Hi all. I'm working on a personal project here and I'm trying to crowd source some info. Basically I'm designing a desk in AutoCad and I'm trying to decide the best shape to go with for the project. L-shaped, corner style, or rectangular? The desk is specifically for catering to the needs of PC gamers. The corner style is slightly limited in that, well, it has to be in a corner. The good side is that it can be made relatively small and won't take up much of the room. I'm not too hot on this one. The Rectangular style is the most versatile of the bunch. Able to fit pretty much anywhere, but if you make it too big, you end up having a monstrosity sitting in your bedroom/living room. This limits it to being about 3-4ft long before it just becomes impractical. The L-style is the most complicated, yet also can be the most spacious without becoming an eyesore, as you can have it extend, say, 3ft from each angle for a total of 6ft of desktop space lengthwise. Another advantage is it can be slightly shallower and yet still maintain more overall space than a thicker rectangular desk. So... what are your opinions? Thanks in advance
I mostly use rectangular desk. However I'd love to have a corner desk with my monitor in the corner so that I can rest both my arms on either side of the desk.
I'm not sure what the difference between L shaped and a corner desk would be? As for desks I have a lot to say about this Here's my very boring story in case it helps you: Personally I use a rectangular desk which is quite small but I would much prefer it was bigger. I've been thinking a lot about desks recently because my current monitor doesn't have much life left in it. It's many years old and when my house got flooded it got wet. So I either have to spend a lot of money for a new monitor that is the same size () or I have to spend a LOT of money for a bigger monitor (24" or maybe even 26") but then I would probably need to spend a LOT of money for a better graphics card too... My alternative however is to buy an HDTV. You can get a really good 32" HDTV which is so high resolution and small dpi, that it's not too much worse than a monitor, and it's also a lot cheaper even though it's far bigger. To compensate though, I would have to sit much further back, otherwise you can see the pixels and it looks a bit grainy and blocky and not too nice. I figure I would have to sit with my face about 6 or 7 feet away from it. Currently there's no way for me to do that. My desk is only about 3.5 feet wide so even teetering over the back end of it and me sat back in my chair, it would still be too close. It made me even think about getting a very wide desk and then sitting on the narrow end of it... so that the desk's full length extends away from me, and then I can put the tv on the end. But it would need to be pretty wide to comfortably house my keyboard and mouse next to each other. Alternatively, I could mount the TV on the wall and just have the desk a few feet from the wall. Or I could get a huuuge desk built in to the corner of my room.
Huge massive long rectangular desk. I have a 150x75cm and find it lacking in space... it fits my pc, monitor, amp, speakers, keyboard, bigass mouse mat, just a little room to spare length wise. Will definitely be going longer next time. I really would have like an extra 38cm to fit my turntable (yes, I know that has nothing to do with gaming). Depth wise it's just about perfect. I like to sit with my keyboard about 30cm from the edge, so I can rest my forearms. It isn't even really a desk, but I think was supposed to be a dining table... one of the cheap ones from Ikea.
corner/l shape tests are actually a waste of space as the far corner is never itilised. it also makes it stuffy for the end user because they have less freedom of movement. armrests also get caught in corner desks. corner/lshape desks are good for office administrators, because they can have lots of things in arms reach. lay out a lot of stuff and multitask.
I voted for rectangular. L-shaped can be nice but they have to be huge to be properly usable. I currently have a corner style desk, the chair space is in the curve and means I have to sit at a diagonal. The surface of the desk is difficult to use effectively as a result, along with getting more than one monitor on it. One thing to note if you're looking at designing a pull out tray for keyboard/mouse: make it as big as possible. I'm fed up with desks having a small tray which I can only fit a keyboard on and have to have a mouse on the top of the desk at a different height.
I voted rectangular. I'm with lysol, you need it big, I can just about fit my two monitors (one in portrait) and my speakers on my desk. Not sure on it's exact dimensions, but if I were to get a new one, I'd definitely get something slightly bigger, you can never have too much desk space
I need a longer desk also. I want my PC on my desk next to my 2x 24" displays but can't fit them all on. You just can't have enough desk space .
That post doesn't make any sense...a 1080p HDTV would be the same res as a 24" monitor so you would need to get a new graphics card anyway, plus you could get a 24" monitor AND a graphics card for the same price as a 32" HDTV. I fail to see how the TV is a viable alternative to a monitor. As for desks, I personally favour rectangular desks for most uses as they are simple and just work, however if the space (and money) allows for it I would love a large L-shaped desk with a triple monitor setup. My current desk is 148x67cm and TBH I find it a little too small in both width and length.
Thanks a ton for the responses so far everyone, I really appreciate it. So far it seems the overwhelming majority prefer a rectangular desk.
Having never used a different shaped desk I'd say rectangular shaped desk. I love the one I have it's the right height and width for everything!!!
I have a 175x85cm which I also find to a be a little small now, luckily for me though I have a large/deep shelf at a convenient height above it to put my amp, speakers etc. Mine was also originally a dining table. Got it for free when someone was going to chuck it out.
