Share your HOME WORKING workstation environment - pics

[deckster]

p1stonhead said:

gobuddygo said:

This is my setup I've been working from home in IT for years.

When we bought this house over 5 years ago had a friend of a friend who worked in a furniture factory make me the the desk for the cost of a few beers, its the perfect height for me and made to fit exactly in the alcove, 900mm deep and 120mm wide, it weights a ton.

Works monitor stands on my works laptop on the left, don't worry about damage its a massive Thinkpad on a docking station, right hand side is personal monitor and PC, when pressed this is also used for work.

Why not just one monitor for both computers and an hdmi switch or the like to swap between?

Exactly the thought that was going through my head. I assumed it was a temporary setup that had just been thrown together - it's a hideously inefficient use of space for something which has been used for years!

[gobuddygo]

deckster said:

p1stonhead said:

gobuddygo said:

This is my setup I've been working from home in IT for years.

When we bought this house over 5 years ago had a friend of a friend who worked in a furniture factory make me the the desk for the cost of a few beers, its the perfect height for me and made to fit exactly in the alcove, 900mm deep and 120mm wide, it weights a ton.

Works monitor stands on my works laptop on the left, don't worry about damage its a massive Thinkpad on a docking station, right hand side is personal monitor and PC, when pressed this is also used for work.

Why not just one monitor for both computers and an hdmi switch or the like to swap between?

Exactly the thought that was going through my head. I assumed it was a temporary setup that had just been thrown together - it's a hideously inefficient use of space for something which has been used for years!

Loads of space to be honest and i prefer 2 monitors, i can get things up and running on my works laptop and can keep an eye on it while doing some personal stuff or other work on the other.

[Doofus]

gobuddygo said:

When we bought this house over 5 years ago had a friend of a friend who worked in a furniture factory make me the the desk for the cost of a few beers, its the perfect height for me and made to fit exactly in the alcove, 900mm deep and 120mm wide, it weights a ton.

900 x 1200 is standard size for an off-the-shelf small WFH desk.

[TameRacingDriver]

p1stonhead said:

Why not just one monitor for both computers and an hdmi switch or the like to swap between?

I sort of do that with mine, except I just use the 2 monitor inputs and switch between them on the menu.

I can see the appeal of having them seperate to be honest, but mainly because mine is a bit of a faff to switch using the buttons on the screen. I don’t know why they couldn’t have just had a simple button that rotates through the inputs with one press

I solved the problem by using Chrome Remote Desktop to connect to my personal machine so I could just run it in a Window on my work machine; I didn’t use RDP because it got hacked when I did, and by all accounts the alternatives are considerably more secure.

Edited by TameRacingDriver on Thursday 8th October 18:12

[p1stonhead]

TameRacingDriver said:

p1stonhead said:

Why not just one monitor for both computers and an hdmi switch or the like to swap between?

I sort of do that with mine, except I just use the 2 monitor inputs and switch between them on the menu.

I can see the appeal of having them seperate to be honest, but mainly because mine is a bit of a faff to switch using the buttons on the screen. I don’t know why they couldn’t have just had a simple button that rotates through the inputs with one press

I solved the problem by using Chrome Remote Desktop to connect to my personal machine so I could just run it in a Window on my work machine; I didn’t use RDP because it got hacked when I did, and by all accounts the alternatives are considerably more secure.

Edited by TameRacingDriver on Thursday 8th October 18:12

Not sure if it’s common but my monitor switches to the last item that was turned on.

I have it for my pc and Xbox and when the Xbox turns on it auto switches to it.

Xbox goes off and it auto switches back to the pc.

Perhaps that’s not that common?

[gobuddygo]

Doofus said:

900 x 1200 is standard size for an off-the-shelf small WFH desk.

I was being approximate it's actually exactly 122cm wide and a custom height.

[Doofus]

gobuddygo said:

Doofus said:

900 x 1200 is standard size for an off-the-shelf small WFH desk.

I was being approximate it's actually exactly 122cm wide and a custom height.

Fair enough

[xeny]

TameRacingDriver said:

; I didn’t use RDP because it got hacked when I did, and by all accounts the alternatives are considerably more secure.

If both devices are on the same network and you don't port forward RDP at your home router, it is probably at least as secure (you've got control of the credentials and aren't depending on a 3rd party or any traffic outside the LAN) and I would expect better performing.

[TameRacingDriver]

xeny said:

If both devices are on the same network and you don't port forward RDP at your home router, it is probably at least as secure (you've got control of the credentials and aren't depending on a 3rd party or any traffic outside the LAN) and I would expect better performing.

I don’t think it would work mate, as I have to go through a VPN on my work laptop so don’t think they would see each other on the same network?

p1stonhead said:

Not sure if it’s common but my monitor switches to the last item that was turned on.

I have it for my pc and Xbox and when the Xbox turns on it auto switches to it.

Xbox goes off and it auto switches back to the pc.

Perhaps that’s not that common?

Mine doesn’t do that. Awkward thing that it is.

[Peanut Gallery]

rodericb said:

Peanut Gallery said:

Random question, does anyone know what can be done with the high pitch hum from the monitors? They've always done it, however the noise is starting to grind a bit! I'm thinking possibly something like a power cleaner?

It might be a faulty capacitor. You might notice it gets stronger if you show an all white screen and go away on an all black screen.

Cheers! Will try it out. At work I could never hear it due to the ac never being turned off.

[xeny]

TameRacingDriver said:

I don’t think it would work mate, as I have to go through a VPN on my work laptop so don’t think they would see each other on the same network?
.

Yes, in that case you're out of luck unless the VPN supports a split tunnel, and policy on that seems to vary all over the place between employers.

[ATG]

Peanut Gallery said:

rodericb said:

Peanut Gallery said:

Random question, does anyone know what can be done with the high pitch hum from the monitors? They've always done it, however the noise is starting to grind a bit! I'm thinking possibly something like a power cleaner?

It might be a faulty capacitor. You might notice it gets stronger if you show an all white screen and go away on an all black screen.

Cheers! Will try it out. At work I could never hear it due to the ac never being turned off.

Depends what kind of screen you've got, but if it's something with a backlight it may have a high voltage power supply driving it and they can make a buzzing noise as fluctuating magnetic fields in its inductors physically shake the thing.

[cml24]

gobuddygo said:

Doofus said:

900 x 1200 is standard size for an off-the-shelf small WFH desk.

I was being approximate it's actually exactly 122cm wide and a custom height.

The custom hight is probably the best bit. I've never had an adjustable desk, or ever properly sorted foot rests, monitor stands and things. However I built a "desk" during lockdown to suit my weird body (very short torso) and it's much nicer than any other setup I used!

[droopsnoot]

Peanut Gallery said:

rodericb said:

Peanut Gallery said:

Random question, does anyone know what can be done with the high pitch hum from the monitors? They've always done it, however the noise is starting to grind a bit! I'm thinking possibly something like a power cleaner?

It might be a faulty capacitor. You might notice it gets stronger if you show an all white screen and go away on an all black screen.

Cheers! Will try it out. At work I could never hear it due to the ac never being turned off.

Might that be the same thing in my laptop PSU? I have an old laptop, battery long since no good, so I have to run it off the mains. When I do that, the PSU makes a high-pitch noise some of the time, either when the screen is updated, or when the hard disk is being accessed - the two usually happen at the same time because of what I do with it. It's almost like "TV computer" noise.

(I know I could narrow it down to screen or HDD fairly quickly, but I'm just jumping on this question while I see it, if I wait until after I've tried to narrow it down I'll never find this again.)

[Burrow01]

DVI switch that I use to change between the work laptop and my home PC has failed, and so have had to set up a "max screens" configuration for a while

[xeny]

droopsnoot said:

Might that be the same thing in my laptop PSU? I have an old laptop, battery long since no good, so I have to run it off the mains. When I do that, the PSU makes a high-pitch noise some of the time, either when the screen is updated, or when the hard disk is being accessed - the two usually happen at the same time because of what I do with it. It's almost like "TV computer" noise.

(I know I could narrow it down to screen or HDD fairly quickly, but I'm just jumping on this question while I see it, if I wait until after I've tried to narrow it down I'll never find this again.)

It could. More likely to be the HDD being accessed triggering it, or changes in CPU load changing power draw (to my mind even more likely as that will be a bigger load change than HDD access). Screen power draw doesn't change that much unless you're lucky enough to have an OLED laptop.

[Glade]

Swapped out one of my 24" monitors for a 38" ultrawide.

It is fking massive. Think I'll get used to it but, it feels woerd at the moment.

[ZesPak]

I've got two of them now. It's a slippery slope.

[mmm-five]

One work PC, one work iMac, and one fun iMac.

[TameRacingDriver]

ZesPak said:

I've got two of them now. It's a slippery slope.

I have one and I don't think I could fit two in my room

In all honesty though one of these bad boys is enough for me to be highly productive. Though if it ever went kaput, I'm not sure whether I'd get another, or whether to get a 4k 32" 16:9 screen instead for a bit extra height.