I feel like I need to update this about every year, as I tend to evolve my set up. You can see last years post here as well as my thoughts about working remote.
After 6 or 7 years with a standing desk that could not move up or down, I decided to get a sit/stand desk. I did a ton of research (ie, asked a few friends) and landed on the Vari desk.
I choose a 48x30 desk. If I had it to do over I would have gotten a larger one. That one quibble aside I love it. The fit and finish is great. The setup was pretty easy - plug and play. Having a smaller desk is actually forcing me to remove a bunch of stuff and find diffrent homes for it, so I guess it’s a win? Also the old desk was very thick, so I had to use a board to attach the clamps for the light and the mic. The new desk is a lot thinner, and I have a lot more choices about location for my clamps.
I am impressed with the Vari’s quality of life features - I really like the little hooks that you can just slide onto the desk. They allow me to hang my headphones and laptop bag and get them out of the way. The cable management system they have is a big improvement over my old system of “velcro all the things”. It has a nice tray and power strip to add to my yards of velcro.
I currently use the following gear for my standing desk:
- Razer Kyo Pro camera - not the best in the world, but not super expensive and reasonable quality. Protip - do not install Razer’s software on a Mac.
- Rain Design M laptop stand - I’ve had this stand for over 15 years. It’s a tank.
- Dell 4K UHD 2160p Monitor (U3219Q): Looks like it EOL’d but a solid USB-C driven monitor. My only complaint is that it does not have enough ports.
- Elgato Key Light: Two (one on each side) would be better, but I have a window in front of me, and Seattle willing sometimes I get natural light.
- Blue Yeti Mic: Good solid microphone.
- Rode PSA1 Boom: I played around with a few, and landed on this one. It’s worked for going on 3 years.
- Blue Yeti Shockmount - EOL’d but they have a newer one called a Radius III. I actually got the new Radius mount, however it appears that it will not attach to my boom. More experimentation needed!
- Sony MDR7506 Wired Headphones. I have a extension cable running from my mic around to the underside of my desk, and then the headphones plug into that, to keep my desk fairly cable free.
- VocalBeat Foam Windscreen for Blue Yeti - the best $15 I have ever spent on my desk AV set up.
- Caldigit Element USB4 Hub: I just upgraded my hub, and now when I switch computers, it’s one USB-C cable for everything.
- Magic Keyboard with Touch ID and Numeric Keypad - Black Keys: I wanted this with out the keypad, however they did not offer the black keys on the smaller form factor, so I ended up with this thing. I’m slowly adjusting to it’s size. After well over a decade, I still love the feel of this style of keyboard.
- Magic Trackpad - Black: I still prefer a trackpad over a mouse.
I run my keyboard and trackpad in wired mode to make swapping computers easier, and to just never have to worry about charging them. With USB-C driving my monitor and other peripherals while delivering a charge, this makes swapping laptops simple.