Post your PC setup - ergonomics

[chevkoch]

I'm spending a lot of time in front of my monitor at my desk. Lately I've been having this ache in my left shoulder as well as my neck after another long night which made me think about whether I should stop hunching over the keyboard like a shatter-proof-packed dwarf destined to be shipped global.

Due to space limitation in my living room I don't have the ideal setup for my huge (like they all are) CRT screen, keyboard and mouse - these are all diagonally aligned across my desk to avoid having my nose touch the screen permanently.

Sadly I don't own a digicam and can't include pics, so here's a real pathetic drawing (from the upper left corner down - monitor - keyboard - mouse - chair in front of desk, the red arrow I included as an insane design touch to emphasize the diagonal orientation):


(I know, John Corel is rotating in his grave)

But seriously, could you please comment on how comfy you feel in your surf environment, describe (and please include pics if you feel like) what your PC setup looks like, how well you manage to balance available space and practical comfort? I really would like to emphasize on ergonomics here, and know how others feel about this.

[demon9k]

For me its all about the chair lumber support and its height. Fiddle with the height of the chair till your at the perfect height. I am pretty tall and find that back support is just the best thing for an office chair. You might have to spend in the region of ?100 but its well worth it.

I too have drawn a master piece.

[chevkoch]

Right, demon9k, I should consider buying a proper chair.

I appreciate your detailed drawing, are you really that close to your screen? It looks like your eyes might feel like pissholes in the snow after a couple of hours. I'm concerned. But that's why I moved everything diagonally, to get the monitor farther back from where I'm sitting.

[oracle]

big leather chair
natural keyboard
and a nice logitech mouse
shame the monitors 19in so it has to be angled

i can go for hours

[Ciaran]

I used to have the same problem with my desk. The way I got around it was to pull the desk from the wall and have the back of the monitor hanging out over the back. This leaves me with loads of room infront of the monitor and I don't have to have my nose against the monitor.

The other solution would be to buy a TFT if you can afford it.

[Valken]

[Ginger Tosser]

My setup and organised mess !



I used to sit like your current setup but ended with a bad back, CRT's are real ball ache when it comes to space. I will upgrade to a LCD soon, i'll have to wait though.

[?pint]

, Ginger Tosser, you have the same chair as me and teh Boogaloo! Good job!

I'm going to dig a little deeper than you lot and try and ASCII-art my setup.

I basically have a corner desk like so:

Arf, doesn't work!

(horrific)

And it has a nice 'hole' for my PC monitor.
Lumbar supportored chair
Crappy Microsoft keyboard, though I want a natural one I haven't got round to buying one >_<. Because I'm a lazy bastard I'm constantly slouching, which gives me a bad back anyway

[DjSatansfury]

I've completely cripped myself with being infront of PC's, get pains all over


Went to doctors, told me to **** off basically.

[demon9k]

Look at Mr Fancy Pants

I appreciate your detailed drawing, are you really that close to your screen?

Well its a pretty deep desk and I sort of sit really far back. Maybe I am a bit close but my eyes never hurt (that much ).

[Valken]

Look at Mr Fancy Pants

Alternatively "Look at Mr Wastes his money on PC stuff".

[chevkoch]

Thanks a lot for the input so far, good people. oracle, I've seen these (rather big, right) natural keyboards, can you recommend those?

I used to have the same problem with my desk. The way I got around it was to pull the desk from the wall and have the back of the monitor hanging out over the back.

I've been through rearranging ballet the last couple of days, trying out different setups of monitor, desk and chair and am finally back to the diagonal compromise. If I move the desk far enough from the wall to make sufficient space for keyboard & mouse in front of the CRT, the overall space in my living room shrinks down way too much. I don't want the PC to dominate the whole room.

I'd love to have it as orderly as Valken, a TFT monitor would certainly solve the problem. I'm even thinking about buying a Laptop, since playing the absolute newest games with an ultramad-hyperfreak-framerate is not on my list anymore. But the $$.

Ginger Tosser (you the one banker from Game On?), that's a chair I want. But aren't you hurting your right elbow of your "mouse-hand" because you're sitting that close to that shelf to the right of the desk? I'm again concerned.

?pint, we wanna see that ASCII-stint! And DjSatansfury, are you now lying in a fancy life-support-coffin blue-toothed up to the web? "He's got no spine, but gawd, that boy's downloading!"

Again, more seriously: I noticed that if I keep my pelvis (I'm serious) in line with the keybord and monitor, when sitting diagonally at my desk like I do, and take care to keep both my shoulders (and thus arms and hands) the same distance away from the keyboard, then I'm not straining my left shoulder which I tended to move forward and closer to keyboard and screen than my right shoulder before. It helps to be aware of what you're doing, me reckons. If you can't make anything of this, look at another ambitious drawing:



Keep the comments coming, if you will.

[Valken]

I'd love to have it as orderly as Valken, a TFT monitor would certainly solve the problem. I'm even thinking about buying a Laptop, since playing the absolute newest games with an ultramad-hyperfreak-framerate is not on my list anymore. But the $$.

You wouldn't be saying that if you saw the amount of **** on my desk... I have a digital camera - there's a reason I didn't take a photo!

TFT's are great but it can be hard to find one you're happy with.

If you PC game a lot even a very good one is likely to piss you off!

[choddo]

Ere you go. More laptops than I'd normally have on there, doing some file transferring before I give the old one back to work, right bloody mess. You can even see this thread on the monitor

Oh and temporary s-video cable coming in through the window from the Sky+ box ... until I drill a hole in the wall this weekend

Anyway, I tried to get my monitor as square on as possible in the space, and being able to pull the keyboard out helps not have my nose stuck right up against it.

[chevkoch]

You got a nice chair also, choddo. Hm, I'm not so sure about those pull-out keyboard+mouse-rests. I reckon it might be all about adjusting your chair height to be comfortable with one of those, but I like to have parts of my forearms on the desk as well for support/leaning on them. But might be worth a try. It's a mess you have there, but a comfortingly expensive one.