Review of the North Bayou F80 Gas Spring Monitor Desk Mount

Are you looking for a desk mounting arm for your monitor? Well in my experience, the North Bayou F80 Flexi Full Motion Desk Mount is exceptionally good for mounting monitors.

I personally love using this arm to the side of my main monitor. It free some space on my desk that I can use to place stuff under the side monitor, if I wish to do that now. It wobbles easily, but otherwise the arm is very solidly built and made of sturdy metal- I believe that it is mostly likely steel.

I also appreciate the cable management system, that carries the wire under the arms via plastic cubbies to the monitor.

Another thing that I like about this mounting arm is that it has almost full range of motion. This allows my to place my monitor in the exact angle that I need it to be.

One benefit to using this arm is that it is much easier to use. I used to use a vertical setup, with one monitor over the other. I used two monitors to boost my productivity, but the monitor on the top wasn’t getting very much use. That was because using the top monitor required me to crane my neck to an uncomfortable position.

Whereas the North Bayou F80 Arm Mount allowed me to place the monitor to the side to the exact height and angle that I required. I find that turning my neck to the right (or left) was much more comfortable, and I could even move my whole body such that it faced the side monitor.

In other words, ergonomics is a major factor for productivity. If you want to get the most use out of your monitor(s), I would suggest that they positioned as ergonomically as possible.

Specs

Here is a specifications summary of the Monitor Mount Arm:

• For 17″ – 27″ Monitors
• Can carry between 6.5kg or 14.3lb
• VESA: 75mm x 75mm, & 100mm x 100mm
• C-Clamp or Grommet Mounting
  • C-Clamp and Grommet Mounting can fit a desk that is at a max 3 inches thick

So the F80 mounting arm is made to fit 17″ to 27″ LCD monitors. That’s pretty much the standard range of sizes for standard computer display. Although in a landscape configuration, this arm is able to hold most ultrawide monitors, those that are around 25.5″ inches in height. In portrait configuration, this arm is not able to hold most ultrawide monitors, except if they have a length of 25.5 inches or less. But we’re talking about ultrawides- ultrawides tend to be really long.

This mounting arm can also handle monitors that weigh between 4.4lb to 14.3lb, and 2kg to 6.5kg. That means pretty much any modern monitor, given that modern LCD panels are designed to keep weight low. Some ultrawide monitors fall around 10 pounds, which is an acceptable weight. But a few are heavier, so you should check the weight of your (ultrawide) monitor to determine if this desk mount is right for you.

If you need an arm to carry loads heavier than 14lb, I would suggest looking into the Loctek Full Motion Gas Spring Desk Mount for monitors that weigh from 8.8lb to 22lb, or the Loctek Heavy Duty Gas Spring Arm Mount for displays that weight from 19.8lb to 44lb.

Finally, I would like to mention that you can either use a C-Clamp or a Grommet Mount method for installing the F80 monitor arm to your desk. The C-Clamp is limits the arm to being placed at the edges of your desk. However, you also have the option of placing the arm anywhere on your desk by making a grommet hole to install the arm on.

In theory, you could make a grommet hole in your wall to make the arm a “wall mount”, but it would be quite an inefficient way to wall mount your monitor due to the way the arm was designed in its range of motion and center of balance. I would suggest the WALI 14″ Extension Arm Wall Mount, if you want to wall mount your computer display.

Cable Management System

The arm has a very solid metal construction, with plastic covers that hide input and power cables very well. The cable management system is excellent for keeping your work space clean by insuring the wires don’t just hang down from the monitor.

The first plastic cover, on the lower part of the arm, takes the wires in through two holes or slits at the bottom, and then takes the wires out near the center joint of the arm.

The holes or slits aren’t too big, about 3 centimeters or 1 inch long. They can fit wires a little bigger than 1 centimeter or 1/3 inch thick.

The second plaster cover, on the upper part of the arm, is a single tunnel that takes the wires from the center joint to the VESA mount plate.

Range of Motion

It has a gas spring on the upper arm that allows you to move your monitor higher or lower positions easily.

The arm is vertically adjustable; the adjustment first requires that the monitor is installed onto the arm. Then you can make the adjustments by simply pushing the arm up or down.

The arm has a very wide range of horizonal motion. The joint at the base/clamp doesn’t rotate 360 degrees, more like 220 degrees, but when considering the other rotating joints the monitor can be placed within a circular full range of 360 degrees.

In addition, the monitor can be angled up 35 degrees and angled down -50 degrees. Perhaps this diagram below will help you visualize the adjustable parameters.

One reason why I like the F80 North Bayou desk mount monitor arm, is that I can tweak the placement of my monitors to exactly where I want them. This is very good ergonomically, because now I don’t have to slouch. For example, without the mounting arm, my monitor’s original stands would not move the monitor up very high- and so my body would start slouching to compensate. Not good for posture.

Cons & Limitations

In this section, I will be pointing out the problems or minor gripes that I found with this mounting arm.

• 3 ugly yellow logos; one on the base, and two on each side of the upper segment. It’s mostly an aesthetic issue, and does not at all effect the functionality of the arm. Besides, we will be staring at the display monitor, not at the mounting arm.
• If you want the monitor to sit close to where the mount connects to the desk, depth wise, you’ll have to mount it offset because it isn’t designed to be able to push the monitor back.
• If your monitor has a recessed vesa mount and it’s the smaller standard, the arm won’t fit into the monitor.

Precautions

Here are some things to keep in mind when using the North Bayou F80 monitor desk arm:

• When you remove the velcro strap tying the mounting arm together, you should know that the arm will spring out.
• The arm vibrates easily. So make sure that you have a “rock” solid desk. Actually, I do believe the fix for this is to tighten (slightly) all of the torque-adjustable joints in order to reduce vibrations.
• The desk that you are mounting to must be able to support at a minimum 3 times the weight of the total load (total load = weight of the mounting arm, the monitor, and any extra accessories).
• Designed for indoor use only :P
• This product contains a high pressure gas spring, so it is very important that you don’t dismantle without a professionals supervision.
• To ensure the performance of gas spring, it is recommended that you do a full direction adjustment of the arm several times per month.