There is no doubt about it. Working from home rocks. In this series of articles, the OcUK content team are showcasing our WFH setups and offering advice on how to make yours.
Welcome to part two of the Overclockers UK content team showing off sharing tips and tricks about how we make our home offices awesome. If you missed it, make sure to check out part one.
Whose desk are you getting the tour of today? Well, mine! Emily Haylock. I have been with Overclockers UK since December 2020…
About Me
Well, I guess I better introduce myself. Hey, I’m Rob, a member of the content team here at OcUK. You may remember me from such hits as Video Game Representation Why It Matters, No Man’s Sky – From Zero to Hero, Yes. You Can Play Cyberpunk 2077 in VR!, and other such nonsense.
In this article, I’ll be dishing out all the deets and highlights of the hardware I use plus some tips and tricks on how to build an awesome gaming WFH setup. I should probably preface this whole post with the fact my setup pulls double duty as both my home office and gaming setup.
Building out this setup, I wanted to focus on modern design alongside having the maximum amount of work space.
I settled on what I can only call mega desk. 200cm of glorious space to work and game on.
TLDR The PC Spec
“I swear, boss, I need the RTX 3070 for *checks notes* Microsoft Word and, err, its spreadsheet capabilities!”
When it was announced, I absolutely fell in love with the gorgeous HYTE Y60. I missed the first drop, so you best believe I grabbed one when it arrived back in stock.
Psst, I have some super-secret insider knowledge. Some more might be on the way soon.
Okay, on to the actual specs. They’re not blazingly high, but they do the job for 1440p AAA gaming and run VR games with plenty of FPS.
- HYTE Y60 White Edition
- AMD Ryzen 5 3600X
- Gigabyte NVIDIA RTX 3070
- 16GB DDR4 3200 MHZ RAM
- 2TB NVME M.2 SSD
- 500GB Sata M.2 SSD
- 2TB HDD
- Lian Li UNI Fan V2 Triple Pack
I kid you not that 2TB HDD is over eight years old and came out of an Acer pre-built… It just won’t die.
Dual Monitors
If you do just one upgrade to your work-from-home setup, add another monitor. It is surprising how much of a difference having an additional monitor can make. You’ll go from having to constantly tab out of programs to get the information you need, to simply just glancing in a different direction.
CORSAIR XENEON 32″ 32QHD240
Set as my primary monitor, the Corsair XENEON range is perfect for gaming, video editing, and more. I have the 1440p version, but you can also pick up this monitor in a 4K variant.
Samsung 27″ Odyssey G7
I promise I’m not crazy, and there is a good reason why I use a curved gaming monitor as a vertical second screen. TLDR, it used to be my primary monitor but now has a slight crack on the screen, so it has been relegated to second monitor duties.
Ducky One 3 Classic Full-size Pure White
Despite the fact I can barely string a sentence together, my job at Overclockers UK is primarily to write. So, for me, having a really good keyboard that feels great to use is super important.
As a personal preference for writing, I prefer Cherry Red switches, alongside a 100% or Full-Size keyboard with a Numpad. The Ducky One 3, as an added benefit to being great to write with, also looks stunning.
I did say I’d give tips and tricks in this post, so…. Aha, I have it! External Card Readers and USB Hubs. These are both often overlooked but insanely useful. When you’re in a rush trying to edit something, quickly reaching around behind your PC and trying to plug in a USB will make you irrationally angry.
IcyBox 4-port hub with USB Type-C® Interface
- USB 3.0 Type-C
- Up to 5 Gbit/s
- 4x USB 3.0 Type-A
What’s more, USB hubs are usually pretty cheap and easy to mount in a convenient place with some double-sided tape.
Logitech G502 HERO High Performance Gaming Mouse
There’s not too much to say about the G502. It is a great mouse, but it really doesn’t match my setup, so it is currently walking the green mile. I’m sending it off to go live on a farm… It’s going in the drawer of random PC stuff.
Oh, and whilst we’re talking mice, I might as well mention my desk pad. A huge upgrade from a small mouse mat, gaming surfaces like the Endgame Gear MPJ-1200 3XL offer better comfort for long-term use and help protect your desk.
Here’s Why You Should Buy an XXL Mouse pad for Your Gaming Set-up!
Gaming Working in style and comfort
If I’ve got to spend multiple hours a day sitting down, I might as well do it in comfort and style. The noblechairs Iron Man Edition is a recent addition to my work-from-home setup. My Facebook Marketplace £20 “office chair” finally gave way just before Christmas, so it had to go.
With superior ergonomics fit for Tony Stark alongside 4D armrests and a memory foam headrest, the noblechairs Hero Iron Man edition was a no-brainer for my setup. Taking the comfort up one final notch, is the recently released Iron Man Memory Foam Pillow Set.
We Love These Special Edition noblechairs Pillow Sets – And You Should Too!
And, of course, no gaming work-from-home setup is complete without the gamer couch and duvet, accompanied by the cursed Nicolas Cage pillow for those midday WFH snoozes… For ‘I want to keep my job’ reasons, this is a joke.
Style
The most important and, well, to be honest, only real tip in this post is to make your WFH setup look awesome. You’ve been bamboozled. There are no tips or tricks, he he.
Much like myself, my work-from-home setup is all style over substance. If I’m going to spend most of my waking hours (God, that feels sad to write down) in this room, then it better look hella cute.
Some highlights include Intel branded socks, a replica of Langa Hasegawa’s skateboard from the anime SK8 The Infinity, and a framed copy of Hades from Frame A Game.
What’s your setup look like?
Any tips and tricks for effectively working from home? Make sure to tell us about your WFH setup in the comments. Make sure to check back next month for another work from home setup.
- 7 min read
Robert Mullane
Author
When not working, you'll find me in VR or losing in bottom-tier Valorant matches. I write about all topic's tech and gaming with a particular focus on representation in gaming, virtual reality, and LGBTQ+ themes. If you're still not fed up with me, you can also catch me over on the Overclockers UK TikTok and YouTube accounts.
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Would avoid the G502, it’s ridiculously fragile. Mine fell off a desk (1 metre onto carpeted floor), one of the buttons came off, and it never worked correctly afterwards. Logitech support (with their usual complete lack of customer care), wouldn’t touch it, as I’d bought it second hand, even though it was still within its warranty period.
If you have a multi-device setup, the Logitech Pro Wireless paired with a Powerplay mousemat is a great solution – mine connects to gaming PC via the mat, and to my work laptop via USB dongle. Mousemat keeps the mouse charged, and provided I only have one device powered on simultaneously, the mouse is always auto-detected and works perfectly.
Hey, thanks for the recommendation! I’ll take a look at the Pro 🙂