Cable 1: USB Hub

Yes, you need a large one. I got a 7-­port Belkin pow­ered USB Hub, be­cause the ASUS Zen­book has on­ly two USB port­s.

Cable 2: Power

I got two pow­er adapter­s, one is per­ma­nent­ly on the desk­top, so that I can throw the ca­ble down the back and not have it cross in fron­t. The oth­er lives in my back­pack, so I don't have to crawl un­der the desk to plug/un­plug it.

Audio

A 2.1 speak­er set. These speak­ers have a vol­ume wheel, which is nice, and they are rather loud, even if I know they are not all that good, they are good enough for me.

To avoid plug­ging them in­to the note­book, they are plugged in­to a blue­tooth au­dio adapter (the white don­gle in the USB Hub) which I got out of dx.­com for cheap.

I al­so have a Blue­tooth head­set (charg­ing in the im­age), which I can use for phonecall­s, hang­out­s, etc with­out be­ing tied to the com­put­er.

Keyboard/Mouse

The com­bined key­board­/­track­pad shown, by Log­itech, works with a tiny don­gle that's plugged in the hub, so when I plug the hub it "just work­s", no pair­ing need­ed.

It's not re­al­ly all that much bet­ter than the Zen­book's key­board, but:

• Hav­ing the pad on the right means I don't brush it while typ­ing

• Hav­ing it in the shelf with the Zen­­book on the ta­ble makes for bet­ter er­­go­nomic­s.

Network

This is ac­tu­al­ly a wired net­work. There is a US­B/Eth­er­net adapter plugged in the hub. That lets me use the high pri­or­i­ty port in my router. Plus I don't lose the adapter.

Device Charging

I can charge up to 4 de­vices. The head­set has a weird ca­ble, so it's plugged to the hub. When not charg­ing, it drops be­hind the ta­ble.

The red ex­ten­si­ble ca­bles, I got from dx.­com (they are, very cheap) and they are awe­some.

• They re­­trac­t, so when not in use they don't tan­­gle.

• They are both mi­ni and mi­cro USB ca­bles, be­­cause the head has both con­nec­­tors. They were al­­so 30-pin old iPhone ca­bles, but I did­n't need that, so I re­­moved the con­nec­­tors.

Since the hub is pow­ered, I can charge all the de­vices even when the note­book is not there.

Random Devices

I still have the right-­side USB port free, so I can plug ran­dom things there, like the gold­en 200x USB mi­cro­scope shown in the im­age, or a USB plas­ma bal­l.

Conclusion

Noth­ing very strange, but I think I achieved a very clean se­tup, where I can plug my note­book in­to all the pe­riph­er­als in 10 sec­onds and turn it in­to a "desk­top" with a min­i­mum of an­noy­ance.