This Magnetic Desk Is a Neat Freak’s Dream

I hate wires. Ironic, coming from someone who writes for WIRED. That doesn’t mean I’m anti cables—Ethernet rules, and Wi-Fi drools—I just hate cluttered desks, so wires need to be out of sight. I once nearly drilled a hole in my desk just to run the wire from my old mechanical keyboard to my desktop PC underneath instead of strewn over the top like a layabout. 

Unfortunately, I never quite practiced good cable management. Sure, things were neat and tidy on the surface, but the underside of my desk could fit right at home on the Nebuchadnezzar. That’s where the Magnus from Secretlab comes in. The company that makes very good gaming chairs has built a metal, magnetic vessel to help hide all those fussy cables. The cable management features run on top of the desk and below it. 

It feels like it was custom-built for people like me that talk the talk but are a little too lazy to walk the walk. And if you’re like me, just know that there’s now zero need to Scotch tape wires to the wall or desk anymore and call it a day (not that I ever did that, nope, never). I can now welcome you to a wire-free world.

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Simple Setup

The Magnus arrives in two boxes, and after unpacking every single part of it you might feel overwhelmed. It’s a lot. Thankfully, Secretlab labels every piece of the desk, and the included assembly instructions are very clear. The whole thing took me about 30 minutes to put together. You might need to enlist a friend though as it weighs a whopping 93 pounds. 

The desk is 59 inches long, which is more than enough space to fit my PC, an ultrawide monitor, and a second vertical monitor, along with the usual desk accessories like speakers and the ever-essential Funko Pops and Amiibos. Secretlab rates its load capacity at a generous 221 pounds.

One of the key parts of this desk is the trench, as I call it. The rear part of the Magnus is separated from the main desktop. A slim panel that runs along the back of the desk folds upward to reveal a roomy cable management tray. This is where you can hide most of the wires that run from your PC to your peripherals. Under the desk, you can remove a magnetic cover to access these cables and route them to an outlet. Thanks to this, I didn’t have to worry about a mess of wires dangling below the desk near my feet. All the cables are completely out of sight and out of mind.