Moving PC to another room...

[GeoH2102]

Budget (including currency): Whatever it takes!

Country: UK

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: VR/Gaming/Productivity

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

 

Hi guys, first time poster  

 

I'm currently in the process of setting up my home office, and I'm trying to understand what it'd take to move my gaming/media PC into the office. For reference, the office is directly next to my front room, which is where the PC currently lives. The PC is hefty enough - 6700k, 32GB, RTX 2080Ti. I'm not against upgrading the CPU/motherboard if it makes the solution more elegant (my motherboard doesn't support thunderbolt). The run from where the PC would sit to where the TV is is approx 6-7m.

 

Currently, the PC powers everything - I use MadVR to upscale my media directly on the machine, my VR is set up in the front room (and won't really fit anywhere else), and it's hooked up directly to the TV. 

 

As mentioned, I'd like to move this PC to the other room, be able to use it on a monitor in the office OR on the TV in the front room (note - one at a time, not looking to multitask across both locations). In addition to this, I'd like to be able to easily switch the monitor/keyboard/mouse inputs in the office to my laptop which I'll work from in the office most of the time. The reasons for this are numerous, but the big ones are less noise/heat in the front room, and finally being able to play more competitive games on a high refresh rate monitor rather than a 60Hz TV.

 

So, my checklist... I want to:

• Have my PC in the office room, which is 6-7m away from where it currently sits
• Use that PC to power couch gaming in the front room (I use an Xbox pad typically, if that matters)
• Have the PC power my VR set-up in the front room (Valve Index, if that matters)
• Be able to quickly switch between using the TV in the front room and a high refresh rate monitor in the office (audio will need to switch at the same time too)
• Be able to quickly switch the monitor, keyboard and mouse between the PC and my work laptop

My current thinking is to run fiber HDMI to the TV, fiber DP to the Index, 2x active USBs (one for Index specifically, one for a hub powering other peripherals as needed) and ethernet. What I'm not clear on is how to get the display/input switching working. Additionally, I'm not sure if the solution I mention above is the most elegant way of solving this particular problem.

 

I'd really appreciate any help on this. I've got the last of my office furniture coming in a couple of weeks, so I'd love to get your thoughts!

[Bombastinator]

Not sure you need fiber hdmi for the tv.  Regular is long enough I think if you’ve got the wire run.  Of course if you have to double the length of the wire run to deal with things like door frames and baseboard and whatnot you’re back to fiber.  The fiber based cables are both less reliable and more expensive, plus they’ve got a fairly large minimum bend radius because fiber.  They do work though. DP on the other hand has a hard max length.  It’s pretty long, but extending DP past that is a real PITA.  I suspect you will want to run a usb cable along with that hdmi so your wireless dongle will work for your game controller.

 

As for KVM, while hardware switches exist I’d suggest software in your case.  There’s a fairly popular app that does it.  Unreasonably expensive partially because it’s subscription (why?!?!) but it works.

[GeoH2102]

That's really interesting, thanks! I'd read that 10m HDMI cables are pretty flaky, but further research suggests that's not necessarily the case (if you buy the right cable).

 

I hadn't considered a software switch, I like it. Not too fussed about the cost if it keeps the solution clean.

 

Is there anything on the market that will easily switch audio output between rooms that you (or anyone else) is aware of?

[GeoH2102]

In case anyone else sees this and wants to know what solution I actually went with... here goes!

 

Cables I purchased:

• 1x fibre DP cable for the Index 
• 1x female-female DP converter for the Index
• 1x fibre HDMI cable for the TV
• 2x active USB, one for the Index alone and one powering a USB hub which I plug headphones, mouse and keyboard into
• 1x cat5e cable for internet
• 1x USB KM switch to swap peripherals between devices

As for how this is all routed, I have the following:

• From PC:
  • Into front room:
    • USB x2 - one for Index, one for peripherals
    • Fibre HDMI - to AV receiver for TV
    • Fibre DP - to F-F converter to Index
    • Ethernet - to router
  • Into office:
    • DP to monitor
    • USB to KM switch to mouse/keyboard/headphones
• From laptop:
  • HDMI to monitor
  • USB to KM switch to mouse/keyboard/headphones

The KM switch allows me to use one set of peripherals across both systems. For switching the PC display between the front room and office, I currently use EZVIDIA to allow for switching of display profiles. I only want one display active at a time, and this does the job nicely. For audio, I have the headphones set to the main audio device whenever they're connected and just unplug them when they're not in use.

 

All in, this cost a fair bit. Probably around £400. It's been totally worth it for me though as I have exactly what I want - a nice clean front room (with HDR for console-style gaming on a PC), high refresh rate gaming in the office, and the VR setup remains.