How to Equip a Shared Walking Desk Workstation?

December 17, 2021 8:01 AM

We've purchased a treadmill desk (see my ask). Wife and I will share it. We both use PC work laptops (ThinkPad and Dell), and for home we use recent MacBooks. All the devices have USB-C. We want to connect to external monitors (and maybe keyboards and mice), maybe watch streaming services. How should we set this up?

The real crux is that I don't know how best to set this up as a shared workstation. If it was just for me, I'd maybe just get another Dell dock for my work laptop. However, I'm not certain how to make this a viable workstation for my wife and her PC and Mac laptops. In addition, Netflix is blocked on my work laptop--I could get a Fire stick and connect via HDMI to a monitor, but I don't know how I'd listen to it.

Is there such a thing as a universal USB C hub that could connect two monitors and deliver power to a Mac, a ThinkPad, and a Dell? Would it make sense to get a refurb Mac Mini in lieu of connecting the Mac laptops, and use that to connect to streaming services? At least the Mini would connect easily to our AirPods.

Does it make more sense to have a workstation specific keyboard and mouse that we share, or each person bring their own when they're working?

I'm probably not thinking about this right--my workstations have never been shared, and have always been slow accretions of new odds and ends--never trying to kit out a space with all the stuff all at the same time.

FWIW, it's not a huge space--desktop is 38" wide and 29" deep. If I got a Mini, I'd probably mount it to the bottom of the desk.

Thanks!

posted by Admiral Haddock to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Get a monitor with USB-C input that also supplies power to a laptop through the USB-C cable. Make sure the monitor has USB-A jacks (most do) so you can plug your mouse and keyboard into the monitor. With that, all you have to do is plug a laptop in with the USB-C cable and you have power, video, mouse and keyboard for the laptop in use.
posted by ShooBoo at 8:14 AM on December 17, 2021 [2 favorites]

An alternative to the fancy USB C monitor is to get a USB C Hub. That's what I use - I can drop in any device and it charges, synces, connects to cat5, the whole 9 yards.

I also use this stand to let the laptop monitor act as a monitor on it's own. It's delightfully low-tech.



For a treadmill, I'd recommend either speakers or wireless headphones. I like airpods.
posted by bbqturtle at 8:37 AM on December 17, 2021

I have the CalDigit TS3 Plus dock for my work setup, and it might work for you. The caveat is because computers are tricksy and I haven't tested it with a PC (although maybe I did have my little Windows machine set up with it at some point and I just forgot about that...). My personal computer is a MacBook Air, and it only supports one external monitor, so it doesn't quite work with the setup.

I only use it for one laptop (a touchbar MacBook Pro), but I plug both of my monitors plus a keyboard and mouse into it, and I only have to plug in a single USB-C cable to my laptop to provide power and all of the peripherals. It'd be super easy to switch out laptops with that sort of setup.

Audio via a monitor (for the fire stick) depends on the monitor. Some have built-in speakers, some have headphone jacks that you could plug in a pair of headphones, speakers, or a bluetooth transmitter into. I agree that wireless headphones will probably be the best idea for a treadmill.
posted by that girl at 8:50 AM on December 17, 2021

I could get a Fire stick and connect via HDMI to a monitor, but I don't know how I'd listen to it.

I don't know about the Fire, but with Roku you can run the audio through an app on your phone and some models (Remote Pro is what you're looking for) have an audio out on the remote control.

Also, you might consider getting a TV to use as a monitor (I'm using two right now!) because they almost all have 3.5mm audio out for a soundbar or some other audio solution, but actually I just checked my year-old HP monitors and they do too, along with built-in speakers. I think that's pretty standard at this point - Zoom is certainly extremely eager to use anything but my laptop speakers if it can get away with it.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:15 AM on December 17, 2021

Note that if you have a 4k monitor, you may need a separate USB-C to DP cable to get up to 60 Hz. I have two USB-C docks and both of them max out at 30 Hz for 4k.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 11:39 AM on December 17, 2021