Monitor arms are one of my must have accessories for the home office. Whether you spend $25
for a basic one or $300 for a premium high-end model. I find it’s a great investment to
my computer setup to help save space on the desk, can help with ergonomics to set the
monitor at the right height and angle for my comfort, and just adds some extra style
and aesthetic to the overall desk setup. Hi I’m David and these are my favorite go
to monitor arm for configuring my desk setup. Starting with the $25 option. This is the
cheapest of the bunch but I think for most people this pretty much all you really going
to need. At this price band you can honestly go with any reputable brand arm here but I’m
just the most familiar with the VIVO brand and is one of the more popular ones on Amazon.
A simple clamp structure to your table. Set the arm bracket to the height you need and
lock in place. And then mount it to the VESA holes to your display. And you’re good to
go. At this price point you’re not going to get a spring adjustable arm for dynamic
height adjustment and full range of motion. But in my experience, I think most people
will tend to just set it up once and never touch it again anyways. These arms usually
support up to 22lbs of weight, which is enough to hold something as big as my 34 inch ultrawide
without any issue. Next up if you really want more freedom of
motion with your display. Or need something with a little more weight capacity for a larger
screen. The Amazon Basic Monitor Arm is a solid choice. It’s a pretty big jump in
price at around $100 but I feel is worth the investment over cheaper spring arms that tend
to have lower weight capacities than the previous $25 option or other known issues with reliability.
With this arm you can raise, lower, swivel and tilt your monitor as you need with ease.
Has built in space for cable management And with support for up to 25lbs, its again good
enough for most 34 inch ultrawides, and I’ve even pushed it to the limits with my heavier
49 inch display. But let’s take a moment to talk about those
weight limits, and that common question I get, will this monitor arm support my display?
And it’s not always going to be clear cut. For example, someone who mounts the monitor
in the middle and rarely moves it, puts a lot less stress on the arm, than someone who
wants to fully extend it out all the time and constantly move it around. Some monitors
offset their VESA mounts or aren’t well balanced so that can put a lot more stress
on the tilt mechanism, making it droop down overtime. And your desk is also important
factor too, where solid wood ones are highly recommended but sometimes you can get away
with particleboard or even hallow ones from Ikea if you reinforce them a little or stick
with simple display setups. So it can be a little trial and error but finding someone
with a similar setup will usually start you down the right path.
For my setup lately with the 49 inch monitor, While I never really had any concerns with
reliability using the Amazon Basic Arm, you can definitely tell it’s working hard and
does twist on the desk, since I leave it fully extended out all the time.
Which brings me to my last and most expensive suggestion. At about $300, this is the Ergotron
HX monitor arm. And when you see it in person you can immediately tell it’s built like
a tank for heavier displays. Starting with the desk clamp, it’s much bigger and also
has a flat rubber pad to better distribute the weight over a larger surface. And on the
underside you have two screws instead of one that really help minimize any play as you
move the arm around on the desk. The arms are also much thicker, the joints lock together
nicely, everything from build to movement feels very premium as you’d expect with
such an expensive arm. One neat feature is the optional rotation stop that you can use
to prevent the bottom arm from rotating back and hitting your wall. Other than that, you
aren’t gaining anything new with movements, as it’s similar to the Amazon Basic arm
but doesn’t go down quite as low. The cable management is slightly upgraded here with
built in straps but is not a huge upgrade. The real reason you’d consider this, is
the weight capacity. Be aware lighter monitors may not work with this, for example my Dell
34 inch just works at the lowest setting so I wouldn’t go any lighter. But for my 49
inch, or anything bigger or heavier in the future, there’s a worlds of differences
in how solid and well built this Ergotron HX is designed for that. And with 10 years
of warranty, this will probably be the last monitor arm I ever need to buy. But as I mentioned,
for most people I’d probably just stick to $25 one to get most of the benefit of having
an arm, or consider the Amazon Basic one if you want a bit more flexibility. But if you
want best of the best for your super ultrawide display the Ergotron HX is hard to beat, as
long as you have the cash. But hope you guys enjoyed this one. You know what to do. And
I’ll see you in the next video.