Sauder Orchard Hills Computer Desk, Carolina Oak finish

I really love this desk, it's very sturdy and it looks great. I don't think the picture does it justice. The color is looks a lot different in person I think, I'd say it's a noticeably deeper color, however, that's my opinion. It arrived very quickly, much quicker than we anticipated and it was easy to put together although it did take a lot longer than I expected. We ran into a few very small problems with it, such as it was missing literally one screw but it was simple to move past that and there was no affect on the final product. The one problem that was quite frustrating was the drawer. It sounds stupid but ours gave us a hard time to put together and didn't want to fit in the slot. We we're able to work it out though. The final product looks great and I love it especially for the price. I definitely recommend this to anyone that doesn't need a ton of desk space, but needs enough for a larger screen and tower, and also wants enough extra space to hold games, books, pictures, or whatever else.

Here are a couple pointers. although the instructions are pretty easy to read, there were a couple things I discovered upon assembly. When you see the roller bars, look inside the bar itself and you will see the numbers needed for like the drawers or keyboard roller shelf so you will know for sure which one goes to which drawer and what not. One downside to this is that the bottom of the drawer is a heavy cardboard vs actual wood. It would also be nice if they could reverse the sides the drawers are on. This would have been perfect for what I wanted if you could build a mirror image of this desk. also, surprisingly I was able to build this myself. mind you I'm almost 60 with a rod in my back, a metal ball in my left shoulder. and I have a left hand with nerve damage. I still on my own was able to put this together myself and lift and flip it (carefully of course) and overall, it came out pretty good. took me a few to figure out the drawers and the little metal circle that allows you to either raise or lower so then close correctly. I've owned Sauder before, and it's always done the job needed. I did have a couple small chips on a couple pieces one being the pull-out keyboard shelf. other than that, it will do perfectly. I bought some sliders to put under the desk so I will be able to pull it out when I need to. my old one had wheels. time will tell.

My previous computer desk was just no longer big enough to deal with a larger printer and dual flat screen across the top (one for the PC monitor, one for cable TV). This desk met all my needs. It did take a few hours to assemble it, and it was spread over 2 days. I will advise that if you are going to put it in a room with a door, you will need to complete the assembly in the room as it most likely will not fit through the door when it is fully assembled. You can assemble the the hutch (top half) in a separate room, but the bottom desk is so wide it will not fit through a door. If you are, or know a halfway decent handy man, this project should go smoothly. I would not advise this desk to those who are mechanically challenged (can't use tools or like to read instructions). There are pre-punched knock out holes in the back of all the cubby's, and the largest cubby has a huge square you can punch out, or just the 2 sides and bottom to allow for cords and cables to go through. The main computer cabinet is the same way, you can open 3 sides in the back or just take it all off. The 2 pull out drawers on the right bottom are set up for drop down hanging files or you can just pile things in it like a deep drawer. I set mine up as follows: I put my HP Officejjet printer to the right, I have a blu ray, cable box and banker's lamp stacked on top of each other on the left with enough addisitional room for speakers and a phone stand. Then I have two 32" flatscreens on the top. Then you have 3 small and 3 medium cubby's going across the top to store all your supplies. The only negative I have for this product is the space between the desk and keyboard shelf. It is a bit narrow and wish it was about an inch lower. I have a logitech wireless wave keyboard and I can't have it propped up at it's highest level (1 inch) or it won't fit. Luckily the keyboard has an optional 1/2" leg prop that does work.

The front and sides of the desk look good, but the backing is printed cardboard. That was very disappointing.

Large, heavy, and you will require help with assembly (moving this around while assembling, and holding large parts in place during attachment). Just a forewarning, not a complaint. The desk is quite nice, has ample storage, and decent shelving. You are not going to put a library in it, but the space is quite adequate. It is pressed wood, but hides that fact very well. It is structurally supported very well, and looks very nice when finished, just like it's pictures suggest. I would purchase again.

The first thing I want to say is that I like this desk. However, there are a couple of things about it that may be problematic, depending on what you put in the hutch shelves. It's sturdy and nice looking. The drawers are large and work well. The wood grain is attractive and the moldings look good and lend a finished look to the desk. My issue is with the hutch; in particular, the way the horizontal shelves are constructed (please look at the Amazon photo so you'll understand what I'm describing). The shelves are attached and supported only by the three vertical upright pieces (the hutch left end piece, the middle vertical hutch upright divider between the monitor and printer areas, and the hutch right end piece). The dividers for both shelves (the short ones above the computer monitor and the long ones shown above the printer) are only connected to the very top of the hutch's underside piece by metal pin dowels; they are not attached with screws or cam/posts. This means that any weight put on the shelves pulls them down and away from the hutch's top horizontal piece. I noticed the shelf bowing downward after I put my music books on the larger shelf. Books are heavy and I could see the metal pin dowels because the vertical shelf dividers were no longer flush against the top of the hutch. The weight of the books pulled the shelf downward and I could see a definite bow, which would only have gotten worse. I use my music books a lot and didn't have the option of not using the shelves. I decided to fix the problem and provide support for the shelf. The easiest way was to cut a 13 inch 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 piece of wood and place it vertically behind the printer. I sanded and stained the wood so it would somewhat match the desk and after placing it upright behind the printer there was no more sagging shelf. I didn't glue, screw or nail anything; I just cut the wood so it was a snug fit and tapped it into place with a small hammer. I am providing a photo so you can see my fix. If you don't put anything of substantial weight on the shelves, this may not be an issue for you; however, I put printer paper in the middle area in the shelf above the monitor and the shelf bowed a little. The paper is now in the bottom drawer because I didn't want to put another upright support behind my monitor (I might do that later). For all you carpenters out there, I'm sure there are much more sophisticated ways of addressing this problem, but I like to go with the simplest solution and I don't mind another piece of wood added to my new computer desk. I hope this information helps someone who purchases this product. Also, you'll notice in my photo that I didn't put the door on desk; that's because I'm always accessing the USB ports on the front of my computer tower and didn't want the door hanging open all the time. Photo 1: My new Sauder Orchard Hills Computer Desk with Hutch assembled. Photo 2: The horizontal shelf filled with books and NOT sagging. You can see the support behind the printer. Photo 3: The fix: A 13 inch, 1 1/2 x 1 1/2, sanded and stained wood support for the horizontal shelf. Photo 4: Close up of the shelf support. PS. I ended up putting another vertical support behind the monitor and now the other shelf can support the weight of the paper without bowing downward. I had to do it! Photo 5: The horizontal shelf filled with paper and NOT sagging. you can see the support below the paper. Photo 6. Close up of the shelf support.

When I first looked through the manual, I thought "This is very easy to follow." And it is. It may be one of the best manuals I've ever seen for a product that needs to be assembled. Unfortunately I'm not rating the manual. I'm rating the actual desk. Also unfortunately I can't give you a full opinion because this mess will never be built. I don't know what psychopath designed this build, but I hope they step on Legos every day for the rest of linear time. See, it starts off simple enough. You build the upper part of the desk. But problems arose even here. You're given these small metal rods to insert between sections. The problem is they're only a tight fit to one of the sides they go into, not both like you'd naturally assume. The vertical sections are all held in place primarily by these and I had a nightmare of a time just keeping them there. I wouldn't trust any of these shelves to hold actual weight due to the questionable construction involved. But the real problem is the legs. See, throughout the entire build you have cam dowels. You know what those are even if you don't know the name. It's a little bit you turn with a screwdriver that, at least in theory, locks a little peg into place. As far as I built - which was the section that the two drawers and the PC storage section go into - the E N T I R E lower body of the desk is held together with these. There is absolutely no structural stability at all. When I had to move the desk slightly, the leg section swayed, which damaged the holes they were in. "Well, you should've built in a better spot" you might say. For one thing, I don't have a ton of space available. But even this maybe wouldn't have been an issue if not for the part written by a madman. See, you build the desk on its 'back,' lying flat on the ground, until you get the aforementioned drawer sections built. Then the manual wants you to FLIP THE ENTIRE THING 180 DEGREES ONTO ITS FRONT. I do not know how one is supposed to do this with a leg section so flimsy. I disassembled it so I wouldn't destroy the holes more than shifting it already had. This made turning the upper section over easy... but the problem there is that it sits on a curved surface - the front slope - and the leg sections are not aligned to the front edge of the desk. This means that I was unable to reattach the leg sections I had already built and flipped over because there is quite literally no way to prop the desk up in such a way that you can do so. Nothing aligns. I had to prop the leg section up on a number of things to just -attempt- reattaching. Apparently you need to do all of this to do something or another on the back side, which then apparently keeps the entire thing from collapsing in on itself. I have my doubts. I'm giving up. This thing can't be completed. We got this thing on sale for just under $400 and even at that price we were ripped off. We recently moved and I was stuck with an awful $20 desk with sharp edges. Circumstances meant we couldn't move my old desk, and this one was very similar so I jumped at the chance. It took 3 months to get around to building and thus writing this due to an unfortunately timed carpenter ant problem. Obviously I didn't want the big heavy wood desk in front of where wood-eating ants were getting in. The money was wasted. 3 months of hoping to assemble it and having a nicer desk to rest my arm on is gone. Whatever lunatic designed this built process needs to be fired. I dunno what idiot thought this was okay, but the joke's on us and now we're out hundreds of dollars we could've spent on literally anything else. Maybe a desk made by a company who doesn't expect the impossible. However they thought you were supposed to complete the flip is utterly beyond me, but I'm done trying. The desk will be disassembled and, bit by bit, taken to the local recycle center. May it find a purpose in its next life, because it'll never fulfill the one it had here. Do not waste your time and money on this trash. Find a desk by a company that doesn't hate its users. I will never buy another Sauder product in my life. I'm so let down and angry and frustrated by all of this.

I really, really like this desk! When it arrived, the delivery person stacked the boxes under the carport and then it started to rain. Luckily, I saw them before the boxes were drenched and took them into the garage. The desk arrived in two heavy boxes, but my husband and I opened the boxes and carried the pieces into the house, making the job much easier. I read a review that said to count each item and organize them for easier assembly. We did this, and the manufacturer made the job so much easier as the wooden pieces were stamped or etched with the item number and the hardware were separated into "pockets" that were also labeled with the item number. Assembly took about 4 hours, with an hour break mid point for dinner, so 3 hours altogether. It was easy and for the most part, instructions were very easy to follow. There was one piece that we had to "fix" where the pin did not line up with the hole. But a quick widening of the hole helped it slip right in. My husband kept saying that I had purchased an item that was very unsteady, but I reminded him that the back pieces will brace the desk and they did. The main drawback for this desk is the weight. It is a two person job! It looks great and there is a lot of counter room on my new desk.