Question How to share two monitors and peripherals (connected to a docking station) between a laptop and a gaming PC ?

[magogian]

Hi folks,

Thank you for your time reading my post. I much appreciate any help.

As background, I work and game from my home office. I have a desk with two screens (Dell P2419H). Currently, my work laptop is connected to a Dell D6000 dock on my desk. That dock uses a USB 3-C to connect my laptop to my two screens, wired internet, mouse, and headset. When I want to play games, I switch the USB-C connector from my laptop to my desktop (which sits under my desk). When I want to work, I switch the USB-C connector back to my laptop. Works easily and seamlessly right now.

I’m building a new gaming PC. Here's my PCPartPicker link: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/3FnLkJ I'm trying to optimize for "quiet" performance. (I've built my last two PCs, but my current PC is nine years old.) I want to make sure I set this up right.

But, as I understand it, I shouldn’t route my video through the D6000 with my new gaming PC because of how DisplayLink works and can harm performance (or the CPU). Relatedly, I think this dock is limited to 5 Gbps transfer rate.

Here are other considerations:

• I want to power my laptop through USB-C (which is why standard KVM switch isn’t as practical)
• I’m limited to 1080P for now because of monitor limitations. But want flexibility to support up to 4K when I upgrade my monitors down the road.
• My current monitors each have 1 HDMI and 1 DP.
• The D6000 Dock has 2 DP and 1 HDMI.
• The new GPU (likely a Radeon RX 6800 XT) will have 1 HDMI and 3 DP.
• I keep hearing that KVM switches can impact performance and can be better to route the video directly between the GPU and screens.

What’s my best approach to share these 2 monitors and peripherals (connected to the docking station) between my laptop and my new gaming desktop PC?

I think I have these options:
1. Connect GPU to the 2 Monitors Directly and share Dock between desktop and laptop for the peripherals only (e.g., mouse and headset)

Here’s how I think that can work:

• GPU connects to one monitor via DP and to the other monitor via HDMI. Dock connects to one monitor via DP and to the other monitor via HDMI. Note: I think I have to mix ports because the GPU has 3 DPs and 1 HDMI, the Dock has 2 DPs and 1 HDMI, and each monitor has 1 HDMI and 2 DP.
• When I’m using the desktop, I connect the USB 3-C from the dock to the desktop to allow desktop to use peripherals.
• When I’m using the laptop, I connect the USB 3-C from the dock to the laptop providing access to the peripherals, screens, and power.

Should that work? Does mixing ports cause problems? Or will the use of the USB 3-C with my desktop cause problems because the connected docking station has its own video connections to the screens?


2. KVM Switch:

• How to solve for power needs of laptop?
• Can impact performance?​

3. KVM Switch and standard Dock:

• Not sure how this would work and if better than other options.
• Not sure about impact on performance.

4. Thunderbolt Dock:

• Not sure how this would work and if better than other options.
• Not sure about impact on performance.

Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to help!

 

[Cyberat_88]

Thunderbolt will straight up not be switchable unless you can find a specific switch just for that device.
I don't think there are KVMs bundled with that in mind.
Most KVMs today will support 1080p, the thing you want to look for is frequency rating, if monitor is running 144hz, you need KVM/Cable switches that are rated for that or better. AKA HDMI 2.2 or DP 1.4.
Keep it simple, use KVM or Dock, not both, eliminate more points of failure and/or lower performance.
Some routers have a USB 3.0 or 3.1 connectors, they work, you can use that for 1 or more shared drives.
For short, KVM switches are good if you only need Mouse, KB, GPU. USB peripherals ? USE a USB Powered Hub.