You’ve constructed the proper rig, full with a tactile, clicky keyboard, an ultra-light gaming mouse, an audiophile-worthy headset — possibly you’ve even invested within the excellent gaming chair. Now what?
Oh, proper — one thing to place it on. In case your desk is an afterthought — possibly one thing you picked up from Ikea for $40, I don’t blame you. Furnishings is a reasonably daunting, costly improve and it doesn’t appear as vital as, say, getting one of many greatest graphics playing cards. Nonetheless, I communicate from expertise after I say that Ikea desk tops (or different low-cost tables) are undoubtedly not designed to resist the load of multi-monitor clamp mounts.
In case your gaming rig is vital, it looks like your desk — which can maintain every little thing from screens and peripherals to the rig itself — can also be fairly vital. Plus, when you’re already on board the RGB practice, you would possibly as nicely preserve going till you’ve hit full-circle — that’s what Cooler Grasp thinks, anyway. The corporate debuted its first line of gaming desks over the summer season, full of gamer-oriented options equivalent to…quite a lot of ARGB.
The Cooler Grasp GD160 ARGB is an electrical height-adjustable gaming desk that takes your gaming setup from seated to standing (and again) in seconds. It contains a metal body, twin motors, built-in collision detection, a sensible controller with three programmable peak presets, and brilliant, colourful ARGB lighting alongside each the back and front. ARGB lighting — with 192 particular person zones — doesn’t come low-cost, nor does electrical height-adjustability. With a retail worth of $899, the GD160 ARGB is costlier than each Ikea and lots of electrical standing desks. However the ARGB simply is likely to be value it.
Specs
| Desktop Dimension | 63 x 29.5 inches / 160 x 75 cm |
| Top | 25.6 – 51.2 inches / 63 – 130 cm |
| Weight | 141 kilos |
| Max Load | 220.5 kilos / 100kg |
| Supplies | Chipboard, Aluminum, Metal |
| Cable Administration | Tray |
| Lighting | ARGB (entrance/again, 96 zones every) |
| Software program | MasterPlus+ |
| Equipment | Mouse pad (35.4 x 11.8 inches / 90 x 30 cm) |
| Guarantee | 2 years |
Assembling the GD160 ARGB
The GD160 ARGB ships in two containers, which weigh roughly 150 kilos mixed. Each containers comprise a replica of the desk’s meeting directions, so you may open them in both order; one field holds the tabletop, whereas the opposite incorporates the legs/motor, {hardware}, and equipment.
The desk comes with every little thing you must put it collectively: {hardware}, instruments (a hex wrench and a #2 Phillips screwdriver; although I used my very own), and cables and cable ties for administration. It additionally comes with a big black material mouse pad, which measures 35.4 x 11.8 inches (90 x 30 cm) and sports activities Cooler Grasp’s hexagon brand in purple in a single nook.
The GD160 ARGB isn’t significantly troublesome to place collectively, although it does have fairly a couple of elements. The meeting directions are illustrated and are comparatively simple to observe, although a number of the illustrations are very detailed (and small). Cooler Grasp additionally has a video set up information, which is useful for double-checking particulars.
I assembled the desk on my own in slightly over two hours. This included the time it took me to raise and place the desk, which was considerably difficult given its measurement and weight. You most likely don’t want a companion for meeting, however as a result of it’s massive and type of unwieldy, I counsel grabbing somebody to assist transfer the ultimate product into place.
The desk will want entry to at least one ungrounded electrical outlet for operation, and also will have to plug into your PC (by way of USB-A port) if you would like to have the ability to configure the desk’s ARGB lighting utilizing Cooler Grasp’s MasterPlus+ software program. That is optionally available — you don’t want to plug the desk into your PC for regular operation, which incorporates elevating/decreasing the tabletop, programming/utilizing the three saved peak buttons, or biking via the desk’s preset ARGB lighting results.
So far as house goes, the desk doesn’t occupy any extra horizontal house than the width/depth of its tabletop. You’ll want to be sure that there’s sufficient vertical clearance, nonetheless, so you may increase and decrease the desk with out hitting something (e.g. electrical retailers, cabinets, different desks, and so on).
Design and Building of the GD160 ARGB
The GD160 ARGB is a big, sturdy, ARGB-equipped gaming desk with a tabletop that measures 63 inches extensive by 29.5 inches deep (160 x 75 cm). It’s height-adjustable, with twin electrical motors and a three-stage metal body, and has brilliant ARGB lighting alongside the back and front.
The GD160 ARGB is fabricated from chipboard, aluminum, and metal — the tabletop is chipboard; the legs, body, and trim are aluminum and metal. The desk has a 1-inch-thick black tabletop, which has a lightly-textured laminate end that’s each fingerprint- and scratch-resistant. The tabletop’s sides are edged in painted metal trim (Cooler Grasp’s signature purple), and the back and front edges characteristic a 2.75-inch-thick, slightly-raised gunmetal grey lip. Cooler Grasp’s understated hexagon brand is printed on the entrance lip in matte white.
The desk has two brilliant ARGB lightstrips alongside its back and front edge, every with 96 particular person zones. The entrance edge is angled downward, so that you aren’t blinded by gentle once you sit on the desk, whereas the again edge is angled upward — maximizing the desk’s immersive lighting by reflecting off of a again wall. ARGB in a desk would possibly sound pointless and gimmicky, but it surely really makes for excellent ambient lighting in a house gaming setup (and excellent immersive lighting when you resolve to configure the lighting to work with video games or different elements). The GD160 ARGB’s lighting is brilliant, colourful, and even; it doesn’t get too scorching; and it nonetheless appears glorious even after months of mostly-continuous use. The precise lightstrips themselves have a barely rubbery texture that often attracts some canine hair, however is simple to maintain clear.
The GD160 ARGB has some built-in cable administration: there’s a large, 20-inch rubber-lined cable grommet in the back of the desk, which ends up in an aluminum cable tray tucked below the desktop. The tray measures 23.6 inches extensive by 7.9 inches deep (60 x 20 cm), and is 2.8 inches (7 cm) excessive. The tray isn’t very huge, neither is it significantly strong — it has sufficient house to cover a handful of peripheral cables, but it surely’s too cramped for a surge protector or a couple of energy block.
As a result of the cable tray is situated within the middle of the desk and isn’t really very extensive — at 23.6 inches, it’s not even one-third of the desk’s width — you’ll nonetheless want to determine what to do together with your cables when you attain the sting of the tray. In the event you don’t desire a bunch of cables dangling off one facet of the tray, in the course of your desk, you’ll have to provide you with your individual option to route these cables to the facet and/or down one of many desk’s legs. I perceive that cable administration is already slightly difficult with a height-adjustable desk, as a result of you must be aware of how every little thing strikes because the desk strikes, however the GD160 ARGB’s cable administration system appears like a swiftly tacked-on afterthought as an alternative of an precise resolution.
Adjusting the GD160 ARGB
The GD160 ARGB is an electrical height-adjustable desk with twin motors, metal lifting columns, and built-in collision detection. It has a reasonably extensive adjustable peak vary, from 25.6 inches (65 cm) at its lowest to 51.2 inches (130 cm) at its highest, and adjusts in increments of 0.1 cm. This peak vary is massive, but it surely nonetheless falls simply barely wanting encompassing the vary of ideally suited seated/standing desk heights (ergonomically-speaking) for most individuals.
Most seated desks are 28 – 30 inches (71 – 76 cm) excessive, which is the optimum seated desk peak for people who find themselves between 5’10” (178 cm) and 6’2” (188 cm) tall. In different phrases, the typical seated desk is simply too excessive for the typical individual. The proper desk peak isn’t decided solely by peak — and varies by particular person — however ergonomics guides and charts typically counsel that the optimum desk peak for somebody who’s 5’ (152 cm) tall is round 23 – 24 inches (58 – 61 cm), which is slightly below the GD160 ARGB’s peak vary. The desk’s higher restrict of 51.2 inches (130 cm) is the optimum standing desk peak for somebody who’s 6’11” (211 cm) tall — and it does look like there are most likely extra 5-foot players on the lookout for laptop desks than there are 7-foot NBA gamers on the lookout for a standing battlestation.
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The GD160 ARGB is sturdy, but it surely’s not the strongest or sturdiest electrical height-adjustable desk in the marketplace. It has a most load capability of 220.5 kilos (100kg), which isn’t exceptionally excessive however ought to be positive for a gaming setup. The desk has a metal body and sits on two t-shaped legs with massive, steady toes that measure 27 inches lengthy by 3.5 inches extensive (69 x 9 cm) and have built-in levelers. The body doesn’t have a wedge system or conventional cross-support, and it does begin to wobble slightly as you increase the peak. The desk nonetheless felt very sturdy to me at standing peak (round 42 inches), with 4 mounted screens (three 27-inch, one 24-inch) — I might shake it if I attempted, however gaming usually didn’t induce any tremors.
The desk comes with a “sensible” controller, which controls each the desk’s peak and ARGB lighting, and may be mounted on both the appropriate or left facet of the tabletop (based mostly on desire). The controller has a small display and 7 buttons: Up, down, 1, 2, 3, M, and A. The up and down buttons management the desk’s peak — the desk strikes easily, shortly, and quietly, and the controller’s display shows the desk’s peak (in cm).
When you discover a place you want, it can save you it for the long run. To avoid wasting a place, press the ‘M’ button (the display will show ‘S-’) after which press the button you wish to program (1, 2, or 3). That’s all you must do — as soon as saved, tapping the programmed button will trigger the desk to mechanically transfer to the save place. (You possibly can reprogram buttons with the identical steps.)
The GD160 ARGB strikes fairly shortly, so that you’ll wish to watch out — particularly in case your PC isn’t sitting in your desk. Whereas the desk does have built-in collision detection, this depends on the tabletop straight colliding with an object — it received’t activate if one thing sitting on the tabletop hits one thing, nor will it stop cables or cords from being ripped out. You possibly can modify the sensitivity of the desk’s built-in collision detection (or flip it off fully) by urgent and holding each arrow buttons for 5 seconds (every press cycles via sensitivity ranges, from 3 – highest to 0 – off).
The controller additionally has a fast-charging USB-A port on its proper facet, which is extraordinarily handy for charging units you’d usually preserve inside arm’s attain, equivalent to your cellphone.
Options and Software program of the GD160 ARGB
The GD160 ARGB is totally practical with out software program — you undoubtedly don’t have to plug the desk into your PC except you actually, actually wish to. You possibly can management the desk’s ARGB lighting strips utilizing the ‘A’ button on the controller. Tapping this button cycles via the desk’s seven lighting configurations — 5 presets, one customized configuration that have to be arrange in MasterPlus+, and off. You too can flip the lighting off with out biking via the totally different presets by tapping and holding the ‘A’ button for 3 seconds (faucet and maintain for an additional three seconds to show the lighting again on; the desk will bear in mind the latest lighting impact).
The desk comes with 5 preset lighting configurations: Spectrum, reload, recoil, respiratory, and refill. Apart from “spectrum,” which contains a steady, flowing rainbow of colour, the entire preset configurations are single-color and are set to Cooler Grasp purple by default. You possibly can’t actually change the lighting presets, however you may configure them to a restricted diploma (e.g. altering colour, brightness, or velocity) with MasterPlus+. You too can arrange the sixth “customized” lighting preset in MasterPlus+ — this will solely be arrange as a static lighting configuration, however you may program every of the desk’s 192 lighting zones individually (if you would like).
I really feel prefer it’s vital to say, earlier than I am going any additional, that MasterPlus+ isn’t precisely probably the most intuitive software program. In reality, MasterPlus+ may be very clunky and complicated, troublesome to navigate, and in the end fairly restricted in what it might really do. It’s additionally not precisely…refined — for instance, once you’re programming the sixth customized lighting preset, the on-screen mannequin is backward — the entrance of the desk on-screen really corresponds with the again of the desk, and vice-versa. It’s quite simple to work round when you understand what’s occurring — however yeah.
The one advantage of this entire factor is that configuring the desk’s lighting presets within the GD160 ARGB tab in MasterPlus+ saves any adjustments to the desk’s onboard reminiscence. Meaning you should utilize MasterPlus+ to program the lighting nonetheless you want, after which unplug the desk out of your PC and management every little thing with the controller (which can now cycle via your newly-configured presets).
In the event you preserve the desk plugged into your PC, you are able to do extra — although I’m unsure it’s value it. MasterPlus+ additionally has a foremost tab (default: Cooler Grasp System), which is the place you may go if you wish to do issues like sync the desk’s lighting with different Cooler Grasp peripherals/elements (when you’ve got any), and/or with apps, applications, or video games. Whereas this does open up extra lighting results and immersive customization choices, the preset/preloaded lighting patterns and instruments on this part had been clearly not designed with a desk in thoughts. The choice is there if you wish to strive it, but it surely’s a irritating expertise (to say the least).
One characteristic the MasterPlus+ software program doesn’t embody is the choice to have the desk’s ARGB lighting shut down together with your PC. This looks like it ought to undoubtedly be an choice, for the reason that solely different option to flip off the desk’s lighting is to press and maintain the A button for 3 seconds (three seconds too lengthy, in my view).
Backside Line
The Cooler Grasp GD160 ARGB gaming desk is a sturdy, well-built, highly-adjustable gaming desk with brilliant, immersive ARGB lighting — excellent for anybody on the lookout for a desk with built-in ambiance. This desk’s ARGB might sound slightly gimmicky and over-the-top, however previous to making an attempt this desk, I used to be really utilizing RGB strip lights alongside the again of my desk, as a result of I discover it to be the proper quantity of not-too-intense ambient lighting. I don’t essentially discover it extra immersive, however I additionally don’t want that type of immersion (which is nice, as a result of MasterPlus+ is simply too troublesome to navigate for a barely extra immersive gaming expertise).
The GD160 ARGB is a reasonably spectacular electrical height-adjustable gaming desk even with out the ARGB lighting — it has a comparatively extensive peak vary in addition to built-in collision detection, an easy-to-use sensible distant with a fast-charging USB port, and an easy-to-clean, scratch resistant end. It’s not excellent — extra strong cable administration would undoubtedly be appreciated, and whereas it’s sturdy sufficient for a gaming setup, you may undoubtedly discover stronger, steadier, and extra highly effective electrical standing desks in the marketplace — some for fairly a bit cheaper. The GD160 ARGB is a superb desk even with out its flashy lighting, however the ARGB undoubtedly makes up a piece of that $899 price ticket.