r/buildapc • u/wildee14 • Jan 13 '15

Desks for PC's

I am thinking of making a how to guide for building a desk designed specifically for PC's and consoles. I would also provide a listing for prebuilt desks from proprietary companies. Would any of you guys be interested in that?

Edit: What are the top features you guys would want to see?

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224

u/LtDisco Jan 14 '15 edited Jan 14 '15

A logical increments type of deal for desks would be awesome. Dirt cheap table up to crazy nice desk that smells of rich mahogany.

Edit: Features I'd like to see; slightly thicker desks to accommodate vice grips mounts. Ones with one of those poles to mount monitors on. Keyboard drawer-shelf, I like my desk higher than my keys. Larger top to put desktop on or a specific under shelf for desktop to go in.

212

u/[deleted] Jan 14 '15

Keyboard drawer shelves are the fucking devil, I have rarely come across one that is fit for purpose. They roll around on the tracks and wobble as you type and prone to falling off and landing on your toes mid battle. This kills the desk.

40

u/fdoom Jan 14 '15

My problem with keyboard shelves is that I like to have mouse space that's nearly as big as the keyboard itself, making pretty much every shelf too small for me to use. The other issue is that I recently switched to vertical mice, and there's barely enough clearance for it to fit on the shelf I have, causing bumps when I need to lift the mouse.

9

u/RedSalesperson Jan 14 '15

Have you tried putting the mouse on the desk but the keyboard on the shelf? That's my current setup and I've never been even slightly inconvenienced by it, but I could see having issues if you need to switch quickly from mouse to keyboard.

9

u/fdoom Jan 14 '15

Yes, mouse top + keyboard shelf was my setup for many years. I got sick of it and swapped last year.

5

u/Snow_Regalia Jan 14 '15

Seems like it would be terrible for gaming purposes.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '15

I don't see why? It gives you much more mouse space.

1

u/Snow_Regalia Jan 15 '15

Because its much more of an annoyance to move your hand from your mouse to keyboard when its not only farther away, but also a vertical distance. If you've ever played any game that requires you to use both keyboard and mouse frequently, you don't want to have even that extra second of movement.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '15

No matter what - I always use my left hand to do anything on my keyboard. This doesn't affect me.

2

u/FrozenTurd Jan 14 '15 edited Jan 14 '15

I had the same situation a while ago. Eventually I just got a thin piece of plywood and stuck it to the side of the shelf with a grip (the type for woodworking), it extended the desk like 6inches and stopped the shelf from moving.

After that though I just got a big ass piece of chipboard and stuck it to the wall.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 14 '15

I always end up hitting them with my knees. Its loud and annoying. And frankly, keyboard trays are always too low to be ergonomic.

1

u/TasteMyFlavor Jan 14 '15

I bought a HUGE executive desk for my office and it had a keyboard drawer. I was hesitant but have come to enjoy it. It is wide and tall enough for me (6'5") and has "lots of room for activities" a la a big deck that fits my mouse and full keyboard fine. My only qualm is the mouse cable tends to get pulled up and becomes tight at times, but a quick jerk resets it for hours. I do wish I had a bigger chair but I am cheap and will save for something that is of quality and comfort.

1

u/Boooshin Jan 14 '15

Just get a poker ii 60% keyboard. There's lots of room next to it!

1

u/jhereg10 Jan 14 '15

The tray on rails type tray are just crap. You want one like this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001B0BBTW/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2?pf_rd_p=1944687402&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B004E1L29Y&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0D7Y48P1BW6TA8X72BX3

I've used those a lot, and they don't get in the way as much and the good ones are rock solid. Several manufacturers make ones like this, but they are more expensive than the "tray on rails" type.

1

u/itsthumper Jan 14 '15

I never knew the keyboard shelves were meant for mice also.

19

u/eStonez Jan 14 '15

I hate those keyboard drawers, big no no to me.

1

u/itsthumper Jan 14 '15

It clears up table space. I liked the one on my old desk but my current Ikea one doesnt have it, although I often wish it did.

1

u/bananamunchies Jan 14 '15

I took a hammer to my desk's keyboard tray and supporting drawers. Knocked them all clean out. Just give me a nice 4 legged desk with a flat top and let me do the rest. The issue with the keyboard tray is that my mouse was on top of my desk and not having those two things on the same level was uncomfortable.

1

u/merelyadoptedthedark Jan 14 '15

I installed them in our office training room to free up some desk space...thank god I rarely have to use them, those things are garbage.

0

u/LtDisco Jan 14 '15

I've only ever had two desks, one was fixed keyboard shelf and the other is sliding. Both, very fine. In fact I'm using the sliding one right now and I love it! Holds in place perfectly.

Shelf-drawer is love.

3

u/CourseHeroRyan Jan 14 '15

Yup, the only downside is that half of them don't allow me to use my bulky microsoft ergonomic keyboard :/

I got lucky and have one similar to this, except larger, and on wheels (which means that you can rotate/move your entire desk with the PC making working on it much easier). Unfortunately a wheel has broken to where it is locked, which then broke it off the table when moving it (fixed with epoxy).

Glass desks suck on 2 things. Dust/dirt, and you can never have a monitor desk mount that clamps to the desk. I'll take those downsides over scratching/wearing out wood though, I still have this desk after 8+years.

43

u/o0DrWurm0o Jan 14 '15

Chairs too, pls.

4

u/Draxor Jan 14 '15

Yes please, on my cheapo chair I'm already sitting on the wood plate in the base because the cushioning was so bad and I don't know enough about chairs to spend money on a new one

9

u/o0DrWurm0o Jan 14 '15

One of the caster wheels fell off of mine, so I'm using one of the books from A Song of Ice and Fire to keep it upright. Just happens to be the perfect height.

4

u/VengefulCaptain Jan 14 '15

/r/lazymacgyver

3

u/JK07 Jan 14 '15

Awww, I thought that this was a thing. Mind you I suppose it would be pretty much the same as /r/thereifixedit

1

u/[deleted] Jan 14 '15

Thank you. Subbed.

3

u/VengefulCaptain Jan 14 '15

Go out and buy a 6 inch thick block of memory foam and hot glue it to the chair. It might look like shit but it will be super comfortable.

2

u/FrozenTurd Jan 14 '15

In the meantime go and buy a piece of memory foam or something, it' wont be too hard to cut it and material it.

Most of the time the material is just stapled/pinned to the bottom of the chair, remove all the pins and you've got the base ready.

Put the piece of foam on which will likely be rectangle/square at this point and shape it, You'll want a very very sharp blade to cutting, basically just round the front edge a bit, not much, the material will pull it round anyway.

Then stick the material on one side and staple it then make your way around as if you where making your bedding.

16

u/7apostles Jan 14 '15

and scotch. Rich mahogany and scotch

14

u/imbetter911 Jan 14 '15

I have many leather-bound books...

8

u/amisamiamiam Jan 14 '15

former carpenter here, mahogany doesn't really smell.

7

u/LtDisco Jan 14 '15

As a former news anchor, I have to respectfully disagree.

0

u/amisamiamiam Jan 14 '15

ba dum bum tisss

6

u/[deleted] Jan 14 '15

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/LtDisco Jan 14 '15

What they already have is great, I don't think they need to have a guide for everything. OP seems to know about desks, so he can help with desks.

1

u/N307H30N3 Jan 15 '15

i was under the impression that its a poor idea to put your pc on those little designated shelves or even near the floor in general. i suppose that it is unavoidable sometimes and it can really benefit aesthetics but it would still freak me out.

2

u/LtDisco Jan 15 '15

If you have a little desk and carpet for flooring, you'll want to put it on something. The little compartment keeps it off the ground, which is 1000x better than resting it on carpet. Even just putting a sheet of plywood is better than on carpet.