The new 32-inch UltraSharp monitor Dell introduced at CES 2022 looks like a home-office videoconferencing powerhouse. The 4K display has a 4K webcam with microphones built in for those WFH meetings. And the monitor serves as a USB-C hub with decent port selection and 90W of power for your MacBook or other laptop, too.
We keep coming across two great secrets of super-clean desktops when it comes to computer setups. As shown in today’s featured setup, they’re both about creating significant amounts of open desk space in different ways — without losing any access to your gear or forfeiting any computing power.
And we’re not just talking about clearing away basic clutter, or even cable clutter, although that always helps. We’re talking about how you can get some of your main equipment up and off the desk so you have room in front of you. Redditor kurtvdpoel demonstrates the two excellent methods in his post, “Home office with Mac mini Apple M1.”
Sometimes when you’re trawling the interwebs for cool computer setups, you learn a lot not just from the person bragging about their gear in a social media post, but also from the folks admiring or lambasting it. Such is the case with today’s iPad Pro and Dell widescreen setup.
Its owner and other folks push the importance of adding a good webcam and good lighting for successful videoconferencing. And other folks make a compelling case for adding a subwoofer to paired HomePod minis if you want any bass at all in your music.
Some computer setups are remarkably cool for their awesome computing power. Others wow you with incredible displays, with several high-def monitors. And still others blow you away with premium sound. Or, in the case of today’s featured setup, premium audio-visual gear many people would be psyched to get their hands on.
Andrew, a customer service experience manager for an internet service provider in Minneapolis, shared his computer setup with Cult of Mac after a big revamp. He replaced a 27-inch 2017 iMac with a 14-inch 2021 M1 Pro MacBook, which he runs alongside his work laptop, a Lenovo ThinkPad T480S. He uses his Apple gear mostly for photo editing and music production.
“With work from home, I needed the ability to use the screen with both my personal computer and my work device,” Andrew told Cult of Mac (he requested we use only his first name). “I had been running Windows on the iMac via Boot Camp and using Miracast to wirelessly extend to the iMac screen from my ThinkPad. When it worked it was great, but it became unreliable over time, and I decided that a monitor with multiple inputs are the way to go.”
Andrew said the Miracast connection with the iMac became unreliable when he got a mesh network. It would sometimes work great, but often fail to connect, despite rigorous troubleshooting. So it was time to do a little shopping.
I wrote recently about the shameful squalor of my previous “setup” — basically a borrowed PC laptop perched on a pile of junk — and my effort to build something worthwhile around a gleaming new 14-inch M1 Pro MacBook. Well, like a lot of people in the throes of building a computer setup, I found that second-guessing haunted me into buying a whole lot of alternative gear.
You know, for testing purposes. Trial and error. Not because of my apparent shopping addiction. Or not much, anyway.
Not long ago I sold, gave away or trashed most of my possessions and moved across the U.S. Soon after arrival, I found my computer unresponsive. The ol’ HP Pavilion laptop stopped powering on reliably. So I borrowed a perfectly good Dell laptop from my brother and kept on writing, mainly for Cult of Mac. I just happened to be “between Macs” at the time. But now I have a brand new 14-inch M1 Pro MacBook.
Thanks to the swanky new Apple laptop plus a few other bits and pieces I quickly acquired, as of today I no longer wallow in a PC laptop pigsty (yeah, the photo above is genuine, though I swear it wasn’t always quite that messy). I’ve got a proper Mac computer setup for the first time in a while.
These days, you can find computers and monitors with pretty good speakers. Or you can set up a pair HomePod minis or some other nice little Bluetooth speakers for solid computer setup sound.
But some people aren’t happy unless they have massive audio power on the desktop, complete with perfectly positioned speaker stands for maximum balance and clarity — and all of their speakers’ impressive wattage pointed right at their face.
When you see people online showing off their computer setups with dual displays, you often see side-by-side horizontal monitors (landscape mode). Sometimes you see a horizontal screen and a vertical one (portrait mode). And sometimes you see stacked displays, with one landscape-oriented monitor mounted on top of another.
Sometimes you see the stack because of space issues, where there’s simply no room to either side of the setup. Other times you see a stack when someone wants to run four or five displays. And there are cases where the user couldn’t get one monitor to work in portrait mode, so they had to have both screens in landscape mode.
We see a lot of impressive computer setups in slick home offices here at Cult of Mac Setups HQ, but few of them are nicer than one we just came across. As usual, we’ll share the gear list, below, as well as some of the tricks you can emulate to improve your own home workspace.
There’s nothing like toiling over a computer setup until you get it just how you like it. Of course, that can mean many different things to different people. Some folks’ setups are as austere as a monk’s workbench while others look like Mission Control on steroids.
Redditor PlaZma64 recently drew attention to their newly completed setup with a post entitled, “Finally got my setup how I like it.” It’s centered on a MacBook Pro, an iPad Pro and a slew of Apple peripherals.
Redditor baby-yoda-stan — Stan for short, let’s say — posted pics of his home office computer setup, which features dual Dell displays and a couple of Intel-powered MacBook Pro laptops. He credits the clean look to built-in cable management in some of his setup’s components.
Redditor Parmg100 runs his M1 MacBook Pro with enough displays to make most Mac owners do a doubletake. He said he manages to connect five displays, including two ultrawide monitors. Naturally, Redditors showed some curiosity about how he does it, given the MacBook Pro’s limitation on connecting external displays.
Gorgeous, high-definition monitors hold a place of honor in many a computer setup. And sometimes it’s several displays, actually. But we rarely come across one of the most amazing monitors out there: the Apple Pro Display XDR. Why? Well, it costs $6,000, for one thing. Or, if you’re lucky, not quite that much.
So if you’re not a wealthy or financially irresponsible person, what’s a reasonable alternative to the Pro Display XDR?
Randomo_redditor runs her MacBook Pro and iPad with a monstrously wide Dell monitor, at 49 inches. But even that curved showstopper fails to provide enough real estate for all she does. So she added a 27-inch Dell display in portrait mode on the side.
Now she can fit everything on the screens. And we do mean everything. Randomo already made the most of her widescreen by using an app to split the screen into thirds, for different uses.
One of the downsides you hear about the M1 MacBook Air and the M1 MacBook Pro is that they officially (natively) support just one external display in addition to the laptop’s screen, not dual external monitors.
Well, that may be true in the user manual. But Redditor ImajiiMac is among those discovering that “official” ain’t everything.
Redditor carrotcakeblack wins more than a few style points for his “mostly monochrome! Also some keyboards” setup, as he calls it in his post’s title.
But he leaves out one of the factors visitors like most about his well-photographed MacBook Pro-based outfit. Namely, the way he hangs so much of his gear on a pegboard off to one side in such a visually appealing way.
Redditor UGenya806, who works in marketing for San Francisco-based DocuSign in Germany, takes appearances on Zoom calls seriously. After all, their job has always been remote and will remain so, even when others return to offices following the COVID-19 pandemic.
UGenya806’s setup centers on an M1 Mac mini tethered to dual Dell 24-inch 4K monitors and a CalDigit TS3 Thunderbolt 3 Dock. The mini is connected wirelessly to a Magic Keyboard and a Magic Trackpad.
A stand-mounted MacBook Air rounds out the mix, but is usually used separately as a standalone machine, not with the peripherals.
To be fair, when Redditor No-Top-5065 posted pics of their MacBook Air-based computer setup, they asked for suggestions on how to improve it.
“Any recommendation on how can I improve my desk setup? Not into gaming, work and study most of the time,” said the post’s headline.
Arizona-based Tyler Botha, aka theallseeingeye on Reddit, is a TV-focused copywriter for a San Francisco startup and a retired pro DJ. The setup and epic gear list he sent to our attention does triple duty with a capable “WFH Desk,” a powerful “Gaming Corner” and a remarkably complete “DJ Desk.”
Talk about “complete.” Botha’s gear list, represented in the links below, is probably the longest one ever published in a Cult of Mac Setups article. You don’t have to be a DJ to appreciate it, but it helps.
While London-based dental student and Redditor callum-edw studies how to fix your teeth, maybe you should study how he builds a classy computer setup with solid tech plus a few swanky details and DIY touches.
Callum’s rig centers on a MacBook Air M1 tethered to a 24-inch Dell U2419HC UltraSharp external monitor.
How many large displays is “overdoing it” in a computer setup? Redditor dm-86 suggested they’d gone too far with four, but that only ties one of our other favorites.
Some commenters joked around that they saw plenty of space for more in the imposing setup, or bank of screens, if you will.
It’s not every day you come across a high school student running a successful tech-based business – never mind one whose 3D renderings are routinely seen by thousands of people. But that’s the case with 17-year-old New Yorker Ian Zelbo and his RendersbyIan.
His detailed and realistic renders of leaked tech products, including Macs, get loads of exposure on social media from his clients, the likes of Jon Prosser of @FrontPageTech and Sam Kohl of iupdate.
The big open window shown in the photo above certainly helps keep the place lit for free in bright daylight. But what does Redditor Kwipz do about cheap lighting for the darker hours?
They spend a few bucks. Literally.
OK, maybe it’s a tad premature to freak out over couples’ setups being some sort of thing now. After all, the sample size here is just one, and we have no intention of carrying out any kind of exhaustive and exhausting survey or study on the matter.
Redditor thateconomistguy presents a “couples study space” where he and his girlfriend pore over economics research side by side under the frames in which they plan to display their upcoming master’s degree diplomas.