Setups

A big trend in recent years in Cult of Mac‘s setups coverage has been ever-increasing displays — either bigger ones, more of them or both. Sometimes it seems like an arms race to create the most NASA-Mission-Control wall of screens ever. But sometimes it’s not about size, but variety and convenience, including portable monitors and device screens. Take a look at our best-multi-monitor-setup workstations below, along with top displays and other gear that makes them tick.

Some computer setups on social media are like highly functional art, beautifully curated and seemingly permanent, like museum pieces. Others are just weird, wonderful and fleeting. Today’s example is more the latter case, featuring a “spec’d out” M4 Mac mini used with an iPad Air and a tiny touch screen as external displays, plus a Magic Trackpad and a crazy split keyboard.

People questioned the lack of a MacBook, but other commenters rose up in defense of the oddball setup.

When AirPods Max came out in late 2020, everyone seemed to hate the Smart Case that Apple created for the high-end headphones. And it seems they still do to this day, as we await a third iteration of the cans.

Third-party solutions flooded in, including the type of thing used in today’s featured MacBook Pro setup as multipurpose storage — a nifty charging stand. The headphones rest vertically in the stand, taking on power and looking good doing it — and they remain ready to grab at any time.

So many of us sit at a computer all day peering at a screen, it’s no wonder eye strain is a common problem. But only some of us — like today’s featured MacBook Pro and Studio Display user — really attack the problem beyond taking more breaks. They offer tips to reduce eye strain below.

Who doesn’t love new gear in their computer setup — either brand new or just new to them? Today’s Mac mini and Studio Display setup comes complete with two shiny new items recently added to the market — the NuPhy Air75 v3 low-profile wireless mechanical keyboard and the updated BenQ ScreenBar Halo 2 monitor light. And he’s got some over-ear headphones I find enviable, too.

Today’s featured Mac Studio setup may win the external display arms race — for bigger monitors and for more of them. A 4-display setup displayed on social media is not super rare, but one sporting such large screens is. This one pushes the limit of too much screen space with two stacked 57-inch curved ultra-wide Samsung displays bookended by two 32-inch Samsungs in portrait (vertical) orientation. Yikes, that’s a lot of screen.

Big smart TVs crop up in computer setups online as external displays with increasing regularity. That includes today’s featured M2 Mac mini rig with a 55-inch Hisense smart TV as well as a 32-inch LG 4K monitor that looks tiny by comparison.

And the setup’s audio is no slouch. It features excellent Audioengine bookshelf speakers, a dedicated digital-to-audio converter (DAC) plus a wireless subwoofer for a big low end. Most setups stop at speakers on the desk.

Though relatively high costs is a perennial complaint about Apple’s popular Studio Display, the 5K resolution monitor with a fair number of bells and whistles continues to gain fans willing to pay. Today’s setup belongs to a gamer with a MacBook Pro and a gaming PC, plus a Studio Display and a 240Hz OLED monitor.

He said if the house caught fire and he could only choose one display to save, it’d be Apple’s.

Today’s featured setup user seeks out and gets good advice on his upgrade questions. He runs an aging MacBook Pro and a more recent iMac, but wonders about replacing them both with a newer MacBook Pro, perhaps an M4 Pro model. Commenters on his post offered useful thoughts, below, on future-proofing choices of Mac models as well as external display options.

Sometimes even a MacBook in a vertical laptop stand takes up too much space on the desk. Today’s dual MacBook Pro setup user asks the question of how to “get rid of” the laptops — as in how to mount MacBook out of the way but still in use. And they get plenty of excellent advice, below.

And in addition, the workstation grabs the attention for its “odd couple” of Apple monitors, old and new. The user said they love both displays (despite that rather significant differences between the two).

Guess what, it’s time for another installment of Dave’s Setup Upgrades. Only about six weeks after I last wrote about my own computer setup instead of everybody else’s, here I go again. An M4 Pro MacBook Pro driving a pair of 5K touchscreen displays remains the core of my rig. But I’ve gone a little nuts lately with computer input devices as I strive for a more ergonomic workstation. I’m up to four, with backups for most, and that’s got to be some kind of record.

And I added a webcam because my current external displays don’t pack one. And my laptop, with its only-pretty-good webcam, sits hidden away on a vertical stand. I don’t want to have to pull it out for video calls.

I love the “before” and “after” setups posts with photos on social media. Today’s is on the basic side, but it’s always fun to see clear visuals of what people do. In this one, an iMac toiling away for eight years gets judged into well-deserved retirement by Apple’s hot little M4 desktop machine on a Satechi Mac mini hub that greatly expands connectivity and storage. With the iMac’s lovely screen gone, the new rig is a Dell-4K-display-Mac-mini combo.

Apple’s beautiful, high-resolution Studio Display is notoriously expensive, starting at about $1,600 — so dual Studio Display computer setups are pretty rare. I also see Studios Displays paired with other options for external displays, as in today’s great-looking Mac Studio setup. And it turns out there are reasons beyond identical resolution to choose the LG 5K UltraFine display the users selected and loves.

And another cool item in the setup hides behind the displays. Bower & Wilkins’ aged-yet-still-awesome MM1 computer speakers make a rare appearance.

Today’s featured setup sports an M1 Max MacBook Pro still going strong, but the user posted the workstation on social media to show off a newly added Mchose mechanical keyboard — an unfamiliar but solid-looking brand. And I couldn’t help notice the stellar audio gear in the mix, including excellent Yamaha studio monitors for focused sound in the room, plus a surprising array of great headphones and audio interfaces.

Seems like smallish portable monitors are cropping up more often lately as fixtures in computer setups featuring other display options. Today’s dual-Mac setup sports a massive curved external display with an 18-inch portable just below, front and center.

And those aren’t the only two screens. A tablet mounted on an arm comes into play too, but it’s not an iPad.

Near the very top of my list of enviable things about computer setups sit two drool-worthy items — one, when the setup is in an irresistibly cool remodeled space, like a man cave or a she shed, and two, when the setup’s audio blows the dang roof off. Today’s expansive example is a multi-computer, multi-display outfit in the UK with a very special stereo system, one of Apple’s brilliant failures — iPod Hi-Fi. It’s so much more than an iPod dock.

A growing number of people rely on iPad tablets — particularly iPad Pro — as their main daily driver. And with iPadOS 26 software currently in beta testing and available to all in September, this will become even easier to do. Today’s featured iPad-Studio Display setup doesn’t abandon Mac — in fact, it includes a hidden M4 MacBook Pro — but it makes the most of iPad Pro and looks damn good doing it.

Sometimes a computer setup may look basic or boring at a glance — but it still might get the job done quite well and pack some surprisingly cool gear. Today’s featured setup, centered on an M3 MacBook Air with dual monitors, is a good example. It features not only Apple’s great lightweight laptop driving a pair of displays, but some other solid peripherals — like a Harman Kardon Bluetooth speaker I’ve never seen before in a setup featured on Cult of Mac.

And while the user seemed unsure his not-super-cool setup warranted posting on social media, he ended up getting lots of reassurance and good advice for improvements.

I’d call it a rare sighting in setups featured on Cult of Mac, but I think it’s actually a first sighting ever — stacked dual displays held together by hinges. As such, they’re actually one product, the Uperfect Delta Dual Portable Monitor. To say the least, it’s unusual to see one in a home setup, driven in this case by an M4 MacBook Pro. And those two screens make up just half the setup’s total of four.

Two of the common laments among Mac users talking computer setups online? Too bad Studio Displays are so expensive, and when will Apple jack up that 60Hz refresh rate? But of course the monitors have legions of fans, especially among folks like designers. With today’s featured setup, a designer and video editor loves his pair of Studio Displays and says why. And other commenters get into a little dust-up defending Mac Studio from those who think the small-but-mighty M4 Mac mini is even better.

The M4 and M4 Pro Mac mini desktop computers are smaller than their predecessors, but they still take up space on desks. That is, unless you come up with a clever way to hide them while keeping them fully functional. In today’s featured setup, which also includes a MacBook Pro under an overarching external display, the user mounts the mini under the desk. And under-desk mount is the best way to hide your computer.

I’m currently enjoying a pair of 27-inch 5K resolution touchscreen monitors, but many people prefer to go with one ultra-wide display — especially a big, curved one. Today’s featured setup uses a Mac Studio to drive a 49-inch, curved Samsung gaming monitor. The user loves it, but said it took some getting used to. They graduated to it from two 27-inch 4K displays, actually, very similar to what I used until recently.

After several years of covering the Cult of Mac setups beat, I still rarely write about my own. But major new upgrades call for it. Since a spate of recent changes, I’m still rocking the M4 Pro MacBook Pro as my main daily driver. But I replaced dual 4K external displays with a pair of 5K touchscreen displays. And I dipped my toe into the world of serious mechanical keyboards for the first time.

The 3-monitor setup isn’t terribly rare in the world of computer workstations displayed on social media. But a MacBook Air driving a trio of wall-mounted 4K monitors — all in landscape orientation, end to end — isn’t especially common, as it appears in today’s featured setup. Viewers loved its clean look. And it turned out the user employs a couple of tricks to help keep it that way.

In Setups world, the struggle continues over display preferences, in terms of those who want bigger and those who want more. Today’s MacBook Pro user dwells on the “bigger” side an an ultra-wide monitor user, but they actually want to downsize from a mammoth 49-incher and get something with a higher refresh rate. Meanwhile, they’re thrilled their M1 Pro MacBook Pro still runs like a champ. And they conceived a way to have Touch ID while hiding the keyboard it comes with.