Your desk is more than likely where you spend a big chunk of your time now, whether you're
a student, office worker, or business owner.
Sometimes it can get a bit cluttered and messy.
Maybe your pet cat even contributed to some of the mess.
And you know what?
That's fine.
Not all of us have the time, money, or room to create our very own customized desk setups.
But... what if you did?
Add a standing desk for spinal longevity, a brand new M1 MacBook Pro, state of the art
Mac compatible Logitech accessories, a 4K 27" monitor and a Thunderbolt 3 dock with
4TB of superfast SSD storage *sigh.*
Whoa whoa whoa, hang on - you can't just skip the foreplay and get straight into the action.
Let's rewind and take a look at how this particular setup got upgraded from zero to hero.
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The aim for this desk setup is to be a good all-rounder.
Photo and video editing, article writing, general productivity, and some web browsing.
I also wanted to add some healthy upgrades such as a more ergonomic chair and standing
desk.
It's mainly for Mrs Created Labs but I'm sure the cat and I will steal it from her at some
point.
Starting with the desk, I wanted to get rid of the horrible, wobbly cheap desk currently
in the room, but didn't want to break the bank at the same time.
I also wanted to get something slightly bigger, as the current one was just too small.
Luckily there are a heap of standing desk options on Amazon, so I found one that looked
like it was good quality, and bought it.
By the way, I'll link all these products in the description down below.
It took a few days to arrive, and when it did, it was fairly easy to put together.
Probably about 30 minutes all up which is pretty typical for a flat pack standing desk.
I decided to stick with the standard laminate tabletop instead of a solid wood top like
my minimal setup video a few weeks ago.
It's just cheaper and easier to work with, although I will be doing more stained wood
desk top videos soon.
The table top in this video is about 1.5 meters long, which is a good size, but I certainly
wouldn't go any smaller.
Next, time to upgrade the brains of the operation.
I replaced the existing 2017 base model MacBook Pro with the new M1 version.
This is a huge upgrade in terms of performance and battery life, although it will be plugged
into a dock the entire time.
By the way, you can leave your laptop plugged into power the majority of the time and it's
not a problem.
See my video linked in the top right corner for more.
Moving on to the screen, I decided to gift her my Dell U2720Q 4K monitor.
I've featured it in a few videos and it's been a great monitor.
It's 27 inches and has great image quality.
It's also VESA compatible so it can be mounted on an ergonomic monitor arm for increased
health benefits and less neck strain.
I do have a review already on this monitor if you wanted to check it out.
Next is the Thunderbolt dock, and I went with the Sabrent Thunderbolt 3 docking station.
Sabrent is a good brand, I've reviewed several of their NVMe drives and enclosures.
It has all the ports and features needed, including an SD card reader on the front.
And you guys know how I feel about docks without that.
This Thunderbolt 3 dock will allow you to unlock the full speed of thunderbolt devices
with your M1 Macs, as we already know Apple Silicon doesn't play well with external drive
read and write speeds.
For additional storage, I have the Rocket XTRM-Q thunderbolt drive from Sabrent, and
this thing is blazing fast.
Pretty much just as fast as the internal storage on the Mac.
I got the 4TB option so that there would be plenty of room to store editing files and
other miscellaneous work stuff on.
You guys don't have to spend that much money on external storage, so you can either go
with a smaller storage capacity, or even build your own custom NVMe drive for much cheaper.
I have a video on this if you're interested.
Moving on - an easy way to get a dual screen setup for cheap is to get a laptop stand.
I got this one from Amazon and it's quite adjustable.
Height, tilt, and rotation.
It's not quite as sturdy as the solid stands I've reviewed before, but the adjust-ability
is a welcome addition.
Adjustable stands are good because you can raise them up to match the height of the screen
you're currently using
For peripherals, I decided on the Logitech MX Keys and MX Master 3 keyboard and mouse
combination.
I've featured both of these products extensively on my channel and can thoroughly recommend
them.
Both are wireless and can be charged via USB-C, which means I can just use the cable that
connects the MacBook to the dock whenever I need to charge them.
They also have super long battery life, up to 5 months per charge which is impressive.
Moving on to lighting, we went out and found a nice lamp that cost relatively little to
put in the corner for some ambient lighting.
I would have put some Philips hue bulbs in but the standard bulbs it came with looked
fine.
However, I did install a spare Philips hue light strip I had laying around behind the
desk to get some funky RGB ambient lighting if she wanted.
The light strip adds a nice flair to the whole setup, and can be disabled easily if you don't
want it.
Lastly, as a finishing touch, I replaced the existing $30 dollar office chair she had with
a more ergonomic one.
This was just a no name brand from the local office store, and further down the track I
will likely replace it with a more expensive and ergonomic chair but for now, this one
is a much needed upgrade from the previous one.
And that is it, the Mac desk setup has officially been pimped by Created Labs.
It's now modern, minimal, efficient, productive, healthy, and also has a little bit of RGB
flair thrown in.
If you're looking to make some similar upgrades to your own setup, just know that you don't
have to make them all at once.
You can focus on a few key areas and build it up over time.
I've linked all the products featured in this video down in the description below so if
you want some inspiration, definitely do check them out.
Apart from that, thanks for watching this video and I hope you enjoyed it.
If you have any comments or questions please let me know down below, and I'll see you in
the next one.