I wanted a standing desk. I was converted by an article in PC gamer about the benefits. I do have a chair I sit in sometimes when I just want to chill. Perhaps a bit too high up for mouse and keyboard, but I’m a controller kind of guy anyway. Proper adjustable standing desks are too expensive. So I went to ikea brought the table top (1.6m wide) and four adjustable legs. Extended the legs as far as they go. This gave me enough space down below for a £15 coffee table (also IKEA) upon which I could sit my tower, subwoofer and consoles. It’s a little wobbly but it’s been standing now for over a year.
Once I get my own place I’m go proper DIY on my setup. I’ve been inspired by these kinds of setups.
So are you trying to find a desk on which you can put your PC setup AND your games consoles? Would the consoles use the same television/monitor as your PC? What are you trying to do exactly?
I’ll be buying a desk soon, but I’m going to be very boring and get an IKEA Linnmon, which is the same as the shitty wobbly thing I had in the flat I was previously renting, but I’m hoping this one will be a little nicer because:
It won’t be that super budget-looking white finish.
I’ll be using drawers as the side supports, which will hopefully mean it’ll be a bit more stable. Also, I don’t think anyone ever retightened the screws for the legs on my old one, which apparently you’re meant to periodically do.
It will be 2 m wide, the idea being that I’ll have one side as my computer space and the other side as doing-other-stuff-without-piling-the-keyboard-on-top-of-my-other-desk-junk space. Unfortunately they don’t seem to do desks that wide at 75 cm depth, which is what my old one was, but I reckon the greater width is more valuable than the 15 cm I lose between me and my monitors.
I will mount one or two of those cable tray things to the bottom and do my darnedest to keep everything except the tower off the floor (including the power strip). I know from experience that computer mess is a surefire way to put me off ever bothering to hoover under there, so it gets really dusty and awful. I got literally a hundred velcro cable ties for about £2; I’ll probably get some of those little things that you stick on stuff and put cable ties through, though I’m hoping I can find some large enough to fit velcro straps because having to snip a bunch of cable ties to change one wire is the absolute worst.
So anyway, my future desk is objectively incredibly boring and unsexy, but I’m hoping it will be functional for me and I’m actually pretty excited about it. But before buying any furniture I want to redecorate a bit, and particularly that room, which might actually take me forever, so this is all just hypothetical.
It’s probably easy to overstate that kind of effect, but when bits of paper would start to mount up on my desk I found myself unable to face dealing with even simple stuff I got in the post. That’s probably evidence of larger personal problems of mine, and even dealing with it on a superficial level probably has more to it than “nice desk now” (I’m planning to get a bunch of ring binders and have a Proper Place for them and Keep Things In Order), but im sure there’s something to be said for nice surroundings putting you in the right state of mind. It’s probably less that nice furniture supercharges you, and more like crappy furniture stresses you and drains your mental energy. At least, that’s how it seems to me.
But I’ve never been productive, so you shouldn’t listen to me.
It does for me. I am easily distracted, so cleaning up and having everything in its right place both relaxes me and makes it easier for me to stay focused. It’s also important that the desk is stable. If it wobbles, that drives me nuts, and I just fixate on not having it react to my every move, eventually giving in to temptation and focusing on fixing the wobble.
I have a super normal desk - an older model of the Ikea Bekant - and am generally happy with it. For anyone looking for a new desk, make sure it isn’t just a plank of MDF with four legs screwed into it. I’d recommend a desk that has a frame, to prevent wobbling, and to limit the points at which you’d need to adjust it if it becomes unstable.
My life got so much more convenient after getting a cheap no brand HDMI switcher. There used to be other consoles on here, but i moved them to the TV. Monitor is resting on the Complete Works of William Shakespeare.
SO, originally the plan was for the PC, Switch and PS4 to be all plugged into the same display, so I could toss my really bad TV set up, and not worry about anything. Since then, I’ve parted ways with my PS4 (and the whole one game I played with it), and I’ve decided to keep things small and easy to move, since I do that a lot.
I’m probably going to keep my TV and the Switch/NES Classic set up, mostly because finding an HDMI switch with an Audio Extractor is hard and expensive. So at this point, I’m looking at a) An IKEA ALEX, because I’m in love with that cable management (but I sat at one yesterday and it felt really short? I dunno) or b) some kind of LINMMON combination where I drill a hole and install a basic grommet for cords.
Some nice setups here. I really wish I had a desk, and a good chair. And a desktop computer… I always sit at my kitchen table to do my things, and it doesn’t have quite the correct energy. And no possibility to swivel.
Some of these desks have so many things on them and cables everywhere I’m getting really bad OCD about coming over and tidying them. At least stage the shots please!
haha I am somewhat tempted to upload an Ikea product shot now. Think it would somewhat defeat the point of the topic if we didn’t show what our desks actually look like, including stacks of pens and a snake’s nest worth of USB cables.
Shoutout to my dad for making this desk for me. Also shoutout to the cushion I have to put on the floor because my leggies are too short to sit properly otherwise.
My desk perfectly ecapsulates me. Too many monitors because I can’t focus on less than a few things at once. All gaming available to me (not pictured are the shelves with all unhooked consoles and audio recording stuff). Left over bits and bobs for fixing things in my house. I’ve made an L-shaped desk with 2 desks (same model just different lengths) and improvised shelving with closet orangizers on the second desk.
Because I’m incable of being satisfied with my audio setup I’ve continually upgraded my sound situation, this is my current and hopefully last for awhile (an Allen & Heath QU-16) tucked away under my second desk.
