Post your (actual) desktops!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > Post your (actual) desktops!

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
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I originally did my cabling pretty neatly, but the problem is that it's difficult to neatly add cables later.

The real horror is behind the AV-table, there's just no room for all of it.

The left monitor is dead, fortunately a 24" LCD has been ordered.

warwick5s posted:

Is that one of those nifty 3M keyboard trays? God I wish I could convince myself to pay the price for one of them.

# ¿ Aug 14, 2008 21:26

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# ¿ May 8, 2024 21:11

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

Don Lapre posted:

Is that a shades string on the floor? You should really tidy up that mess. :colbert:

# ¿ Aug 17, 2008 03:39

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

IsaacNewton posted:

Are those monitors centered on your eyes? How tall are you?

How are you liking those stands? I got some ergotrons myself but I almost got those instead.

Monitors aren't supposed to be centered on eyes, they should be below eye level.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2008 19:34

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

IsaacNewton posted:

Got anything to back that? It's counter intuitive and very awkward for the neck.

Edit: Actually I can see it going both way, it gets to be a matter of preference.. but the screen should be angled toward your eyes no matter what.

I had always heard that the top of the display should be eye level and couple months ago we were visited by an ergonomics consultant and she told me that the top of the display should actually be ~10 cm lower than eye level. This of course depends on how much you lean back.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2008 20:13

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

Azzmo posted:

Why is a great 22" worse than a great 19" or 24" monitor? Resolution?

Almost all 22" LCDs use lowest end TN Film panels, 19" and 24" are available with better panel technologies.

# ¿ Jan 2, 2009 22:50

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

glompix posted:

I had the same problem with my Lian-Li case, (posted in here somewhere, the one that looks like Mac worship) and it took me forever to find where that drat noise was coming from. I just stuck a piece of folded up paper in the space between the side panel and the main chasis.

My parents computer had the same problem, so I put insulation foam tape between the case and the sides.

# ¿ Jun 14, 2009 20:04

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

CodeJanitor posted:

For those of you with nice, controlled, organized cables, can you post some pictures? Looking for some examples of managing my cables on the back of my desk instead of the child strangling mess I currently have sitting on my floor. When I jump in there to clean it all up, there is probably a dead cat in there somewhere...

One option that hasn't been mentioned is using 2 ring lever arch binders. Just take the binder of the binder book and screw it under your desk. I also have a power extension cord that I have nailed under the desk with normal cable hook nails and then I just use cable ties to attach other cables to that one extension cord.

# ¿ Oct 30, 2009 00:23

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

Thermopyle posted:

Yes, they make it easier, but it's still more trouble than I'm willing to put up with.

I haven't found velcroes to be as convenient as they initially seem either. Part of the problem is that I've used precut velcro ties which are usually too long for most needs and I end up tying them several rounds around the cables. If you have wire cutters and extra cable ties at hand's reach then they are almost more convenient. I think reusable cable ties could be better option, but I haven't really found them anywhere.

# ¿ Dec 22, 2009 12:19

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

tlc posted:

Not shown, crashpad to right, with occupant dog.

That looks like a Lundia shelf, but the holes point in the wrong direction?

# ¿ Dec 24, 2009 20:43

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

Scuttle_SE posted:

Oh yeah, and what the hell is the matter with all 24" screens being 1920x1080 nowadays? I want my old timey 1920x1200 dammit!

They were too expensive. Newegg currently has 24 x1200 LCDs. Two of them are under $300, half of them are over $500, many significantly. Of the 66 x1080 LCDs only 9 are more than $300 and only one is over $400. Just buy two x1080s.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2009 18:49

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

malefactor posted:

1920 x 1200 is superior for everything other then watching movies

And price. And 1920x1440 would have been superior to either of them, but it looks like 4:3 is going bye bye. You will be missed. :patriot:

Hell, for my usage a 1900x1900 monitor would probably be the best.

Mu Zeta posted:

Stupid 16:9 standard is to blame

Expect if the prices are any indication the PC industry took the wrong path when they standard toying with those silly 16:10 monitors. If they had never existed you people wouldn't even know to rage about those x1080 LCDs and would be overjoyed about your cheap high resolution monitors. Same goes for those 5:4 LCDs. I still get in rage when I think how I had to run CRTs at the wrong 1280x1024 resolution because ATI's idiotic drivers didn't support the correct resolution.

I too have a 24" 1920x1200 LCD and I certainly appreciate the resolution, but it looks like a bloody stupid purchase when six months later I bought a 21.6" x1080 for well under half the price. I could have three of those monitors if I had just waited a bit. :argh:

I use that x1080 just for showing black and white IRC screens, but it doesn't matter because it was so drat cheap.

If that vertical resolution really means so much to you then just buy one of those 2048x1152 or 2560x1600 LCDs and quit your whining.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2009 20:49

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

Mu Zeta posted:

Cheaper is good, I just don't like how progress is losing screen real estate. I'll stick with my current 24" monitor for a while. I really don't like multi monitor set ups, so my next upgrade will have to be one of those 2560 x 1440 things.

But it isn't really. 22" 1680x1050 LCDs are being replaced by the x1080 models and 24" x1200s by the 2048x1152s, which have a bit more real estate, just differently shaped. Unfortunately those have been slow to market.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2009 21:24

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

mrk posted:

handy tool for seeing how much ram/cpu games use while I'm playing.

While you're doing that you should keep an eye on how much CPU the task manager is using while doing the monitoring.

# ¿ Jan 30, 2010 17:52

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

chimz posted:

On glass? I'm worried about shattering the desk by putting too much leverage on the very edge and getting stabbed in the balls by a three foot long shard of glass. I'd be putting two Cinema Displays on separate arms.

How far is your wall? With a glass desk wall mounting could be the ultimate option. Would make it look so drat clean.

# ¿ Jan 19, 2011 01:03

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

Nephzinho posted:

Anyone have one of those sit/standing convertible desks with built in power strips/etc?

How fancy do you want it to be? My preferred solution is power strips attached to the legs with blu-tac and zip ties. If a strip on every leg isn't enough sockets for you, you are doing something wrong.

# ¿ Jun 29, 2016 23:10

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

RichterIX posted:

Just buy a longass piece of butcher block and enough legs to give it some stability in the middle. Butcher block can be expensive though.

I needed a sturdier desk to replace my decades old Ikea cardboard desk, so I bought someone's used oaken kitchen countertop and screwed the Ikea legs on it.

# ¿ Jun 1, 2020 01:05

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

Years ago I built a wake-up light out of a normal 2x18W fluorescent fixture, a pair of Philips MASTER TL-D 90 De Luxe 6500K 90+ CRI tubes and a programmable timer. I also got a dimmable electronic ballast for it, but I never got to building the circuit to enable gradual startup. I can definitely feel the difference on the mornings I don't have the light on.

Nowadays it's easy to find cool daylight LED panels, but harder to find models with high-CRI too.

# ¿ Jun 6, 2020 22:53

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

CyberPingu posted:

Still not sure about having the laptop on the desk as it takes up a lot of room but currently don't have another option. Might find a way to put it on the wall in some sort of holster.

You don't seem to have a gap between the desk and the wall, so put the laptop vertically between the monitor and wall.

# ¿ Jul 25, 2020 15:05

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

Humerus posted:

I'm thinking of doing this (I already have one Alex) but what do you use to keep the top in place? I know Ikea has those little rubber nubs but is that it? Does the weight keep it from moving around?

If you plan for that to be permanen setup it should be pretty easy to use screws through the cabinet top.

# ¿ Sep 26, 2020 16:00

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

Barry posted:

I don't know how people can sit so close to such huge monitors and not get eye strain and/or neck pain from having to look around that giant panel

It's actually a non-issue, the simple solution is to not use maximized windows. If your browser window is only a quarter the size of your TV, then you don't need to look around any more than you would with a 24" monitor.

I've been running multi-monitor setup for over two decades and the size is similar. For the past decade I've been running triple monitor with center-left-top setup where the diagonal is about 47"/120cm. I spent most of my time looking at the center. Top is mostly showing video streams and I can always just glance up. If I want to concentrate on it I can lean back and rest my head on the chair. The left edge is showing IRC that I spend the least amount of time looking and if there is more to read I can just turn my chair.

A large TV would probably mostly improve this setup. It would get rid of the bezels which are wasted space and it would provide flexibility for the arrangement. If the central window would need less space I could downsize it and bring the edge windows closer. That's hardly ever possible with multi-monitor.

A bigger problem could be fullscreen gaming if the game has important stuff on the edges. But if the hours I've spent with VR Elite Dangerous, where I'm contantly looking around in 180� arc, that's not much of issue either. Interestingly, now that I think about it, the ED spaceship arrangement only works if it's designed for a game where you can look around the stations with a keyboard shortcut. If it was a real spaceship the stations/monitors should be much closer to each other so the pilot doesn't have to look around so much, and the most important information would probably be integrated to the helmet.

Pretty much the only reason not to use single huge monitor is the functionality separate monitors provide, unless the single one can emulate that. With my current setup the bottom monitors can show my work computer while the top one can still show YouTube from my how computer, or a fullscreen game is only running on the center monitor.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2021 17:01

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

SEKCobra posted:

Works a treat for ruining your neck.

I've had a monitor above the main monitor for a long time and it has been a non-isue. When the top of the main monitor is at eye level, which seems to be the ergonomy recommendation, it takes minimum effort to glance above and if you want to look at it longer it's easy to lean back on the chair. The side monitor is bigger strain on the neck.

# ¿ Nov 7, 2021 19:45

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

Johnny Truant posted:

More better cable management! This is why the desk in standing position, so the tube just extends and slumps depending on the height of the desk.

Next up will be setting the cable runners so my synth setup can be organized

Alternative solution can be to attach the computer under the desk, this might also help with dust. Unfortunately, because of the standing desk mechanisms you may need to get creative with the placing.

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# ¿ Dec 1, 2021 18:08

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

Unsinkabear posted:

Why do people do this? I feel like at 32" this must be neck cramp city from constantly looking up.

It's not. Looking at my top-27" causes much less neck cramping than looking at the 24" on the left side. You don't necessarily need to tilt your neck, looking upwards can be enough. Not really possible to look to the side the same way.

Of course two monitors arranged symmetrically may be more ergonomical, but I never could understand people who could live with a monitor seam right in front.

May also depend on how high the monitors are. All the ergonomics advice I've ever seen has said to put the top of the monitor at eye level, not a cent higher.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2022 18:57

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

I wanted to install a hanging computer holder to my electric desk at work, but it needed more space. So I unscrewed the table from the frame, moved it 10-15cm towards me and screwed it back. I bet I have the most heavily modified electric desk at work.

# ¿ May 16, 2022 10:34

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

The obvious and optimal compromise is to hang the computer under your desk.

# ¿ Jul 9, 2022 01:57

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

SamDabbers posted:

Do you guys actually hold the desk phone handset to your ear? I can't stand to be on a call for more than a couple minutes without a headset or some other hands free interface.

I was about to ask a similar question. If a phone call lasts more than a few minutes I will switch to BT earplugs. Of course actual phone calls even in work context are nowadays once-a-month thing. Usually call starts as a quick back and forth over Teams chat, and after agreement is upgraded to a Teams call.

For a long time I was using a PS4 headset for online meetings, with pretty good comfort and sound quality. But recently I had a Monday when I spent 6 hours wearing the headset with a total of 11 meetings that week and I had enough.

I plugged the work laptop into my home stereo and purchased a streaming microphone with a desktop mic stand. With a sound coming from floor standing speakers and the mic at an arms length I have achieved supreme meeting audio in both directions.

I feel this kind of setup would be more difficult to achieve with a desk phone. In my previous helpdesk job we were using desk phones with headsets and I switched to a software phone so I could use a better headset connected to the computer. (And listen to music while on a call).

# ¿ Nov 16, 2022 02:29

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

I think you should consider if you need an L-desk or if two desks in L-arrangement would be enough. That would probably be cheaper, there would be more selection and the arrangement would be more flexible. Especially if you are thinking in two decade time span. In the future you may buy a new house and maybe it's office room has a different layout and you need switch the "L" to the other side.

I wonder if it is possible to hack two standing desks to be operated by single control. I assume the controls are very simple, probably just connecting the up- or down-line.

# ¿ Nov 20, 2022 17:37

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

Things are getting way too heated in here. We must build peace between the back and front pocket groups, through the only method that works. Introducing a common enemy.

I put my wallet in the thigh pocket. In fact, this year I bought two pairs of specific model of cargo pants that has gone out of production because it has a pocket that is perfect size for my small wallet.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2022 03:16

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

Ihmemies posted:

Now I have to figure out what to do with my 2nd display, since it did not fit anymore. Maybe a larger desk?

I would of course advocate placing it above the main monitor.

# ¿ Mar 16, 2023 18:49

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

Ihmemies posted:

Hmm that too is possible. I wonder what kind of stand that setup requires�

Well, tall. I use this Mozi quad stand

# ¿ Mar 16, 2023 19:17

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

Verisimilidude posted:

Ultimately decided I�ll just return it. Looking at my cables, I was able to figure out how to switch everything from one computer to the other through 4 clicks: once on each monitor, once on my keyboard, and once on my mouse. This way I don�t hinder performance on the gaming pc I just spent my entire bonus on. It�s not as nice as hitting one button and everything swaps instantly, but it�s not as much of a headache when I think about all the compatibility issues.

Test if you can use ControlMyMonitor or similar software to switch the inputs of your monitors, that could save some clicking. I believe some people have setup a system where they use a switch to swap the mouse and keyboard between computers, the computers detect the swap and then automatically change the monitor inputs.

# ¿ Aug 26, 2023 13:19

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

Flipperwaldt posted:

Put the speakers on arms or poles or whatever. Raising the monitors will gently caress up your neck. Imo.

This should also improve sound quality since sound won't reflect from the desk surface.

# ¿ Oct 2, 2023 10:08

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

Ok Comboomer posted:

dude made fun of my inexpensive suggestion but it�s still one of the best looking ones I�ve ever tried

I agree, I would never accept something that hangs that much under the desk. My solution for cables under the desk have always been nail clips and zipties, nothing is as flush. For spots further to the side where there is no chance of hitting them with my feet I've used the retainers from ring binders.

# ¿ Oct 2, 2023 17:58

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

Vile_Nihlist666 posted:

I am converting my 80gb of .m4a files to .mp3 using ffmpeg and seeing what they'll compress down to for transfer to the same iPod.

Why, isn't .m4a/AAC a preferable format for iPod?

# ¿ Jan 16, 2024 03:21

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

Vile_Nihlist666 posted:

It is. I'm trying to reduce file size through compression so as not to compromise on the podcasts I shoved on it. Don't worry, got the AAC files still, put 'em back when I exhaust the other stuff and remove it later.

In that case I would assume it would be better to compress the files to smaller AACs.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2024 03:33

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

You will see exactly the same text scrolling when you use FFMPEG to compress the files to smaller AACs.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2024 04:19

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

Cheaper and easier option is to give up on the dual arm and get a single arm for the second monitor

# ¿ Feb 10, 2024 10:49

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# ¿ May 8, 2024 21:11

Saukkis: May 16, 2003; Unless I'm on the inside curve pointing straight at oncoming traffic the high beams stay on and I laugh at your puny protest flashes.
I am Most Important Man. Most Important Man in the World.

How do those side monitors work for you ergonomically, they seem to be quite far away to the side. Although all of them seem to be quite further away than mine. I have one side monitor in portrait orientation and even that feels too far away for my neck for extended use.

# ¿ May 5, 2024 15:00

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > Post your (actual) desktops!