Gaming and working from home solution

[bennieboi20]

Greetings and salutations.

 

First topic on the forum and I’m on mobile so please forgive any errors in formatting.

 

I currently have a laptop that I use to work from home and my gaming rig.

I have 2 (maybe 3 screens in the future) and my peripherals (headset, keyboard and mouse) however at the moment I’m using 2 usb c adapters on my laptop 1 for my peripherals and 1 to provide an extra HDMI slot.

My PC has 3 display ports and 1 HDMI port both supporting 2.1.

 

I would like a good KVM solution to manage these and save me from having to plug and unplug cables when I wish to use one machine or the other.

 

Many thanks in advance.

[GarlicDeliverySystem]

13 minutes ago, bennieboi20 said:

I would like a good KVM solution to manage these and save me from having to plug and unplug cables when I wish to use one machine or the other.

I have little experience with KVMs, but level1tech designed their own ones apparently. Maybe there is something for you, but they appear to be quite expensive:

https://www.store.level1techs.com/products/hardware

[LIGISTX]

Just now, GarlicDeliverySystem said:

I have little experience with KVMs, but level1tech designed their own ones apparently. Maybe there is something for you, but they appear to be quite expensive:

https://www.store.level1techs.com/products/hardware

They are very expensive, but they are expensive for a reason... they are actually good.

 

Level1techs will support any resolution you have, variable refresh for Gsync or freesync, HDR (as far as I know), and do not add any input lag. I wouldn't run a gaming machine through a KVM unless it was one of these... but they do cost quite a bit. But, again, they cost a lot because they are not cheap to manufacture - quality stuff is expensive. 

[BoomerDutch]

1 minute ago, LIGISTX said:

They are very expensive, but they are expensive for a reason... they are actually good.

 

Level1techs will support any resolution you have, variable refresh for Gsync or freesync, HDR (as far as I know), and do not add any input lag. I wouldn't run a gaming machine through a KVM unless it was one of these... but they do cost quite a bit. But, again, they cost a lot because they are not cheap to manufacture - quality stuff is expensive. 

Meanwhile you can use one screen for laptop and other 2 screens for gaming.

 

Till you have money for that it's worth buy if you need it.

[Levent]

41 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

They are very expensive, but they are expensive for a reason... they are actually good.

 

Level1techs will support any resolution you have, variable refresh for Gsync or freesync, HDR (as far as I know), and do not add any input lag. I wouldn't run a gaming machine through a KVM unless it was one of these... but they do cost quite a bit. But, again, they cost a lot because they are not cheap to manufacture - quality stuff is expensive. 

Not to mention their KVM actually has HDCP support too. It’s insane how much DRM is out there.

 

OP I have a similar setup and cheapest solution I came up with was software.

 

• I set monitor inputs to auto.
• connect each monitor to each pc using separate inputs.
• Create shortcuts on both machines to turn screens off.
• use a software like Barrier to share kb and mouse.

In the end I just got a desk and a 34” Uw for less than a kvm that fit my needs and completely separated my setups.

[bennieboi20]

2 hours ago, Levent said:

Not to mention their KVM actually has HDCP support too. It’s insane how much DRM is out there.

 

OP I have a similar setup and cheapest solution I came up with was software.

 

• I set monitor inputs to auto.
• connect each monitor to each pc using separate inputs.
• Create shortcuts on both machines to turn screens off.
• use a software like Barrier to share kb and mouse.

In the end I just got a desk and a 34” Uw for less than a kvm that fit my needs and completely separated my setups.

I currently use mouse without borders to share keyboard and mouse when both pc’s are on but I’d rather not have to have both turned on at the same time, electricity isn’t cheap nowadays! But I’ll have a look into this for now

[bennieboi20]

3 hours ago, LIGISTX said:

They are very expensive, but they are expensive for a reason... they are actually good.

 

Level1techs will support any resolution you have, variable refresh for Gsync or freesync, HDR (as far as I know), and do not add any input lag. I wouldn't run a gaming machine through a KVM unless it was one of these... but they do cost quite a bit. But, again, they cost a lot because they are not cheap to manufacture - quality stuff is expensive. 

Main issue I keep coming across is 95% of KVM’s only support DP but my work laptop only has a single HDMI output as such I don’t believe I could use their KVM’s even if I could afford them right now

 

 

EDIT

Just found This one, he mentions MACS but I presume a bog standard hp elitebook would work just fine? 

Edited April 25 by bennieboi20
Updated with new info