My gf and I are going to divorce ourselves from using the same office, and I am going to revamp my setup to a standing desk.
Are you using an Uplift? Vari? Other? I have four 24" monitors that I’ll need to mount. Insight and experiences appreciated.
At my former job I had a Varidesk that went on top of my regular desk. The lift was pneumatic and easy to use. I only had two monitors and they took the entire desktop. Sorry, I don’t know what size I had.
If you have the money, getting one of the electric lift desks, as opposed to a desk topper, would probably work best for that many monitors.
I would recommend getting an anti-fatigue mat to stand on.
I can’t comment on Uplift or Vari. In our control room we use Evans stand desks, with up to 8 screens mounted on them. I use a hydraulic riser desk for my 2 monitors.
Long term I think that standing is much better for your health. For me personally and my observations of the Controllers standing means that you are more alert and much less prone to back issues.
I went with the Ikea Bekant (base) and Gerton (butcher block top) hack, explained here. Like most people, I wasn’t too keen on the Bekant desktops. The result is cheaper than comparable desks, and I’ve been pretty happy. Unfortunately, Ikea no longer sells the Gerton top, but Home Depot sells butcher block.
I have a Vari at home. Pneumatic and sits on top of desk. Probably similar to if not the same as what Alibabwa has. It only holds two monitors, but is sturdy and easy to use. I don’t know if there’s a model that holds more monitors, but I highly recommend it.
I have a modular, electronic set up at work. It’s probably not an option for a home office.
I prefer the Vari set up at home. I still go into the office more, but that’s for other reasons.
My wife bought an Uplift. Electronic linear actuator driven. Easy to put together, expensive, and seems to be of decent quality. If the semi fancy switch and memory feature breaks, it would be pretty easy to put a switch and 24 or 12 volt DC adapter on it. The actuators are never going to go bad as it is way overbuilt. She bought a laminated top, honestly it might be cheaper to go buy a butcher block at a local home improvement store and have a better quality top.
We have two of the Fully Jarvis desks (was the Wirecutter recommendation when we bought them). I used a varidesk briefly in the office and always thought it was a weird compromise - basically as expensive as the entirely electric sit/stand desks when you factor in the underlying desk and not nearly as stable/clean looking. There’s no way I’d try to get 4 monitors on varidesk.
- Upgrade to the memory height adjustment - using the little arrows and fiddling around between different heights gets old fast
- Put your monitors on desk mounted stands (not their built in ones) - you can save a bunch of desk space and it feels way more stable going up/down (I’m guessing with 4 24" monitors you already ate doing this)
- If you’re doing primarily standing, get a good floor mat (there’s one with a bunch of bumps in it that encourages moving around)
Are you going to full time standing or do you want to be able to switch between standing and sitting?
I purchased the SmartDesk Frame from Autonomous several years ago, and I’ve been very happy with it. I built a desk top out of oak plywood and added an edge to it. Pretty simple, and I was able to customize the size to exactly what I needed.
I bought an Uplift V2 C-frame desk with an 80" walnut butcher block top. I love it. It’s a nicer set up than I ever had at the office. Mine is in an upstairs bedroom that is carpeted and I don’t get any monitor wobble when standing and typing. If I bump the desk, they’ll wobble, but you’ll never avoid that. I was getting a little wobble before replacing my monitors with monitors that have a heavy stand, so the quality of the monitor stand matters a lot. I have two 27" monitors that sit on a shelf on the desk.
From my research, if you go with Uplift don’t get the commercial version. It’s not sturdier. It just meets code for commercial buildings, and having the crossbar might be annoying. I also recommend spending some time and money on cable management. I bought the tray and cable guides (from Amazon) and spent a lot of time all the cables routed and mounted to the underside of the desk. The set up is really clean, and was worth the time and effort. Also, when shopping for a desk, pay attention to the height range to make sure it will go high enough and low enough for your needs.
Your biggest issue is going to be your 4 monitors. If you mount them so they all touch, they may not wobble much because they’ll have more support. If they’re not touching, you may have issues with wobble. I read that the arms that hold monitors can contribute to wobble because they’re usually attached to the desk so the whole arm can start wobbling when you type and that makes the monitors wobble. Monitor wobble when standing and typing is very, very annoying, so you’ll want to get a nice quality monitor stand/arm. Mounting monitors to the wall is the best way to avoid wobbling, but I don’t think that’s a practical solution if you want to sit and stand throughout the day.
The only desks that I came across that I felt were better than the one I bought were about $3-5K. I didn’t want to spend that much, and I’m really happy with the Uplift so I don’t regret not getting something more expensive. My original desktop came a little damaged from Fed Ex and Uplift replaced it at no cost, so my experience with their customer service was good.
Second recommendation for the autonomous standing desks.
Funny, I ordered my uplift desk just before the Pandemic started as I am a Sales Guy as most of my real office work gets done at home. I ordered the desk because long hours on the TT Bike and a sitting desk no Bueno for my back.
Anyway $1500 or so later I got the L shaped big desk with the electronic motor, and I am SUPER happy with it. Getting the monitor arms and putting monitors up off of the desk not only helped my Back, but gave me more desk space (I am kinda messy I guess). My setup has 2 monitors for Laptop on one side of the desk, an Printer at the corner, and then another monitor for my Desktop on the short end. The CPU for the desktop is mounted under the desk. Plenty of cords with the desktop plug in.
The only thing to remember is giving plenty of slack to cords to things like Routers and Modems and Speakers. Then making sure you have clearance so you don’t scrap walls or knock over lamps as you go up and down.
I’ve been using a standing desk setup for over 5 years, I have an Uplift desk that I purchased last fall, and I like it (I did a homemade setup before that, very effective, but the coffee table spanning two filing cabinets was not the aesthetic that the other half had in mind). I got the laminate top (walnut) and was surprised that it had a textured feel (wood grains), I thought it would be much smoother.
As others have mentioned, it is worthwhile to invest in the cable management so you can make it look really clean (I’m still refining this), and don’t limit yourself to what Uplift offers (Amazon has other things to consider).
Highly recommend the anti-fatigue mat. If you are on carpet, still recommend the mat, but if your feet end up resting off the edge, you will want to protect the carpet so it doesn’t get stained.
At my former job I had a Varidesk that went on top of my regular desk. The lift was pneumatic and easy to use. I only had two monitors and they took the entire desktop. Sorry, I don’t know what size I had.
If you have the money, getting one of the electric lift desks, as opposed to a desk topper, would probably work best for that many monitors.
I would recommend getting an anti-fatigue mat to stand on.
The lift on top of a desk will not be a consideration.
The actuators are never going to go bad as it is way overbuilt.
GOOD!
Standing and sitting.
I purchased the SmartDesk Frame from Autonomous several years ago, and I’ve been very happy with it. I built a desk top out of oak plywood and added an edge to it. Pretty simple, and I was able to customize the size to exactly what I needed.
https://www.autonomous.ai/standing-desks
Interesting. I initially thought it was limited in sizes, but now, I see that they span in any length from 42-71". Thanks for the option!
I bought an Uplift V2 C-frame desk with an 80" walnut butcher block top. I love it. It’s a nicer set up than I ever had at the office. Mine is in an upstairs bedroom that is carpeted and I don’t get any monitor wobble when standing and typing. If I bump the desk, they’ll wobble, but you’ll never avoid that. I was getting a little wobble before replacing my monitors with monitors that have a heavy stand, so the quality of the monitor stand matters a lot. I have two 27" monitors that sit on a shelf on the desk.
From my research, if you go with Uplift don’t get the commercial version. It’s not sturdier. It just meets code for commercial buildings, and having the crossbar might be annoying. I also recommend spending some time and money on cable management. I bought the tray and cable guides (from Amazon) and spent a lot of time all the cables routed and mounted to the underside of the desk. The set up is really clean, and was worth the time and effort. Also, when shopping for a desk, pay attention to the height range to make sure it will go high enough and low enough for your needs.
Your biggest issue is going to be your 4 monitors. If you mount them so they all touch, they may not wobble much because they’ll have more support. If they’re not touching, you may have issues with wobble. I read that the arms that hold monitors can contribute to wobble because they’re usually attached to the desk so the whole arm can start wobbling when you type and that makes the monitors wobble. Monitor wobble when standing and typing is very, very annoying, so you’ll want to get a nice quality monitor stand/arm. Mounting monitors to the wall is the best way to avoid wobbling, but I don’t think that’s a practical solution if you want to sit and stand throughout the day.
The only desks that I came across that I felt were better than the one I bought were about $3-5K. I didn’t want to spend that much, and I’m really happy with the Uplift so I don’t regret not getting something more expensive. My original desktop came a little damaged from Fed Ex and Uplift replaced it at no cost, so my experience with their customer service was good.
Thanks for the reply. Monitor wobble? Hmm. I hope it won’t be too bad. I have Ergotron arms for all of my screens at home and at my customer site. They have always done me well, but I still wonder how it’ll be now that you’ve mentioned it.
You don’t think the cross-beam and the thicker leg design leads to better stability overall?
I like the Uplift offers. I don’t need custom woods. Wondering if I should just order the frame and get something to top it off with from HD/Lowes, or just eliminate the time and hassle and go with the Rubberwood.
Do you get monitor wobble?
No, not unless I intentionally shake the desk.
The Monitor arms are pretty solid.
To be honest this desk is a bit of a beast.