Docking Station Recommendations

[zlzdravk]

Hey All,

I am looking for a docking station that will let me connect both my laptop and PC to all of my stuff. I have a new laptop from work that has both thunderbolt 3 and hdmi connectivity and then my personal machine is a Ryzen 1700x on an Asus B350 motherboard and a 1070. I am looking for a way to connect both of them to 2 monitors via display port, a TV via HDMI, and then my mouse, and keyboard via usb. Im hoping for more than 3 USB ports and an ethernet jack on it too. Anybody have any idea of how to do this?

[Bombastinator]

1 hour ago, zlzdravk said:

Hey All,

I am looking for a docking station that will let me connect both my laptop and PC to all of my stuff. I have a new laptop from work that has both thunderbolt 3 and hdmi connectivity and then my personal machine is a Ryzen 1700x on an Asus B350 motherboard and a 1070. I am looking for a way to connect both of them to 2 monitors via display port, a TV via HDMI, and then my mouse, and keyboard via usb. Im hoping for more than 3 USB ports and an ethernet jack on it too. Anybody have any idea of how to do this?

The easy answer is thunderbolt, but you’d need a different and probably very expensive motherboard to do that.  There may be an answer in software kvm.  In that situation the tv and both monitors would be connected to the desktop, but be able to s display stuff from the laptop.  My memory is that this requires a fairly fat connection though.  Also it seems reasonable that there would be an immense amount of lag.  What connection capacities and the local wireless network all start to matter then though. Hardware kvm might also be possible, though the whole 3 extra monitors (because the TV is really just another monitor) thing starts to become complicated and perhaps not possible for the laptop. Software is probably simpler if it’s possible. 

[darknessblade]

Are you looking for a dock for both?

or a dock with build in KVM switch?

[zlzdravk]

1 minute ago, darknessblade said:

Are you looking for a dock for both?

or a dock with build in KVM switch?

Ideally just one dock to control the whole set up.

[darknessblade]

Just now, zlzdravk said:

Ideally just one dock to control the whole set up.

What is your budget?

 

as there are multiple solutions from cheap docks to more expensive ones.

[zlzdravk]

Just now, darknessblade said:

What is your budget?

 

as there are multiple solutions from cheap docks to more expensive ones.

I'd honestly be comfortable spending up to like $300 but I want a working solution

 

[darknessblade]

6 minutes ago, zlzdravk said:

I'd honestly be comfortable spending up to like $300 but I want a working solution

 

As you have a 300$ budget maybe look into a aten KVM switch, they are of high quality and work well, without issues.

https://www.aten.com/us/en/products/kvm/

 

Aten also has Thunderbolt 3 docks like the UH7230:

https://www.aten.com/global/en/products/usb-&-thunderbolt/docking-stations/uh7230/

[zlzdravk]

9 minutes ago, darknessblade said:

As you have a 300$ budget maybe look into a aten KVM switch, they are of high quality and work well, without issues.

https://www.aten.com/us/en/products/kvm/

 

Aten also has Thunderbolt 3 docks like the UH7230:

https://www.aten.com/global/en/products/usb-&-thunderbolt/docking-stations/uh7230/

None of their products have support for 3 displays like I need.

[zlzdravk]

8 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

The easy answer is thunderbolt, but you’d need a different and probably very expensive motherboard to do that.  There may be an answer in software kvm.  In that situation the tv and both monitors would be connected to the desktop, but be able to s display stuff from the laptop.  My memory is that this requires a fairly fat connection though.  Also it seems reasonable that there would be an immense amount of lag.  What connection capacities and the local wireless network all start to matter then though. Hardware kvm might also be possible, though the whole 3 extra monitors (because the TV is really just another monitor) thing starts to become complicated and perhaps not possible for the laptop. Software is probably simpler if it’s possible. 

Assuming I did do a different motherboard do you have any recommendations. As for software KVM I havent been able to find any that support switching displays too.

[Bombastinator]

I doubt there is easy support of 3 monitors except via software stuff.  The problem is the laptop. A lot of them are sort of set up to display a maximum of two screens.  The laptop screen, and one external.  A Software KVM might be able to get around this.  Or not. There may be support for external screens via thunderbolt or USB3 sometimes. This means though that a whole bunch of seperate cables would need to be plugged in.  At that point it’s not really a dock anymore so much as a converter box. Software KVM would be one ethernet cable or no cable at all, depending on connection bandwidth.

[zlzdravk]

1 minute ago, Bombastinator said:

I doubt there is easy support of 3 monitors except via software stuff.  The problem is the laptop. A lot of them are sort of set up to display a maximum of two screens.  The laptop screen, and one external.  A Software KVM might be able to get around this.  Or not. There may be support for external screens via thunderbolt or USB3 sometimes. This means though that a whole bunch of seperate cables would need to be plugged in.  At that point it’s not really a dock anymore so much as a converter box. Software KVM would be one ethernet cable or no cable at all, depending on connection bandwidth.

Yeah there are no software KVMs that will let me share my monitors whatsoever between my two machines. I would need to assign specific monitors to specific computers which would not help at all. I would need to buy two docking stations and still run a virtual kvm to share keyboard and mouse. Or I would have to just plug my laptop in directly into the monitors anyway which doesnt really help either as it also complicates the setup.

[Bombastinator]

2 hours ago, zlzdravk said:

Yeah there are no software KVMs that will let me share my monitors whatsoever between my two machines. I would need to assign specific monitors to specific computers which would not help at all. I would need to buy two docking stations and still run a virtual kvm to share keyboard and mouse. Or I would have to just plug my laptop in directly into the monitors anyway which doesnt really help either as it also complicates the setup.

Well all the monitors would be plugged into the desktop always and assigned to that computer.  It would have to be running the app and pulling video from the laptop to the desktop via a screenshare. You’re saying these things don’t screenshare at all? That’s nuts.  That’s the V in kvm. If they won’t do that they’re not KVMs they’re KMs they likely would not do it very quickly though. Hellacious amount of bandwidth. 

Edited December 17, 2021 by Bombastinator

[zlzdravk]

24 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Well all the monitors would be plugged into the desktop always and assigned to that computer.  It would have to be running the app and pulling video from the laptop to the desktop via a screenshare. You’re saying these things don’t screenshare at all? That’s nuts.  That’s the V in kvm. If they won’t do that they’re not KVMs they’re KMs they likely would not do it very quickly though. Hellacious amount of bandwidth. 

Yeah no I completely understand that the desktop would have to pull the video and I know it would have no problem doing that but youre completely right they are KMs not KVMs they dont share video.

[Bombastinator]

9 minutes ago, zlzdravk said:

Yeah no I completely understand that the desktop would have to pull the video and I know it would have no problem doing that but youre completely right they are KMs not KVMs they dont share video.

That’s really odd.  Sharing video was a thing long long ago.  Like when Unix was still thing old.  Maybe the issue is low latency high refresh.  That would be a heck of a lot of bandwidth.