Happy holidays, everyone.
Welcome to setup wars episode 319.
I got a pretty sweet episode prepared for you all, so
sit back and relax and let the setup war begin.
We are kicking off the episode
with some Synthwave vibes.
First up is Josh, who's a student and graphic designer
from Chicago, Illinois, and is gaming and work setup.
You know, I'm starting to see a lot of
setups with this model layout, where they have the
second display much further away from the primary.
And honestly, I'm all for it.
If you're going with a T-monitor layout and
you have desktop speakers, this is pretty much the
most optimal layout to avoid awkward speaker placement.
We've got a 27 inch, 144 Hz ViewSonic monitor
as a primary and a secondary 27
inch off to the side in vertical mode.
For peripherals, he's rocking an RK 84 keyboard with
a Falcon Honeycomb gaming mouse and a really nice
mouse pad to tie the Synthwave theme together.
Aside from the speakers, he does only headset
and a mic that he brings over when
he's gaming, and I do like that.
He took advantage of the extra space from the L desk
to store some of his gear instead of crowding the main
area for a bit of sound treating, looks like he covered
the entire wall with some acoustic panels
and added a digital clock up top for some subtle decor.
No complaints with the cable management.
Even though the desk does a pretty good job
in hiding the cables, josh spared no expense in
actually managing them behind the backboard,
so I got to give him some respect for that.
Behind the entire setup is a custom build featuring an
I5 11600K, and an RTX 3070 ETI founders edition
with a small cup of boba for some extra FPS.
I would eventually grab some cheap cable extensions
from Amazon to clean up the build, but overall,
very nice system to complement a very nice setup.
Thank you, Josh, for finally coming on the show.
Up next is a very stunning white
themed gaming setup that belongs to Matt,
who's an engineer manager from Sheffield, UK.
Now, the first thing that caught my eyes
were the nanolef lines on the wall.
Such a clean and symmetrical design that really sets
a nice precedent for the rest of the setup.
What's really impressive about this submission though,
is that the original space for the setup was
a storage area that Matt tore down and
we built into a viable space.
For this setup, there was nothing
but concrete and bricks at first.
He cleaned up the area, added drywall and some paint
before he mounted the kitchen countertop and skinned it
in white vinyl to stay consistent with the color scheme.
What an awesome transformation and excellent
use of space this was.
Once again, we are seeing the same space out
monitor layout as before with a secondary 27 inch
in vertical mode that's used mostly for discord.
And then we got the 34 inch
LG UltraWide as the primary.
He did that to make space for both his speakers,
and I love that he mounted both the monitors against
the wall for a really cool floating look.
He kept the surface of the desk very clean by
going with wireless logitech peripherals, but I am
not too big of a fan with the headset stand location.
Since it's so close to the edge of the desk,
he's got the cable hanging down in front of the drawers.
Now, since the desk is mounted on the wall,
the Alex units were added to help fill in
the space and also provide additional storage.
I think positioning the GoXLR lar in the middle underneath
your UltraWide would have been a better choice.
You already have a cutout for the cables.
All you have to do is run the headphone wire underneath
the tabletop, and towards the front of the desk.
But that will require you to use a headphone
hanger underneath the desk instead of a stand.
The rest of the cables are managed very well.
Then again, the desk was built with that in mind.
Lots of grommets were made to pass through the cables.
And I love the lighting strips he added
behind the small panel on the bottom.
I think the lighting on this
setup is spectacular, by the way.
It's not overdone and it's nicely
balanced from top to bottom.
And since he's stuck with neutral colors, he
can change up the theme anytime he wants.
This leads us to his custom all wide gaming PC packing
the RYZEN 9, 5900 X and an MSI RTX 3080.
A very clean build and an
awesome gaming setup, no doubt.
Thank you, Matt, for sharing this with us.
I don't often get that many setup submissions from
people who use a massive screen as their primary,
but when I do, it's always a treat.
This is our setup spotlight of the episode.
Scott is an operations manager from the UK
who spent five days building this setup from
scratch for the purpose of just gaming.
We got a Karlby countertop sitting on top of
two Alex units with some capital legs for spacing.
However, I'm curious why he went with the green color
when there is nothing else in the room that's green.
I mean, he literally has a brown drawer in the corner.
It definitely clashes with the color scheme.
Unless all the other colors were sold out
from Ikea, this color choice makes no sense.
For the primary display, he's using a 43 inch
Aorus gaming monitor and a secondary 15 inch for
multitasking that he keeps in the corner.
Now, for peripherals, he did take the wireless route with
the Logitech G915 TKL and a G PRO wireless mouse.
If you have $10 laying around, I would
highly recommend picking up some isolation pads for
your speakers to prevent vibrations and also tilt
them slightly towards your ears.
You will hear a sound improvement with them.
For gaming, he uses the Logitech G533s with the Blue
Yeti mic that's hooked up to a boom arm.
Personally, I don't think mounting your gear directly
on the wall is a good idea, maybe back in the 90s
or the 2000s, but it's a little outdated right now.
Plus, it just creates more areas where you have
to patch up your wall before you move.
I would recommend picking up a nice little pegboard
where you can store some of your extra gear instead.
Not only will it look nicer and complement your setup
at the same time, but there will be only one
focused area of drilling into the wall, as opposed to
using multiple adhesive strips,
which will do more damage to
your wall after you peel it off.
It's much easier to patch up smaller holes
than it is to repair drywall scrapes.
I've learned this the hard way.
Other than that, the cables could
use a little more attention.
I think a few Velcro straps would fix the
cables underneath your desk and a few more to
keep the cables behind your PC from flaring up.
Surely a high end system with a RYZEN 9, 5900X
and an RTX 3090 deserves a little bit of love, right?
I love the bling look of the system, but
I feel like it doesn't really do it justice
in this case, because the GPU is facing down.
You can't see the crystals on the
Gravis card because it's not vertically mounted.
Also, I would definitely try and replace the bottom
three fans with more of those crystal fans for
consistency, and maybe pick up some cable extensions
for the GPU and the EPS cables.
Since you've pretty much done that for the 24
pins, there's definitely a lot of room for improvement.
If you do change anything about
the setup, feel free to submit again.
Thank you, Scott, for sharing.
Shifting back into 6th gear is an absolute unit of
a setup, a true battle station down to its core.
And just like all masterpieces, it
begins with a 3D design.
Not just for the desk, but the
decorations, the cabinets, the posters, the floor.
I mean, everything was modeled, and when you
look at the finished product side by side,
it's scary how identical it is.
So big props to Mike for the 3D model and
the attention to detail that went into this project.
In fact, this entire setup took six months
to plan before a single component was purchased,
and it took three months to complete.
But there's a lot to go over, so sit back
and buckle up, because you're in for a ride.
To start off, let's introduce Mike So.
He's a contractor from Washington State, and
the reason why he built this set up in the first place
is so he can have a space dedicated for
CAD design, accounting work, general productivity,
and, of course, gaming.
So the main reason why Mike stuck with mostly
dark neutral colors was because he built a setup in his
living room, and that is right across from his kitchen,
which has mostly white, black and gray accents.
So he wanted the setup colors to stay
consistent with the rest of the house.
But if I'm being honest, it feels like
there was some editing done to the pictures.
It looks like the saturation was toned down
quite a bit to achieve this monochromatic look.
I mean, isn't that kind of cheating since
you're technically altering the way the setup looks?
Color makes such a big difference in a setup
now, even though there aren't any RGB lighting,
I still would have loved to see what the setup
looks like naturally with the cold and warm tones.
There was a lot of custom
work that went into this setup.
The desk was handmade by Mike himself, and
it consists of two acacia butcher blocks that
were stained in carbon gray with charcoal accents,
and then he cleared it in satin furniture
lacquer to achieve this super smooth, dark surface.
But he also custom made the legs as well.
It's built out of steel, which he also painted in
matte gunmetal gray to match the aesthetic of the setup.
So the main command center area has
quad displays that he mounted it to the desk.
We got 2 "27 inch quad HD monitors in
vertical mode sandwiching, two stacked "34 inch UltraWides
with a light bar up top.
This monitor layout is what I like
to call Thai Fighter on steroids.
Below that is rocking an Asus ROG Claymore with a
LogiTech G502 mouse and
a TechSource black Nexus mouse pad,
which really complements the theme of the setup.
Really nice choice, by the way.
If you guys want to grab one yourself or many
other awesome designs like it, make sure to visit
DEALSOURCE.TECH/STORE
or just click the link below.
My guy is also rocking a pair of Kanto Tuk
speakers in black for the primary audio.
Another excellent choice, by the way.
Those speakers are freaking awesome.
Aside from speakers,
He does own an ROG DELTA S headset
for gaming and comms, but also has the
HyperX Cloud Pros for backup just in case.
I really love how clean he
kept the surface at the desk.
There was a lot of gear involved in this
setup, but you don't really notice it because he
did a really great job organizing everything.
There's a dedicated pegboard on the adjacent wall
that holds up all the extra controllers and
miscellaneous gear that are not being used, but
he also has a custom made drawer right
above that where he stores everything else.
And did you even notice the WiFi router up here?
That's probably the best place to put
a router if you ask me.
The cable management is immaculate.
Everything is nicely grouped up together in the
back of the desk and channeled up against
the wall into the custom water cooled PC.
The case was slightly modded to fit an EATX motherboard,
and the GPU bracket was also custom made out of
aluminum to match the legs of the desk.
He currently has an I9-12900KF
that's overclocked to 5.4GHz and an ROG Strix 3080.
However, he is planning on upgrading to
an RTX 4090 once that is available.
He did send this submission six months ago back in
July, so I'm pretty sure he made that upgrade already.
I mean, what can I say about this setup?
I love everything, to be honest.
I love the custom work.
I love the small little mods like adding an
RGB strip against the backboard, the custom tinting for
the nanoleaf panels, and it's even got personality.
I know Nick would appreciate the
Alien movie posters on the wall.
I mean, this set up has everything.
You can really tell how much passion
and time Mike put into this setup.
All the planning, the attention
to details, the custom work.
I mean, everything is just spectacular.
Mike, congrats on taking home
the 53rd seal of approval.
Phenomenal work, my guy.
This set up is the epitome of what a
setup war seal of approval should look like, and
it should be the new standard moving forward.
So toss me an email or hit me up on discord
to claim your plaque and a free TechSource mouse pad.
Well done.
Wrapping up the episode is one of the cleanest
triple monitor setups I've seen on the show lately.
Robin is an IT specialist trainee from Germany, and
this is a setup that he built in the span of
three years for the purpose of gaming and productivity.
We got triple "27 inch, 144HZ monitors hooked up beautifully
against the wall for that mesmerizing floating look.
And then below that, we've got the
Sharkoon Skiller keyboard with a G502 mouse.
But what's up with the mouse pad?
It's so bland.
This would have looked better if the setup was
all white, but because you have so much color,
it just sticks out more than it should.
I do like the small grommet you made for
the keyboard cable and the cute little Stream Deck tho,
For audio, it does look like a small portion of
the speakers are being blocked off by the monitors,
but he does mainly use the Logitech G Pro X headset
since he's mostly gaming anyways.
The boom arm is tucked away nicely in
the back until he needs to use it.
That's when he pulls it out
from underneath the monitors.
Even though cable management has done well,
I wouldn't have used cable clips
because it just adds more time in removing them
when you have to upgrade or swap gear.
I feel like two or three small raceways would have done
the job just as good, and required a lot less work.
I would also spend some time and fix the
mess of cables you have behind the monitors.
You can always tie the excess cables to the
monitor arms using these magnetic cable clips that I
featured in last week's Cool Tech video.
They come in very handy.
Behind the entire system is a really nice
NZXT build featuring the
RYZEN 9 5900X and an MSI RTX 2070 super.
I think this was like the third system in
this episode with a RYZEN 9 5900X.
All in all, this was a very
well executed, minimalistic triple monitor setup.
Thank you for sharing this with us.
As always guys.
Let me know in the comments section which
of these setups was your absolute favorite.
Unfortunately, this will be the last
setup wars for this year.
We will continue in January of 2023.
I wish you guys a happy holiday and a happy New Year.
Thank you so much for watching, and
I'll see you in the next one.
[Outro Music]