PC desk- where do I put the tower ? floor or desk top ?

Should I put my new gaming PC on the floor, or next to the monitor ?

I assumed my new desk would have a shelf/cupboard under it, but I was wrong

I would say it would best on the desk rather than on the floor, it will just help minimise the amount of dust that gets into it, it won't kill it if it's on the floor, but if it is on the floor, you'll want to make sure you try and clean the dust out a lot more regularly.

I always put mine on the floor for two reasons. Firstly I would be paranoid it would get knocked off at some stage but more importantly the fan noise would irritate the hell out of me if it wasn't muffled by the desk being in the way.

Depending on your case, you might have no problems with it on the floor, I keep my rig on the floor (there is no room to put it anywhere else really) but I have fan filters on all the intake etc. and give it a dust out regularly.

as a side to this -- does anyone know if there is such a s thing a a "dust cabinet", i.e. a smallish type cabinet that the PC sits inside that allows air circulation etc... however is more dust proofed ?

Might sound a strange thing to ask and I don't have an overlay dusty house/environment --- more the fact wanted to add some more protection to the pc ?

Not sure of a dust cabinet.

I dont have room on my desk for mine nor to i want to put it on the floor as a vacuum cleaner so i bought a coffee the come just below my knees and i put it on that. Makes it easy to move around as the table just slides, puts it at a good level for doing component modifications and keeps it out of the way from getting knocked over

This isn't helpful to the discussion, but mine rests along the bottom struts of a Black & Decker workmate (which makes it about 16cm off the floor). I stand up to use my PC.
I just wanted to share that.

I've never heard of a dust cabinet to be honest, kinda figured that was one of the jobs of the PC case itself... I guess you could essentially cover the PC in mesh but that's probably unnecessary. You can get aftermarket dust covers which will help prevent dust getting into the PC and regular dusting will prevent any problems from arising!

Mine sits on the floor on the carpet and our ancient cat uses the top of the desktop (where there's an intake fan) as a step to reach the bed. Safe to say this isn't optimal but never had any problems. If it's on the floor just clean out any dust/hair periodically and it should be fine.

My tower came with wheels and feet, I opted for the wheels as they were a bit bigger to lift the tower higher and the desk I originally had my tower did not fit properly so had to be moved to access the CD Tray so wheels was a better option.

on the bed, on the floor
on the table, by the door
im [bad word] matt damon!!

sorry, couldnt help it
my desktop is on a desk in the corner of a room so there is no way for it to fall off, i have also had one in an office desktop with wheels but that was annoying as hell
you can always get those "strap-base" that you can hang from the side of a desk with a solid base for the desktop which allows it to not be on the floor but at the same time to not be a pain to position on a desktop, i saw them a while ago in IKEA, pretty useful IMO

edit: hope the edit complies with the forum bad words rules

Dust cabinet for PCs? Well, you could try looking at data cabinets - a quick search has shown some free standing ones and acoustic free standing ones: they'll certainly help with dust reduction, sound insulation (although they do tend to have their own fans for air circulation), comes on castors to keep them off the floor - but they aren't cheap... You could build your own I guess, but make sure there is plenty of air circulation and fans and cable holes...

tkx guys - yeah sounds odd when I typed it and I guess was something in the back of my mind from more corporate IT enviroments -- where high end servers where in some form of clean room, cabinets/ with their own fans etc.. (as descibed above).

I guess really for the home market it's probably impractical and not worth it otherwise there would be someone doing it --- it was worth a though and thanks anyways