Gaming desks

What actually matters

• Depth before width. A 30-inch deep desk lets you sit a proper distance from a 27-inch monitor. A wide but shallow desk just puts the screen in your face.
• A rear cutout or cable tray. Gaming setups have more cables than office setups. If the desk has nowhere to route them, you are buying a cable tray anyway.
• Surface texture. Carbon-fibre-look vinyl wraps are the usual shortcut, and they peel. A plain laminate top plus a large desk pad ages far better.
• Monitor arm compatibility. Check the desktop thickness and whether there is a flat, unobstructed rear edge for the clamp. Many gaming desks fail here because of a raised lip.
• RGB is not a feature. Built-in lighting is fixed in place and tied to the desk's own controller. A $16 bias light strip does more for how the setup looks and moves with you.

Consider a standing desk instead

Most "gaming desks" are a fixed-height frame with a themed top. A height-adjustable frame with a large plain desktop does the same job, costs about the same at the mid range, and is still useful when the setup changes. Our standing desk roundup covers frames that take a 60 × 30 inch top comfortably.

You can also lay out a setup in the desk setup planner to check a monitor, chair and lamp fit your space before buying anything.