Independent buying guides
For Australians fitting a working desk into a spare room or living area. Each guide takes one buying question, lists the measurements and figures it used with their check dates, and shows the workstation cost formula step by step.
Each guide answers one buying question and shows the figures behind the answer.
How to choose
Most Australian home desks go into a bedroom or lounge. The four measurements, the chair adjustment range and the warranty terms that decide the purchase.
Photo: Infrogmation of New Orleans · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Budget and prices
Spread the desk, chair, monitor and arm over the years you keep them, add the electricity, and see which line moves. Worked in AUD with GST included.
Photo: By Free-Photos from Pixabay · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
Setting up
The measurements that make an existing desk work: seat and desk height, screen distance and height, cable slack and how much a single power board can carry.
Photo: Tran Mau Tri Tam tranmautritam · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
The decisions that actually change what you end up with.
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Photo: Petiatil · CC BY-SA 3.0 us · Wikimedia Commons
Like-for-like comparisons on the specifications that matter.
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Photo: Frank Scholten · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
What the total comes to once everything is counted.
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Photo: By Free-Photos from Pixabay · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
Getting it working properly the first time.
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Photo: Federal Bureau of Investigation · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
What the numbers mean in day-to-day use.
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Photo: Federal Bureau of Investigation · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
The expensive errors that are easy to avoid.
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Photo: Tran Mau Tri Tam tranmautritam · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
Each calculator shows its formula, units and assumptions. Nothing is estimated for you in secret.
What a cross-border order really costs once shipping, duty and tax are added.
landed cost = (item price + shipping) + duty + tax, where duty = item price x duty rate, and tax = (item price + shipping + duty) x tax rate
Spreads purchase price, consumables and repairs over the years you expect to keep it.
cost per year = (purchase price - expected resale value + consumables per year x years + expected repairs) / years
Annual electricity cost from rated power, hours of use and your own tariff.
annual cost = power (W) / 1000 x hours per day x days per year x price per kWh, plus standby power (W) / 1000 x standby hours x days x price per kWh
Every figure in a guide is taken from a named source, with the date it was checked. Where a number is an assumption or an example, it says so in the same sentence.
We do not run paid product tests, we do not publish reader reviews, and we do not claim to have handled every product mentioned. Where a claim needs a lab or a long-term test we do not have, the guide says that plainly.
Photographs are free-licence images from Wikimedia Commons or Openverse, credited to the photographer with the licence named. Charts are drawn from the figures printed in the same guide.
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