orney21d / work-from-home-setup

My WFH Setup and recommendations

My Work from Home Setup

UPDATED: 11 November 2020

NOTE: if you want to see my full YouTube Studio setup, then check the YouTube Setup description.

Originally this was a post on my Blog after a few people on Twitter asked about my setup. But since things keeps evolving, I decided to host htis here so it will always be up to date.

This post will break down what I'm currently using in my home office, where I do all my work when not on an airplane.

Table and Chair

Let's start with the basics, I have an Ikea Bekant standing table, 160x80cm. Standing tables are life hehe.

And my chair is a Zenox Saturn Racing Black, with the addition of the memory foam Pillows (a must have for long hours at the computer)

Main Computer

After years of going only with Laptops (see the Laptops section below), I've recently decided to switch back to desktop PC. And so I did build my own workstation.

And wow it is fast!

These are the specs:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3950X, 16 cores @ 3.5 Ghz - https://geni.us/kHkH
• RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws V, 64 Gb DDR4-3200, 16 x 4 Gb - https://geni.us/bwpL
• SSD: Corsair MP600, M.2, NVMe, 1 Tb, PCI-Express Gen.4 - https://geni.us/iToct5
• GPU: Gigabyte NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 OC, 4 Gb GDDR5 - https://geni.us/fXSV5t
• MOBO: ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Hero, X570 - https://geni.us/wg8G
• PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G+, 80 Plus Gold 750W, Fully Modular - https://geni.us/BKQ7
• COOLING: Corsair Hydro Series, H115i RGB PLATINUM, 280mm - https://geni.us/BKwADrJ
• CASE: Cooler Master Silencio S600, Midi Tower - https://geni.us/A76DSyP

I published 2 videos on my YouTube channel when building it.

You can take a look at them here:

1. Assembling everything: https://youtu.be/tG0O8vsO1LE
2. Case and finalizing: https://youtu.be/K2VaRoK7Zjw

Monitors

As you can see, I'm using a dual-monitor setup.

My monitors of choice are Benq VZ2350 23.5''.

I think they are fantastic monitors at their price range. Not sure I would use it for gaming, but for office-work, coding and video editing they are great.

Unfortunately it seems like they are not avalable anymore anywhere, but those GW2480 should be pretty close: https://geni.us/snuBEt0

Keyboard and Mouse

After using the Microsoft Skulpt Ergonomic kit for more than a year now, with great success, now I've switched back to Logitech.

I now use the Logitech MX Keys Advanced Wireless Illuminated Keyboard (Graphite), which is a very good keyboard even tho it is maybe a tiny bit too small. And I paired it with its palm rest, for max confort.

For the mouse, I went with the Logitech MX Master 3, which is fantastic!

And below everything, I have a Logitech large cloth mouse mat.

You can find the keyboard here: https://geni.us/RMXB7
The palm rest here: https://geni.us/EmTCKRD
And the mouse here: https://geni.us/GwwON

Webcams

As you can see in the previous image, I have a multi-webcam setup.

My main webcam, which I use for most of my conf-calls and for some quick'n'dirty video recording, is the Logitech C920, which is a 1080p cam.

It is a quite good webcam (you can find many reviews online) but unfortunately it has some autofocus problems in some conditions (again, a lot of reviews about this as well).

On my right monitor, I have a second webcam for some more side views. It is a Microsoft LifeCam HD 3000, and even tho its resolution is only 720p I have to say that the image quality is pretty nice.

Here are the links to those webcams:
Logitech C920 Pro: https://geni.us/QDma5Wf
Microsoft LifeCam HD 3000: https://geni.us/CYgKLlt

Microphone

Nothing too pro here, I have a Maono A425 Plus. It is a decent Cardioid Condenser USB Microphone.

The nice thing is that it has all you need in the box: the desk stand with the table clamp, a portable stand, the shock mount, the pop filter and even a windscreen cap.

Highly recommended, if you don't need a studio quality mic.

You can find this microphone here: https://geni.us/4c0Lon

Speaker

I've recently upgraded my old Trust system to a new, more powerful one.

I now have a Logitech Z623. This thing is a beast.

It's a 200W RMS 2.1 system, THX certified... It's heavy and bulky, but boy it sounds good :)

You can find it here: https://geni.us/AI7S

Headphones

I use 2 headphones, the Microsoft Sirface Headphones and a pair of Razer ones.

The Microsoft Surface Headphones are my main ones when listening to music or for calls when I'm travelling.

The Razer Kraken USB instead is my go-to pair of headphones for whenever I cannot (or don't want to) use the external speakers for calls, videos, etc.

You can find these headphones here:
Surface Headphones: https://geni.us/PBoyefE
Razer Kraken: https://geni.us/vRxoV

Network: NAS, Switch, Wifi and Router

I have a QNAP TS-228A NAS where I save all my videos (Raw and finished) together will all my backups (of course I also use OneDrive for files and others, but videos and backupsets are just too big). It has 2 x 3TB disks in Raid-1.

On the Networking side, I have a Linksys LGS108 gigabit switch, with 8 x 1Gb ports.

My router is a Nighthawk R8000P, which is awesome and has also super fast WiFi.

You can find those devices here:
Nas - QNAP TS-228A: https://geni.us/MEiia
Switch - Linksys LGS108: https://geni.us/wBAYRA
Router - Nighthawk R8000P: https://geni.us/7os5Ca

Laptops

I also use laptops to complement my main desktop workstation.

My main laptop is a Microsoft Surface Laptop 3, with an Intel i7-1065G7 CPU, 16GB of RAM and 512 GB SSD.

I use this when I travel and deliver the engagement at client sites.

I keep all the relevant documents and files on OneDrive so they are automatically shared across al my PCs, and I developed some scripts to synchronize other files and settings. Pretty sweet.

You can buy the Surface Laptop 3 here (with the same config as mine): https://geni.us/TnzJqd

My secondary laptop is a HP Envy 15, with an Intel i7-4700MQ, 16GB of RAM and 512 GB SSD. Even though this machine is way older than my Surface, its CPU is so powerful that it outperforms the Surface Laptop 3 in some CPU-intensive tasks!

I use this laptop to do maintenance on some old projects that require a ton of legacy dependencies that I don't want to install on my more recent machines.

Miscellaneous

I am a big fan of Doctor Who and Alien... so I simply had to have some props :)

I've tried to collect some links for you:

Doctor Who - Bad Wolf Tardis: https://geni.us/wsd2C31
Doctor Who - Weeping Angel: https://geni.us/UwnrdR
Alien - 7'' figurine: https://geni.us/ceT4

Have I missed something?

Anything else you wanna know? Let me know in the comments :)

Happy WFH everyone.