MKBHD's Desk Setup, But For Normal(ish) People

0:00 This is MKBHD's hyperfunctional and very expensive desk,

0:04 and this is a functioning replica complete

0:06 with a computer that's 10 times cheaper,

0:08 two knockoff Pro Display XDRs, and one item Marques is now daily driving.

0:13 The biggest difference?

0:14 This entire replica, including the desk itself,

0:17 cost less than just one product that Marques is currently using.

0:20 But before I can show you the full knockoff,

0:22 let's have Marques give us the full tour of his setup.

0:24 All right, so it is Tuesday, January 27th, 2026,

0:28 and this is my current desk setup to start the year.

0:31 So, this desk surface itself is [music] huge,

0:35 and it is a custom-sized Next Desk Air.

0:39 The top is white aluminum, it's thin,

0:42 and it's really supported all the way [music] across,

0:43 so it doesn't bow or anything like that, and it is

0:45 a big enough surface to hold all of the things on my desk.

0:50 Yep, safe feet.

0:52 [snorts] The chair I've been sitting on for years now,

0:54 I've talked about these since probably 15, 20 years ago.

0:58 This is a Herman Miller Embody.

1:00 I don't know if I've had this exact one as long,

1:02 [music] but I've had a Herman Miller Embody at my desk since college,

1:09 and I graduated from college a decade ago.

1:13 Oh my god.

1:16 I'm so old.

1:17 So, I've got [snorts] a bunch of accessories,

1:19 uh, peripherals, and little tiny things on my desk,

1:22 so I'll get to the main stuff in a second, but I do have two mouse pads.

1:26 One of them for the mouse, one of them for the accessories and tech

1:30 that I keep in temporary ways at my desk.

1:33 But it's a red Artisan mouse pad, it's kind of like this perfect wine red,

1:39 and this is the phones that I have not wiped yet that I

1:42 may switch back to that I'm testing or using in some way.

1:46 So, all the other phones that I'm not testing or using anymore are in storage,

1:51 but I still have my Pixel 10 Pro,

1:53 my iPhone Air, and my Samsung Galaxy Tri-Fold over

1:56 here face down on this nice soft mouse pad surface.

2:00 So, I've got two power related accessories here.

2:03 One is this Belkin charger under my monitor stand,

2:08 which just has a magsafe charger,

2:09 another wireless charger, [music] and an Apple Watch charger.

2:12 Uh this kind of just slides under here.

2:14 Most of the time I'm not using it.

2:15 I'm just out of the way.

2:16 And then I have a This is pretty old, but it's a wireless charger.

2:20 I think Oppo makes this.

2:22 It says Airvooc, so [music] it's got to be, yeah.

2:23 Oppo makes this.

2:24 It's just a generic wireless charger,

2:26 but it's up so that more variety of sizes of devices

2:32 can work on it and I don't have to align it.

2:34 So, this is a daily driver setup right here in front of me.

2:37 I've gotten a lot of crap for this, but it

2:39 looks a little weird and I'm fine with it.

2:41 It's my keyboard, my mouse, and my trackpad.

2:44 So, how do you know I use a Mac?

2:47 Uh this is the Apple wireless trackpad.

2:49 It's USB type C now, and it's black, but I have them both going on at the same

2:54 time because I usually use the mouse over here,

2:56 which is my Logitech MX Master 4.

2:59 Uh and then when I'm editing,

3:00 I specifically use the trackpad to do my horizontal

3:04 scrolling and to do my swiping between [music] spaces.

3:08 Uh so, I do a lot of the gestures on the trackpad and the clicking on the mouse.

3:12 And the keyboard in the middle,

3:13 which is my Keychron Q1 Max with a couple custom keycaps on it,

3:18 and it's nice and heavy.

3:20 It sits in the middle of my desk, and it sounds like this.

3:25 This webcam up here is my Opal C1.

3:28 I discovered them right around COVID because everyone

3:31 got really into webcams because of remote work.

3:33 I actually invested in the company.

3:35 I think they're great.

3:36 This is a really good webcam.

3:37 I recommend it, obviously.

3:39 So, now we get to audio stuff,

3:40 which I've had maybe [music] the longest term out of anything at my desk.

3:44 We've got the studio monitors on either side of my displays.

3:47 These are Yamaha HS8s.

3:49 I love them dearly.

3:50 They're sitting on these [music] Auralex like foam pads,

3:53 and they're pointed at my ears.

3:54 And the HS8s are the best.

3:57 They're simply the best.

3:59 They were the best 20 years ago, therefore they're still the best.

4:02 And then they have [music] I have my headphones over here,

4:04 which are my editing {slash} open-back studio headphones.

4:08 These are Sennheiser HD 650s.

4:10 I like open-back because I'm in a studio environment [music] where I can like

4:13 turn around and talk to people and then turn around and get back to work.

4:17 And they both plug into my Apollo Twin by Universal Audio.

4:22 That's my DAC.

4:23 That's also my giant volume knob.

4:25 It's very satisfying and convenient.

4:27 And let's me change between the headphones and the studio monitors.

4:31 So then the center of the desk, what I look at every day is it's two displays.

4:36 It's been two displays for a long time and the two

4:38 of them are right above this I think Grovemade makes this.

4:41 It's But I don't put the stands on top.

4:43 I slide them underneath and then I lower the monitors so I

4:46 can store little trinkets and stuff like pens and Sharpies in here.

4:50 But these are our Pro Display XDRs as of right now.

4:53 I can I could name every monitor I've had in this spot for the last 20 years,

4:58 but Pro Display XDR has gotten the job done

5:00 for regular daily use and a lot of video editing.

5:04 All the way on the far left, actually on top of my desk,

5:07 is the computer I'm using now, the Mac Pro.

5:09 It's weird.

5:10 I think Apple's done with the Mac Pro.

5:12 They kind of stopped updating it years ago.

5:14 This is an M2 Ultra chip.

5:17 They have since made an M3 Ultra Mac Studio.

5:20 And when they eventually make an M4 Ultra and an M5 Ultra,

5:24 I don't know if they're going to make a Mac Pro with that in it.

5:26 I keep using it because I also have like

5:27 90 terabytes of storage in a PCI slot in there.

5:31 So yeah, as of 2:25 p.m.

5:33 on January 27th, that is my desk setup.

5:36 I've also been told that Andrew wants to do

5:39 something with my desk for some sort of surprise.

5:42 And I green-lit it.

5:44 So I guess I have no choice.

5:45 Uh Take it away, Andrew.

5:49 Eric and I came up with this video idea like 3 months

5:51 ago where we wanted to create Marques's desk as cheap [music] as possible.

5:55 Like almost look identical, but be like a third, a fourth, a fifth of the price.

6:02 [music]

6:01 And that all comes down to today.

6:03 So, one really important thing with this build though is I'm not just

6:06 trying to make a cheaper [music] version of a desk that Marques can use.

6:10 I'm trying to make a cheaper version

6:12 [music] that is identical to Marques's desk.

6:14 Okay, so we all know Marques's desk [music] is like way way too expensive.

6:19 So, I replicated it for way cheaper.

6:22 Stick around, I'll tell you the price at the end,

6:24 but Marques hasn't seen [music] this yet.

6:26 So, I'm going to go grab him.

6:29 Any context I should know?

6:30 Nope, you can just check it out.

6:31 Okay, it's chilly in here.

6:32 Oh, it's my desk.

6:36 My whole desk, but remixed.

6:39 First of all, what do you think the purpose of building this desk was?

6:42 To build my desk for cheaper.

6:44 Yeah.

6:45 Exactly.

6:45 Yeah, I mean the Mac Pro is a Mac Pro,

6:47 so that's expensive kind of no matter what.

6:49 Mhm.

6:49 But from there you've got This is a keyboard.

6:51 This Kind of like this keyboard.

6:56 Wireless, sounds good.

6:59 So, this is the Rainy 75 light and then I bought

7:02 a pair of $30 keycaps from Keychron

7:04 because they matched the aesthetic perfectly.

7:06 That keyboard's cheaper than just the keycaps on your keyboard right now.

7:09 That's good.

7:10 This is a really good This is like the OnePlus uh, 7 of keyboards.

7:16 [laughter]

7:15 The really funny story about this is I built the keyboard,

7:19 it was perfect, and I hid it in a box that said,

7:22 "This for studio video,

7:23 do not open." And then we come back from Christmas break,

7:27 and there's Marques with a new keyboard on his desk.

7:30 I notice the keycaps are different and I go, "Where'd you find that?"

7:34 Okay, so you've got this little Grovemade knockoff desk stand,

7:37 [music] but honestly they all do the same thing.

7:39 Just has to hold stuff.

7:41 All right, for the monitor stand, I think the company's called Kivi.

7:45 For $100, this still came warped.

7:48 It's kind of like bowed in the middle.

7:49 The mouse I was looking at Okay, so it's matte black.

7:52 I'm not going to say it's a knockoff of the MX,

7:54 but it is borrowing some of the features like the side scroll here.

7:59 It's ergonomic, it's tall, and it fits in my hand well.

8:01 It's a little narrower.

8:02 This gets like close,

8:04 but I still I just feel like if you just spend the extra 70.

8:07 [music] I think Marques wasn't the most fond of it.

8:11 I still think this is kind of a good price.

8:13 It's ergonomic, it's super light, Bluetooth and 2.4 GHz dongle.

8:18 The materials aren't the best, but you're also paying half of an MX Master, so

8:23 Honestly, I like that more than Marques liked it.

8:25 This mouse pad is red.

8:27 Honestly, it's probably just as good as my mouse pad.

8:30 I just like my very specific Artisan mouse Your mouse pads are nicer.

8:34 The two mouse pads Marques are using are pretty ridiculous.

8:37 They're like very sought-after in the gaming community

8:40 because of the more controlled texture they have,

8:42 and they're like 70 bucks a piece.

8:45 A company called Pulsar that I think is one of the most

8:48 underrated gaming mice companies out there has two red ones for 20 bucks.

8:52 Mouse pads, thumbs up.

8:54 I like them.

8:54 Okay, so there's a wireless charger I've always had in the middle.

8:57 It's adhesive to the desk.

8:59 like full adhesive.

9:00 It's like a sticky material to prevent sliding.

9:02 To prevent it from sliding.

9:03 I actually actively slide mine under the mouse

9:06 pad and slide it back usually, but still

9:09 Some of these things are a little harder to find the the cheaper

9:11 versions of because some stuff on your desk isn't so wild.

9:14 Yeah, the bucket's probably not ridiculous, but webcam

9:18 Yes.

9:17 You have the Opal C1.

9:19 That's a $300 webcam.

9:21 My goal here was to a high-quality webcam

9:24 that still had the square aesthetic that [music] you had.

9:27 This is the Obsbot Meet 2.

9:30 I don't know a ton about webcams,

9:31 but I watched a review from Random Frank P who showed this off.

9:35 It does have 4K recording.

9:37 It's 99 bucks.

9:39 It's got a nice little magnetic stand and it's really compact.

9:41 So, I actually think it's a pretty [music] solid choice.

9:44 I don't have super big demands from my webcam.

9:49 Yeah.

9:48 So, and obviously the Opal C1 is a pretty premium web

9:51 It is.

9:52 I believe this is I'm just checking real fast.

9:54 I think this is 99 bucks.

9:55 Yeah, that sounds about right.

9:57 Opal's $299.

9:58 We've got headphones and DAC over here.

10:00 I've never seen this DAC before.

10:03 Mhm.

10:02 But this is it says Evo 4 on it.

10:05 By a company called Audient.

10:06 I was really glad when you did your desk tour,

10:08 the one thing I focused on was maybe I can't get it look to one to one,

10:11 but I want a big knob.

10:15 Yeah.

10:14 For an audio interface, Marques uses the Apollo Twin.

10:17 It is really expensive.

10:19 So, I reached out to Rufus and Ellis,

10:21 both of them said Audient was a good company

10:23 and Audient has so many different interfaces in different price points.

10:27 So, I picked one of the cheaper ones and I think we got the vibe going for it,

10:31 maybe not the perfect replica, but Marques seemed impressed by it.

10:35 The question is always how good does it sound?

10:37 Like noise floor questions, compatibility questions,

10:40 even bugginess questions cuz the Apollo Twin is quality,

10:43 but it is so buggy sometimes.

10:46 I suspect this would do just fine for me and I would say good deal,

10:49 but I would want to test it a little more.

10:51 H Oh, HD 6XX.

10:53 So, these are going to be very similar.

10:55 This is probably the Massdrop thing.

10:57 So, the HD 6XXs are from a company called Massdrop,

11:00 which you might know as Drop right now.

11:03 Previously, they used to reach out to tech

11:05 brands and do some sort of collaboration

11:07 with them to make X product but with Y feature to fit on their website.

11:12 And somehow these are still available.

11:14 They still have the OG Massdrop logo on the side of them.

11:17 They're available on drop.com and they're like half

11:20 the price of the HD 650s that Marques uses.

11:23 So, it was a no-brainer.

11:26 Incredible.

11:26 So, I I can vouch for these already.

11:28 They're so good.

11:29 I love my Sennheisers.

11:30 They're open-back.

11:31 They look sweet.

11:32 They're lightweight.

11:32 They're comfortable.

11:33 These are HS5s?

11:36 Mhm.

11:35 Right?

11:35 Five.

11:36 So, HS5s versus HS8s.

11:37 That's going to be There's are still great.

11:39 get the one-one replica knockoff vibe we were

11:41 going for, there's only really one option for speakers,

11:44 and that's the HS5s instead of Marques's HS8s.

11:47 I asked Rufus and Ellis,

11:48 and they had a bunch of different ideas for really good,

11:51 really well-priced speakers,

11:52 but I think overall we just decided to go

11:54 with these because otherwise they just didn't look the same.

12:01 These uh displays are glossy and Oh, they're Pro Displays.

12:04 Wait, no, they're not.

12:05 Are they Pro Display or knockoff?

12:07 Yeah, oh no.

12:07 [laughter] What's a Pro Display knockoff?

12:10 With HDMI and DisplayPort.

12:13 And USB-C.

12:14 So, they're still

12:15 They're The monitors are what started this whole idea because they

12:18 were just so kind of absurd of looking exactly like it, but being way cheaper.

12:22 These monitors, spec-wise, aren't that different from a Pro Display XDR.

12:26 They're 6K, 32-in IPS, like for a fifth of the price.

12:30 If you really want something that looks like a Pro Display,

12:34 this is really the only other option there is.

12:36 The monitors here, I feel like are How much do you think they are?

12:40 I'm really interested in how expensive [music] you think they

12:43 I think these are $400 monitors.

12:47 Oh, no, they're [music] more expensive.

12:49 They're It's 700.

12:51 1,700 each.

12:52 1,700?

12:53 Mhm.

12:54 [music] Don't get these.

12:55 That's Studio Display is cheaper.

12:57 Cheaper, okay.

12:57 Studio Display is 1,600.

12:59 I would get a pair of Studio Displays

13:01 for your Mac before I would get a pair of these.

13:05 Okay, there's a couple things we haven't touched on yet.

13:07 Yeah, okay.

13:07 Let's talk about the desk first.

13:09 It is I really like this aesthetic of a desk.

13:12 It's kind of divided into three sections,

13:14 which may just be because that's cheaper than having a huge piece,

13:18 and then you maybe put [snorts] it together when you get it.

13:20 So, there was two things I needed in order to replicate Marques's desk.

13:24 Sit-standing, white top, black legs,

13:26 but also needed to be wide enough to fit two monitors,

13:30 two speakers, and a Mac Pro, which is not easy.

13:33 This is a lot of weight on top.

13:35 Yeah.

13:34 Your desk is extremely heavy.

13:38 Yep.

13:37 I'm fairly impressed.

13:38 It's slow.

13:39 It does move pretty solidly.

13:42 It wobbles though.

13:43 Your desk has four legs.

13:44 This has two legs.

13:47 Underrated.

13:46 This is a wobbly desk.

13:48 Yeah.

13:49 I And I that's why I got the the huge surface obviously holds a lot of stuff,

13:52 but the four legs keeps it from like shifting and wobbling.

13:55 I assume if you grab them with a more standard size top,

13:59 it probably wouldn't be too bad, but the motors seem good.

14:01 It's from a company called Vivo, and it was I mean,

14:05 a fraction fraction of what Marques's desk costs.

14:08 The two biggest things we're missing, first of all, the chair is just a chair.

14:11 I don't love recommending chairs that aren't very good

14:15 and so expensive cuz your back is super worth it.

14:19 Yeah.

14:18 Um there is something called the IKEA Markus for like 300 bucks.

14:21 I just put a Herman Miller in here.

14:24 Last but not least.

14:26 Let's check out this computer,

14:27 and there's a hint in the back to see what's actually happening.

14:30 Okay.

14:30 You said it's not a Mac Pro?

14:32 This is not a Mac Pro.

14:34 It's a Mac mini.

14:37 Mac mini that I have this?

14:40 Um the problem with opening it is the cables are in the way,

14:43 which actually made it really hard to install because I have to put

14:47 the case halfway on to get the wires in and then plug in.

14:50 But, I did 3D print a piece so that it you can push

14:54 on it and you still can access the power button from the back.

14:56 So, the reason I did this is because I

14:58 have found on eBay parts-only Mac Pros for under $100.

15:04 So, if you really, really, really want the MKBHD aesthetic, You can.

15:09 you can find a case, and you can put a Mac mini in there.

15:12 recommend this though.

15:13 No, this is I can recommend something different though.

15:15 It just didn't have the same vibe.

15:16 We 3D printed Oh, that's cool.

15:19 this Mac mini case.

15:21 The Mac mini in a Mac Pro's ridiculous.

15:23 If you kind of like that silly vibe to it,

15:25 just 3D print or buy someone 3D printing.

15:28 This is a Mac mini case to make it look like a cute

15:31 [music] little Mac Pro and this is way This is way cooler.

15:35 Can you give me a visual score out of 10?

15:39 It's over an eight.

15:40 It's got to be like an eight and a half.

15:42 I have a spreadsheet.

15:43 Your full desk and this full desk and final prices.

15:47 So, that's everything not including the chair and not

15:50 including random phones and stuff on your Mac.

15:53 So, the total Total price.

15:54 Total setup cost minus the chair and then my And your desk.

15:58 Let's guess your desk first.

16:01 Uh, okay.

16:02 Okay, so desk plus computer is already 15.

16:07 Both Pro Displays, which are both matte

16:10 and both have the thousand-dollar stand, so that's like probably 800

16:14 Seven, seven, 14 27,000 dollars.

16:21 You're very close.

16:24 [laughter] It is higher than that.

16:25 It's I have 33,330, which is a hilarious price.

16:32 Woah.

16:31 Yeah.

16:31 How much do you think everything right here costs?

16:34 Again, not including chair, not including the couple things on this mouse pad,

16:38 but every other thing you see here.

16:40 So, 63,60 500.

16:48 Very close also.

16:48 It comes in like just under 6,000.

16:52 Okay.

16:51 So, this whole desk costs less than one of your Pro Display [laughter] XDRs.

16:55 That's crazy.

16:56 Um, [music] I hope people watching this can get

16:59 a sense of like some of these are really

17:01 awesome and some of these, if you're willing

17:03 to spend a little extra for aesthetic purposes, is cool.

17:06 [music] Yeah.

17:08 Nice.

17:09 Well, thanks for watching and if you guys enjoy

17:10 the behind the scenes of stuff like how we work,

17:12 then you'll probably really enjoy our massive year

17:15 in the life documentary [music] that I'll put right here.