The Setup
September 19, 2025
As I have previously written, I recently moved house. Over Christmas, I moved to Canada and began (finally) to live with my partner. Her apartment in Vancouver only had room for a single desk. While I would occasionally borrow it, most of my work this year has been done from a cafe, or a kitchen table. Sometimes, from bed.
With our recent move to Toronto, we made space for a home office (for two) a priority. Laura is beginning a masters programme, and I no longer have an office to travel to and work from. It’s taken a month or so, but I finally have my desk set up and fully appointed. I’d like to take this chance to walk through the gear I have, the choices I’ve made, and delight in going through a few of the sentimental knick-knacks that share this space with me. Without further ado, I present to you, The Setup.
Section 1: Furniture
I bought the Desky Zero. I had a really hard time finding a nice desk that wasn’t a sit-stand desk. I know from experience that I prefer to sit comfortably and take frequent breaks to walk around. Unfortunately, I appear to be in the minority, as it seems that motorised sit-stand desks have well-and-truly taken over the market, and my options were either something cheap and crappy — my last home desk bowed in the middle because it was basically made of cardboard — or ludicrously expensive. Desky sell a fixed height model of their desk, and I opted for the hardwood desktop: white oak, which I chose because it’s a sustainable and durable choice.
I spent a bit of time looking around at office chairs, and the overwhelming recommendation coming out of the hive mind of YouTube and Reddit was that for its price, the Haworth Soji is an excellent choice. I got it in green (this will be a theme).
Lighting
I’m interested in some bias lighting for behind my screens, but I haven’t made a choice on that yet. And while I looked at various monitor light bars, none of these seemed like good fits for me:
- I didn’t want a dingus that sat on my desk. I like all my lights to be controlled through the same home interface.
- I refuse to add AA batteries to my life anymore.
- I wanted configurable temperature.
- I wanted to use a webcam, and all but the priciest options preclude that chance.
- Most monitor light bars seem designed for one landscape monitor. I like a vertical monitor next to my primary.
I figured that a nice diffuse light source would both look nicer, and do a better job of illuminating my space. I ended up treating myself to a genuine Noguchi lamp: The Akari 1N. It wasn’t cheap, but it’s gorgeous. I fell in love with the asymmetry of it. It was handmade out of washi paper and bamboo, and its story brings me joy every time I look at it.
Desk Mat
I wasn’t going to leave a beautiful hardwood desk at the mercy of my own clumsiness and carelessness regarding sharp things and cups. I went through a stunning number of options, but I eventually chose the Terrarium desk mat by Dwarf Factory, in green.
Section 2: Hardware
There are three computers on my desk. Two MacBook Pros, and a Linux workstation that I built earlier this year:
A silver 14” M1 Pro MacBook Pro (2021). Work-issued.
This is perhaps the finest laptop I’ve ever owned. I love it so much that I bought its successor for personal use. This thing is light, performs well, and has a battery that lasts forever. It serves my needs perfectly, and has been a transformative change from the line of laptops it replaced.
Black 14” M3 Pro MacBook Pro (2023). Personal device.
This inherits all of the benefits of my work laptop, and some. It got a bump in RAM (36GB from 32GB, which is a strange amount of memory to me), and more importantly, it is adorned with stickers I’ve collected over the years. A flash of personality that my corporate overlords neither desire nor deserve.
Fractal Terra PC
The first computer I ever built. I’d been on the fence about this for a while. After all, I already had plenty of computer between my two laptops. And while I did want to game, and I did want something with which I could return to Linux, it felt like a lot of work for very little return, especially when I had a PS5.
My move over the holidays gave me the opportunity, and I took it. In my post about using Linux, I told this whole story, so I shan’t tell it again. However, I never shared any specs, so I’ll do that here:
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9700X: I love this thing. It performs only modestly better than the 7700X before it, but it does so with huge efficiency gains, which really help with this case.
- GPU: NVIDIA 4060 Ti 8G (MSI Ventus 2X): This GPU does what I need it to do, but was probably a mistake in the overall build. In hindsight, I should have purchased the AMD 9070 XT, or at least the variant of this card with 16GB of VRAM. I was at the end of the 40-series and cards were hard to get hold of, and I didn’t have the understanding that this build gave me. Still, I can’t justify upgrading right now, so this knowledge will have to be happy serving me in the future.
The other less interesting features include 2 2TB WD Black SN850X M.2 drives, the ASUS ROG Strix B650E-I motherboard, an ID Cooling IS-55 CPU cooler, and 64GB of DDR5 RAM. I had to make sure I got RAM that was small enough to fit under the cooler. I also replaced the CPU cooler fan with a Noctua 15mm fan, and placed another one of those at the bottom of the case under the power supply.
This whole PC runs Fedora. For software development, writing, study, and everything else like that, I use Sway. It works great with my dual monitors, fractional scaling, and everything else (despite the fact I have to start it with the --unsupported-gpu option). For gaming, I use XFCE4, and have the second monitor disabled.
Connectivity
My Macs connect to a Caldigit TS3+ with a single cable. This connects to ethernet, my two monitors, and a USB KVM that manages peripherals. The PC connects to all of these things directly.
Monitors
Speaking of monitors, there are two of them. I’m unable to use multiple monitors unless they are exactly the same. These are Dell 4K 27” panels. Not the ones with USB-C. My dock goes to the HDMI inputs and runs at 60Hz, while my PC gets the DP and can drive them at 120Hz, which is amazing. I notice it for sure when browsing, but especially when gaming.
Both monitors are on individual arms, also from Desky. I am suspicious of dual arms, mostly because I have a number of thick cables, and the cable management systems in most monitor arms barely support one monitor, let alone two.
Peripherals
Mouse
My mouse for the last forever has been the MX Master. Whenever I need a mouse, I get one, and currently I have the MX Master 3S. Fortunately, its 3 bluetooth modes map onto each of my three computers.
Keyboards
At present, my desk holds two keyboards. This is admittedly probably one too many. In the past I lived alone and worked in an office. At home, I had the clicky keyboard of my dreams, while at the office I kept a much more demure silent tactile configuration.
I built both of them myself. The lighter one is a NuPhy Gem 80, fitted with Kailh Box Navy switches. I love them, but if I had my time again, I’d likely go with the slightly softer Jades. The black one — my “stealth” keyboard — is a Keychron Q1 Max, and uses Kailh Deep Sea Silent Pro Box Tactile Whales. Both keyboards use the MT3 2048 Extended key caps in light and dark. I adore the texture, profile, and colours in these key caps. Keeping these the same makes switching a breeze.
Section 3: Stationery
For years I have used Studio Neat’s paper products, and their Panopads fit perfectly on my desks. I’m left-handed and I write sideways (the right side of the page is the top for me), so this layout works perfectly for me.
My mother bought me a Lumos Pro for Christmas. I loved it, and very quickly supplemented it with a Lumos Duo for some extra colours. I’m currently rocking black in the primary pen, and then green and red in the Duo. I use the 3mm writing tips, and these are a delight to look at, to write with, and to interact with generally. They have a tendency to roll (hence the rollstop on one of them; alas the Duo doesn’t really have space for one). These pens are the real deal. My partner has one, as do two of my best friends.
Section 4: Other Stuff
Some might call my desk “cluttered”. I prefer to call it “alive”. Everything here has a story, and it makes me happy. Most of the items are gifts, or souvenirs, that I’m going to self-indulgently itemise here.
Django and Ditto
To the right of my desk sits Django the teddy. When I was born, a particularly crafty aunt resurrected her grandmother’s tradition of handmaking teddy bears for grandchildren. She has one (original, and the prototype of Django), and my dad has one. He’s over 30 years old now, and he’s lost his clothes. He long since retired from bed duty, and now watches over my desk.
He is holding an embroidery that my dear friend Monica made for me, for my 29th birthday. Between his legs sits the cork from a magnum of Ruinart that my friends and I shared for my 30th birthday, as well as a fake flower that was a gift from a bartender on a night out in Washington DC with another dear friend (and colleague!) Peter.
To his left are a pair of clogs that were a gift from a trip Monica took to the Netherlands. And to his right is a hand crocheted cactus. This is the creation of a younger cousin (and daughter of the aunt who made Django). Next to the cactus is a Ditto made out of polymer clay. This I owe to another close friend of mine, Sam. She has a matching blue one, an in-joke about how we first met.
The Quarry (and Garage)
As well as being talented artists, Sam and Monica are both avid collectors and enjoyers of rocks and sea glass, respectively. Sitting on the felt mat are an assorted collection of such items, gifted at various times.
Alongside the geological oddities sit a few of my toy car collection. In my last house, I treated myself to one of those rugs that have a map of a pretend town on them. When I travelled to places, I would bring back a toy car for it. Really indulging my inner child there.
The rubbish truck (named so for its role, not its quality) is from a child’s toy shop in Washington DC. The wooden car (it’s abstract) on the left is something I bought from a local artist’s shop while visiting Melbourne (rather aptly for the Grand Prix). And the tiny car was a gift from Monica and our mutual friend Ash.
Finally, the cube is a fidget toy that was a Christmas gift from my oldest sibling. They have something of a collection of them, and when I visited home last Christmas, they knew it was a slam dunk. Of all the items on my desk, this is probably the one I touch the most (excluding my keyboards and mouse).
The Sunbathers
Underneath my lamp you’ll find two little guys. They don’t have names, but again were gifts from Monica and Sam. The German character from Monica’s European adventures, and the panda a birthday gift from Sam last year. His name is Maran, and he was made by The Lonely Animal Friendship Society. The Tempest tag also belongs to him.