First, get the white one. The black finish has the scratch resistance of a very hard cheese and the three heavy boxes the desk is shipped in do very little to protect the finish (mine arrived pre-scratched in a few places). The desk also says it's "reversible" which is only partially true: one side of the "U" is much wider than the other and the hutch only mounts to the narrower side of the "U", but you *can* pick the side of the desk that will be narrower. Don't try to assemble it if you're a novice. I'm an expert of many furniture builds and I had lots of questions here and there. The instructions caution you against using power tools; this advice should be torn from the manual and burned in short ceremony attended by the one to two other people whose help you'll need to hold and move parts and assemblies into position. You will also need a power screwdriver (or drill) set to very high torque and low rotation speed. Getting the various assemblies to line up square will be a challenge. Unless you assemble the drawers *perfectly*, the drawer lock can be defeated by the advanced burglary technique of "tug on it a bit harder". And finally, you will probably have to put the keyboard drawer at the back of the "U". The mount points for the left or right sides are just bizarre, partially tucked under the back of the "U", and so only useful if you are an alien with one arm longer than the other. All that said, once the desk is together, it feels extremely solid and aside from the scratches looks quite attractive. The drawer and cabinet hardware are first-rate, and it can be disassembled for moving with a surprisingly low number of steps. The holes for cables are thoughtfully placed and the covers for these holes are also very attractive and useful, as is the single plug/double USB power port, which can be mounted in any of five different locations around the desk. So call it 3.5 stars, downgraded to three because I *really* wanted that keyboard drawer on the right side of the desk and there's no comfortable way for me to have it there.
