Author Topic: WFH rejig  (Read 63347 times)

WFH rejig
« on: 09 November, 2020, 07:01:57 pm »
OK, time to start a thread on this.

WFH setup at beginning of lockdown:-

Ikea Bekant Desk (160x80cm)
Some random Ikea office chair
Dual 23" Dell P2319H monitors (1920x1080) mounted on an Arctic Z2 monitor arm that clamps onto the back of the desk.
Work laptop driving dual displays (one via Display Port, one via USB-C to DP adapter) and sits on the desk with the lid closed.
Separate wired keyboard (IBM one multimedia buttons which allows me to mute, change volume, pause music/etc) and ancient Microsoft wired mouse
Desk covered in too much stuff (including a NAS)

Before:



Messy room with not enough storage (haven't got a good photo of that)
Printer on top of an old bedside table.
Shredder on floor.
"Yes please" said Squirrel "biscuits are our favourite things."

Re: WFH rejig
« Reply #1 on: 09 November, 2020, 07:03:32 pm »
Things to fix:-

* Desk (would like a sit/stand desk)
* Seat/stool/chair
* Nicer monitor(s)
* More storage
* Less clutter
* Sort out cable mess
"Yes please" said Squirrel "biscuits are our favourite things."

Re: WFH rejig
« Reply #2 on: 09 November, 2020, 07:06:05 pm »
Things to fix:-

* Desk (would like a sit/stand desk)
* Seat/stool/chair
* Nicer monitor(s)
* More storage
* Less clutter
* World peace
* Sort out cable mess

There you go, FTFY in order of ability to deliver

Re: WFH rejig
« Reply #3 on: 09 November, 2020, 07:15:24 pm »
Desk:-

Going to order a Flexispot EC1 motorised sit/stand desk.

Current desk is 160x80cm and the surface is 80cm off the floor.

Going from sitting to standing adds 34cm to my eye level so I need something that can handle those kinds of heights (not hard, I'm only 5'9"-ish) and the EC1 does.

Will go for a 140x70cm top, should easily be enough space and add 10cm to the width of the room. My keyboard normally sits ~20cm from the edge of the desk with by wrists resting 15cm-10cm from the edge so that'll be fine.

Seat/stool/chair:-

Mrs GB bought a Dynamic Sitall stool that is design for sit/stand desks and it's a bit too high for her desk but perfect for mine, so we've swapped and she's got my old Ikea chair for now.

Storage:-

Bought a 2x2 Ikea Kallax for the printer and shredder to sit on, what was in the bedside table that held up printer is now in the cube storage (paper, writable CDs/DVDs, stationery, etc). Also moved the NAS to one of the cubes.

Also got 3 Ikea Flysta shelving units (which are 2x4 cubes but not as deep as the Kallax range). Most of the stuff that was on the desk/floor is now neatly sorted into cubes.

Monitor:-

Going for a single 43" 4K monitor. Roughly the same width as my existing dual 23" setup, and roughly the same pixel size. Will just be double the height of the existing monitors which I think will work well. Something like this one:-

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/acer-dm431k-43-ips-3840x2160-4k-60hz-5ms-widescreen-led-backlit-gaming-monitor-black-mo-14r-ac.html

Other:-

Will also get a laptop for personal use, do too much personal stuff on my work laptop (work aren't that fussed) but I need to separate the two. Whatever monitor I get should do Picture-In-Picture so I can use the personal laptop for watching sport/etc if working outside normal hours. Laptop will probably be something like an Acer Aspire 5 (8GB RAM, 256GB SSD). Don't need anything that special, just need to run Firefox/etc and a small (2GB) Linux VM.
"Yes please" said Squirrel "biscuits are our favourite things."

Re: WFH rejig
« Reply #4 on: 09 November, 2020, 07:17:42 pm »
For a very brief moment I thought that you had a 3.5 inch floppy disk to the left of your paper clips.

Re: WFH rejig
« Reply #5 on: 09 November, 2020, 07:20:55 pm »
Will attach two mains extension blocks to the underside of the desk:-
UPS: Monitor, Switch
Mains: Laptop, battery charger, phone charger, desk, fan, personal laptop, spare

Two extension blocks at floor level:-
UPS: ESXi server, NAS
Normal mains: UPS, Speakers

(I need a few bits on the UPS so I can connect in to the ESXi server to shut it down gracefully if there's a prolonged power problem, but the UPS is mostly there to stop brief glitches taking out the ESXi Server or NAS.)
"Yes please" said Squirrel "biscuits are our favourite things."

Re: WFH rejig
« Reply #6 on: 09 November, 2020, 07:21:59 pm »
For a very brief moment I thought that you had a 3.5 inch floppy disk to the left of your paper clips.

Got a shoe box of them (and a 3" 'floppy' disk) to sort through when I get a chance.

I've already sorted through and wiped 5 old 3.5" HDDs, have 4 2.5" HDDs on my desk and another 4 or 5 in my desk at work (can't get to them at the mo).
"Yes please" said Squirrel "biscuits are our favourite things."

Re: WFH rejig
« Reply #7 on: 09 November, 2020, 07:25:20 pm »
I look forward to being able to get furniture and set up a proper WFH office.

Bigger desk - I want at least 180x90. I need the space so I can fit in my MS 4000 bendy keyboard. Constantly typing on laptop is causing nerve problems in my left arm.

Don't need sit-stand - I can't stand for long anyway. Just need to be able to adjust to 76 cm height.

Bigger monitor or dual monitor setup.
<i>Marmite slave</i>

Re: WFH rejig
« Reply #8 on: 09 November, 2020, 07:27:17 pm »
Stage 1 with stool, tidier desk, Flysta storage on left and Kallax on the right.

Obligatory golf ball on the floor for helping stave off plantar fasciitis.

"Yes please" said Squirrel "biscuits are our favourite things."

Re: WFH rejig
« Reply #9 on: 09 November, 2020, 08:11:54 pm »
Cable horror:-

"Yes please" said Squirrel "biscuits are our favourite things."

Afasoas

Re: WFH rejig
« Reply #10 on: 09 November, 2020, 08:46:26 pm »
Very apt thread.

Stage 1 with stool, tidier desk, Flysta storage on left and Kallax on the right.

Obligatory golf ball on the floor for helping stave off plantar fasciitis.



And that's a remarkable improvement.

Current desk is an old dressing table with computery things slung on the top. (My old desk has been acquired by the other grown up in the house)


New desk under construction. The top has just had its last coat of paint. Bit worried it might be too tall, but I can always chop something out of the legs.


Two additional monitors and pair of wall mounts for them should hopefully be here by the weekend. Those will go above the existing monitors on the new desk. My old desktop will be getting a bigger case, passively cooled GPU, Noctua CPU cooler, quiet PSU and some Noctua fans from my spares box to make it whisper quiet. I'll use it to display status pages on the wall mount monitors.

A KVM on the desk will allow me to switch between the newer laptop I use for work and the old perma-VPNed laptop I use for personal stuff.

Phase 3 will happen hopefully early next year - some actual structured networking so I'm not reliant on a Cat6 cable draped out of the window!

FifeingEejit

  • Not Small
Re: WFH rejig
« Reply #11 on: 09 November, 2020, 09:06:46 pm »

Before:




Well, I'm not looking at it wondering how you can be so tidy.
But you're an awful lot tidier than I am.


Mrs Pingu

  • Who ate all the pies? Me
    • Twitter
Re: WFH rejig
« Reply #12 on: 09 November, 2020, 09:10:09 pm »
Urrrgh! That keyboard is disgusting!  :sick:
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

FifeingEejit

  • Not Small
Re: WFH rejig
« Reply #13 on: 09 November, 2020, 09:17:39 pm »
yip...
I don't normally look at it TBH.


Edit: And now that you've drawn my attention to it...

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: WFH rejig
« Reply #14 on: 09 November, 2020, 09:20:07 pm »
This is my current workspace:


Note the piece of cardboard taped to the desk functioning as a mouse mat. The wired mouse I'm using doesn't play nicely with my desk surface. See also the two dead wireless mice, which explain why I'm currently using a wired one.

Note also the wedge of paper under the corner of the keyboard. I think it's the desk that's the culprit - the keyboard stops wobbling if I move it to a different area of the desk.

The only planned upgrade is to get a GBFO monitor, at which point I will retire the iMac and use my laptop docked to said monitor instead.

By the way, the stain on my chair is chocolate. No, really, it is.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Afasoas

Re: WFH rejig
« Reply #15 on: 09 November, 2020, 09:22:47 pm »
This is my current workspace:


Extra points for the anglepoise lamp.

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: WFH rejig
« Reply #16 on: 09 November, 2020, 09:23:50 pm »
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Re: WFH rejig
« Reply #17 on: 09 November, 2020, 09:46:40 pm »
Extra points for the anglepoise lamp.

Ikea's finest.

Excellent, I wanted one and did wonder whether to spunk £250+ on a genuine Anglepoise or get a cheap knock-off.

£9. Bargain!
"Yes please" said Squirrel "biscuits are our favourite things."

Re: WFH rejig
« Reply #18 on: 09 November, 2020, 10:33:17 pm »
Cable horror:-



As I happens I have just retired an early version of that power strip (Belkin) after the replacement neon switch failed after a year. I keep the main switchable distribution on my desk, so I can power everything off (not liking 24/7 power to PSU). Its replacement is an unswitched 10 socket tower (as I decided all the switches I could see on extensions costing less than £140 from RS were distinctly naff) fed from a mains spur switch then plugged into the ex-server cabinet PDU in the rear of the desk kneehole. This has the benefit of taking up less desk real estate. I've tamed a lot of the cables by using large loops created with cable ties at the rear as a cable channel, but cables, tidy? You're 'aving a giraffe.

Feanor

  • It's mostly downhill from here.
Re: WFH rejig
« Reply #19 on: 09 November, 2020, 10:34:45 pm »
Pah. Mere amateur attempts at mess.
Je vous présente chez Feanor:


WFH entaglement by Ron Lowe, on Flickr


WFH entaglement by Ron Lowe, on Flickr


WFH entaglement by Ron Lowe, on Flickr

Ben T

Re: WFH rejig
« Reply #20 on: 09 November, 2020, 11:35:48 pm »
Things to fix:-

* Desk (would like a sit/stand desk)
* Seat/stool/chair
* Nicer monitor(s)
* More storage
* Less clutter
* Sort out cable mess

You seem to have quite a lot of space devoted to that thing next to the printer, what is it, a shredder? You can get smaller ones, although you could keep it on the floor as well/instead.
And are you really ever going to use that old shitter on top of the book case ever again?  ;)  Bin it.  It's got a floppy drive so must be at least 30 years old :)

In fact if you got rid of the whole book case you might have room for a varidesk, can recommend it.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: WFH rejig
« Reply #21 on: 10 November, 2020, 12:00:08 am »

WFH entaglement by Ron Lowe, on Flickr

I've got to ask, what's the transformer about?

Re: WFH rejig
« Reply #22 on: 10 November, 2020, 08:53:45 am »
You seem to have quite a lot of space devoted to that thing next to the printer, what is it, a shredder? You can get smaller ones, although you could keep it on the floor as well/instead.
And are you really ever going to use that old shitter on top of the book case ever again?  ;)  Bin it.  It's got a floppy drive so must be at least 30 years old :)

In fact if you got rid of the whole book case you might have room for a varidesk, can recommend it.

Shredder stays. Smaller ones just fall apart. This one is the first that has lasted years.

The old shitter is the Linux box I'm using to help me scrub the old drives, once I've done all of that it'll go. It's next to a pile of old stuff that needs to go to the tip.

The book cases are new! They're there to help me organise the clutter that was in here. They work perfectly being behind me as I can't see them.

No need for a varidesk as we're going for a Flexispot EC1 sit/stand desk as described above, with a smaller top than the current desk as I simply don't need all of the space (it just fills with crap/clutter).
"Yes please" said Squirrel "biscuits are our favourite things."

Feanor

  • It's mostly downhill from here.
Re: WFH rejig
« Reply #23 on: 10 November, 2020, 09:07:42 am »

WFH entaglement by Ron Lowe, on Flickr

I've got to ask, what's the transformer about?

At one point in the past, the whole house was on a single 30mA RCD.
Oddly enough, it nuisance-tripped all the time.

This is a 240:240 isolating transformer which isolated all the computer room kit from the RCD, and was enough to prevent the nuisance tripping.
Mostly.
This was the place I could isolate as many devices in one single spot.

The consumer unit has since been replaced with one containing RCBOs, ie a 30mA RCD per-circuit.
So it's now redundant.

Jaded

  • The Codfather
  • Formerly known as Jaded
Re: WFH rejig
« Reply #24 on: 10 November, 2020, 09:17:04 am »
You have a penguin on your phone.  :P
It is simpler than it looks.