(gentle music)
- Right so I used to think that the bigger my screen
and the more stuff I could pile on my desk,
the more productive I had the potential to be.
Well recently I realized that bigger
isn't necessarily better.
And so when Apple announced the new lineup of iMacs
a few weeks ago,
I realized it's the perfect excuse to simplify
and minimalize my desk set up.
But first, let's start by tearing down the old one.
I start by taking stock
and wondering how my life ended up in such a profound mess.
Like honestly, where does all this junk even come from?
I say goodbye to the multiple keyboards, the books,
and my antifungal nail cleaner
before sorting out the various cables
and unplugging all of my devices.
It takes half an hour to dismantle
the 49-inch ultra-wide monitor.
And we say goodbye to the trustee Mac mini.
We give the desk a wipe and clean
and now it's time to unbox the new iMac.
It's the most cleverly designed box I've ever seen
with fancy compartments for all the different bits.
I get everything unboxed, get everything set up,
plug in just a single cable.
And we're good to go.
(paper crackling)
Let's dive into the tour.
So the first thing
that's obviously powering the entire thing
is the 2021 M1 iMac.
This is currently the base model.
So it's only got two Thunderbolt ports,
eight gigabytes of RAM
and a 256 gigabytes solid-state drive,
that is absolutely tiny.
I have a fully beefed out one that's on the way
that's gonna arrive in about six weeks.
I've upgraded that to 16 gigabytes of RAM
and two terabytes of the hard drive.
And this bad boy
is connected to the CalDigit TS3 Thunderbolt dock
via a single USB-C cable,
which snakes underneath the desks,
so you can't really see it.
This doc is absolutely amazing.
I used to have it connected to my M1 Mac mini.
Again, that only had two ports.
There's a real problem with like these recent round
of Apple products that they don't have enough ports.
And so right now the CalDigit dock
has an ethernet cable attached to it.
It's got my Elgato Cam Link.
It's got my Shure SM7B microphone connected
to the 2i4 Audio Interface.
The main accessories for the iMac
are the ones that came with the product.
So we've got the new blue,
like sky blue whatever it's called, Apple keyboard
and Apple Magic Mouse.
Sadly the keyboard is the one without the Touch ID
because I didn't get the spec'ed out version
and that's on the way in about six weeks.
And I've also got a Magic Trackpad on the way
because I like that to be a staple part of my desk setup.
In terms of speakers
I'm still using the Kanto U2, white speakers.
These are absolutely amazing.
They're so pretty, they look nice.
They go with the blue and white kind of aesthetic
and they sound amazing as well.
And those are connected via USB-A
to the CalDigit dock which is then connected to the iMac.
In terms of other things we've got connected to the dock.
We've got firstly, the ethernet cable
which gives me wired internet.
At the moment it's 300 megabits down
and 50 megabits up which is not too bad.
Secondly, we've got the Focusrite 2i4 audio interface.
Now normally my Shure SM7B microphone is plugged into this
and that's plugged into the Cloudlifter Preamp
to give it a little bit more gain.
And that's the audio setup that I generally use
when I'm recording a podcast or recording a voiceover
for a video or teaching live sessions of my course,
"The Part-time YouTuber Academy".
Also connected to the dock, we have the Elgato Cam Link 4K.
This is a little USB dongle type thing
that lets my camera connect via HDMI to the computer.
So again, if I'm really trying to flex on a Zoom call
or in a teaching session for the "YouTuber Academy"
I can use the output from this camera
to kind of stream via Zoom and everyone's like,
"Oh my God, I can't believe your camera set up is so good."
Thanks to the fact that the new iMac has a decent webcam
and actually pretty reasonable built-in microphones though.
I probably won't need to use a lot of the, you know,
external camera, external mics for most of my Zoom calls
these days, which is kind of nice.
It makes me a bit more of a minimalist.
Right next to the dock we have this set trilogy
from Austin Kleon.
We starting off with "Steal Like An Artist"
and then "Show Your Work!" and then "Keep Going".
These are books that I've had on my desk
for the last few months.
And it's really nice because if I'm in a bit of a slump
I just pick up a random one of them
and open it to a random page
and I always end up learning something
and they serve the side effect
of hiding the cables behind my desk.
And in terms of the other accessories,
right now I've got this Le Creuset teapot thing in blue.
It's got some English breakfast, decaffeinated tea in it
because it's the evening
and caffeine after 2:00 PM is bad for you.
But this sort of goes with the blue vibe
of the whole desk setup as well.
And of course, what desks set up would be complete
without the fake IKEA FEJKA Potted Plant or FIKA
whatever you ended up calling it.
This is nice 'cause it adds a little splash of greenery
and I've had this exact same one on my desk set up
since like 2015 or something like that,
so it's been with me for a while.
Moving on to the other side,
firstly, I have a deck of cards again this is blue,
it's all coincidence but like blue is my favorite color.
I feel like blue is my personal accent color.
And so it's kind of nice that all the stuff on my desk
is some shade of blue in some capacity.
God missed that one?
That one, that was all right.
That was all right, that was all right.
And then right next to the deck of cards
I've got my Ugmonk Analog.
This is a paper to-do list system.
You guys have seen me talk about it before.
It's a bit overpriced for what it is, but it's really nice.
It's a really nice design, this is the walnut wood.
And it comes with these, this like bunch of cards.
So you have like a card for every day
and you can write your paper to-do list
and you have some cards for next.
Then you have some cards for someday.
Mostly it's the today cards that I use
because I like having a to-do list on paper
and it just feels nice and feels aesthetic.
And then the really cool thing is
once you write it down on paper
then you can like prop it up in the dock thing.
And this is just kind of cool.
This looks really awesome and it helps me keep track
of all the things I need to do in a day.
The only other thing on the desk itself
is this Tomons lamp
which has a nice kind of Pixar-looking look
with a Phillips Hue light bulb inside it.
In fact, we've got Phillips Hue light bulbs
all around the living room and in my bedroom as well.
So I can always change the lights
if I want a different kind of setup.
For example, Alexa, turn on read in the living room,
oh, a bit yellow.
Or Alexa, turn on spring blossom in the living room.
So having talked about all the stuff on the desk,
let's talk about the desk itself.
Now, this is the Fully Jarvis Bamboo.
I think this is about 180 centimeters.
Fully very currently sent this to me about two years ago
and I absolutely love it.
It's an electronic standing desk.
And I often switch between sitting and standing modes.
And the other piece of furniture,
this is the Herman Miller Sayl.
This is a very, very, very nice chair.
I've got it in white and blue again to match the aesthetic.
And it's the most comfortable desk chair I've ever used.
It's amazing, would recommend.
Then on the side of the desk,
we've got an IKEA ALEX Drawer unit, sadly, it's in black.
I really wish it were in white, but I haven't changed it
since I first got it like two and three years ago now.
And in the drawers, we've got an absolute mess
of a load of stuff.
I need to figure out a way of organizing this
and Marie Kondo-ing, my kind of desk set up drawer.
And then on the floor right next to the ALEX drawer unit
and underneath the desk
I've got my Alienware gaming desktop PC.
Currently, I have no way of actually plugging it
into anything because sadly I can't use the iMac
as an external display.
But what I'm thinking about doing at some point
if I really wanna be supremely unproductive
is getting one of those L-shaped standing desks.
And so having like the iMac as the productivity set up
on one bit of it
and having like a windows gaming PC set up
on the other side.
That's the absolute dream,
so I'm working on making that happen.
Underneath the desk, we also have these hooks
which I've magnetized to the underside of the desk.
And on one of them, I have the SwitchPod.
This is a nice tripod that I use for my camera sometimes
if I'm vlogging.
And occasionally I'll use the other hooks for keys
or for headphones or things like that.
But generally, it's a SwitchPod I've got underneath.
And finally, in terms of cable management
I'm using these wire mesh-type things
to hide some of the cables.
And the challenge with cable management with a standing desk
is that you want the cables to be managed
when the desk is in sitting mode
and also in standing mode.
Right now I haven't really done a great job of this
and the Alienware is hiding most of the mess of cables
but the white stuff does make a difference.
And then on the other side of the desk
where I've got an extra extension pot, I've hidden that
inside this white plastic containery type thing
which hopefully makes the entire desk look
as cable-free as possible.
I think overall, I've done a pretty good job
of the cable management on the desk.
Like you generally can't see a cable in sight
that's because they're all hidden behind, you know
this massive books by Austin Kleon.
So that's the desk setup.
If you like this
you should definitely hit the subscribe button
because I am looking to upgrade this with an L-shaped desk
and be a little bit less minimal than this setup.
And if you like this video you might like to check out
this video over here,
which is my review of the brand new M1 iMac.
So, thank you so much for watching
and I'll see you in the next video, bye-bye.