I love my gaming desks, I love it, even more, when I can review them then pass them over to staff members to upgrade their gaming gear. The new Sandberg Fighter Gaming Desk 2 is actually my third desk. I have checked out Arozzi’s and AKRacing Gaming desks so far, and both could have done with improvements, now I have this desk from Sandberg, does this desk require improvements? or have they hit all the right notes? Shall we find out?
So when FedEx arrived with my new gaming desk and asked for a hand to get it from the delivery truck, up the stairs into my home, I was cheeky enough to say, fancy helping me to get it upstairs and into my office. The normal health and safety waffle was spued from his mouth, then I said, well what about the health and safety of the customer getting the package from the van to the home? he agreed and said OK.
During this period my neighbour saw me helping the driving with the desk and caught the name and wondered what the hell was a fighter gaming desk? was it part of a desk that is an all in one system, the type that has a chair and a mount for a monitor, he was kind of gutted when I said it was simply a gaming desk for a gamers ecosystem. But let us move on;
Check out the packaging ‘Sandberg Fighter Gaming Desk 2 in the Ultimate upgrade to your gaming setup’ has a drawn image of the desk and its specifications:
- Material: Metal Legs + MDF wood tabletop + fabric & velco cable holder / tray
- Size: 120 x 64 x 77cm
- USB powered LED lights
- Packing size: 119 x 66 18.5cm
- Packing weight: 25kg
When opened you are greeted to another box, this is some impressive packaging, with an RRP of £216.99 what do you expect, I know I would expect amazing packaging and everything safe and sound. The last thing you would want is for your new, expensive, heavy gaming station damaged due to miss-handing or damaged within transit, and I have to admit, based on what I have seen, there is no chance of this happening.
Just look at what it looks like once the second box is opened, the only thing visble is the frame from the top and the instruction leaflet. On the left-hand side, there is a box that contains all the screws, even a screwdriver, Allen keys, and many other parts, which also includes the LED sections.
Now I did create a video while building the desk, but it got corrupted during transfer which sucks, so going to break it down as bullet points on how to build any questions please just email us.
- Lay the table top on the floor upside down, I would say on a rug or carpet so not to scratch the surface.
- See the frame in the above picture, place that on top of the table top, making sure the LED connections are facing the front of the desk, do not do what I did and have everything set up from the back, then wonder why items were not fitting right. Do not attach the base just yet, even though I did.
- Attach the legs to the sides, with the screws supplied.
- Then attach the plastic leg aesthetics on either leg, no idea what they are called officially so here is a picture.
- Then attach the leg braces
- Then attach the cable tidy tray to the frame and leg brace.
- After everything is attached underneath turn the desk right side up, that’s if you have attached the frame to the table top, do that before obviously. Once right side up attached the LED aesthetic sides and use the screws supplied to keep them in place. No idea why they used silver screws here, they should have used black to blend them in.
- Finally, attach all the LED cables together, plug the USB connection into a port and way you go.
Overall, the construction of the desk took around 1hr, with one coffee break and some mini eggs to tempt me away from time to time. The instructions supplied by Sandberg, even though a little vague in some areas were easy to follow after a little head scratching, maybe I was just a little tired due to my new baby boy keeping me up during the nights.
Now I have it all set up, and it is my third gaming desk to own, has this desk finally ticked everything for me? Well, the AKRacing one even though fine in design lacked cable management and the position of the headset mount was to close to the user chair, so when I swivel to the right I was always hitting the headset. The Arozzi Gaming Desk was HUGE and you were able to place your PC on the desk as well as two monitors with ease, had cable management, however, I had to upgrade the mesh underneath with elastic so the mesh was able to hold all the cables. Both Desks also came with their own Mouse mats, Arozzi offered a full desk mouse mat while AKRacing offered an oversize mouse mat.
So how did Sandberg do with their Fighter Gaming Desk 2, first off let us look at the original, picture below, its a nice design right? however, it is missing some major improvements implemented in the upgraded version. There is no cable tray, no headset mounts, only 1 cable tidy, and the LED’s are at the front, which in all honesty would do my head in.
Now we have the upgraded version see image below, a well-deserved improvement over the original, now comes with a cable tray to keep your cable nice and tidy (ish), one more cable tidy slot on top, LED’s have been moved to the back, headset mounts on both under-sides of the desk and Sandberg Logos on the legs. I can not fault them, the fighter gaming desk 2 is a desk with improvements aplenty and they should simply just throw away the original, or bargain price it just to sell off last of the stock.
So what do I think of it? well, the desk can only hold two 27″ Max size, screens, if you want to use more you are going to use a VESA Mount that is mounted. I am using two MSI Optix MAG271C 27″ Curved Monitors and they are joined together there is no room to separate them unless you VESA mount them. The design I like, its a little bit bling ( attracts attention because it is very noticeable and looks expensive) and does not come across cheap, like Logitech products do (personal opinion).
The cable tray at the back I have used fully, as you can see from the image below, I have placed a 4 Socket extension inside and sort of sent the majority of the power cables to it, it is not as tidy as I like it to be yet, but it will be soon. So I have two monitors and the base unit plugged in and a second 4 Socket Socket extension which then powers my speakers, TV, and the Now TV box. The second 4 Socket Socket extension is mounted to the wall and is in no way intrusive or gets in the way.
The headset mounts are set right at the end of the desk and in no way intrude when I swivel my chair around, the best thing is Sandberg has made two of them, either for gamers that use more than one headset or for gamers that are left or right handed. Now I know me saying left or right handed as one of the reasons it is a good idea, but for me being a righty I prefer everything on the right, and my mate who is a lefty prefer everything on the left.
Cable tidy slots built into the desk helps keep all your cables, well tidy. They all route to and through the slot, being a tidy person, having these is a must, and not having them on the AKRacing Gaming desk, rather infuriated me, and for the price you pay for the desk, you would have expected it.
Then we have the Bling, RGB LED lighting both set towards the back of the desk, on the top and on the side, all controlled with a button, seen in the below image.
Colours and animations include the following
- Red
- Blue
- Light Blue
- Green
- Purple
- Yellow
- Colour Scheme 1 Flash through all colours
- Colour Scheme 2 Cycle smoothly through all colours.
The RGB Lighting is not really required to sell the desk, as many of the other added features already make this desk a good purchase, but for a person like me, that likes anything RGB, this desk, well fits into my gaming lifestyle rather well. The RGB lights are attached to the sides, matt plastic in the design, they do not look out of place apart from the silver screws, which I am going to replace with black asap. The desktop does not have a textured finish like the AKRacing desk does, its a smooth black finish with an embossed texture, it looks nice.
There was one thing I missed, which I got with all other desks, a mouse mat, either an oversize one or for this desk, I would have loved to of seen an RGB extended soft-touch mouse mat something like this (image below) which Sandberg sell for £37.99 on their site.
So it comes to my final thoughts, and they are positive, everything about this gaming desk shines through, the name is somewhat confusing ‘Fighter Gaming Desk’, is the desk for fighting games only, does it do something else, maybe call it the Sandberg RBG Gaming Desk 2 instead something simple and to the point. The design and size are optimal for any avid gamer and for the gamer’s room, the RGB lighting for me is an added bonus and many other gamers I feel will like it as well. The cable management is top notch from the cable tidy slots on top to the cable tidy bay on the back. The only thing I wished they would have added is a mouse mat, nothing else to complain about and this is in no way a sale killer.
Well done Sandberg and Good Job this is by far a top notch Gaming Desk for Gamers around the world and I would highly recommend this to anyone. P.S send me the mouse mat and this Gamer Desk is done, as currently, I am using a Razer Extender Mous mat.
You can grab the black version here https://sandberg.it/en-gb/product/Fighter-Gaming-Desk-2-Black
Or the red version here https://sandberg.it/en-gb/product/Fighter-Gaming-Desk-2-Red
Both for £216.99, you might be able to find the desks elsewhere.
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