Previously I had a regular old desk with two 24″ 1080p monitors. Not a bad setup, but I wanted even more screen real estate and even more floor space. I had heard about 4k and the price was finally coming down. I had a vision in my mind, but decided to take it step by step.
The first step was to wall mount my older 50″ 1080p Plasma TV which would get me some floor space in the living room right away, and allow me to make sure the walls in my old apartment would handle this. I ordered this Mount-It articulating wall mount which after a lot of Amazon browsing had the most (13 inches) of vertical adjustment I could find, found a suitable beam in the wall using a studfinder, and pretty much just guesstimated the height I wanted to attach the mount to the wall, since I wasn’t sure if the new TV would have the same mount pattern as the old one anyway. When this was done I was already happier with my home. I gave away the TV stand and sold my 15 year old home theater system on craigslist.
Of course, my hackintosh daily-driver computer was still using a graphics card from 2008, which didn’t even support HDMI, much less push a 4k resolution. So the first step was to upgrade the graphics card, and the OS along with it. I got a GeForce GTX 950 and got to hacking. A day later it was installed. Of course I was still using my dual monitors and had no idea if the card was going to push 4k properly yet, but I was on to my next step.
I placed an order for a 50″ Vizio 4k LED TV on Amazon. I went with 50″ as it was the same size as my old TV, but really I would not recommend anything larger than 50″, and might even suggest a 46″ inch or smaller as a monitor. It’s simply not comfortable to look at things on the far side edges of the screen.
I also purchased an HDMI 2.0 cable (because older HDMI cables can’t handle 4k) and a Club 3D Displayport to HDMI adapter because some people on the Internetz suggested it might be necessary.
I worked from home on the day of the scheduled delivery and was quite excited when it arrived. I unboxed the TV, hooked everything up, aaaaaaannd… black screen. Rebooted… black screen. Upon closer inspection the display was cracked and there was a hole in not just the retail box but the outer shipping box as well. Wow. I arranged the return/exchange with Amazon and worked from home the next day too.
This time everything worked and I had a simply gigantic monitor and a smile to match. I took down the old TV, put up the new TV, brought my computer into the living room, put a piece of wood on top of a (musical) keyboard stand (which I already had) and started enjoying my new standing desk. Actually I found that standing on the floor barefoot was rather uncomfortable, but instead of buying a standing desk mat I just used my extremely comfortable Nike slippers. I then put my old desks out on the curb and posted a curb alert in the free stuff section of craigslist.
The new TV is great, I don’t have a ton of experience with smart TVs, but I do like that it has dedicated buttons on the remote for Netflix, Amazon video, and iHeartRadio. It also requires no Chromecast as it has that tech built in. I was slightly worried about 1080p content scaling up, but it works flawlessly.
I placed an order for another mount and waited with this ugly keyboard stand/plank of wood combo in my living room. At least it was adjustable, albeit in a very cumbersome manner.
When the mount came I did a whole bunch of measuring and then finally screwed it into the wall. The 13″ adjustment of the mount (again, this was the most I could find) doesn’t leave a ton of room for error. I’m 6’1″ tall though, so maybe if you’re not, it won’t matter as much. I screwed the IKEA Lack wall shelf directly to the regular TV plate already on the mount, on the lowest position. This allows me to rest a tablet against it. I am considering different bracket options for this, as I don’t find it completely aesthetically pleasing. I mounted another shelf lower on the wall for the computer, although if you have a smaller PC case or a laptop, the whole minimalist feel would be greatly enhanced.
Finishing off the theater aspect, I mounted a VIZIO SB4051-C0 40-Inch 5.1 Sound Bar System with Wireless Subwoofer & Rear Satellite Speakers (the stock TV speakers were not at all sufficient for my tastes) underneath the TV using these QualGear Universal Sound Bar Brackets, which were the cheapest I could find on Amazon.
Some other cool stuff in the photo you may be interested in:
- Salvador Dali Melting Clock
- Wall mounted fishbowl
- Hammock
- Dino Robot (it’s my daughter’s)
- Emoji Pillow
- ASUS Transformer Tablet/Netbook
Planned future upgrades include a wireless keyboard and mouse, and doing something about that rat’s nest of wires. Feel free to leave questions and/or suggestions in the comments!