what's up everyone this is tom this is a little blast from the past it's been a long time since
i made a tech video but here we are it is 2021 going into 2022. i have just purchased the 16-inch
macbook pro the m1 pro baseline version and since i've done that i thought i would share my new
updated desk setup with you so i am a freelance video creator for uh my full-time job that's what
i do for a living so this is my work from home desk setup and it is all powered by this m1 pro
macbook pro 16 inch but we'll start right at the top we will start with the desk this is a sit
stand it's an electric automatic sit stand desk from a company called kin arts it's actually like
a swedish brand i actually found this on facebook marketplace from an office that was renovating uh
near me and wanted to get rid of the desk and it's actually quite an expensive desk i got it
at a pretty decent price it's a really really nice size it's a good sized desk for me with a decent
amount of real estate and it means i can actually have the macbook actually on top of the desk
without sort of interfering with too much in terms of space it has this sort of slightly curved out
design which is super nice and like i said it is electric it does go up and down most of the time i
actually don't leave this plugged in because it's an extra cable if i want to move the desk i will
plug it in and then sort out the cables and then i just end up unplugging it again i don't actually
stand up at this desk enough to like leave that cable in all the time but getting on to what's
actually on top of the desk like i said first one here is the m1 pro macbook pro this is the 16 inch
baseline version uh it comes with 16 gigs of ram and obviously that m1 pro processor i'm
absolutely loving this computer upgraded from a m1 mac mini and i just basically wanted one
computer and i do have to sometimes get away from the desk so actually having a portable
laptop with an extreme amount of power is really really useful and this is a super quick machine
even for a baseline version i don't disconnect this computer that much so i'm kind of happy
with the cable management system and leaving it where it is i might look at getting some
sort of docking system or docking station in the future but for now i'm just happy with it sort of
sat in front or directly underneath the monitor for the keyboard and mouse i'm using a satechi
wireless keyboard this is a really good brand if you don't want to pay the full price for like a
standard apple wireless keyboard these are about half the price or or close to half the price of
the official apple versions occasionally it will drop out or lose signal i do kind of wish i'd gone
for an official one because that does over time get a little bit annoying but if you are looking
to save some money this is a good option also use the standard apple magic mouse these are just like
kind of the best mouses that i've owned i've also looked at the logitech performance series the mx
mouse's but i just kind of stuck with apple here and they are both sitting on a desk plaid a desk
blotter from orbit keys they're a really really nice company they make really beautiful products
this is a full sized leather a desk pad and it's nice because it kind of separates it has
felt bottom and separates and you can like store documents and things like that underneath i don't
really use it all that much but i do keep this permaly on my desk it just makes everything a
lot more comfortable not having things directly on top of the desk all right so moving on to the
screen the obviously the star of the show of pretty much any desk setup i'm using a samsung
widescreen or ultra wide screen this is it i think actually a gaming display it's a 34 inch display
runs at a resolution of 3440 by 1440 so a really nice resolution screen and as a professional
video editor i find this more than sufficient like super nice to have that extra real estate
but the resolution and the colors are really good and this screen is super affordable i think
it comes in actually like under 300 under 300 pounds here in the uk like a super super good deal
if you are looking at getting an ultra wide screen i would really recommend looking at this samsung
display i've used more expensive displays and for me there's not enough of a difference to warrant
going for something like that over something like this samsung in terms of mounting i have this
monitor mounted to the back of the desk in my opinion this is by far and away the best way
to improve a desk setup is to get your screen off of a sort of standard desk stand and mount
it somehow like it just makes it such a difference to have a beautiful clean aesthetic just with one
bar and then you can run your cables down behind it and just everything looks super nice and that
brings us nicely to talk about cable management cable management with desks can be really really
tricky uh but i'm pretty happy with the setup that i've got here the kin ops desk does have
this sort of like undercarriage of uh cable management just like a lot of desks will have
so i use that as the kind of main basis of the cable management and then i use zip ties
just like proper tight zip ties uh to keep everything look sort of nice and organized
once it was inside that that cable tray organizer and i did a couple of things so i use an extension
cord obviously you do need power to run this whole thing uh so i use an extension cord and
i've used command strips to actually attach this to the bottom of the desk meaning that
when it does go up and down that doesn't cause any issues and i don't have you know tons of
cables just going into the wall it's not foolproof it's not like the most incredible cable management
system but it does keep everything nice and clear and out of the way in terms of other peripherals
other things on the desk you won't ever see my desk without a few external hard drives on it like
i said i am a video editor i work from external drives all the time so for slightly more long-term
storage in terms of the actual devices that i use these are western digital four terabyte drives
they're under 100 and you get four terabytes worth of storage it's just like an amazing deal
and uh for slightly more faster or uh projects that i'm working on maybe i'm traveling i use a
combination of samsung t5 uh drives and also these sandisk extreme ssds so those are all ssd storage
i'm really really quick for anything like photo editing or video editing in terms of a little bit
more long-term storage i have a lacy big drive on my desk here i don't use this a ton because it's
actually quite noisy and i don't love that i do actually prefer to work off these uh these western
digital four terabyte drives but the lazy does sometimes come in handy it's like a raid system
and it's nice to have a bit of a slightly more long-term permanent storage that's a little bit
more secure in terms of speakers this is something which i really do need to upgrade these are
a super old audio brand called odyssey speakers they've been going like pretty strong for probably
almost 10 years now um so like a really nice speaker but definitely i think something which
could be improved on the setup if anyone has any suggestions for speakers please let me know in
the comments down below and then we have the last thing on the desk this lamp you can kind of see
behind me here this is like an industrial filament lamp it was originally bought for me as a gift
but quite a lot of people make these and they are kind of available or readily available for you to
uh to find i'll try and link some down below in the description this is one of my favorite things
on the desk uh it sort of brings everything up makes it feel a little bit more industrial not
totally as modern on the desk which is kind of like the vibe that i like so that's kind of that
that's my desk set up my work from home setup heading into 2022. hopefully you have found this
interesting everything will be linked down below in the description i'll see you guys next time