I knew something was missing from that standing desk I purchased during the pandemic. Turns out it just needed some built-ins RGB shine.

Cooler Master and its new range of gaming desks convinced me. I mean, look at the gorgeous rainbow hues that light up the front and back edges of this standing desk. It’s so pointless, and yet I can’t take my eyes off that strip of light. It’s bewitching.

Anyway, Cooler Master says the flagship GD160 ARGB can reflect the colors displayed on your screen for a more immersive atmosphere. So if you’re stalking enemies in dense jungle, the color stripe will mimic that location in-game by turning green. Alternatively, you can use the MasterPlus+ software (not really, that’s the name) to customize your lighting setup by choosing one of seven preset effects, including reload, recoil, breath, and reload (see video below). This kind of functionality also gives it an edge over just taping a standalone LED strip on a regular desktop.

In the same software, there are options to change the lighting colors on the front and rear RGB strips. As the video shows, you can divide these strips as much as you want to create long stripes of colors or tiny alternating dots. And these effects can be cycled on the fly by holding down the “A” button on the pitch adjustment panel. Cooler Master says the front ambient light is angled downward to reduce glare, so my astigmatic eyes shouldn’t keep me from enjoying the light show.

The GD160 ARGB uses two motors to mount 51.2 inches or less at 25.6 inches, so you can use the standing desk or, uh, sitting in an ottoman. Once you find the correct height, which is displayed in centimeters on an LED panel, it can be saved using one of the three memory buttons.

Another nifty feature is the desk’s anti-collision sensor, which prevents the desk from lowering onto an object below.. I could see this feature being useful for my own setup given how many boxes of review units I hid under my desk at one point. It also works both ways, so the desk lowers if it senses an object hitting the top surface before it reaches the intended height. You can even adjust the sensitivity of the anti-collision feature.

As for durability, the GD160 ARGB can lift loads of up to 220 pounds and has a scratch-resistant aluminum finish. Beneath the board is a metal cable management tray that feeds all your wires through a single slot. Jhe office too comes with a extra wide water-repellent gaming mouse pad that extends about half the width of the desktop at 35.4 inches. icehouse master also indicates that you can fast charge your phone through this officealthough I’m not convinced of this claim given that the desktop comes with only one USB 2.0 port.

With a length of 63 inches and a weight of 29.5 inches, the GD160 ARGB is a rather large desk. It’s also expensive and is on sale today for $899.

If you prefer something more compact or want to save some cash, Cooler Master also revealed the $370 GD120 ARGB, a 47.2-inch-wide desktop that drops the rear lightbar. The $349 GD160 is also available for those who want the bigger size but don’t need the expensive RGB.