My home office - the peripherals

My home office - the peripherals

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4 min read

After talking about my new office desk, chair and monitor arm, I wanted to highlight the other tools on my desk.

Disclaimer: I've bought all my gear myself with my own, hard earned, money. So no sponsorship here! Which is why I can give you the good and the bad.

Because I like gaming and I love Logitech gear, I've got myself the G502 Hero gaming mouse. It's a great mouse and I can't decide if I like it more than my MX Master 2S. The G502 is attached to my desk and I use the MX when I take my laptop with me. The MX has a very long battery life and it can easily switch between multiple PC's, but the G502 is a lot more sensitive and it's a lot more customisable. For gaming, I love the G502, for coding and day to day use, I prefer the MX.

My keyboard is the Microsoft Comfort Curve 3000, there is already an upgrade: the Wireless Comfort Desktop 5050. I love the ergonomic design, it really is a lot more friendly on my wrists. I don't think I want to go back to a normal keyboard. The keys type very smoothly. I just wish I could disable the CAPS LOCK KEY BECAUSE... damnit it happened again. That is a complaint irrespective of the type of keyboard; normal keyboards, ergonomic ones, they all still have a CAPS LOCK KEY... damnit. I think the Logitech Ergo K860 has the option to turn it off or remap it. That and it can switch between multiple PC's like the MX Master 2S mouse.

To improve the video recording during teleconferences, I bought myself a Logitech BRIO webcam. This is a good upgrade from my laptop camera. The image looks more crisp and it recognises me in a flash. From friends I've heard that the image over Skype is not great, but I think that might be Skype as Teams, Zoom and Discuss do produce nice video. The audio is good, but I've heard that it's a bit hollow compared to the mic on my headset.

My headset is a Logitech G933 surround sound one. I must say, that surround sound really is awesome. When I play video games, this really comes to life as I can clearly hear which direction the enemies are coming from. It's comfortable, even when I game for a few hours (too few and far in between). The microphone is really superb as well. It captures a nice, warm sound and filters out background noise effortlessly.

The reason I focused so much on connecting to multiple PC's earlier is because my laptop and PC share a desk. So I had to find a way to share my keyboard, mouse, headset and webcam between these two devices. Cue in the UGreen 2 In 4 Out USB Sharing Box. This little device allows me to plug in 4 USB devices: headset receiver, keyboard, mouse and webcam. With a single press of the button on top, I can switch to which device they are attached to. My PC streams to my screen on the Display Port input and my laptop connects via HDMI. Now I press the button on top of the UGreen box and I switch the input of the screen and I'm good to go. Unfortunately, I should have taken a bigger UGreen box, because if I want to share additional devices (say a USB microphone) I'll have to start choosing.

The only thing that is directly plugged into my PC is my Logitech G13 gaming keyboard. I received this as a birthday gift from my wife. I was looking for something like this and I kept doubting. When my birthday rolled around, she presented it to me. I've used it for every game I've played since. I hope it doesn't break as I don't think they still make these. I can't find a link to it on the Logitech site nor on local PC stores. The only reference I find is on Amazon for way too high a price. After a little fiddle with the key mappings, either to make a special profile for the game or to remap the keyboard config, I play way smoother with this device than any keyboard or gamepad. Best gift ever!

The last thing on my desk is the Roost laptop stand. It's a bit pricey, but it's the best laptop stand I've ever had. I've given my wife one a few years ago and it's a very easy to set up stand. Much better control over the stands than the ones I've previously used in corporate settings. It also keeps a much better grip on my laptop.

Hopefully this series helps somebody make a decision while they are looking for a new keyboard or mouse, (standing) desk or ergonomic chair.