Best gaming desk in 2024

The best gaming desk can quite literally change the way you game. At its simplest, a suitable gaming desk should give you plenty of space for your monitor and peripherals, all in a stable and adjustable frame. Pair it with an awesome gaming chair and your friends will marvel at your ergonomic superiority. 

Choosing a desk to suit you isn't always an easy task. We reckon the best gaming desk is the Secretlab Magnus Pro XL for its laundry list of incredible features and great pricing. When choosing a gaming desk, ask yourself if are you looking to sit, stand, or both. There are benefits to spending some time on your feet, so a motorized standing desk, or a desk converter, might be a better fit for you. 

If your budget isn't going to stretch to the pricey ol' Secretlab, then the best budget desk is the Flexispot E1 series. They're solid, affordable sitting/standing desks that look pretty good and won't break the bank, either. All the best gaming desks for any scenario are just a scroll away, so keep reading below.

Curated by
Dave James
Curated by
Dave James

A good desk for PC gaming wasn't high on Dave's agenda until he found that a cramped corner of his home, with a cobbled-together desktop was a recipe for not only discomfort but also long term back issues. Switching to a sitting/standing desk has changed all that and he's been a keen convert to finding people a good, ergonomic, and comfortable gaming setup ever since.

The quick list

Recent updates

Updated February 22 with a new recommendation for the best budget gaming desk and some formatting changes to make it even easier to find the best desk for you.

The best gaming desk

The best gaming desk

Specifications

Height: 25–50 inches / 64-127 cm
Weight support: 192 lbs / 87 kg
Desktop dimensions: 70 x 32 inches / 177 x 80 cm
Warranty: 5 years

Reasons to buy

+
Fantastic for working from home
+
Stealth cable management options
+
Simple and effective magnetic accessories
+
Excellent monitor arms (sold separately)

Reasons to avoid

-
Weighs over 154 lbs / 70 kg
-
Essential accessories add further cost
Buy if...

✅ You want a big, luxurious desk: You might think it's expensive but there are pricier desks around. None of them are as nice as this one.

Don't buy if...

❌ You need to move it by yourself: This is a seriously heavy desk and while that makes it incredibly stable, it's a real challenge to move it about or build it all by your lonesome.

What makes this the best gaming desk? It's surprisingly innovative. That's how to best sum up the Secretlab Magnus Pro XL and it's so impressive that it would make anyone reconsider their whole opinion of what a desk should be.

We're firmly in the camp that a desk should be absolutely massive. The Magnus Pro XL is one of the largest desks we've experienced of late, coming in at 70 x 32 inches / 177 x 80 cm. This is also the heaviest, at 73 lbs / 33 kg for the desk's surface panel alone. The mostly metal frame of the Magnus Pro XL explains some of that, though it's the two included motors, one integrated into each of the legs, which add a whole lot of mass to the equation.

But that's what makes this the Magnus Pro XL: the desk's adjustable sit/stand functionality. The standard Magnus doesn't offer this. The Magnus Pro XL is capable of lifting 265 lbs / 120 kg in gross weight (including the weight of the metal desk itself) up to a height of 49 inches / 125 cm.

Perhaps the most visually impressive thing about the Secretlab Magnus Pro XL is how sharp and clean-cut it makes your PC setup look, thanks to its clever magnetic cable management accessories and discrete cable tray. These neatly hide a mountain of USB, audio, and power cables out of sight.

However, it must be noted that the magnetic cable ties are not included in the cost of the desk itself and cost an additional $25 / £25 for a set of three or $49 / £45 for a set of three alongside two cable management sheaths and a stack of fastening straps.

This is the thing: the Secretlab Magnus Pro XL requires some added expense to make it as sleek an experience as it should be. But the one accessory worth investing in is the dual monitor arm. It's a single unit that clamps firmly onto the desk, between the hinged cover and the desk itself, and each arm offers sprawling reach for monitors up to 34 inches in size.

Would we be happy with this desk if we'd paid that sort of sum for it? The answer is an emphatic yes, despite the fact it's a component that is in no way connected to the performance of a gaming PC. The main reason it's worth the price is the sheer level of flexibility, features, and luxury. If you work from home, then you'll certainly benefit from investing in a high-quality sit/stand desk, along with an ergonomic gaming chair.

We're really impressed with what the Magnus Pro XL offers, as it's far more than anything one would normally expect from a desk.

Read our full Secretlab Magnus Pro XL review.

The best budget desk

Flexispot E1 computer desks, modelled in home office scenarios

(Image credit: Flexispot)

2. Flexispot E1

The best budget desk

Specifications

Height: 28–48 inches / 71-122 cm
Weight support: 154lbs / 70 kg
Desktop dimensions: Up to 55 x 24 inches / 140 x 60 cm
Warranty: 3 yr motor, 5 yr frame

Reasons to buy

+
Smooth, quiet operation
+
Easy-to-use controls
+
Simple and clean design
+
Great value for money

Reasons to avoid

-
Collision sensor is extra
-
So are cable trays
-
Availability
Buy if...

✅ You want an adjustable desk without busting your wallet: Solidly built, nice and stable, excellent value for money. What more needs to be said?

Don't buy if...

❌ You don't live in the right location: Flexispot doesn't sell the same models across the globe, so you may need to pay extra for international shipping to get the E1.

The Flexispot E1 may not be the catchiest of names for a product, but it's absolutely the best budget desk you can buy. Put simply, it's an impressively sturdy, motorized adjustable desk for anyone looking to upgrade their home/gaming/office setup. All for a very reasonable price. 

With a height range of 28 inches / 71 cm up to 48 inches / 121 cm, the E1 covers pretty much every comfortable sitting and standing setup. The Basic control panel just moves the legs up and down, but the confusingly named Standard controller (an additional £20) can store four different height profiles and offers anti-collision detection to prevent anything from getting caught.

Of course, the main thing you want from any desk is stability. If everything is bouncing along as you type, it doesn't matter if you're sitting or standing; you're going to want to break it up. The good news is that the Flexipost is rock solid at all heights and the smooth motion instills lots of confidence.

Construction is a straightforward task, taking just over an hour to turn the two boxes into a working, versatile desk. A few more pre-drilled holes for the control box and the central beam would have been nice, but the surface is easy enough to screw into with a bit of elbow grease. 

The only downside to the whole desk is anti-collision detection and cable trays are all optional extras. None of particularly expensive but if you're just after a really solid desk that is flexible across a range of scenarios, the base model is more than good enough.

It's important to note that this exact model isn't available in every country. In the US, for example, the closest model is currently the E5, which is more expensive. It's worth checking out how much shipping fees from the UK, home of Flexispot, would cost compared to buying one in your own country.

The best large gaming desk

3. Arozzi Arena

The best large gaming desk

Specifications

Height: 28–32 inches / 71-81 cm
Weight support: 176 lbs / 80 kg
Desktop dimensions: 63 x 32 inches / 160 x 81 cm
Warranty: Limited 2 year

Reasons to buy

+
All mouse mat, all the time
+
Hydrophobic surface
+
Whole lotta space

Reasons to avoid

-
Hydrophobic coating easily destroyed
Buy if...

✅ You want masses of real estate: The Arena is as spacious as you could want from a gaming desk, with bags of room for monitors and all your peripherals.

Don't buy if...

❌ You're not very gentle with your desk surface: The hydrophobic material is wonderful for your mouse but it's also rather fragile.

If you want the best large gaming desk, then look no further than the Arozzi Arena. It's monstrously huge and the shallow curve that faces the seating position lets you nestle into a glorious amount of monitor, keyboard, and mouse space.

And speaking of the latter, the entire surface is covered by the same material that mouse pads are. It's honestly quite startling to see at first but once you have your first whoopsie with a drink, you'll then discover the benefits of its hydrophobic coating.

Watching liquids ball up is mesmerising at first but a word of caution: The coating is surprisingly fragile when it comes to being cleaned. Use anything but the mildest of detergents and you'll wave goodbye to that lovely surface.

Before you get to the joys of the full-desk mouse mat, you'll need to construct it and oh boy is this thing is heavy. To the point where you may need an extra pair of sturdy hands just to move the boxes about. The manual's adorable illustrations make the process streamlined, but the machining quality is somewhat variable, and you may find some misaligned holes or parts not sitting as flush as you'd expect.

The Arena is very sturdy, but you do need to consider the surface you're going to place the thing on.

Arozzi recommends a rug or carpet placement, as opposed to a hard surface floor, though we found that while it settles nicely into a thick carpet, there was still a fair amount of travel when pushing up to get out of the chair.

The built-in mesh hammock for cable management, however, is fantastic and makes it easy to have a clean and stylish gaming desk. If the manufacturing standards don't put you off and you have the space for it, you'll love having the vast desk area that the Arena offers.

You'll be able to fit a gaming tower up top comfortably, alongside a couple of two monitors, handheld PCs, coffee cups, open notebooks, shelves, speakers, microphones, lamps, etc. You get the picture.

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The best PC case gaming desk

4. Lian Li DK-04F

The best gaming desk PC case

Specifications

Height: 27–46 inches / 69-118 cm
Weight support: 176 lbs / 80 kg
Desktop dimensions: 39 x 29 inches / 100 x 74 cm
Warranty: Limited 1 year

Reasons to buy

+
Tempered glass top is super bling
+
Can house a serious gaming PC
+
Adjustable height with presets and sensor

Reasons to avoid

-
Only 1 year warranty
Buy if...

✅ You want to build a PC inside your desk: There's no other reason to choose this desk but if that's your thing, then there's none better to choose from.

Don't buy if...

❌ You don't want to spend more on your desk than your PC: No joke, this is one seriously expensive desk and its bigger brother is more so. One for serious enthusiasts with capacious wallets only.

The Lian Li DK-04F is easily the gaming desk PC case, if for no other reason than that it will essentially be your computer's security device. It's going to be incredibly hard for any would-be thief to make off with your rig should it be housed inside this weighty beast. With a 39-inch / 100 cm width, this behemoth is the smaller sibling, too; Lian Li also makes the DK-05F, in which you can fit two discrete gaming PCs. 

The desk itself is not that easy to build, however. The individual legs are super heavy, and the metal 'chassis' isn't much better. You'll need a hand making it, or maybe an engine winch. 

It's classic Lian Li, too, by which we mean your fingers are likely to get striped with bloody slices by the time you've got the chassis-on-legs all built. There were also some misaligned screw holes on our review sample, though that did not impact its impressive solidity. In the end, even with a couple of monitors mounted directly on the desktop, it's a robust desktop, regardless of height.

Then there's that tempered glass top. It's frosted, which makes the included RGB strips look great when your system's fully built, but at a single button press, it can be made crystal clear so you can gaze adoringly down into your PC's insides. It's completely unnecessary and we love it. However, it's a blessing and a curse because even the best gaming mouse will need a good mouse mat with that glass surface beneath it.

At $1,500, the DK-04F is incredibly expensive, and the one-year warranty feels a little stingy too. And that's also without any of the components needed actually to build a PC into it. All told that's a hell of a lot for a gaming desk and a lot for a PC chassis. But it is a lovely, lovely thing for the serious enthusiast.

Read our full Lian Li DK-04 review.

The best sustainable gaming desk

The best sustainable gaming desk

Specifications

Height: 25.6–46.3 inches / 65-118 cm
Weight support: 165 lbs / 75 kg
Desktop dimensions: 44 x 29 inches / 112 x 74 cm
Warranty: Limited 1 year

Reasons to buy

+
Environmental initiative
+
Lovely customisable desktop
+
Good cable management

Reasons to avoid

-
Pricier than other options
-
Small desktop
Buy if...

✅ You want to offset your PC gaming carbon footprint somehow: Yes, it's actually a good gaming desk but the choice of materials means it's also genuinely eco-friendly.

Don't buy if...

❌ You want room for your whole PC setup: There's no getting around the fact that it's not a particularly big gaming desk, so there isn't room for a desktop PC and large monitor. One of them will need to go elsewhere.

If you're looking to make your PC life as eco-friendly as possible, then the Fnatic x ChopValue is the best sustainable gaming desk you can buy. Its major selling point is the fact that the desk surface is made from recycled chopsticks. Honest!

You can clearly see this in the finish of the surface: All the splinted different colours of wood come together to make a nice sort of butcherblock-styled top but with a lot more interest. 

When purchasing the desk you can choose what logos you want to have carved into your chop top and you can make the Fnatic desk look as cool or clean as you like. Naturally, we went for a blazing PC Gamer logo for our review sample. Building the Fnatic takes a while but its parts are easy to wield, thanks to being in smaller chunks. 

Overall, the ChopValue Revive Pro feels really tough. We even tried scratching it, to no avail, so its longevity certainly isn't in question. Neither are the desk controls and although they're very much like every other adjustable desk on the market, they work perfectly well, offering programmable levels of customisation.

But the toughest part of this desk, aside from its sturdy top and metal legs, has to be swallowing the price. At over $1,000 for a desk, it's up against some serious competition. But if you've got the cash, there's a great initiative here behind this excellent desk, plus a few noticeable quality boosts in there too. It just depends on how much more you're paying for those improvements in your region as to whether or not it's worth sticking to the chop.

Read our full Fnatic X Chopvalue Revive Pro review.

The best convertible desk

6. VariDesk Pro Plus

The best convertible desk

Specifications

Height: 4.5–17.5 inches / 11-45 cm
Weight support: 35 lbs / 16 kg
Desktop dimensions: 30 x 30–48 inches / 76 x 76-122 cm
Warranty: Limited 5 year

Reasons to buy

+
Comes pre-built 
+
Fits on existing desk
+
Both sitting and standing use

Reasons to avoid

-
Awkward for some mouse pads
Buy if...

✅ You need a standing desk but can't have one: It's the perfect compromise for getting the joy of a standing desk but without actually buying one.

Don't buy if...

❌ You need lots of space for your mouse: Competitive gamers won't like the small mouse area and even normal gamers might find it restrictive.

You may not want to replace your office furniture completely—or even be able to if it's not yours—which makes a converter a great option. And the VariDesk Pro Plus just so happens to be the best convertible desk right now

It is available in multiple sizes, so there's one for almost all standard desk sizes, and it immediately allows you to switch from sitting to standing. The Pro Plus is also one of the simplest ways to get yourself a standing desk, as it requires no setup and doesn't impact the desktop you place it on.

The VariDesk Pro Plus comes ready to roll straight out of the box. All you need to do is put it on top of your current desk, and you're good to go. You'll need some strength to get it there as this thing is not light.

Once set up, though, what might be an issue for some instantly becomes a distinct advantage, as it's an impressively sturdy solution at each of the 11-height settings. 

The VariDesk isn't motorized, but it uses a spring-loaded mechanism with twin handles to make it easy to move from sitting to standing quickly. The action is smooth and doesn't require tremendous force to shift, even when multiple monitors and peripherals sit on top of it.

Speaking of which, there's room to run a pair of monitors on the top section with the extended lower section ideal for a mouse and keyboard. However, it's not ideal for a mouse because the surface does not play nice with most sensors. We had to jury rig our shaped mouse mat to get a decent experience, but the two-tier stepping still makes for an excellent desktop.

Quirks aside, the VariDesk Pro Plus is ideal for anyone needing the flexibility of a standing/sitting desk solution, without the space, funds, or opportunity to go all out with a new desk.

Best gaming desk Q&A

What is the best size for a gaming desk?

There are multiple gaming desk sizes, mostly around 60 x 30 inches, with 40 x 30 inches as another popular size. Which you prefer will largely depend on how much space you have and how many monitors you want to stand atop it.

Is a gaming desk worth it?

That depends on what you class as a 'gaming desk.' Indeed, it's worth having a dedicated desk upon which to have your monitor, keyboard, and mouse, from an ergonomic point of view at the very least. Balancing your kit on top of a chest of drawers where you can't get your feet under is terrible for your posture, and sitting at a dining room table isn't going to help either.

But specific gaming desks can be helpful in that they may have cable routing for your peripherals and power leads and may even have an entire mouse mat surface across it. RGB on a gaming desk? Now, that's probably not worth it.

Do I need a sitting/standing desk?

There has been a lot of talk recently about how our increasingly sedentary lifestyle can harm our health. And if you sit down for much of your working day and then sit down to enjoy your favorite games for hours on end in the evening, then chances are that you're not going to be moving around that much, which is bad.

But that doesn't necessarily mean you need a standing desk because purely standing all day and night isn't good for you either. Movement is key, so even if you have a sitting desk, you can remain healthy by regularly shifting position and getting up out of your seat often.

A desk that can transition between both is ideal, as that will offer both benefits and encourage you to move between sitting and standing throughout the day. And they don't have to be ridiculously expensive, either.

Dave James
Managing Editor, Hardware

Dave has been gaming since the days of Zaxxon and Lady Bug on the Colecovision, and code books for the Commodore Vic 20 (Death Race 2000!). He built his first gaming PC at the tender age of 16, and finally finished bug-fixing the Cyrix-based system around a year later. When he dropped it out of the window. He first started writing for Official PlayStation Magazine and Xbox World many decades ago, then moved onto PC Format full-time, then PC Gamer, TechRadar, and T3 among others. Now he's back, writing about the nightmarish graphics card market, CPUs with more cores than sense, gaming laptops hotter than the sun, and SSDs more capacious than a Cybertruck.

With contributions from