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Ask HN: What's your desk/workstation of choice for hacking?

4 points by symptic ↗ HN
I'm putting in a nice chunk of my change to set up a suitable work area for my several startup projects and am stuck finding a decent desk. Office stores don't have large work-area desks and it's tough finding anything online that's not too cheap or too expensive.

What desks does HN use? Do you like it?

23 comments

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rms
What's wrong with too cheap? Generally the advice for furnishing a startup is "expensive chairs, cheap desks." If you don't want anything used Ikea is a reasonable, convenient place to look.
symptic
I'm all for very affordable desks, but what I meant was the materials that seemingly fall apart from normal every day use. Cheap quality.
breily
I got fed up with crappy desks from office stores and decided to make my own desk instead - its basically just an 8 foot long piece of wood, about 2 1/2 feet deep. Its not only really cheap, but it has room for my two monitors plus my laptop plus lamps/papers/etc.

It doesn't have the frills that seem to come with desks from stores, but I never used those anyways (I never understood building CD racks into desks). Plus since you build it yourself you can customize it - I put lots of holes in the back to run cables, with hooks underneath to organize them. For drawers, Ikea sells plastic ones that attach with a couple of screws for like $2.

symptic
I'm thinking of buying a 30" wide door and attaching some metal pipes as legs and calling it a day. I you said, it can be customized later and it will be more than large enough to hold all of my papers, screens, etc.

My father also suggests buying some architecture drawing surface and laminating it on top to provide a smooth writing surface.

tait
If 2-drawer filing cabinets are the right height, they would make useful and stable drawers. (If you do this, I would recommend spending the money for good filing cabines with ball bearings: I started with the cheap ones and hated them).
cperciva
I have a "desk" which is an old dining room table (and is a few inches higher than ideal); but I do most of my coding while lying in bed. I like my laptop. :-)
symptic
Do you find your wrists/arms starting to hurt while using the table? I've had two desks in the past I felt were too tall because the strain it put on my forearms and carpal tunnel. Lately my hands and arms have been feeling over-strained; a large motivation behind revamping my work setup.
cperciva
No, I just adjust my chair very high -- which is fine except that it results in my feet not being flat on the floor.
symptic
I've been using a folding metal chair for the past year, which is probably the largest cause of said pains. I'm currently shopping for a much more suitable chair.
jgrahamc
My work set up is the following:

1. Aeron chair

2. Pair of trestles and a large piece of wood on top of them.

#1 cost $$$, #2 cost next to nothing. I bought cheap trestles from a hardware store, and a nice piece of flat wood which was prestained and edges smoothed off.

axod
A reclining sofa with comfy cusions.
lsb
Until you get RSI.
axod
For me, a sofa is far better than a desk. How many positions can you get into on a chair at a desk?
maryrosecook
Biggest, smooth-surfaced desk that will fit in the room without blocking the door.
davo11
I've got an ikea desk with two tier sort of thing for the monitors and keyboards and pull out wings you can stick things on, I've had it for years, it's survived two house moves and has many more years ahead of it and I wouldn't part with it.

I've got another desk from an auction which is a great place to check out, if you can deal with the fact of where the desk has been before (a failed business usually, pre disasterised i think of it as)

iamelgringo
I went cheap with the desk: Ikea $80 But, I splurged on Ergotron Montior arms: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000959.html

They are truly one of the best workspace purchases I've ever made. Really, they're very, very nice.

symptic
I've been considering getting two of these for my monitors: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824183...

It's an addition I'll have to add on later, but I think having the space available will be very worth it.

iamelgringo
They are so worth every penny. I love mine.

I actually cut a hole in the middle of my desk, so I can recline in my office chair, and swivel my monitor out over the edge of the desk and face it down at me. It really helps with neck and back strain.

comforteagle
Avoid any chair with arm rests which stick out to far foward and don't allow you to get close enough to your keyboard without having to lift your shoulders/elbows.
metajack
I wanted a thin surface (relatively) with legs and no drawers or gimmicks. I ended up buying a dining room table from West Elm which fit the bill perfectly. Later I added two small raised shelves (which my speakers and various doodads sit on) to the desk which I built by using Ikea kitchen cabinet legs and some random Ikea file cabinet drawer fronts.

It's simple and it works great.

noelchurchill
I want a tall desk so I can stand while I work.