Ask HN: What's your WFH set up like? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What's your WFH set up like?

26 pointsedent36 comments

After months of cramping over my laptop on a sofa, I've finally sorted out a proper desk, vertical monitor, ergonomic keyboard and mouse - and I'm loving it!

I've put photos and details on https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2020/04/my-wfh-set-up/ - but I'd really like to see your WFH rigs.

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Lying in my bed, surrounded with my own filth, hunched over a coffee-stained macbook. I live in a very tiny studio with 1 other person, and have not been in my career long enough to be able to invest in any type of home setup.

This except I'm hunched over two 720p laptops with awful displays that have glare at every angle. I probably could achieve more in one day at the office than 5 days at home.

Is it the Dell Latitude 7290? I and all my coworkers hate this screen. I didn't know TN panels could be so awful, there isn't even one good viewing angle.

It's a Dell latitude. I don't know which model. It's horrible to use.

Motorized standing desk, with half a solid-core door for a desk top. Variable-terrain anti-fatigue foot mat, 32" 4K Dell monitor mounted to a VESA adjustable monitor arm.

Running a Dell XPS 13 so it's all via a single USB-C cable from the laptop to the monitor. AmazonBasics drafting chair for when my heels get tired.

Oh, and some LED bias lighting behind the monitor for when it gets darker in the room in the evening.

This setup is a dream realized for me. This year I finally got a fully remote dream job and decided to go all-out on workspace ergonomics.

https://imgur.com/a/ZkAmcfZ

Comments here will mostly be biased towards people who have a decent set-up. People like me just working on a laptop at the study table will mostly not comment.

Hey, you forgot the noise canceling headphones.

I have an IKEA bookcase with my laptop on the middle shelf and a monitor on the shelf above it thus making a ghetto standing desk. I shift between this and a sitting desk throughout the day, using the monitor (which is inconvenient to move) as an incentive to stand as much as possible.

I've an iron pipe desk with a red wooden top paired with a similarly designed shelf. They allow me to work at standing height with all the proper ergonomics. My laptop simply goes on the shelf and connects to the rest via a single USB C cable

There's some storage underneath the desk and an anti-fatigue mat. Light strips underneath the shelf for the desk surface

Ergonomic mechanical keyboard w/ silent switches, MX Master mouse, Blue Yeti w/ mechanical arm, decent headphones and a discrete USB Dac mounted underneath the desk, USB hub

I've always hated external monitors and use a tiling window manager, so it's a pretty fine setup for me

Thursday will be 1 month of WFH for me, and until yesterday I was being "minimalist" and just working off my 12" 720p work laptop, until I woke up today with incredible neck/back pain.

Now I'm using the Microsoft Sculpt split keyboard, a Logitech M500 (IMO the best mouse in the world, I keep a few new-in-box in case they ever go out of production), and an cheap 24" Acer monitor from Craigslist. Such a huge upgrade, almost makes Windows usable ;)

I also have a pull-up bar I hit during every Teams meeting, which these days means I'm getting a pretty good workout.

Ikea desk, with matching wall-mounted cabinets and a free standing cabinet next to it. 15" MacBook Pro connected to 2x28" 4K monitors (Samsung UH750). I just bought a new ergonomic chair from Amazon and it makes a world of difference. Working from home is now so much better than my office in terms of experience. The monitors are bigger and easier on my eyes, and now my chair is just as comfortable as the $1k Aeron chairs we have at work.

16" MBP on an mStand, dual monitors (Dell 27" 4k, Dell 24" 1080p) on a cheap Vivo arm from Amazon. Apple full size (with 10-key) Magic Keyboard and Magic Trackpad. 39" TV mounted above my monitors ("watch" TV while working more than anything else). Aeron chair. Giant L-shaped desk that my wife got for $25 when she worked at JC Penney 15-20 years ago (was used in the registries department or something like that)

Very lucky that we moved to a 4-room apartment (away from a 2-room) last year (with wife and 2 kids). Also wanted to build a PC after 15 years of notebook-only work (I do contract freelance software development work for 3 to 12 months at a time and saved up a bit by not buying a new laptop every 1-2 years). Finished the build in January, together with the home office setup.

I really like working on 4K. So I built it with a new Ryzen, and a graphics card that can decently handle 3 x 4K monitors (varying ages, I didn't buy them all at once). They're 27 inch, the left side is for console and server stuff, the middle one for development (mostly JetBrains) and the right one for browsers, research and others (e.g. Spotify).

The table itself is from the DIY store, got like 240cms (almost 8 feet) wooden table top for 60 US$, 2 IKEA table legs for 30 US$ and some wood paint for 20 US$. Plus a Noblechair for 400 US$ (I think this was the first time I ever spent more than 80 US$ for a chair).

Also happy about the my mouse "Model D" from Glorious PC Gaming Race, reasonably priced and very comfy + light (I tried several - even very pricey ones that I sent back - in the past year, this has been my favorite).

Desk: adjustable (sitting vs standing), 160x80cm

Chair: crappy office chair that needs an update

Computer: old hackintosh desktop mounted under the desk

Displays: 27” 4K IPS LG and and old 22” Samsung, both mounted on adjusabled monitor arms

Peripherals: Apple a1243 keyboard, Logitech MX Vertical mouse, both on a big (90x40cm) gaming mouse pad, Logitech c920 webcam

UPS: Cyberpower BR700ELCD

Room decorations: NASA space tourism posters, framed on the walls, Saturn V and Lunar Lander LEGO models.

Very modest, a PC that I purchased for $200AUD ($130 USD?) a few years ago, a monitor I purchased even earlier and a shitty MS keyboard, on a cheap desk. I am remote connecting to a dev machine with more meat. I have a dedicated room - which I think is the key thing, I feel luck to have this as many people have to share at home with other uses of a room.

-Adjustable sitting / standing desk, beefed up and modded with an electric motor from a mobility scooter instead of the hand crank it came with, all on wheels.

-Aeron chair clone.

-2x 27" monitors with one curved 32" in center all on a triple monitor mount. (all 1080p, would love to upgrade to all 4k.) I usually have the side monitors vertical but they can rotate.

-Two led lights mounted on the desk behind the monitors and a c920 webcam that can all be raised and adjusted as needed and a yeti USB mic.

-custom built desktop with Intel i7 7700k, 64gb of ram, dual nvme 500gb m2 drives running in raid zero (effectively doubles throughput.) Nvidia GeForce 1070ti. Mounted underneath the desk in a super quiet case.

-microsoft surface Bluetooth keyboard and a Logitech performance mx mouse

-monoprice Bluetooth headphones.

Whatever your setup, make it ergonomic, keep on adjusting it, own it.

https://youtu.be/d3R0UM0Q0Dw

https://youtu.be/8iuo31_GsuM

2x 27inch 4k monitors on cheap "North Bayou" adjustable arms Mac Mini

Desk: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-62-in-Adjustable-Height-Wo...

Overhead TV - don't really use it, tried to add some stripe info + magic mirror via raspberry pi... please don't tell my wife I admit to it not being useful.

Picture from January - https://storage.googleapis.com/hipspec-marketing-images-publ...

Mine is similar (my second monitor is only a 24" 1080p however) - I even have the same line of Logitech webcam. I often "watch" TV on the overhead TV, since we have Fire TVs on all of them.

Same old desk and monitor, but I decide to invest in buying something that support my WFH life: good chair.

I bought the midrange 'Think' chair from Steelcase, and even it's not the top of the line and has compromised features, the quality and comfort is miles ahead of my old cheap $50 office chair. My butt just heal itself just sitting on it Imao. It just worth every penny. That aside, no chair can replace the need to exercise and strengthen your body regularly(especially lower back and glute muscle if you sit all day)

My desktop PC, same that I spend the rest of my day in front of. I connect to my works network through VMWare horizon View Client, and from a virtual desktop, I RDP into my work machine.

Worked from home for years. Office with large round table, desk, side-table, bookcases, cabinet for equipment.

12-processor 64GB desktop with dual monitors. Multiple wifi plus wired connections.

Multiple laptops, old CPU cabinets against one wall waiting to be recycled, extra monitors strewn about, printers, UPSs, client hardware in various states of disassembly/debug cabled and debug modules. Old disk drives stacked here and there.

I am interested in your round table. What do you use it for??

When the boys were young, I found them all over the house, each alone with their game. So I bought the table, drilled holes in the middle for cable routing, wired a switch and power strip. Put all the household computers on the table.

Now when playing computer games, it was a social event. Instead of silence in dark rooms, they were laughing and talking as they played. Discovered lots of cooperative games, had friends over, LAN parties etc.

These days ('kids' are 30) its a place for laptops when family is home for holidays. Otherwise sometimes I print some complex code and spread it out on the table, mark it up. Or lay out hardware that I'm working on. Or do surgery on a desktop box. Or pile parts waiting for assembly.

A pair of 27" monitors on adjustable arms and an ErgoDox Infinity keyboard in a fully adjustable keyboard drawer. I've actually modified (without damaging it) a beautiful old maple desk. Everything is adjusted to maximize posture - I worked from home for several years and remember all the bad habits I had to unlearn!

Currently have a Lenovo S30/64gb ram/1050ti4gb with Ubuntu, LG 4K 32” lcd, MS ergonomic 4000kb, anger vertical mouse, cheapo folding table, Arron chair.

It’s not pretty but it gets the job done!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/bdWCUJyuAk5E9emt9

I've got a DIY desk from Ikea, so its really basic.

I am grateful that my work let me take my office chair home because my old chair at home was horrible for my back. Now that I have my nice work chair, I'm feeling much better.

Also thankful that all I need to do my work (and everything else I enjoy) is just my macbook pro.

Currently I have a desk with both a large exercise ball and office chair. I try to use the exercise ball more. My laptop is connected to a 27" monitor mounted on to the wall.

I intend to change this so that my desk is more at waist height and get my self a bar stool so I can switch between standing and sitting.

I have an external monitor in my apartment that is on a dressing table. Myself and my girlfriend rotate usage of it depending whose work at the time needs the second screen more. The other person sits at the kitchen table. I use noise cancelling headphones for calls.

So far its working out pretty well.

I have a:

- Dell U3818DW 38" curved monitor 3840x1600

- Dell U2718Q 27" monitor 3840x2160

- Herman Miller Aeron chair with big (3") wheels on it for carpet.

- My main computer is a Lenova X1 Extreme (15") running Windows

- A couple of Lenova X1 Carbon (13") laptops running Linux

- I'm hooked on Logitech K750 keyboards and MX Anywhere mice

I have a widescreen monitor hooked up to laptop that is on a stand so the screen has the correct height. All resting on a desk that can be raised so I can stand part of the day. Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse, and Bose QC35s for meetings.

I have been improving my home office since I started WFH about 4 weeks ago. Got myself a Philips 43 inch monitor today. Initially I thought it was too big but then after coding on it for about 3 hours, I am already used to it.

For OS I run Manjaro i3wm community edition.

Pretty Sweet My Dude! I feel like I leveled up :P Relevant https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHLR3faI7lU

Desk in the living room. 3 27" monitors on monitor arms, split keyboard, vertical mouse (right), and trackball mouse (left).

13min Macbook Pro on a stack of books

Ikea desk

mouse + keyboard

Sometimes I work on the bed or couch.

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