My father has a triple-monitor PC setup for gaming. He would like to be able to connect two of them to either his PC or his work laptop. Problem is, all displays should be individually connected to the PC for maximum performance, while a single Thunderbolt connection should be used on the work laptop for maximum convenience. It’s a bit of a head scratcher for me, all I could come up with was a complex dual-KVM idea that also requires a display that supports Multi-Stream Transport:
Do the monitors have multiple inputs? I have a docking station for my work laptop and my gaming PC is just wired directly into the other inputs on the monitors. All USB peripherals are connected using a dongle. So the process becomes unplug thunderbolt port for the laptop, unplug dongle from dock and plug it into desktop. And we are off to the races. So instead of one cord it’s essentially two.
Just to be clear, when you say “dongle”, do you mean a USB hub?
I’m not sure how many outputs the monitors have, but if they’re not bottom of the barrel, they should at least have two, so that could work. How do you switch outputs on the monitors though, built-in KVM? Or does it switch automatically based on the computer that’s ON? My father never turns off his PC, I can’t count on automatic detection I believe.
Yes, USB Hub. I do use automatic detection because I turn my desktop off when I’m not using it. So when I plug the laptop in it takes over the montiors, and when I unplug the laptop and turn the desktop on it auto detects the other input. Doesn’t sound like that will work in your case.
Just coming back to say that I have found a potential solution, letting you know in case you’re interested.
The solution only requires a KVM with two monitors outputs, two DP or HDMI inputs for the PC, and one USB-C input that supports a bunch of protocols (USB for passing through the mouse and keyboard, DP MST for the two screens, USB-PD to recharge the laptop). No new monitor, docking station, or USB hub required. Wendell has such KVM, as well as AV Access.
The 4 port dual PC KVM on the level1 store will do the trick here.
Challenge is the MST. Grab a thunderbolt dock that has multiple DP outputs and you should be fine. The concern, depending on the monitor specs is going to be signal degradation. Generally speaking, you want to keep the total cable run length below 4 meters.
The good thing is that you can use a remote (basically just a USB macropad that shows up as a basic HID) to operate the buttons if you need to.
