I spend all day editing videos and this $550 standing desk for gamers might be the best upgrade to my setup yet
You may know Cougar best for their PC cases, power supplies, and cooling systems, but over the past few years they’ve been making a name for themselves with affordable yet feature-rich gaming chairs and desks. The E-Odyssey might be marketed as a gaming desk, but with its built-in drawer, pegboard, and speaker stands, it’s actually one of the best standing desks I’ve used for organizing a busy workspace. Since adding it to my video studio, it’s easily been one of the best upgrades I’ve made in a long time.
At $549, the Cougar E-Odyssey delivers a lot of value as an all-in-one, electric dual-motor standing desk that combines personalization, comfort, and smart storage. Fully assembled, it weighs 126 pounds, supports up to 242 pounds with its stands and pegboard, and has a height range between 28.7 and 46.5 inches.
In this review, I’ll cover why the E-Odyssey isn’t just one of the best gaming desks but is extremely well rounded, with some features usually reserved for desks that can easily cost twice as much.
Cougar E-Odyssey: Cheat Sheet
- What is it? A silent dual-motor electric standing desk with a customizable pegboard, speaker stands, and a drawer topped with a plush wrist rest.
- Who is it for? While marketed toward gamers, it’s also an excellent choice for anyone who wants a large motorized desk with useful built-in storage and organization.
- What does it cost? The Cougar E-Odyssey gaming desk costs $549.
- What do we like? A true all-in-one desk that fits ultrawide monitors while still leaving space for peripherals and accessories.
- What don’t we like? Cable management is basic and not very convenient if you frequently change your setup or have lots of wiring.
Cougar E-Odyssey: Specs
|
Desktop size |
59.1 × 27.5 × 1 inch |
|
Desktop styles |
Black |
|
Leg colors |
Black |
|
Min/max height |
28.7–46.5 inches |
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Max supported weight |
220.5 pounds, (Side platform: 11 pounds / Pegboard: 11 pounds) (100 kg) |
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Electric |
Yes, dual-motor |
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Memory presets |
2 |
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Grommets |
No |
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Warranty |
2- years (electric parts), 5-years (lifting column) |
Cougar E-Odyssey: The ups
From its more affordable price to the fact that it comes with a pegboard back and plenty of accessories included, there’s quite a lot to like about Cougar’s E-Odyssey desk.
Built-in pegboard backing
When I first saw the E-Odyssey at Computex 2025, the pegboard caught my eye immediately. I’d been searching for a standing desk large enough to support my 49-inch Samsung Odyssey ultrawide monitor but with a pegboard solution that wasn’t an afterthought.
The E-Odyssey comes with a full-width metal pegboard, mounted on two sturdy poles that clamp to the back of the desk. Compared to desks like the Corsair Platform:4 Elevate ($999, Corsair) where the Multi Frame Pegboard is a ($299, Corsair) add-on, Cougar including one here adds serious value. While it doesn’t have Corsair’s rail system for mounting lights and mic arms, not to mention it doesn’t have integrated cable management, the core functionality here is exactly what I needed.
Cougar includes a generous set of pegboard accessories like shelves, hooks, headset holders, controller mounts, pen cups, and even magnetic spots. I used mine to mount a neon Vault Dweller sign, my Xbox controller, faux plants, a few pixel art characters, and even a Nuka Cola tin poster to complete my Fallout theme. I love that everything sits above my massive monitor without cluttering my desk or requiring shelves on my walls. Even better, since the pegboard is attached to the desk, all of it moves up and down with the monitor when I switch between sitting and standing.
I’ve previously looked into third-party pegboards, but most are either too small or sit only a few inches above the desk surface. With a monitor as tall as mine, they’d be instantly blocked. The E-Odyssey’s pegboard is perfectly positioned and sized, making it genuinely useful.
A place for your speakers
I have really large Edifier 360DB bookshelf speakers that are great when I’m editing our YouTube videos and listening to music, but man do they take up a lot of space. Given how wide my monitor is, with my previous desk, I had them hidden behind my monitor which of course makes audio quality suffer. Before testing the E-Odyssey I was considering buying speaker floor stands, but ultimately decided against that as it would eat up valuable floor space and they wouldn’t move with my desk’s height as I went from seated to standing.
So the fact that the E-Odyssey has speaker stands built in to the pegboard stand has been a huge win for me that I didn’t realize just how much I’d appreciate. Now no matter if I am standing or sitting, I get clear audio without needing to downsize my monitor or invest in other hardware mounting solutions. But, if you don’t have big speakers like I do, you can actually use this as a platform to display your figures for example or if you want, just not install them at all if you don’t need them.
Built-in storage that doubles as an armrest
The Cougar E-Odyssey has one final trick “under” its sleeve. What looks like an ordinary armrest also doubles as a drawer that measures 62 x 26 x 5 cm. The armrest itself is the perfect size and offers lots of comfort for all day typing or gaming, trust me, I already had a few late night Civ 6 games go well into 3 am.
The drawer has a felt a light gray liner that helps me keep my desk space organized. I usually keep a few of my most used high speed USB-C cables, a multi-purpose tool, a lens cleaner, fidget spinner, and a few other things that I frequently need quick access to but that I don’t want to clutter up my desk. The drawer has a nice soft close and open that really adds a premium touch too.
Cougar E-Odyssey: The downs
There is a lot to love with this desk, but I found a few areas where it could be improved further, namely its cable management solution and with its very useful under-desk drawer.
Not quite enough cable management
Cable management has always been one of my biggest struggles with all of my desk setups. Between wiring everything for my dual-Mac-Gaming Handheld setup, connecting to my audio recording and lighting gear, and all of my additional accessories and USB-C chargers, even with my best attempts to keep things organized, I always inevitably end up with some kind of rats nest under my desk. Especially as my desk is frequently featured on camera in our YouTube videos, keeping things as tidy as possible with no visible wires is essential.
Unlike with some other standing desks we’ve reviewed like the Secretlab Magnus Pro which have cable management trays that flip open for easy access to plug things in and keep cables out of sight, the Cougar E-Odyssey relies on an open tray that sits at back of the desk and runs about half the width of the desk as well as a a rack with a cover that is accessed by removing a set of screws.
Unlike other desks which just have dangling cables or require you to organize and hide them after assembly, Cougar has fitted the power adaptor and pre-wired the motor connectors in the rack with the cover. The downside, however, is that the power adapter and its other wires take up a considerable amount of width and space which makes it harder to also fit thicker cables like the XLR ones that feed from my mics to my RODECaster Pro Duo.
Similarly, even something as simple as fishing the power cable back through the this rack so that I could get the power cable on to the right side of the desk closest to the outlet on that side rather than using the tray, proved to be difficult without removing the rack cover. Even if I could fit most of my wires through it, which I can’t, I’m frequently changing my desk setup, testing new hardware, and don’t have the patience to unscrew the rack cover to access this space.
Cougar includes one tray which I am using to hold my larger power adapters for my iVANKY desktop dock and my RODECaster Pro Duo, but I found myself needing additional space for my massive 22 port power strip which keeps everything on my desk running. As such I am using two additional 3rd party trays that I bought off Amazon that do the trick, though it would have been nice for the desk to offer a better integrated solution.
The drawer could be larger
The only other minor con I could find in my time testing the Cougar E-Odyssey is that the drawer isn’t quite tall enough to fit some of my thicker accessories and devices which I would like to fit inside. My Logitech MX Master 3 is too tall for the drawer to close while my Meta Rayban charging case does fit, but gets snagged on the top when opening the drawer back up. I would to be able to quickly clear off my desk surface and fit these larger accessories in the drawer.
Considering many of the best standing desks don’t even include a drawer to begin with, I’m really nitpicking here, but if it was just a few mm taller, this feature would even be better and I don’t think it would be obtrusive to my legs. If it’s a small ask, Cougar, I would love to see this updated in a future version of this desk!
Cougar E-Odyssey: Verdict
The Cougar E-Odyssey is an incredibly functional and easy to personalize gaming desk and a huge upgrade over the barebones one I’m replacing. From its pegboard, speaker stands, and drawer this desk has nearly everything I wanted from a new standing desk.
While cable management could be better, Cougar is giving us lots of value with this desk and at this price point its not just a great choice for gamers, but also content creators or anyone who wants a large all-in-one desk to handle your big monitor setups, plethora of accessories and knickknacks.
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