Home Office Setup Advice

[Draeconix]

I wasn't quite sure where to put this since it kind of covers a few hardware categories so if this isn't the best place for it, let me know where it should go.

 

I guess first I should describe what I have currently set up. I have a gaming/personal PC, a work laptop, a second work laptop and a personal laptop. I have triple monitors. The four PC's are connected to a IOGEAR GCS1904 KVM. The KVM has single displayport connections for the PC's and the output. To the KVM, I have added a Dell D6000 docking station connected via USB 3.0 Type A. This gives me two more displayport connections and is how I get my triple monitors for every PC. The real trick was getting the laptops to output a DP signal since both of them are Dell Latitude 7000 series and being business models, aren't that sophisticated so they only have HDMI. I have them connected via HDMI to DP adapters which are powered via USB. I also added some docking stations for the laptops so it was easier to connect and disconnect them back when I was going between the office and home.

 

Everything was working just fine until recently, probably after an update, when one of my work laptops stopped sending a signal for my middle monitor. This monitor is chained from KVM DP to HDMI/DP Adapter to a USB-C docking station to the laptop. I played around with various connection configurations and got it working again but the connections weren't ideal and used components from my other PC's so I made some adjustments and now it doesn't work again. I have some more troubleshooting to do so the story isn't over yet. However, it got me to thinking that there HAS to be a better way to achieve the setup I want. I started looking around and so far all I can find for a triple display KVM is the IOGEAR GCS1964. It definitely looks like it would fit the bill though it is a bit pricy at over $800. The main issue would be the fact that my work laptops don't output DP, only HDMI. I could probably still use the adapters but the KVM is showing 3 DP for each PC. I am thinking that it is looking for 3 DP sources to be attached in order to do triple HDMI outputs. If so, then I need some way to get two more signals from my laptops to the KVM. Enter the D6000 dock again. They have three monitor ports, 2 DP and 1 HDMI. I could theoretically connect a D6000 to each laptop via USB-C and then run three monitor connections off of it including an HDMI to DP adapter. Now if you are thinking that that isn't much of an improvement I agree with you. It still has a bunch of moving pieces and would cost me another $300-400 for the extra D6000 docking stations. Another thought I had was to get an ultrawide monitor, 49" Odyssey G9 is awfully tempting but the CHG90 looks decent and may solve my issues for around $800-900 instead of $1200-1600. The only issue I have there is that I really like my current monitors and don't really want to part with them. The upside is that it would be one monitor with one DP connection which my current KVM can easily handle.

 

So the question is which way should I go? Has anyone else set up triple monitors with 4 PC's via a KVM so that all 4 PC's could use triple monitors and if so, how did you go about it?

 

NOTE: One of my work laptops I have authority to install software and the other one I don't. They are for two different companies and one has more stringent security than the other (long story).