Our editors’ desk setups, part 12: Kim likes sporty threesomes

My desk’s the centre of my home and located in my living room. Apart from sleeping, I spend most of the day at my desk, where I work, game, surf, watch TV – and usually even eat. My three 27-inch monitors are eye-catchers. I bought the setup especially for the college football season. On Saturdays between late August and early December, it’s not uncommon for five to six games to be flickering across my screens at the same time.

Three screens: one big brand has disappointed me

I'm not entirely satisfied with the screens anymore. In the middle, there’s an HP 27xq with an attached 1080 webcam with ring light from Angetube. On the left, there’s an HP 27o and on the right a Dell S2721DGFA.

The Dell screen was originally meant to be the central monitor, but I can no longer recommend the brand. After less than two years, the original one broke. I was then sent a refurbished replacement device, which lasted exactly two weeks until it gave up the ghost and showed a black screen. The second refurbished replacement device I got worked flawlessly for five days. Since then, I’ve been experiencing picture dropouts and the odd flickering picture. Dell service is stalling and refuses to give me a working device within the warranty period. That’s a pity. I’ll never go with Dell again.

At the moment, I’m thinking about replacing all three monitors. The middle one is also showing its first graphic errors. I just haven’t decided yet if I should go for three 27-inch screens again or have a 32-inch one in the middle and 27-inch ones to the left and right. That setup would require more space. It would definitely be a squeeze on my desk.

Cable clutter? Who cares?

My desk’s already quite old. I got if from my parents back in 1998. Unfortunately, it’s not height-adjustable, but I’m still happy with it. Visually, I like it a lot and it does the job. I’m sure many of you are frowning at my cable clutter on and under the desk. I have zero problem ignoring it, as long as none of the cables are getting in my way.

The large part of the cable clutter consists of the HDMI switch I use to connect my left monitor. I work from home four days a week. On those days, it’s my work monitor. It looks a bit wild, but it works for me.

Mouse, headset, keyboard: an eclectic mix complete with shiny lights

Galaxus has provided me with an HP EliteBook 840 G7 as my work computer. I operate it with a wired Tecknet mouse. It may be small, but that’s exactly what I like about it. The mouse is also easy to transport and great to use even when space is limited. That's why it comes with me when I go to the office.

At home, I use a HyperX Cloud Alpha wireless headset. After a lot of searching and testing, it proved to be perfect for me. Great sound quality, comfortable to wear and the freedom of movement you get with a wireless model.

I don’t have strong feelings about RGB Nevertheless, my keyboard and mouse light up. The latter’s a Logitech G502 Lightspeed. My keyboard’s a Razer BlackWidow Chroma V2 with Green Switches and a wonderful, removable palm rest. Not sure I could live without it any more. Overall, I’m happy with both.

Even though my mouse is wireless, I prefer using a cable. I prefer that to the annoyance of having to plug it in to charge. Convenience wins hands down. My mouse sits on a size L gaming mouse pad from Sharkoon (1337).

Sitting pretty

I already had a bit of a moan about my sitting situation in my relocation series. I’m still using a black armchair instead of a gaming chair. Ergonomically speaking, it’s far from ideal, but my search hasn’t delivered the results I was hoping for so far. Some Community members were nice enough to share their recommendations, but I haven’t made up my mind yet.

Sound and other stuff on and under my desk

My sound system consists of two Creative speakers my father gave me some time ago. The sound quality’s okay and, more importantly, the speakers take up little space on my desk. One of the speakers sits in a self-made wooden stand. There’s a small leprechaun with a pot of gold next to it – a souvenir I brought back from a trip to Ireland. The reading lamp above it was a purchase from a discount store.

My PC is where a PC belongs: under the desk. It doesn’t have any annoying lights or any other bells and whistles. It’s a straightforward be quiet! Pure Base 600 Midi Tower. Instead, it serves as a shelf for a USB hub and a red PS4 DualShock 4 Wireless Controller for sports games I play on the PC.

The hardware in my PC is no longer up to date. But it’s good enough for the time being. It houses an Intel Core i7-8700 and a MSI Geforce GTX 1070Ti for graphics.

Other items on my desk include a radio-controlled alarm clock, a notebook with a ballpoint pen, the remote control for my TV and a pillbox for my medication. Sometimes, my Xiaomi Pad 6 Pro tablet also sits here. Unfortunately, it’s a bit of a faff to get hold of in Europe.

Overall, my setup looks a bit wild and chaotic, but it works for me. For work and home use. I’m happy with it. That’s probably why I’ll be putting off replacing the screen and hardware for a bit longer.

If you missed the last episodes of our desk setup series, you can find them here: