The Special-T Ella and Aim: Sizes, Depth and Fit
Two desks from one maker, four legs each, no corner version, and no published weight capacity.
The numbers
- Sizes: 48 x 24, 60 x 24 and 60 x 30 in, in both lines
- Height: 29 in fixed
- Ella leg: 2 in round post. Aim leg: 2 x 1 in rectangular steel
- Top: 1 in on the cheaper program, 1.25 in on the upgraded one
- Corner, L-shape or return: none in either line
- Drawers or storage: none
- Weight capacity: not published for either model
- Warranty: ten years from Special-T, one year from the dealer selling the desk
Verdict
Worth it if you only need a flat 24 in surface and you get the warranty term from whoever invoices you. At the lower end of the price band it is not expensive for contract-channel furniture, and 24 in is the shallowest depth most converters will sit on square.
Special-T takes no part in the BIFMA Compliant register at all, so that check never applied to it, and the unnumbered 2012 sentence is a documentation habit rather than evidence about the desk.
No weight capacity is published for either model anywhere, which matters if you were planning to clamp an arm to it. And the warranty is ten years from Special-T and one year from the dealer who would actually handle your claim.
Two desks, one platform
The Ella and the Aim are the same desk with different legs. The Ella stands on a 2 in round post that folds. On the Aim that becomes a rectangular steel leg, 2 by 1 in, fixed. Same three sizes, same 29 in height, same absence of drawers, and the Aim lists somewhere between 19 and 41 per cent higher depending which size you compare.
They are made by Special-T, which is worth stating plainly because nothing on either product name says so. This is contract furniture sold through dealers. It is not on Amazon, it is not on Wayfair, and there is no consumer listing for it anywhere I could find.
24 in is the number that matters
Both desks come 24 or 30 in deep. Nothing else. And 24 in happens to be the figure the converter makers treat as their floor, so a plain 24 in desk is the shallowest surface most of them will sit on square.
If you are pairing a fixed-height desk with a sit-stand converter, the 24 in Ella clears that bar by nothing at all. The Ergotron WorkFit Corner has a worksurface 23.6 in deep, which leaves under half an inch of desk showing in front of it.
Neither line offers an L, a return or a corner top. Special-T’s desking page now shows only single and dual line benching, and the old Aim desking configurator returns a 404. If you want the desk to wrap two walls, this is not the product, and no amount of reading the finish menu will change that.
Nobody publishes what it holds
I could not find a weight capacity for either desk. Not on the spec sheets, not on the product pages, not in the 2025 government price list, and not on any of the four dealers I checked.
There is one load figure in Special-T’s literature, and it is not usable. The 2012 price list gives 330 lb per base as a blanket line covering all table bases, a document fourteen years old that has since been replaced by one saying nothing at all. Meanwhile a dealer lists a different Special-T base at 150 lb. I am not going to turn that into a number for these desks, and neither should anyone selling you one.
Product weight is missing too, in every size, which matters more than it sounds when you are working out whether you can move the thing alone after it is built.
Ten years, or one, depending who sells it
Special-T’s product pages say ten years, parts and labour. Its own warranty page says something narrower: ten years on a complete table, ten on bases alone, and one year on tops alone. Applied Ergonomics, the dealer that actually sells the desk configuration rather than the training-table one, says one year on manufacturer defects.
The company that would actually handle a claim publishes the shortest term of the three. Get it in writing from whoever invoices you. While you are asking, note that returns carry a 25 per cent restocking fee plus freight and have to be authorised within thirty days.
Origin is muddled too. Special-T’s own About page says the company owns two manufacturing plants in Europe. Two dealers market the brand as made in the USA. Those cannot both be describing the same desk.
Who it fits
Buy it if you want a plain, flat, 24 in deep surface to stand a converter on, you are already buying through a dealer who will put the warranty term in writing, and you have somewhere else to keep your things. The 24 in depth is the useful part, and at the lower end of the price band it is not expensive for contract-channel furniture.
Skip it if you wanted the corner to work, or if you are planning to clamp a monitor arm to it. A four-leg rectangle does not turn a corner, and I would not hang a clamped arm off a 1 in top whose maker publishes no load rating at all. The height-adjustable corner desks are a better starting point if the shape of the room is the problem you are solving.
What is wrong with it
No published weight capacity. Source: what the manufacturer declines to state. Absent from both spec sheets, both product pages, the 2025 price list and four dealers. The only figure in the literature is a blanket 330 lb line from 2012 that covers all table bases and is contradicted by a dealer listing another Special-T base at 150 lb.
No structural standard number. Source: what the manufacturer declines to state. The single ANSI/BIFMA sentence is the unnumbered “meeting or exceeding” form in a 2012 document, and the 2025 price list dropped it. The one numbered standard Special-T does cite, BIFMA X7.1, governs emissions rather than strength.
The warranty depends on who sells it. Source: three documents that disagree. Ten years on the manufacturer’s product page, one year on tops in the manufacturer’s own warranty terms, one year from the dealer selling this configuration.
No corner, L-shape or return. Source: both spec sheets and Special-T’s desking page. On a site about corners this is the whole problem. The Quarter Round and Crescent shapes on Ella’s options list belong to the meeting-table program, not this one.
No drawers, no pedestal, no shelf. Source: both product pages. It is a top and four legs. Wire management is a channel and a grommet.
No product or shipping weight published. Source: what the manufacturer declines to state. Neither model, no size, nowhere.
No reviews exist to read. Source: every dealer checked carries no review module or says none are posted. This is a contract SKU that never reached the consumer channel, so the usual fallback of reading the one-star reviews is not available here. That is not the product’s fault, but it does mean nobody has publicly stressed it for you.
Returns cost 25 per cent. Source: Special-T’s warranty and returns page, which also requires authorisation within thirty days of invoice.
Questions people ask
Who makes the Ella computer desk?
Special-T, LLC. The same maker as the Aim desk, and the name does not appear in either product title.
Are the Ella and the Aim the same desk?
Same platform, different legs. The Ella uses a 2 in round folding post, the Aim a 2 by 1 in rectangular steel leg. Both come in the same three sizes at the same height, and the Aim costs more.
How deep is it?
24 or 30 in. Those are the only two depths in the desk line.
Is there an L-shaped or corner version?
No. Neither line offers an L, a return or a corner top. Special-T’s current desking range is straight-line benching only.
How much weight does it hold?
Special-T does not publish a figure for either model. The 330 lb line that circulates comes from a 2012 price list, applies to all table bases rather than these desks, and no longer appears in the current documents.
What is the warranty?
Ten years according to the product page, one year on tops alone according to Special-T’s own warranty terms, and one year according to the dealer selling this configuration. Get it in writing.
Is it BIFMA compliant?
There is no such thing as BIFMA certification. BIFMA does not test or certify products, it runs a public register of self-declared compliance, and Special-T takes no part in it. The one BIFMA number Special-T does cite is X7.1, which governs emissions rather than strength.
Does it come assembled?
No. Both ship flat and need an impact driver and a number 3 Phillips bit. The Ella has six assembly steps and the Aim four. No assembly time is published.
What does it cost?
The Ella runs from the high $300s on the government schedule to the low $700s at retail dealers. The Aim runs higher across the board.
Sources
- Applied Ergonomics, Special-T Ella Desk, the source for the three desk sizes, the 29 in height, the one-year dealer warranty and the dealer price against a $707 list. This is the dealer selling the desk configuration rather than the training table
- Applied Ergonomics, Special-T Aim Desk, the same figures for the Aim and the source for the price gap between the two lines
- Special-T, Ella spec sheet (PDF), the source for the 2 in round post leg, the 4 by 4 in welded mounting plate, the 3 mm poly edge and the shape list
- Special-T, Aim spec sheet (PDF), the source for the 2 by 1 in rectangular leg and the 6 by 6 in mounting plate, and the document that omits the top thickness
- Special-T, Ella product page and Aim product page, the source for the ten-year parts and labour claim, the wire management options and the absence of any storage
- Special-T, warranty and returns, the source for the one-year term on tops alone, the ten-year term on complete tables and bases, the 25 per cent restocking fee and the thirty-day authorisation window
- Special-T, 2012 GSA price list (PDF), the source for the unnumbered “meeting or exceeding ANSI/BIFMA standards” sentence, for the BIFMA X7.1 emissions claim, and for the 330 lb per base line this page declines to use
- Special-T, 2025 GSA price list (PDF), checked for any ANSI or BIFMA reference and containing none, and the source for the government-schedule prices
- Special-T, desking systems, the source for the current range being straight-line benching with no L, corner or return configuration
- Special-T, about, the source for the two European manufacturing plants, against the made-in-USA claim carried by two dealers
- Office Chairs USA, Ella, the source for the 1 in top with a 45 lb core and the upper end of the price band
- Weight capacity, product weight, assembly time, Aim top thickness and any consumer review base were searched for across both spec sheets, both assembly guides, both product pages, both government price lists and four dealers on 6 August 2026, and were not found