new workstation layout

In April 2008, i bought myself a desk, new desktop, dual monitors and an array of different gadgets. Overnight, i’d built myself a very nice work area 🙂 Over the last few days, i’ve also added a new 32″ Full HD LCD & a PS3 slim to my collection, so i thought the time was right to make some changes to my work station…

First of all, i have to praise myself for my original layout – it took me a couple of hours today to find a way of making more space whilst fitting everything in and making everything accessible. Back in 2008 i’d just sort of naturally placed everything in to position without putting much thought in to it. Today i put a lot of thought in to the layout and for a while, struggled to come up with a better arrangement.

I decided to unplug everything and dust it all down whilst i tried to visualise some sort of new improved layout. I then decided to move everything off the desk and start from scratch. I had to take in to account the following;

• plug locations & cable length – i didn’t want to add extensions & extra cabling to plug things in – i wanted it all as compact as possible
• 7.1 surround sound system – comes with tonnes of wiring and i wanted to keep it compact, almost like a 2.1 system.
• i also needed to have my xps front & back reasonably accessible for plugging in usb stuff, memory cards, cds etc..

Apart from that, i was free to do whatever i felt was best. I’ll let the pictures do the talking as i slowly began to fit things in to place.

The first major change i made was to move the XPS in against the wall, to give me more space to my left side. That then allowed me to move both monitors over to the left more, which created more space on my right. The surround sound system layout hasn’t changed that much. Behind the two monitors i have the subwoofer & center speaker. I then have a total of 6 speakers to the left and right of both monitors (3 on each side).

Up until now, my printer has been beside my TV on a unit, but ideally, i wanted to have it up with me on my desk. So i decided to use some of the free space i’d created on the right side of the desk and put it there. It worked out well. That meant my TV unit could now hold my new TV and nothing else. Perfect. Having nothing else there puts all the focus on the TV which is of course pretty impressive looking.

My TV unit also has drawers and a cabinet which i used to just fill with rubbish. Papers, bank statements, cds, cables etc… i gave it a good clear out and also made room for my new PS3 slim which is now tucked away nicely as you can see from the photos. So although i have more crap than ever before, i’ve managed to declutter & simplify the layout of everything which has given me MORE space.

All it took was a bit of creative thinking and about 5 hours of cleaning, then taking things apart and putting them back together. Not a nice job, but the rewards are worth it 🙂

On a sidenote, i also fixed a couple of broken speakers (cables were a bit loose / not paired back enough) and tweaked some settings to make sure all audio now plays at a minimum 5.1 surround sound. If only i had a soundproof room to let these little guys fulfill their potential 😉

So a very productive day even though i didn’t get much online work done.