The Basics:

As you start to unpack the box, you find a variety of materials used to create this desk. The legs are mostly extruded aluminum with plastic and steel trim, support braces and the cup holder are powder coated black steel, and the desktop is a laminated panel with a top finished to look like carbon fiber. All in all, the pieces look well made and well finished.



The images below show that the bulk of the connections feature threaded inserts placed exactly where you need to screw in the bolts that will hold this all together. The one odd item to me is a banner bearing the E-WIN logo that is to be installed under the desk on two steel rods that brace the legs against each other. While the steel rods seem necessary for stability, I am torn about the banner. While it may appeal to some, it seems a bit much to me, but I am confident you could assemble this desk without using this piece.



Before attaching the desktop surface, it is definitely easiest to work on the desk with the frame upside down. As mentioned, the instructions are not a match during many steps, but there are only so many ways to assemble this and I was able to figure it out without too much extra effort. Other than the mechanical installation, you do have some "electrical" work to do, as there are a number of LED lighting power connectors to hook up, none of which are labeled and could be interchangeable. Assuming it must not matter, I just connected wires that were in the same area, and hoped I was correct, and that if I was not I was hoping that unplugging them and swapping the connectors in the same general area would fix any issues.



Additionally, you need to connect two USB cables - One goes from the LEDs to the controller, while the other goes from the controller to a power supply. Another issue here is that you don't get a power supply with the desk and you either have to supply your own, or plug it into your PC's USB ports. Compounding the issues with this design is that the USB cables are extremely short, and I could not get it to reach any of my mid-tower case's USB ports. I needed a USB extension cable, and then just grabbed a (5W) USB wall adapter and was pleased to see that the lighting worked just fine with my guess work cable connections.