Stormtrooper head haunts Stream Deck-enabled MacBook Pro rig [Setups]

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The stormtrooper hemet is custom-made and the Stream Deck uses customized shortcuts.
The stormtrooper hemet is custom-made and the Stream Deck uses customized shortcuts.
Photo: thethomasedarby@Reddit.com

Attractive or fun decor can really give a computer setup an edge. Real plants. Vintage Apple gear. Epic Lego sets. Today’s featured MacBook Pro setup sports a detailed replica stormtrooper helmet from Star Wars.

It overlooks a Darth Vader-worthy 49-inch Samsung curved gaming display and an Elgato Stream Deck, which is associated with video streaming tasks but can also do a lot for productivity in general through shortcuts.

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Custom-made Star Wars stormtrooper helmet gazes across Stream-Deck-enabled MacBook Pro setup

Redditor thethomasedarby (“Tom”) showed off the setup in a post entitled, “Been hybrid working since the pandemic and have slowly built my peak set up! Just waiting in a new desk mat!”

“Love that startrooper [sic] helmet,” said a commenter. As Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons might sneer in response, “It is, of course, an Imperial stormtrooper helmet from Star Wars. Thank you.”

“Thank you!” Tom replied to the commenter with zero attitude. “I have a friend who makes them, Ram Replicas in the UK. I love it, I’ve worn it to a couple of teams meetings in the past!”

Those sound like some fun team meetings.

We looked for Ram Replicas online and found a stormtrooper-helmet-making demonstration video on Facebook.

These things take a lot of work. Watch the linked video to see how much.
These things take a lot of work. Watch the linked video to see how much. This one’s not even done at this stage of the video.
Photo: Ram Replicas video

Hidden MacBook Pro and super-ultra-wide Samsung

Tom runs an M1 MacBook Pro. It’s hidden in the photograph above because it’s mounted under the desk. From there it connects via Anker 577 Thunderbolt dock — a 13-port workhorse with 85 watts of power delivery to a laptop — to a 49-inch Samsung CHG90 curved super-ultra-wide display.

The OLED monitor, which came out in 2017, has 3840 x 1080p resolution, a 144Hz refresh rate for gaming, a 1ms response time and Radeon FreeSync 2 technology with support for high dynamic range (HDR). It’s getting old, but The Force is pretty strong with it, you might say.

Elgato Stream Deck for shortcuts

“What device has the [buttons] and what/how do they work?” a commenter asked, referring to the Elgato Stream Deck. You can see it in the photo sitting under the left end of the display.

“It’s a Stream Deck,” Tom replied. “Streamers use them to add effects and things to their live streams, but you can customize the actions on it for productivity. I have lots of shortcuts and a couple of simple macros to speed up my workflow.”

“Can you give some examples?” the person persisted. “I’ve considered getting one of those.”

“I’ve got keyboard shortcuts set up for apps like Photoshop, Illustrator and other creative cloud apps, shortcuts in Outlook, Excel, etc.,” Tom replied. He also pointed to an explanatory article from a publication called Asian Efficiency.

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Computers and dock:

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Audio:

If you would like to see your setup featured on Cult of Mac, send some high-res pictures to info+setups@cultofmac.com. Please provide a detailed list of your equipment. Tell us what you like or dislike about your setup, and fill us in on any special touches, challenges and plans for new additions.

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