Some people need more than one or two displays. Like software developers. Today’s featured MacBook Pro-and-custom-PC setup manages to rely on five different screens like some sort of mini Mission Control. But launches controlled from here are new software products and updates, not rockets.
BenQ unveiled its new TH690ST short-throw 4LED projector Friday, calling it “the world’s first 4LED video party projector with preset game modes for bringing big entertainment to any gathering.”
You connect it to any gaming console or other video source with an HDMI cable to get the party started. Oh, and don’t forget to have a wall to project on.
You might think you’d give your right arm for one of those stunning, 49-inch curved ultra-wide monitors to use with your Mac. But then again, you might end up begging for your appendage back, as well as your old display. Or at least something a little less colossal.
Minus the stray arm — as far as we know — that’s more-or-less what happened with today’s featured MacBook Pro-based setup.
Sometimes you see a pristine computer setup flaunted on social media and you think, how is that even real? Is it staged? Is it a render? At the very least, it looks like they left out all the cables for the photograph. But that’s not necessarily the case.
A lot of us live with messy setups, in part due to cable clutter. But neatening things up doesn’t have to be next-to impossible, as today’s featured Mac mini setup demonstrates.
We can count the number of times we’ve come across a three-Pro Display XDR workstation in our Setups travels on less than one hand — maybe two or three times. And if you throw in a late-model Mac Pro and a pile of great audio-visual gear for professional-level videoconferencing, well, that’s even more rare.
Liam Hudson, CEO of a qualitative electronic trading company, sent his “ultimate computer setup” for at-home work to Cult of Mac. And it’s really something.
Mounts can make the most of a computer setup. They can mobilize so much of your gear — computers, displays, microphones — so you can use them when you need them and push them out of the way when you don’t, opening up desk space. And you can minutely adjust their positioning, too.
Today’s featured MacBook Pro and Mac Studio computer setup takes advantage of mounts for the computers, display, video camera and microphone.
If you’re tired of being just another drab presence on conference calls or online gaming tournaments, maybe it’s time to bring the party. No, we’re not saying you should send everyone jello shots beforehand. But you might try a sassy RGB microphone like the one in today’s featured MacBook Pro and Studio Display setup.
And it’s not just for fun. The product designer who uses it said it’s perfectly loud and clear on Zoom and Discord calls.
Everybody knows Macs don’t set the gaming world on fire, though Apple silicon has made some inroads. So while plenty of Mac users enjoy Apple Arcade and use Apple hardware to play games, many turn to other means. We’ve seen plenty a hybrid Mac – PC computer setups out there.
But today’s featured setup takes another course to gaming satisfaction. It’s owner, who describes himself as an “old gamer,” divides his time between work via an M1 MacBook Pro and gaming on a Valve Steam Deck.
We don’t run across huge numbers of computer setups online driven by M1 MacBook Air laptops. When a laptop is the main computer, it’s more often a MacBook Pro.
But a MacBook Air powered by an M1 chip is a formidable machine, whether you’re tossing it in your knapsack for work on the go or leaving it on a stand on your desk, jacked into a USB-C hub and external display.
An M1 MacBook Air drives today’s featured setup — located in Germany — which also features some interesting bits and pieces we haven’t seen elsewhere. Those are a nifty Marshall wireless speaker and a foot hammock.
You look at enough computer setups online and you realize people are never really done with them. There’s always something to add. It could be some gear got held up by shipping delays, or the setup’s owner got a sudden urge to try another type of input device or some other gadget. And people often take ages to tame the cable clutter.
So you rarely see people claiming a setup’s done for good. Or it’s the best it can be. Or it’s the proverbial “dream setup.”
But sometimes they say that. Today’s setup got called a “dream setup” by its proud owner. Would you agree?
We usually prefer to feature sunny or exotic or just-plain-fun computer setups on Fridays, but today a dark and brooding one caught our eye. A 13-inch M1-powered MacBook Pro and a 34-inch LG curved ultra-wide display are at its center.
But the “cozy productivity corner” also features excellent input devices, formidable audio and a rather nice standing desk.
“Conversion” stories are fairly common in computing, with people deciding to switch from one “ecosystem” or another. Given Apple’s recent rash of hugely popular products, a fair number of folks are switching from PC-and-Windows-based setups to Apple-centric ones.
An avid PC gamer — strike that, a former avid PC gamer — owns today’s featured setup. In it, a new M1 Pro MacBook drives a couple of big displays. And an Elgato Stream Deck and killer audio components also enter the mix.
Some computer setups just say “slick.” They declare, in their perfection, “I might actually be staged.” They suggest, without a trace of shyness, much less humility, “There’s no way I look this clean all the damn time.”
Neither a speck of dust nor a stray cable to be seen.
But then again, some workstations are cleaned up with the arrival of a major new addition and made ready for the one photo where they’ll look their Sunday best. That’s likely the case with today’s featured setup, with its dark-stained woods and its lights just so. After all, it just got a brand new Mac Studio.
Who doesn’t like to have a little fun on a Friday, especially when it’s also April Fools’ Day? Not that today’s featured setup is a joke or fake in any way. It’s real. It’s serious. Not as serious as a heart attack, maybe. But it’s a working setup that likes to have a good time, let’s say.
The seriousness stems mainly from a late-model MacBook Pro and a killer ultra-wide LG display. The good time comes from the super-cool Lego Technic racing cars on the wall — two for now, with a third to come. Each one of these things has thousands of pieces.
BenQ is known for making quality displays and monitor lights, but it also makes projectors. Its latest offering, the BenQ X3000i, can handle blazing-fast gaming at a refresh rate up to 240Hz, but it comes at quite a price — about two grand.
Blogger Derek Seaman may be an IT systems architect in his day job, but he also designs and builds advanced computer setups. That is, if his home office is any indication. Which it is.
He shared his MacBook Pro-driven workstation — actually, the whole room — with Cult of Mac recently.
Leave it to a digital product designer to work their magic in a tastefully pristine workstation with an absolute minimum of cable clutter. “Cable management gets a 10 out of 10,” one person said of today’s featured computer setup. And all that walnut wood doesn’t hurt, either.
But how did they manage to tame the cable monster?
Here at Cult of Mac Setups Central, we’ve looked fairly closely at quite a few audio-centric workstations used by the likes of sound designers, video mavens and plain ol’ music fans. Today’s featured setup, with a souped-up 16-inch M1 Max MacBook at its core, belongs to an out-and-out audio engineer from Canada named James.
If Apple takes something away, people tend to want it more. We see this in the persistent coveting of space gray peripherals — Magic Trackpad, Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse 2 — that the Cupertino tech giant stopped selling separately last year after the iMac Pro’s discontinuation.
Following the space gray iMac Pro’s launch in 2018 with matching peripherals exclusive to it, owners found they could sell the dark-hued input devices for mad money. So Apple jumped on that market, charging a slight premium over the silver versions, though not forever. But space gray gear still carries a certain cache.
If you look up “11.11” in the Slang Dictionary, it says, “If it’s 11:11, make a wish! Some people believe 11:11 is a magic number or lucky time of day, good for making a wish … or reaching cosmic enlightenment.” Well, if something’s enlightened, or at least en-whitened, it’s today’s Mac mini-based setup.
It’s all there in black and white, really, with “11.11” writ large on the dual displays — probably via the Fliqlo screensaver, though it could be a clock app — and Nintendo gaming consoles aplenty.
We see a lot of impressive computer setups in slick home offices here at Cult of Mac Setups HQ, but few of them are nicer than one we just came across. As usual, we’ll share the gear list, below, as well as some of the tricks you can emulate to improve your own home workspace.
Redditor MacSources, aka Nicholas Calderone, is a photographer, writer, editor and co-founder of MacSources.com. He runs a Mac mini at the center of his formidable dual-monitor computer setup. The workstation’s audio and storage components seem particularly epic.
Given the dominance of PCs in the gaming world for various reasons, it’s refreshing to see somebody purpose-building a Mac computer setup for gaming. Sweden-based Redditor Raka_ny put one together with an M1 Mac mini, an M1 MacBook Air and assorted peripherals.
Gorgeous, high-definition monitors hold a place of honor in many a computer setup. And sometimes it’s several displays, actually. But we rarely come across one of the most amazing monitors out there: the Apple Pro Display XDR. Why? Well, it costs $6,000, for one thing. Or, if you’re lucky, not quite that much.
So if you’re not a wealthy or financially irresponsible person, what’s a reasonable alternative to the Pro Display XDR?
A lot of folks eagerly await new MacBook Pro models, preferably with updated M1 chips. You know, the ones not introduced at WWDC as predicted? In the meantime, plenty of people are snapping up the affordable and reportedly fabulous M1 Mac mini. We’ve seen it over and over again in our far-flung travels among Setups online.