like wobble and fail.
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Though, you may have some issues trying to plug in display cables like HDMI or
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DisplayPort or whatever else. This is due to the need for them to be nonflat.
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It's not that hard to avoid, however, if you're comfortable with just one
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standoff per card. Just remove the top one. Speaking of standoffs, you have
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your choice when mounting your motherboard of pinbased screwless
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standoffs and a more standard system. I opted to go for a mix, mostly made up of
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screwless standoffs, with a couple more traditional ones just in case I wanted
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to lock things down with screws and whatnot. I love this because ease of use
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is very important when it comes to a test bench, and not needing to screw
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things in in this case is paramount. On to drive mounting. For me at least, this
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isn't all that important on a test bench. I tend to just let them freeball
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since SSDs aren't much of a risk from an accidental bump or even a fall to be
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completely honest. But this time, I installed both the SSD and an extra hard
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drive directly onto the bench, almost entirely because it just looked so damn
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cool, like seemingly everything else on
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this bench. When you're done installing all your hardware, it's time to do the
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often dreaded task of cable management.
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You'll be happy to know, however, that there are holes left behind when you
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remove the various components, like the the little arms for the radiator that
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attach it to the side of your bench in a surprisingly sturdy and attractive way.
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But why are these holes a good thing? Well, if you just grab some Velcro
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straps, you can use them as cable management loops to keep everything
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absolutely tidy. So, you end up with what is, in my opinion, a very
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attractive mix of revealing the work that you put into it while still looking
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beautiful. So, it's portable. It assembles and disassembles elegantly. It
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looks freaking amazing, and it's sturdy
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all around. What's not to love? Well, despite how awesome it is, not everyone
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is going to want to or be able to fork over $150 for a test bench regardless. I
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absolutely love it and it will be replacing my old work test bench that
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I've been using since 2011. But with that said, even I don't know if I could
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justify the cost for a personal purchase, especially with the current
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state of the Canadian dollar. What do you guys think? Let me know down below.
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TING is the mobile carrier that is focused on customer service and customer
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satisfaction first. You don't have to speak to a robot. If you call in, you
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get put directly to a person and you pay for only what you use. The average TING
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bill is only $23 a month per device. If you're stuck in a contract and switch
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over to TING, they will cover 25% of your cancellation fee up to 75 bucks.
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They're now lowering mobile data rates across the board and data is now just
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$10 per Gigabyte beyond the first Gigabyte. Every TIN customer will be
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able to reap the benefits of this new change, which is awesome. So, head over
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to Linus.ctain.com octane.com and try out their savings calculator. When you
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sign up at our link, you'll also get $25 in service credit or $25 towards a new
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device. Thanks for watching, guys. If this video sucked, you know what to do.
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But if it was awesome, get subscribed, hit the like button, or check out the
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link to where to buy it or other test benches on Amazon cuz I don't know if
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this one's on Amazon and all the other ones suck. Also linked in the
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description is the merch store where you can buy cool shirts like this and our
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community forum where you can like discuss things and stuff. Now that
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you're done doing all of that, watch this video, which is where I DIY a test
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bench that isn't as good as this one, but it's
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still pretty