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Dual Monitor-Friendly Desks
Abracadaniel
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So my current desk, an $80 hacked together job from Staples is on it's last legs, and I'm in the market for a new desk soonish.
The trouble is, most you see on, say, Ikea.com or whatever typically only show enough room for a single monitor or it's a laptop, or an iMac or whathaveyou. Meanwhile, I'm looking for something that will reliably hold a pair of 23". Ideally it would also include maybe some cable management (or I'll DIY that) and be sturdy enough to maybe mount my tower underneath.
Suggestions? Ideas?
The trouble is, most you see on, say, Ikea.com or whatever typically only show enough room for a single monitor or it's a laptop, or an iMac or whathaveyou. Meanwhile, I'm looking for something that will reliably hold a pair of 23". Ideally it would also include maybe some cable management (or I'll DIY that) and be sturdy enough to maybe mount my tower underneath.
Suggestions? Ideas?
Abracadaniel on
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Ikea also has a few really cheap bolt-on cable managers.
way to go, with your logic and sensible advice
Nothing's forgotten, nothing is ever forgotten
But, instead of just ranting, may I offer an alternate recommendation: a $90 8 foot folding-legs table from staples, and two $20 plastic storage cabinets from Walmart to go beneath it? That's got room to spare for two PCs side by side (one with dual monitors), or one PC with a 24"-42"-24" triple monitor setup.
It seems like any generic desk on Ikea's website looks like it has enough space to hold two monitors.
And Ego, as someone who has had to dig around under desks too, I feel your pain, however I can't even remember the last time I've had to actually crack out my case to fiddle with anything. In addition, the Ikea setup has openings on the side for ventilation/cable access.
I threw it together in Ikea's Planner. There's plenty of space to fiddle around on the side, though depending out where I placed it in my home office I'd swap the two legs for ease of access.
I'm also going to install one of these to the underside
For all the various devices and powered accessories to hook in to.
Went to the hardware/lumber yard and bought some 2x6, angle iron, bolts and washers, and a 36" solid core oak door. Sand the top and front down and then a few coats of polyurethane later:
The storage was either beside on a shelf, or on top since there was gobs of space.
I have a custom desk and I wanted this very problem to be solved + some more desk space + no wires on the desktop or behind the desk + minimal wires from the sound system.
...
so i built this:
its got a channel in the desk to house the wires, the
the shelving is separate
on the left is the computer, the right underneath is for the sub
and it turned out like this
yes, it is photoshopped, but there is really only 1 wire on my desktop that is visible. The monitor wires go through a hole where the ergotron monitor stand thing is, the keyboard is wireless and the wireless is inside the desk channel, just the mouse wire that goes down into a hole that i drilled. The headphone wires are wrapped around two small doorknobs that i got from ikea and just drilled into the side of the shelving, so that they are always out of the way.
made from bamboo plywood.
So, build your own. It is fun and worth working with your hands.
For random websites about that i would immediately suggest http://ikeahacker.blogspot.com/ A lot of great desk and desk mod ideas are in there.... specifically http://ikeahacker.blogspot.com/2010/09/monitor-and-speaker-desk-platform.html
very nice, I'll have to play around with sketchup and see what I can do in there.
As long as you have some tools, or a friend with some, it is fairly easy to draw up measurements and work out materials.
Edit: For a size comparison, the left monitor is 23" and the right is 19". The lapple is a 15".
The desk is an 80/20 project that I recently completed last spring. This is a big desk made from aluminum extrusions and furniture grade maple plywood. Each pedestal of the desk is a full 19" rackmount for Middle Atlantic shelves, drawers and accessories, in addition to an AC power Center and rackmount server case. The left pedestal houses an NHT 12-inch powered sub (the controller is in the top right drawer, and there are two Acurus home theater amplifiers for the surround system. One of the design constraints of the desk was that it had to accommodate three 24" monitors and the NHT 1.5's that flanked them. The monitors are mounted on a custom extruded aluminum arm which is mounted on the wall studs. I could have purchased a widely available stand, but I wanted the top of the monitors to match the height of the speakers exactly, and it does.
This amount of real estate made for a very large keyboard tray with tons of mouse pad room, which was a huge upgrade from my old setup.
Here's an older shot..click on it to see some more construction photos in my flickr stream.
This is what it looks like in my new office. The wall shelving is from Elfa, and with a little creative bracing, I was able to wall-mount an 80lb HP Blackbird case on it... not too shabby.
(Well except the aluminum Apple keyboard because I effing hate typing on those things. But otherwise, goddamn son.)
These are the only keyboards I can properly type on nowdays.
Also, imagine if -- someday -- a girl might stumble upon your setup. That's always a good thing to bear in mind before you slap another coat of flat black paint on your desk or leave exposed wires everywhere.
I hate you and your gorgeous desk that if you don't have bolted to the floor I will try to steeeeeeeeeeal. I'll remove all your nice components and stuff first, I just want the desk.
You didn't make it an e-peen measuring contest. You just unintentionally stated "whatever contest might exist, I have already won it".
I think I got my desk done for about $400 in aluminum and plywood, if I remember correctly. The components are another story.
I *do* have a Festool Circular saw with an aluminum cutting blade, which is nice to have when dealing with this stuff, but it's somewhat unnecessary. You can order specific lengths from 80/20, rent tools from a hardware store, or have a local shop do some cutting for you. Good luck and hit me up if you really want to tackle this and I'll help you plan it out.
There are a few commercially available wall mounts for 3 monitors out there, but I'm glad I fabbed mine since I can adjust it from my triple 24" setup to a portrait-landscape-portrait (20" - 30" - 20" LCD) when they get that figured out.
Here is the triple head bracket being fabbed (again with 80/20 aluminum extrusions).
The Dell monitor brackets were simply removed from the stock stands and remounted on the 80/20 for the monitors. The monitors just sit on the brackets and 'click' on, just like on the stock stand, which is very handy.
there are two wall mount plates on the rear (that are also adjustable for different with studs), in addition to some wire management features (the plastic carriers on the bottom of the bracket) to keep things neat and tidy.
Speaking of keeping cables neat and tidy, I came up with an idea the other day;
Using Industrial-strength Velcro, run two parallel strips along the bottom of the desk, toward the rear where all the cables will be, and then use perpendicular strips of Velcro to channel the cables along, right to where they need to be. Also, seems like it would be easier to manage/rearrange than using zip ties, and could keep things from getting tangled like they might in one of those Ikea cable basket things.
Thoughts?
I have multiple computers attached to the various monitors. My main system is on the left and attached to the three largest monitors.
I've built a complete article on it's construction and details on the computers over on at Office « DanielHeth’s Blog
feel free to leave comments either here or there.
I'm looking for a new computer desk design which would suit my multiple monitor setup... so if you guys have any ideas...
Pirusu, thanks for the link, I also don't have the room for something that large, however a scaled custom built version might do nicely. I found this How-To videos over at http://www.ehow.com/video_5774213_designing-computer-desk.html?cp=1&pid=1&wa_vrid=fdecff6f-cea5-4963-9580-ac2375e3a0d9&wa_vlsrc=continuous
which give great advice for building my own and i'm looking at ways to customize his design for my own needs.
this is an awesome idea that i'd put into practice right now if my desk wasn't a goddamn disaster area
Buuut our desks were also $12,000 each, even without the optional heat/air vents (those were a $4,000 extra).
edit: man, CB really doesn't want me encouraging you to buy their desk.
Just showing off our big video wall, cause it's awesome. Some shots of multiple consoles.
Another shot of multiple desks.
Single desk, the front and back parts raise independently. The little circles on the right and left raise and lower the front and back portions of the desk. The mounting arms fit onto a slotted back panel, and can be moved around, and the arms articulate as well.
It's hard to see, but the legs along the front have plastic "belts" in them (it's the best I can describe it) that are used for routing cables. There are multiple power strips built into the desk, and it requires extension cords for connecting peripherals.
Here, I raised the back portion to show how the two pieces are independent of one another.
Cable routing channels behind the desk proper, you can also see the back of a computer. There are five little sections with doors for accessing the cable routing channels behind each console.
Showing two of the different cubbyholes.
A view from the front of the desk, there are two of these access points on the left and right of the desk for multiple workstations.