I’m in the market for a VESA arm for my iMac. Being the massive 24-incher that it is and my desk being several inches taller than I’d like, looking straight on I’m gazing at the middle of the screen. For comparison, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration states that the top of your monitor should be at or below eye level. But then again, they have a picture of a small CRT on their site so I don’t think they had larger displays in mind when they wrote that.
So far I’ve found the iLift, which can support the 25lb iMac, in addition to the Ergotron 200 series arm. Unfortunately, the Ergotron offering is in black and won’t work well with my setup while the iLift comes in at $353 not including shipping. I ordered the requisite VESA mount adapter kit from Apple and worst comes to worst, Chris was pondering about welding me up some makeshift steel pole/C-clamp apparatus for my desk.
Has anyone had experience with VESA mounts and articulating arms? At this point, I’m just hoping that whatever solution I go for, my Ikea desk will be able to support the desk clamp – it’s mostly hollow wood from the looks of it.
In the meantime, I will be writing a paper about “Information Diffusion in the Blogosphere” and how one blog will say one thing and later down the line another blog will absolutely misconstrue that information. I’ll likely mention how many bloggers thought that Florence Devouard from Wikipedia stated that Wikipedia would shutdown in 3 months if they didn’t receive more funding.
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{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
I want one
re paper: also known as the Chinese whispers effect :)
re arm: how much force (aka weight?) would be on the base? Can you stand on your desk (safely?) What about bolting it to something else? (ie wall, or something)
I went through the same dilemma with my 30″ ACD’s. Depending on your actual workspace configuration, you may just want to give the Neo-Flex HD a look. It’s reasonably priced and saves space on your desk.
Yeah, I can stand on the desk but in that case the force is spread out. Imagine a clamp with a 1-inch or 3/4-inch metal pad being forced into one small area of the desk’s surface, in addition to the computer. Now imagine if the arm is stretched out all the way, even more torque and greater likelyhood of breaking the desk. Anyways, we’ll see. For all I know, the clamp pad could be massive and spread it all out.
I’d only want a desk mount and not a wall mount because a) we rent and our landlady wouldn’t like holes and b) my desk is in front of my bed so when I watch movies I swivel the iMac around so it’s probably easier to have it mounted to the desk.
@Eli, in my current desk configuration, there’s no wall behind it so wall mount won’t work for me. That is pretty great price though.
I just discovered this sleek looking vesa desk mount but it isn’t rated for greater than 20lbs. =/
I have been using an Omnimount product for quite sometime and I am very pleased with it. Visit their homepage(www.omnimount.com), and check out their “Cantilever” series products. I think the WS models come close to what you are looking for..Forgot to mention there is a store locator too.Hope I helped
Nice comments revamp Paul! Good luck, maybe look at Flat screen TV products as well, as they are generally built for heavier panels. Sorry, no experience or familiarity myself.
I use a 19inch 2nd monitor that is mounter to my wall. Wall mounting is really the way to go. If you are trying to mount your 24 inch imac on an ikea desk i would worry, casue if my 19inch needs a stud in the wall, then I bet your imac would need something more sturdy then an ikea desk.
A heavy rock is much more stable on a desk than dangling off of the side of a wall.
What I’m saying is physics is definitely on your side with a desk.
My GF has the same desk. Personally I wouldn’t put an arm on it since nothing on it is solid, especially supporting a 2000 dollar computer. She dragged her desk on carpet and the angle support bar underneath ripped out of the hollow side wall. I really like the idea of a VESA mount and arm as well, but I was looking more at the 100 dollar options at CompUSA. If you are spending some cash anyway, I recommend putting your desk on craigslist and buying a new adjustable Galant or jerker desk from Ikea. This would be the more flexible solution post-iMac as well. :)
@Andy – I have the jerker desk back in Texas but I think it’s just too big for my room here. But I will say that thing is rock solid.
Sanus is definitely one of the best furniture companies around, too bad they don’t make one for heavier uses.
Paul, where in Texas are you from?
@Don: http://paulstamatiou.com/about/
Cool, I’m in the Dallas area.
I use the Ergotron LX Desk Mount with my Dell 2007WFP 20″ widescreen LCD, not as heavy as the 24″ iMac but it does come in silver.
Just found out the LX doesn’t support 25 lbs. :-(
Love Mine
I’ve used an Ergotron LX on my ACD 23″ with great success, rotating back and forth, etc.
It does NOT support an ACD 30″. For that you need to go with their 200 series which supports a max of 25lbs. The ACD 30″ is 27.5lbs with the base, but only 22.8lbs without (key, because Ergotron’s specs are accurate – they won’t support more than listed.
In terms of size, the 200 series supports a max of 14.5″ from middle of pivot to desk. Since 23″ ACD is 9″ vert from middle to edge -> it’ll be 5.5″ off the desk; also, since width of monitor is 13.5″ it should barely work to pivot vertically.
I’ve ordered from provantage (good compnay as long as you don’t need to return anything)
Arm $203 http://www.provantage.com/YERGT01W.htm
Vesa $24 http://www.provantage.com/YAPLY004.htm