Apple Desk Setup in North Carolina, US

Name: Jacob Zacks

Location: Raleigh, North Carolina, US

Occupation: R&D Semiconductor Test Engineer

Room size: 10.22 m² (110 ft²)

Cost of setup: $15.6K

Hello! Tell us a bit about yourself

Hello! I’m a 25-year-old Computer Engineer living in North Carolina.

I am a Semiconductor R&D Test Engineer working on chips that go into electric cars! I also do some hobbyist photography.

I became interested in technology at a very young age. When I was little, more often than not, I spent my time taking apart anything I could get my hands on to figure out how it worked.

I got my first Apple product when I was nine and developed a deep fascination with Apple (something that can be seen throughout my desk setup).

It was this fascination that inspired me to pursue computer engineering when I went off to university.

I love what I do at work every day, and the inspiration I get from the way I use Apple products allows me to creatively solve problems.

One example of this was an OCR to Barcode generator that allowed me to speed up running experiments.

My eventual goal is to work at Apple in a Hardware Engineering role.

So if you or anyone you know works there, here is my LinkedIn.

Take us through your setup

Item	Model
Monitor	Apple Studio Display
Monitor mount	Grovemade Wood Stand
Laptop	MacBook Pro M1 Pro 2021
Speakers	HomePod (2nd Generation), Klipsch Synergy F-30
Headphones	AirPods Pro (2nd Generation)
Keyboard	Logitech MX Mechanical Mini
Mouse	Logitech MX Master 3
Chair	Steelcase Leap V2
Mouse mat	Amazon Armrest
Laptop stand	mStand
Charging dock	Anker Cryoboost 3-in-1 Charger
Tablet	iPad Pro M1, Magic Keyboard
Smartphone	iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone (1st Gen)
Vintage PCs	Apple II Plus, Macintosh 512K, iMac G3
Camera	Ricoh GR IIIx

I like to think of my workspace as three separate parts: the main desk area where I complete my tasks, the vintage side, and then the equipment closet.

I have been refining my setup for the last 14 years.

I started out with a $20 IKEA laptop stand in the corner of my parents’ bonus room and worked up from there.

Now that I’m living in my own place, I get to dedicate a whole room to my workspace.

I chose this room because it was too small for the guest room, but it was the perfect size for a home office.

The main desk area features all my “current generation” items that I use on a daily basis.

The centrepiece of it is the Apple Studio Display.

I used to own a Pro Display XDR but found that it was overkill, so I sold it and downgraded to something more reasonable once Apple released a regular-priced display.

The image quality isn’t much different between the two with my workflow.

The biggest challenge with my desk was definitely refinishing the top of it.

I bought a six-foot butcher block from Home Depot at the beginning of the pandemic and applied polyurethane to the top of it.

After about two years, I accidentally spilt a few drops of isopropyl alcohol that ate through the finish.

So I had to disassemble everything and carry the butcher block downstairs and into the garage by myself to do the whole process over again.

Ideally, I would like more natural light in the space, just because I only have that one window in the corner.

At a previous house I lived in, one of my walls was almost completely windows and I loved all of that natural light.

When it’s time for me to find my next place, I’m going to make sure that I have more natural light for my desk.

I just recently did some reorganisation, including moving the 3D printer to the closet so I can still have a quiet area to work.

As of right now, I’m happy with how my setup is. I find it works very well for me!

The next item I’m considering for my office is the Vision Pro [editor’s note: the mixed-reality headset by Apple].