My home office setup!

Employees all around the world have been forced to work from home (WFH) due to the covid19 pandemic. My work from home journey began in 2012, so covid really has not changed much for me and my daily work habits. My home office is in a dedicated room, my children have been trained to know that when I am at work, I am at work. For me, I must have a quiet space where I can setup shop, make my self comfortable and get work done. My home office setup has gone through many, many iterations over the years – Rome wasn’t built in a day!

Recently I reset the home office configuration and re-organized so I figured I would share some details about the setup.

My wife has been very supportive of my professional career and these minor investments have paid off over time. It’s taken years to get where I’m at today with the home office, nevertheless here is a full part list of the current configuration. Some miscellaneous items were purchased using Airline or Hotel miles which I have called out. Some points programs have quite extensive stores and give you good chances to invest in nice gear. I’ve included a few additional pictures below as well.

Note: I have not included cables in this list of items.

Internet

• Dedicated Home Office Internet Connection – This is a design consideration I made to ensure I was not tied to a single carrier failure. The primary home internet is CenturyLink DSL while my dedicated work internet is delivered via a local WISP provider.
• Ubiquiti Security Gateway
• Ubiquiti Unifi AP-AC Lite Wireless Access Point
• Cisco SG300-10 Gigabit Managed Switch

Desk

• Ikea Build Your Own Desk – I’ve found that mostly all off the shelf options never really met my requirements. Plus – I like the fact that it’s modular and I can easily change the configuration or add to it at a later date.

Monitors

• Left (Vertical) – LG 274UK850-W 27″ 4K UGD – My very good friend Rickatron (Rick Vanover) got me hooked on the vertical monitor years back.
• Main Screen(s) – Samsung 34″ Ultra Wide
• Monitor Arm(s) – North Bayou Monitor Gas Spring Arm – This product has evolved since I bought back in 2017 – seems the new models have built in USB ports on them.

Computer

• Personal Computer(s)
  • MSI GS65 Stealth (Use this for personal gaming)
  • Upgrades
    • Memory – Crucial 32GB Kit (16GB x 2)
    • Storage – Sabrent 1TB Rocket NVMe PCIe M.2
• Work Provided Computer(s)
  • Dell Precision 3450 15″ Laptop
  • Alienware Aurora R11 – Recently I switched jobs and will be responsible for leading a tech advocacy / community / evangelism program and thus requested something a bit more capable for content creation.
    • Processor – Intel Core i9 3.7 GHz to 5.3Ghz w/ Thermal Velocity Boost
    • Liquid Cooled Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super GDDR6
    • 64GB Dual Channel HyperX FURY DDR 2933MHz
    • 2TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD (boot)
    • 2TB 7200RPM SATA

Audio & Video Equipment

• Microphone – Blue Yeti-X
• I ordered the Blue Yeti Compass Arm and Radius iii Bracket in June 2020. They’re both on back order…I tried calling Blue a few times to get a status and have yet to be able to get to a live person 🙁
• USB Audio Interface – Scarlett 4i4 – Use this with the Audio Technica – Different use-cases than the Yeti X …. I like high quality Audio!
• Headphones – Sony MDR-7506
• Upgraded Ear Pads – Brainwavz Earpads
• Headphone Hanger- The Anchor Pro
• Headphone Stand – Avantree Universal Wooden & Aluminum Headphone Stand
• Camera – Sony Alpha a6000
• Faux Camera Battery – Gonine AC-PW20
• Camera Mount – pangshi 11 inch Articulating Friction Magic Arm – Very proud of the bracket I build out of machined pipe from Lowes which I mounted to the wall
• Capture Card – MavisLink Audio Video HDMI to USB (Works super well!!)
• Speakers – Sonos Play Bar and Sonos Sub
• Soundproofing Studio Foam Tiles

Misc. Desk Items

• Chair – DXRacer Formula Series
• Keyboard – Razer BlackWidow Elite Mechanical Keyboard (Clicky) – Used Marriott points
• Mouse – LG G502 Special Edition– Used Marriott points
• Mouse Pad – Razer Gaming Mouse Pad – Stormtrooper Limited Edition
• External Hard Drive – Seagate Expansion 4TB Portable External Hard Drive USB 3.0
• USB Hub – Sabrent 7 port USB 3.0 HUB – Good little product here
• Stream Deck – Elegato Stream Deck 15
• Whiteboard – 36 x 48 Whiteboard for Office
• Office Refrigerator – Danby 120 Can Beverage Center (It’s 5 o’clock somewhere)
• Oil Diffuser – ASAKUKI 700ml Essential Oil Diffuser
• Desk LED Lights – Minger DreamColor LED Strip Lights (16.4 ‘)
• Motivational Quote – My Vinyl Story Premium Wall Decal
• Cable Management
  • Desk Cable Wire Holder
  • Under Desk Wire Cable Track(s)

Travel Items

• Jackery Giant 12mAH Power Pack – I purchased this in 2014 and it is still amazing!! Recommend.
• Bose QC 35 – Used Delta Skymiles here 🙂
• Hiearcool USB C Hub
• Tumi Travel Backpack – Used Delta Skymiles here 🙂 – Amazing, wouldn’t trade for any other.

Pictures