Ask HN: What's your desk/workstation of choice for hacking?

[symptic]

I'm putting in a nice chunk of my change to set up a suitable work area for my several startup projects and am stuck finding a decent desk. Office stores don't have large work-area desks and it's tough finding anything online that's not too cheap or too expensive.

What desks does HN use? Do you like it?

[breily]

I got fed up with crappy desks from office stores and decided to make my own desk instead - its basically just an 8 foot long piece of wood, about 2 1/2 feet deep. Its not only really cheap, but it has room for my two monitors plus my laptop plus lamps/papers/etc.

It doesn't have the frills that seem to come with desks from stores, but I never used those anyways (I never understood building CD racks into desks). Plus since you build it yourself you can customize it - I put lots of holes in the back to run cables, with hooks underneath to organize them. For drawers, Ikea sells plastic ones that attach with a couple of screws for like $2.

[symptic]

I'm thinking of buying a 30" wide door and attaching some metal pipes as legs and calling it a day. I you said, it can be customized later and it will be more than large enough to hold all of my papers, screens, etc.

My father also suggests buying some architecture drawing surface and laminating it on top to provide a smooth writing surface.

[iamelgringo]

I went cheap with the desk: Ikea $80 But, I splurged on Ergotron Montior arms: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000959.html

They are truly one of the best workspace purchases I've ever made. Really, they're very, very nice.

[symptic]

I've been considering getting two of these for my monitors: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824183...

It's an addition I'll have to add on later, but I think having the space available will be very worth it.

[davo11]

I've got an ikea desk with two tier sort of thing for the monitors and keyboards and pull out wings you can stick things on, I've had it for years, it's survived two house moves and has many more years ahead of it and I wouldn't part with it.

I've got another desk from an auction which is a great place to check out, if you can deal with the fact of where the desk has been before (a failed business usually, pre disasterised i think of it as)

[comforteagle]

Avoid any chair with arm rests which stick out to far foward and don't allow you to get close enough to your keyboard without having to lift your shoulders/elbows.

[metajack]

I wanted a thin surface (relatively) with legs and no drawers or gimmicks. I ended up buying a dining room table from West Elm which fit the bill perfectly. Later I added two small raised shelves (which my speakers and various doodads sit on) to the desk which I built by using Ikea kitchen cabinet legs and some random Ikea file cabinet drawer fronts.

It's simple and it works great.

[andrewf]

Last time I had to pick out a desk for an office I chose this one (sadly I doubt they'll ship to you):

http://www.jkhopkins.com.au/showproduct.asp?webno=1

Sitting in the middle gives you a lot of surface area within reach.

[jgrahamc]

My work set up is the following:

1. Aeron chair

2. Pair of trestles and a large piece of wood on top of them.

#1 cost $$$, #2 cost next to nothing. I bought cheap trestles from a hardware store, and a nice piece of flat wood which was prestained and edges smoothed off.

[truebosko]

This one from ikea is pretty ideal. Flat surface but some shelving on top for storage of books and whatever else: http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/60111123

[rms]

What's wrong with too cheap? Generally the advice for furnishing a startup is "expensive chairs, cheap desks." If you don't want anything used Ikea is a reasonable, convenient place to look.

[symptic]

I'm all for very affordable desks, but what I meant was the materials that seemingly fall apart from normal every day use. Cheap quality.

[cperciva]

I have a "desk" which is an old dining room table (and is a few inches higher than ideal); but I do most of my coding while lying in bed. I like my laptop. :-)

[symptic]

Do you find your wrists/arms starting to hurt while using the table? I've had two desks in the past I felt were too tall because the strain it put on my forearms and carpal tunnel. Lately my hands and arms have been feeling over-strained; a large motivation behind revamping my work setup.

[axod]

A reclining sofa with comfy cusions.

[lsb]

Until you get RSI.

[maryrosecook]

Biggest, smooth-surfaced desk that will fit in the room without blocking the door.

[noelchurchill]

I want a tall desk so I can stand while I work.